Lessons Anyone??

[Charley Wild]

I mentioned on another thread that I was going to start a series of lessons. I'm just plain stale. I just keep gravitating to the same old stuff. It isn't a question of some new licks or new songs. I have tons of tab, etc. I need some new lines, a kick in the butt, a new direction, or whatever.
Does anybody else take lessons, or considered it? If not, what do you do to get out of a VERY deep rut. As I said, new licks and new songs won't cut it, it's a bigger problem than songs and licks. I love the music I'm playing, (Blues, 50's Rock and Rockabilly) but I just don't like the way I'm playing it lately. :music-smi

[stingx]

I mentioned on another thread that I was going to start a series of lessons. I'm just plain stale. I just keep gravitating to the same old stuff. It isn't a question of some new licks or new songs. I have tons of tab, etc. I need some new lines, a kick in the butt, a new direction, or whatever.
Does anybody else take lessons, or considered it? If not, what do you do to get out of a VERY deep rut. As I said, new licks and new songs won't cut it, it's a bigger problem than songs and licks. I love the music I'm playing, (Blues, 50's Rock and Rockabilly) but I just don't like the way I'm playing it lately. :music-smi

I took jazz lessons and theory last winter. I am going to start up some more now that the motorcycle gets put away soon.

[Justpickin]

Depends on what you want to get from the lessons..I took them when young, took some again 2 years ago, from a local jazz great..I learned, but found the money better spent in instructional DVDs, where I get something I haven't done, and spend time learning that....it always transcends over into the electric playing..for instance, acoustic blues....are difficult, put the pick down and learn to use your fingers....not fingerpicking, but real blues picking. Or go after learning the slide, not just learn, but get good at it. Maybe you want to learn jazz.....look for a challenge in something you want to learn.

[WireNWood]

GOOD DVD's can indeed be a better VFM. For the price of very few sessions you can have something to play repeatedy, and at your leisure.

[Yankeefan01]

I've found it difficult to find the right teacher. I've had 4 teachers over the 6-8 years that I've been playing and they all had good points but the bad points outweighed the good. They either were overly impressed with their own playing and insisted wasting my time showing me how good they were or not listening to what I wanted to learn.

I've decided to just go the DVD and Blues you can use route. Although I had a pretty good teacher a couple of years ago that played in a Blues band. He played what I wanted to learn but wasn't very good at teaching it. I would have to come up with my own lesson plan, and at that time I wasn't able to do that. I may go back to him after the holidays if I can get my act together and put together goals of what I want to learn from him.

All in all, lessons can be pretty expensive. Especially if you're not getting what you wanted out of them.

[Charley Wild]

Thanks for the comments, guys! The answer some of YF's comments, I have a good teacher. A person friend who is going to let me design my own lessons. I know what I want to learn, or better put, I know what I don't want to learn. I think after an initial bit of ackwardness, we'll do okay with the lessons. The problem I have with instructional stuff is most of it teaches you to play their way instead of your way. And a lot of it consists of just more licks down the same path. That's all well and good but I still end up going around in circles. I'm only going to take three or four then take a break while I digest it and decide what I want to do next. The second set of lessons will certainly be much more help than the first. We'll see! By the way, I had an instructor about ten years back who was one of those guys that was SO good he was useless! I wasn't by any means the only one who thought so. Talk about a waste of time and money! This teacher is very good but is much more responsive to your style and what you want to do with it. Later. :)