Starting Guitar Lessons, Do I Need Anything Special?
So, Finally after establishing financial independence, I now have both the time and money to afford guitar lessons. I placed and ad on Craigslist for someone to come to my apartment to teach me guitar/chord theory. I was contacted by an instructor who said he would be able to do this for me; he’s charging me $20/half hour to come to my place and teach me. is that about the going rate?
also, I’m classically self taught, and have never had any formal lessons. Do I need to have anything special on hand for my instructor. He said we’d just be use’n accoustic for now, should I get a metronome for the lesson (i usually just us an online one)?
I guess any insight for instructors as to what to expect from the 1st lesson with a new student would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hey. You started in the right direction. If you are classically self taught, I suspect you do know your timing. So forget the metronome. Metronome is useful when you want to practice alone and increase your speed without losing time.
You only need your guitar, patience, and commitment. Let him do the rest. Here is a good tip.
If the guitar teacher is any good, he will ask you to play something or anything, chords, notes etc… He should notice the picking technique, the fingering of the left hand, the tone you are producing and the cleannes..
Nothing else matters. Forget spped. Play something natural. He will ask you if you know scales obviously. Since you do not or cannot read music, everything will be my ear. If you are gearing yourself to learn to read music, then head for the internet.
NOTE:
Afte rhearing you play for 5 minutes, HE should be able to tell you your good and bad points, your flaws and WHAT you need to work on. Thats a starter.
While you are taking courses, it will help you more. Otherwise, you will spend tons of money on theory and you will end up learning nothing on the guitar.
Just a friendly tip… Been there, done that.
You should probably ask the teacher what you’ll need… not us.
$20/half hour sounds very cheap… and the fact that he agreed to come to your place is insane. Usually you have to go to there place. This guy is either desperate for cash, or he isn’t a professional.
Firstly well done, lessons is always a giant step in being taken seriously by anybody in the music industry.
20 dollars as above me stated is very reasonable, my lessons are roughly 35 odd euro for 30 odd minutes lessons one on one.
Providing the guy is good & what not you have a very good deal.
As for self taught chances are you have some bad technique & he will point this out & try show you some better methods.
As for ‘’special on hand” stuff, pretty easy. have your guitar, wouldn’t hurt to have pen & paper & if an online metronome is how you usually do it good. just means you don’t have one when travelling.
Guitar for Dummies or various other side-references are good to have (just ask him for his personal opinion on whats a good book to compliment your lessons)
& as for your first lesson, most likely he will evaluate what level you are at by asking you to play something basic (he’ll look for your technique, rhythm etc etc)
he may also ask you a general question about your goals on guitar to have a feel on what way to take you (do you want to just play for friends or hopefully have music as a career etc)
its pretty simple to be honest & Lessons are a good way to be given small-term goals that will overall make you better than 99% of the 4 chord strumming/stairway to heaven murdering people out there.
$20 for a half hour is VERY reasonable, especially considering he’s spending his time and gas money to come to your house, instead of making you travel to him.
You don’t need anything special for your instructor. If he wants to use a metronome during your lesson, I expect he’ll bring his own.
You might want to have a notebook and pen or pencil available for your own use — or even better, some blank guitar tab paper. He might bring blank tab paper or blank music notation paper to write stuff out for you, but in case he doesn’t, it doesn’t hurt to have it on hand. Also it would be a good idea to have a recorder of some kind. Either an old-fashioned analog tape recorder or a digital one will work — something to record your lessons for later playback and review, especially if he’s going to be teaching you by ear.
Good luck!