Lessons!

[potshot]

Woohoo! I organised lessons for myself today! After a recommendation from my friend, and then talking to the guy, I decided on a teacher. I start this Saturday. Half of me is hell worried by the fact that I will be basically starting from zero, but the other half is anxious to learn. I'm looking forward to it. I read the article here about choosing a teacher, and it was very insightful. I hope my teacher turns out to fit the bill.

Perhaps some of you have heard of him. His name is Chris Brooks, he's an Australian guitarist. I don't mean this to be advertising (in relation to the advertising post on the boards), but if you're curious, you can check out his website at www.chrisbrooks.net

Wish me luck!

[Guni]

I haven't heard about Chris but I hope you'll get some great lessons.

Let us know how things are going and what he's teaching you. I'm certainly interested in hearing about different approaches ...

Good Luck

Guni

[Bongo Boy]

We wish you the very best of luck! I'd like some details of how things go during the first few classes--I'm comparing notes with others who have let me in on their experiences. I'm going to need to do something pretty quick myself--lately I've been in the "I think I should just pack it in" moods.

[potshot]

Ok, how did my first lesson go? Prety well, I think. One thing is clear to me after the lesson: I need to get organised. Get myself a folder for all the sheets of music, exercises, etc. Write down any questions I have during the week leading up to the lessons, any topics I want to make sure we cover. Organise my practice time to focus on what I need to learn so I don't get distracted.

It took a little while to get used to the lesson. I've never had any kind of musical lessons before (high school doesn't count). I realise now that I need to have a better idea of what I want to learn so that I get the most of the lesson.

So we started just making sure I was holding the guitar correctly, etc. As no one had ever told me how to hold a pick, I had just kinda grabbed it however it came. He showed me a better way to hold it that made it more comfortable, which is good.

Seeing as I already know all the basic open chords and some simple barre chords, yet know no picking, we moved onto that. He showed me some exercises for learning alternate picking as well as fretting the strings in time with the picking. I tried it out in front of him and made a right mess of them So now I have some exercises to get me started there, and they seem to be helping.

We also talked about strumming patterns. I've done some strumming patterns, and I didn't find them too hard to pick up, but they were all fairly simple and in 4:4. So I've got some exercises on that, including some ones in 6:8 which do a good job of messing with my mind.

He also gave me a survey to work out exactly where I'm at, what things I know and don't know. I get to leave most of the "do you know this?" boxes unticked, but I guess that's why I'm getting lessons

All in all, it was pretty good. I'm definitely nervous trying things out in front of anyone else, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and he was more patient than I was. Looking forward to next week. I hope I can find enough time to practice during the week that I can come to the lessons having progressed from the previous week.