Were You Self Taught ?

[roylor4]

Yes, self taught here. You should turn this into a poll if still possible.

[Steadfastly]

I had a few lessons to start, then I bought Steve Krenz's Learn & Master DVD set + JustinGuitar.com and a few other YouTube videos.

And still learning, of course.

[reeve21]

I never had any formal lessons until this summer, been going once a week since then.

This is after playing off and on for almost 40 years, mostly off until 10 years ago.

I am improving at a much faster pace than I did when I was going it alone. Yes, I'm practicing more and noodling less, but the difference is what I am practicing now is improving my technique. I can now play stuff that was way beyond me a few months ago.

I got lucky and found a very good and reasonably priced instructor on my first try.

As this thread shows, there is no right or wrong way to learn. Personally, I now know I should have sought professional help a long time ago

[vindibona1]

Nope... Studied guitar right out of the gate. Grandma bought me my first guitar and first four lessons. First year or two was fingerpicking/folk style which was the best thing because fingers were immediately injected into my guitar DNA and transitioning to flatpicking and hybrid was quite natural.

I suppose if there is any instrument that lends itself to self-teaching it is guitar. But I also believe that private lessons from a good teacher, especially initially is the fast track.

[Shades of Blue]

I got the basics from a teacher, but I'd say I'm 75% self taught. I went through 3 guitar teachers and only the first one was of any help. He taught me the basic chords and a couple scales and he quit teaching a year after I started. My second teacher was a music grad who was an ego maniac, and my third teacher wanted to just jam together.

I've considered giving lessons due to the fact that I at least know what doesn't work, but I just don't have the time.

[TBman]

I had about 6 months of lessons from a flatpicker about 40 years ago. I haven't had any lessons for finger style (obviously, lol)

[posternutbag]

Not at all. I have been taking guitar lessons from the beginning. But to quote Doctor Seuss, "You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room."

I am at the point now where I teach myself and then my guitar teacher works with me to make small adjustments and refinements.

[fuman]

Self-taught, to a point. I was a trumpet player, picked up the guitar and have done everything pretty much the wrong way. I studied more seriously one semester in college and learned some theory (despite being a musician I had really learned practically nothing about reading music, theory, etc.) and corrected some bad habits, then I went back to self-taught.

My daughter was a Suzuki guitar whiz and going to her lessons (required) filled in a lot of theory and even improved some bad technique. About 10-12 years after that, I tried lessons again -- this time on a quest to learn about jazz. That lasted about 6 months. I had a great teacher, but it was a very humbling experience.

After that, I am much wiser about my limitations as a player. There's a downside to that, in that one becomes a much less daring player, fearing tripping over a known limit, violating a known rule, etc. But I hear music differently now, and overall I am better even though I play a lot, lot less than I used to. I think I'm still improving, even as an old dog.

There are people who are capable of teaching themselves -- who have the discipline and know what tools to apply. I don't think I was ever really one of those people, and it was important for me to have some exposure to formal training, even if it didn't directly produce the results I wanted.

[stephenT]

I've been blessed, lucky to have played with a lot of great musicians, you watch what they do and what they don't do. So self taught would be an exaggeration.

I've learned something from every musician I've shared a stage with and I started gigging at 15, as soon as I could play three chords.

"Earn While You Learn".

[rmgjsps]

I am self taught on guitar. However, as a child, I took private violin lessons at my father's insistence and oboe lessons at my elementary school. Startes guitar in my teens. Always played finger style. But, now, getting back to the guitar after a 20 year hiatus, I am starting to learn to flatpick. I bought Justin' Sandercoe's beginner book just for the picking parts. I like Justin's teaching style, but I learn better from print than from just really good videos. I'm strictly a living room player stuck back in the 60's folk revival era when I first learned to play, but hearing the call of some C&W and Bluegrass beckoning me.

I am also concentrating on a little guitar theory which is helping me understand much better why what I was doing intuitively was "working" as I wanted. For all of that, I still don't fret an open G chord "properly" but I don't let it slow me down.

[Orfeas]

I took classical guitar lessons for about a year when I was 12-13.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Big Band Guitar

We are really all self taught. Teachers can only help us learn.

Hi BBG

As a guitar teacher - I agree…

I can only show people things, help them be aware of issues they need to resolve and provide information, instruction.

One thing a teacher can do is provide dialogue surrounding issues which can speed up the process. Not all teachers seem to do this…

Another thing some teachers provide is opportunities to play. I've taken students to our local guitar society and played duets for the past couple decades. This gave them opportunities to put what they were learning into play.

[6L6]

Self taught. However, I did have help in the very beginning from my college roommate who taught me Travis picking style back in the 60's.

[Photojeep]

If the official definition of "self-taught" is a lack of actual music lessons, I would classify myself as self-taught.

When this started for me around 47 years ago, I bought my first guitar, I purchased a Mel Bay chord book to go along with my first guitar. I can't remember how I knew to do that, probably the guy at the store said I needed one. I would bang away at chords with no rhyme or reason but simply happy I could "make music." I think I learned my first song around a month later.

After that it was listening to records and trying to figure out the music or having a friend show me chords to a song he'd just figured out. Luckily, I had many friends doing the same thing.

Once around 1973-4, while on restriction and forbidden to leave the house (I swear I didn't do it!) a friend "taught" me a song over the phone! No music was played, just explaining the chord shapes and where on the neck they were to be played.

The local paper even used to print a "words and chords" section for popular songs (it was the 70s after all...) and I still have many of those. I still can't play all of them but I have 'em!

I did take a guitar class in high school in the hopes of learning to read music but it turned out to be a guitar chord class and I became an unofficial TA. I spent my time teaching others how to play basic cowboy chords and how to follow a chord chart.

I've purchased dozens of books and sets of sheet music over the years in the hopes of learning songs I've heard and wanted to learn.

Now I've added watching YouTube videos to the process of learning new songs. It's pretty remarkable how many there are for any given song.

All in all, it's been quite a journey and while I haven't traveled it alone, I've never had official music lessons. Most of what I've "learned" has been on my own.

Probably the most important single thing for me has been learning to transpose. It seems the vast majority of music I want to learn is written for tenors and I haven't been a tenor since I was 12 years old!

Best,
PJ

[rwrrwr]

Yes, I'm self taught but I have a numbskull for a teacher.