Self-Taught vs Private Lessons

[Irish Pennant]

Still on the journey and open to learning from any source available. I've tried two instructors. One was not a good fit for me. He's a great player, well trained and a good teacher but he's a blues player. The other instructor came around just at the right time. I was self learning theory and his knowledge of it really helped to clear thing up, as for learning to play from his instruction, na.

[tonyo]

Started learning with lessons about 25 years ago. I'd like to shoot the teacher who thought it was important to drill the concept of scales into me from the very first lesson. Never managed to play much, to be fair, it was also a time in my life when career, family and such took significant time.

5 years ago I decided to try again. This time I had a much clearer goal "Learn to play songs that people will sing along to around the camp fire".

Justin Guitar was a good part of how I learned and I'm mostly self taught now. It's been the best thing I've done in a long while, now have a repertoire of 50+ songs and and also now using the Justin Guitar DVD series on the major scale to learn to play lead and improvise.

So, I'm not down on scales, as with many things musically related, timing is everything,

[The Bard Rocks]

I am self taught and would have been so much further ahead if I had taken lessons, but, no, I had to do this by myself. I don't even look at UTube, but then I learn quicker from music notation than by ear or watching. There are lots of ways to arrive at the same end.

[JeffreyAK]

I took lessons very early on, classical guitar, but soon went flat-pick electric and figured it out on my own. But even there, I wasn't really entirely on my own, I had friends who played, we jammed and tried to work out songs and later formed garage bands, etc. I just didn't take formal lessons after that branch point.

Still later, I got back into acoustic guitar (now steel string), and I was a devoted flat picker by then, so I worked out my own hybrid finger/flat style that sorta works for me but does create it's own challenges. There's something to be said for learning and practicing correct technique, consistently, and that's going to be hard without some kind of formalized instruction, ideally in-person so you can get feedback.

[buddyhu]

I have been self taught, but for most of the last 6 years I have been taking lessons.

It depends upon what you want to learn. If you want to strum the chords to a lot of songs, a teacher may not be necessary. But if you want to learn skills and technique and theory, and want to know how everything fits together, take lessons from someone who has taken lessons (like a Berklee graduate).

I have enjoyed the time I was self taught and playing simple stuff. But I have learned so much faster and better when taking lessons, and find it much easier to learn foundational stuff that makes subsequent learning proceed more soothes and quickly.

I had a bad teacher in my teens...but he was just a talented guy who was a few years older than I was: he had no idea how to teach. In recent years, I studied finger picking with a terrific musician and long time teacher. And I have recently moved and am taking lessons with a Berklee grad and long time teacher, learning how to do leads more elegantly, and learning some theory.

I get so much more from lessons, because a teacher helps me focus, and helps me to learn the next skill that I need to learn. When I am teaching myself, I just get drawn to things that I want to learn, and while it is fun and useful, it can leave me with bit of a hodgepodge of poorly connected skills rather than an integrated tapestry of complimentary skills and techniques and knowledge.

[Looburst]

After some 10 lessons back in the mid 1980s, I was off and running. Never took another lesson because somehow, I learned how to get around after that. A great ear helps a lot.

[BigMoney]

Great points everywhere in this thread. I agree with all.

I started lessons when I was 12 and took them until I was 18. Then I went further by going to jazz school. I now have a degree. I see guitarists all over the place now that can perform pretty well but have no theory chops at all and couldn't read their way through a bar of quarter notes. I guess this is not a necessary skill though of course. To each their own.

Great engagement fellas. Cheers

[frankhond]

I had the bad luck to run into a bunch of crappy teachers in the beginning. After that I swore never to bother with that again.

After that it was books and videos (back then there was no internet) and jamming with friends. I learned mainly by learning fingerstyle pieces way out of my league.

Years later I joined a small group led by Lasse Johansson, a Swedish fingerstyle master (check out his video on Stefan Grossmans guitarvideos.com) and yeah, there is no substitute for occasionally hooking up with someone who really knows what he is doing.

But private lessons, no.

I am entirely self taught and in retrospect am absolutely glad I did it that way. This was way before the Internet, I therefore believe it is even a better choice today. All it takes is the right combination of curiosity, intelligence and persistence.

[bigreddog]

Originally Posted by Dwight

16-50 no lessons, 50-52 lessons and a huge improvement in my playing. I would highly recommend it.

You are an inspiration sir! My situation is almost identical. 13-52 no lessons, but I plan to start this fall. Thank you!

[WaltH]

I took lessons for a very short time when I first bought my guitar 25 years ago. We never seemed to progress beyond a few scales (uninspired teacher or incompetent student, who knows?), so I stopped. The guitar sat, in its case, unused (except for the occasional camping trip, when my wife used it), until last September. That's when I decided it was time to try again. I've been writing lyrics and composing mental melodies for years and relying on my wife to figure out what chords fit, but now I have a backlog of lyrics, some of which I really want to do something with. Plus, sometimes she doesn't "hear" the chords when I sing her the melody.

Because of my goal, my teacher threw me into the deep end almost from the beginning, discussing bits of music theory, mixed together with various strumming styles and fingerpicking. In nine months, we've only worked on one scale. In many ways, it's all been a musical stew, still simmering, but there are days when I can get a sense of the flavors beginning to come together.

[Rmz76]

Originally Posted by DukeX

90% self taught
10% private or group lessons

I think this is going to be the break down for many.... A few years of lessons at the beginning to get to the intermediate stage and beyond that it's all about how far you want to take it.

It's also about what you aspire to do with the guitar. Once you reach intermediate stage you should decide if you want to pursue the instrument to perform advanced solo instrumental work (e.g. Tommy Emmanuel, Normal Blake) or do you want to use the guitar as an accompaniment instrument for vocals and focus on finding that balance between the vocal, guitar and just improving your craft of songwriting (e.g. Ryan Adams, Jason Isbel, etc...)

There are great players who blend the two, especially in Bluegrass: Ricky Skaggs, Normal Blake and Tony Rice come to mind. All sing and play and play very well.

Songwriting, vocals and guitar are all overlapping but different areas of study and all can be improved on with training. With only so much time in a day it makes sense to really ask yourself "what do I want to do with the guitar?" The answer will probably be found in your favorite artist and considering your natural gifts.

There's a point where a guided instructor is just providing validation. Learning only comes through application. It's something you have to do for yourself. The instructor is providing information you need to teach yourself. YouTube provides a wealth of free knowledge to help you accomplish this.

Developing good habits like sitting aside a fixed amount of time each day to practice, using a metronome or rhythm machine to practice with and having the self discipline to focus during that time along and gauge your progress. These are the things you need to advance.

[Stratcat77]

I never took formal lessons, but also don't think I can say "totally self taught". Can anyone really say that? How did you figure out how to form chords? Early on, I learned by watching other guys play and asking lots of questions. There was no YouTube back then!

I regret not taking lessons when I started. In hindsight, I think I could have learned in a year of good lessons what it took me 10 years to figure out. And I don't feel like I really grew much for a long time. I got to a certain level of being able to play good enough to be in a band, but then didn't really grow. I just had fun playing, but wasn't learning. I'd learn new songs, but wasn't growing as a musician.

It's only in the last 10 years that I feel I've began to grow again as a musician because I've focused on trying to learn more. YouTube has helped. I still have "aha" moments where I stumble across something and a light goes off. And I think, "wow! Now THAT makes sense" and it's something very usable that frankly, I feel I should have figured out years ago. Sometimes it's not learning how to do something new, but it's realizing why something I've always done makes musical sense.

I absolutely should make time to find a good teacher. I know I would benefit from it. The very best athletes have personal coaches. Sometimes it's just having that discipline of being accountable. I should also hire a personal physical trainer.. I know how to work out. I used to hit the gym religiously. But if I'm paying someone, I'll be obligated to show up and complete the workout! And they'll probably show me some new things and correct some things so I get more out of my effort....

[PorkPieGuy]

My brother handmade a chord chart. Outside of this, I taught myself.

[beninma]

I did self taught for about 1.5 years.. this year I got a pack of lessons for an Xmas present. There is a big music school right near where I work and my wife thought it would be cool.

I got lucky, the school is ultra high quality and has a focus on contemporary music. (They're mostly Berklee folks) My teacher is fantastic.. I go once a week and it's one of the highlights of my week.

My progress was shall we say frustrating on my own. I was doing pretty well on single note stuff but not on chords, and I was mostly playing in "first position". I still never feel like I play stuff all that cleanly but after 6 months of lessons I'm playing all over the fretboard, memorizing whole songs, doing way better on chords, I can play a lot longer, etc.. it's been way better having lessons for me.

I still watch a lot of youtube and stuff like that. As I get better I can utilize the stuff on youtube better, and it's always good for ideas. But I can also increasingly see what is missing in a lot of the online stuff. To get the right info online I might have to watch the videos from 5 different sources and piece it all together myself, and then I'd probably have to write out the score/tab too to have something to practice from.