Looking for input

[Sheaman64]

Hi everyone! I have found the topic of music teachers very informative. I have come across a gentleman by the name of Wayne Riker that is giving guitar lessons right now. He apparently has written quite few books on playing the blues and has an extensive backgroung in performing and has graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology. Has anyone heard of him? I have read some of the tips on what to ask, is there anything else I should be aware of when I interview him for lessons?

I have been learning on my own for almost a year now and I feel as though I have hit a road block. I think it is about time to learn the basics of music to get a better understanding of what I am doing! lol... I love the blues as well as many other types of music. I thought I would jump at the opportunity to learn from him if I am comfortable with it.

Shea

[mapletrees]

He's an author for the National Guitar Workshop Book Series on Electric Blues. So, case closed, he's obviously a very good player - probably world class.. Additionally, to write a book(and he does have a bunch) you have to collaberate with other folks. So, it's probably the case that he's friendly and easy to get along with. Sounds wonderful. Jump at the opportunity.


But....

(who said this in a different post already?)

it's one thing to play, it's another thing to teach.

Some can do both and some can't.


You could go to Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Stanford, MIT, etc... and gather up 100 of the very brightest PhD mathematicians and physicists that you could find. I think you'd be lucky to find even a handful that could walk into a public school and effectively teach(emphasis on effectively). No surprise - they didn't attain their positions due to their teaching ability in general. They got where they are by doing mathematical and scientific research - whole different world.


Remember, you can already see on TV and listen on CD's to examples of the very best playing in the world. You really don't get anything by osmosis (to sound like a teacher). If you go into a guitar shop daily for 10 years and sit around just watching the good players for 8 hours a day it won't change you one little bit.

The things you need to do to make progress won't change no matter who your teacher is....I'm sure he'd agree.

None of this is meant to sound negative at all, I'm just not the best of writers.


Just make sure he's helping YOU get from point A to point B.

Master simple tasks and move on, master simple tasks and move on.....

[mapletrees]

Jeepers Creepers....that all did sound too negative after a re-read.

Did you notice how I forgot a huge positive point as if my sap were frozen or something of the sort.....

If you've read some of my other posts, I often gripe about instructors not being organized...

Well.....duh....if this guy has organized the content of several books, it's probably the case that he is organized during lessons. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer anymore.

I had another positive thing to say and of course.....I forgot it. Ugh.

By the way, I worry about that post called Do's and Don'ts for guitar lessons. If an instructor worked on even just one little aspect of guitar playing with you in an organized and productive way that allowed you to make progress, I would think that was wonderful. Someone could be a wonderful instructor even if they didn't know anything about reading music. They could be a great instructor if they didn't know anything about improvising, etc.... Not because I say so, but because it's true.

What I was trying to do in that post was just list off some things that would be sensible to work on with an instructor.
There's too much of the following:

Too many people go off to lessons and try to learn as if they were hanging out with a friend. There is just not enough "contact time" with an instructor for lessons to have anything less than a very specific focus.

Too, too many instructors have gotten tired of people with a "flip the TV remote every two seconds" attention span and have given up on trying to teach in an organized way - flat out given up (not me!). More than a few instructors have told me that they in general expect about 70 to 80% of new students to drop within the first two months. Unfortunately, their mentality has become, "get what money I can from this idiot". "Spoon-feed them something until they quit, money is money." Bring in the next wave of students.....Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Blah.

I once again forget where I was going....