how to make the best use of 30-min instruction

[bfm612]

I have a short (30 minutes) lesson with a very accomplished guitar player and wanted to see if you had recommendations on how I can make the best use of that time.

Some background: I've been playing for a long time (I'm in my mid-forties and started playing when I was 15 or something), but have never had formal instruction and frankly have had a very immature approach to guitar. I've always been sloppy with my playing, so am really interested in developing rudimentary technique even after all these years, as well as in building speed.

Alternatively, I could use time to focus on learning a specific song of my choosing (written by or arranged by the instructor).

I feel like technique focus can be covered by most instructors while the song-specific focus isn't.

Has anyone recently done basically a one-time 30-minute lesson and what are your recommendations for how to get the most out of it?

B

[charles Tauber]

Most "very accomplished players" are good at what they do. What they do works for the sounds they want, the style(s) of music they want to play. It might or might not be the sounds or style(s) of music you want to hear when you play your instrument.

The starting point, in my opinion, is to identify what YOU think are the deficiencies in what and/or how you play. Knowing that, you can begin to work on that with an accomplished player/teacher. The big BUT, however, is that the teacher you work with needs to be able to address those specific deficiencies. For example, if you are wanting to improve your fingerpicking abilities, a teacher who is all about flat picking isn't going to be able to give you much insight.

If you can't identify, specifically, what you think are your deficiencies, then that is the starting point with a teacher: have him or her listen to something you play and have him or her identify areas to work on and how to work on them.

Without a certain amount of technique - appropriate for whatever style of music you want to play - one can't really address song-specific things like expression, dynamics, timing, phrasing, etc.

In "master classes", students often prepare a well-known or standard repertoire piece and play it for the "master". the master then makes suggestions for improvements, such as alternate fingerings, phrasing, dynamics, things related to technique and/or musicality. Master classes aren't for beginners: it is a waste of the "master's" time and the student's. Master classes are aimed at fairly accomplished players wanting to get that much better, working on subtitles of performance and technique. It isn't the place to learn beginner-level technique or musicality.

That's what I'd recommend for a first 30-minute session.

[rdeane]

I have a 30 minute lesson weekly that combines these approaches. He uses songs that will teach me specific techniques (tripletts, speed, cross picking, etc.) and builds on my progress. It works for me and keeps me interested. I am a player with 50+ years of casual playing and have only focused on technique for the last 7 years. This combo approach has been very successful for me.l

[bfm612]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Most "very accomplished players" are good at what they do. What they do works for the sounds they want, the style(s) of music they want to play. It might or might not be the sounds or style(s) of music you want to hear when you play your instrument.

Understood. FYI, I chose the instructor because of the focus on bluegrass flatpicking, which is exactly what I'd like to focus on. As far as matching the style that I'm looking to improve upon and their expertise, that's not an issue.

[rllink]

If you can video record it, do that.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by bfm612

Understood. FYI, I chose the instructor because of the focus on bluegrass flatpicking, which is exactly what I'd like to focus on. As far as matching the style that I'm looking to improve upon and their expertise, that's not an issue.

Aside from having the teacher allow you to video the entire lesson, their main job should be to observe you when you're playing.

There's no way, as the player, that you can observe yourself from a totally outside vantage point, even if you record yourself.

Hopefully the teacher thinks outside the box, and isn't stuck in a 'My way or the highway' mode. It's a long road to developing bluegrass flatpicking skills to a high level, and there are just so many good players out there, who hold the pick so many different ways..........<sigh>.........

You just need someone who's ready to keep on giving positive feedback, no matter how negative it might sound at the moment.

Be willing to take the 2 steps back whenever there's a chance it'll put you 3 steps forward.....eventually.

Regards,
Howard Emerson