Topic: Learning the guitar question

[LadyVirginia]

My 10 yo wants to take up the guitar. She's been asking for awhile.  So I got serious and found two places offering classes this fall.  They're both group lessons --  one specifically describes itself as fun with games and such to make learning fun.  Anyway, one requires a 1/2 or 3/4 guitar and the other rents them for $7 per class (although I think they might mean per week since she'd need to practice).  I have no idea what to look for in a class or a guitar.  So you music people can you give me some guidance?

[John Florida]

I went through that with both of mine and lesson one is don't buy an instrument if you can rent it and let her have a fun class and see where it goes from there. If she complains that she's not learning enough there then get her into something more serious.

  I bought instruments that were later sold for a fraction of the price.

[charlesoakwood]

Larry Coryell Jazz Guitar Lesson: Blues in C

[Alphabet Soup]

I'll share my story so you'll know how not to do it.

I was eleven when I saw the Beatles on the boob-toob. It looked like so much fun. Being the third of five kids, my folks had already been down the "I wanna play an instrument" several times before (both of my older brothers were two-time losers).  

So now I had to justify my interest ("I really really REALLY wanna play the drums!") Wait - what?! Yea, I wanted to be a drummer before I wanted to be a guitarist. So I nagged, and nagged, and nagged some more. I was smart enough to know that I shouldn't make like a living hell for them - just a constant irritation.  

They relented and allowed me to rent a snare drum. I signed up for band at school. Life was good.

I actually was pretty good at it. My buddy was also in the class and we regularly competed for First Chair. We were neck & neck and it got to the point where we would alternate 1st chair, 2nd chair. At the end of the semester I realized that, although I was proficient at it, my heart wasn't in it. What I really wanted to do was play guitar.

Drat! Now I had to convince my parents all over again!

My rationale was that I did good and stuck to it and 'proved' my commitment to one instrument, so that commitment should be transferable, right? Mom was amenable but dad balked. He had spent too much in the past on instruments that were just languishing in closets for him to be amused at the idea of shelling out for another one. So the deal was that they would reclaim my eldest brother's guitar and I would 'prove' myself once again.

So my first guitar was a hand~me~down Harmony complete with authentic painted fret markers and big-azz strings that hurt my fingers. what I didn't learn until a bit later was that it was a gut-string guitar that someone had put steel strings on and fractured the neck. How I learned this was through my teacher getting mad at me because I was too retarded to tune my guitar. It wouldn't tune because the tighter you wound the strings, the more the neck would bow.

It was the second most frustrating thing I ever went through (my 2nd marriage being the first). I couldn't make the damned thing do anything without sounding like a drunken dog - and lady gaga wasn't fashionable at the time.

I needed a real guitar but I was losing the race on the old one. I went ahead and signed up for a 2nd semester of drum band, and guitar classes too. I dropped out of the guitar class because I appeared to be too stupid to learn. When he told me about the neck it was already too late. I finished the year in band and dropped the drums. I spent the summer trying to fix the Harmony and my folks took pity on me and decided to buy me a 'real' guitar for Christmas.

My dad took me out to pick one out. We went to several stores (keep in mind that 1. these stores are miles apart, 2. it's Christmas, and 3. there were limits to my dad 's patience). When we got to the "This is the last G-D place!" store I looked at what they had and there she was - a 12-string dreadnaught guitar. It was the most beautiful - and exotic thing I had ever (in all of my 12 years of living) seen. "That's the one I want!" I exclaimed.

"No" was all he said.

Bummer.

I looked at the rest of them and then did what was likely the hardest thing that I had ever (up to that point) done. "Let's go" I said. "If I can't have that one then I change my mind and don't want one at all".

The old man looked at me more seriously than I think he ever did before. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I am"

I swear to God he counted to a hundred for dramatic effect.

"Then it's yours."

I still have it.

I played it this morning.

Thanks Pop for believing in me.




Edit: altard proofed

[BigAlSouth]

"No" was all he said.

I've been to that shop. It's in Nazareth, ain't it?

Seriously. Nice story, Soup. God, I love my dad. To be a child and have this big hulking adult actually believe in your dreams.

Thanks, Dad.

[IronDioPriest]

Great story Soup. Mine is similar, but completely different!

Lady V, I think the group lesson idea might be OK for the very beginning stages of learning. At some point soon though - assuming she wants to keep playing - you're going to want to move to a private lesson. In our neck of the woods that usually runs $25 for a half hour, $30-40 for an hour. 1/2 hour should suffice if the teacher is good and your daughter practices at home. Being a home-schooled kid, somehow I don't think focusing on practice is going to be an issue. So it really is going to depend on your daughter's passion and aptitude for the instrument.

I think $7 a week for rent is probably good for the duration of the group class. But after that, you should have an idea as to her interest level, and at that point, having an instrument to call your own is a part of the experience of being a musician, in my opinion. You can get a beginner level guitar - either acoustic or electric - that is quite playable and good enough for beginner skills for well under $200.

That's what I did for my boys. I have one son who plays guitar, and one who plays drums. We bought my guitar son an inexpensive electric/amp combo for $199, and my drum son a store-brand starter drum kit for $299.

My guitar son devoured his guitar. He's one of those who sleeps with it, and walks around the house with it, playing constantly. After about 2 years, he "graduated" from that first guitar. That's to say that its "beginner" quality began to hamper his progress on the instrument. He simply outgrew the quality, and it was time for him to get a new guitar and a new amp. He saved his money, and because he has shown such dedication to practicing and saving money, we assisted him in purchasing a Gibson SG, a Mesa-Boogie amp and an Orange speaker cabinet.

My drummer son has practiced and has gotten quite good, but his level of dedication has not been nearly the same. He's been asking for a new drumset for a while, but for a long time we've held off because we don't want him to make such an investment if he's not as serious about practicing. But in the past year or so he's really seemed to make an effort (it's more difficult to practice drums when you have to go to the basement and disrupt the whole house - even though we've told him to go ahead whenever). So now that he's going to start working, we've agreed to help him buy a drum kit if he keeps practicing and saves his money.

That's probably more than you were asking, but it perhaps gives you a flavor for what to look for, and when to pull the trigger on purchasing/renting/upgrading.

[LadyVirginia]

Thanks for the stories.

She's been asking for 2 years and I finally decided I should look into it because I've had this funny feeling lately she's going to like it.

I'm leaning towards the class that provides the rentals and it's good to already have the heads up on the possibility that moving on probably means private lessons. So happy to know a beginner guitar can be had for under $200--

Soup, I enjoyed your story.  It reminded me of a lesson I learned when my older kids started getting into activities that meant a lot to them--the right equipment made it easier for them to practice and enjoy what they were doing.

...now my music story  :

I had piano lessons.  It never occurred to me to tell my mother I wasn't particularly interested in piano lessons so I had them for 4 years without much progress.  My mother finally gave up on me having any talent for the piano.  I found the lessons agonizingly boring and tedious.  It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that the way I learn --not by going step -by -baby step--but by throwing myself into the middle and picking my way through it so I understand it--held me back from ever really getting into music. I mean how many times can a kid play Camp Town Races?  I didn't want to be a concert pianist.  I want to play music--I liked to sing and dance to the sounds. I wanted to be in love with it.  I was stuck on seeking perfection at age 10.

So a couple of years later I decided that perhaps I'd have more luck if I joined the school band.  Someone decided (I don't know whom but it wasn't me) I should play the flute. So the flute was rented and I showed up to band practice not having a clue since my group lessons at the store hadn't started. I floundered for weeks, petrified that the band leader would single me out to demonstrate some new thing we were  learning. (I would copy whatever the other flutists were doing at practice) I diligently practiced at home, desperately hoping to catch up with my classmates.  But before I was able to prove anything to myself we moved and thus ended my flute playing days.  To this day there are still family members who feel compelled to remind me how I had no talent for the flute.

Then there's the story of the drums.

The next year after the flute--in a new school in a new town--I decided to try the school band route again.  I wanted to play the drums. I was utterly captivated by them. It seemed magical and very cool at the same time. My parents took me to meet with the band leader who informed me that girls didn't play the drums.  He suggested other instruments.  I wasn't interested.

And that was the end of my musical career.

I don't miss the piano, nor the flute but sure wish I understood the drums.

[Libertas]

Back when I was a kid I blew the trumpet, now I just...

 

[Pandora]

I wanted to learn the organ.  They stuck me with the accordion instead - (talk about Camptown Races!) -- and the lessons stopped after one of our frequent moves.  I still have it; it's gorgeous.  And I can play the Marine's Hymn very, very well.