Is anyone here self taught

M3MAN96

Hi Guys,

So when I first started playing I decided to teach myself instead of having lessons, I've been playing now for about a year and have knowledge of scales, chords etc. In this time I decided to try out a couple of lessons from a guitar teacher but at £25.00 an hour. Basically I just want you're opinions on whether its really necessary to take lessons?

Danny1969

I'm self taught but I taught myself certain things the wrong way, meaning there are areas of my technique that are bad habits but almost impossible to correct after all these years. A good teacher would have stopped me early on and pointed these things out. I teach people myself now and are very careful not to let these things go with my students. If you use the correct fingering for piano for example, no matter how unnatural it feels at first it does lead to better speed and accuracy, likewise with guitar. 

Actual music theory can be learnt quite successfully on you own,  especially with the net these days but having  knowledgeable teacher can make learning theory quicker. Also with a teacher you get the opportunity to jam with an actual person .... which isn't exactly like jamming with a band but a lot closer to it than playing over a backing track

dern

Just started a thread about lesson structure coincidentally. I'm self-taught but when I started taking lessons the rate at which I learned increased exponentially. Gives you targets to hit too. Definitely recommend lessons if you know what you want from them.

Jalapeno

Bit of both - largely self-taught, but every now and again get a few lessons/workshops to cure blind spots or technique issues.

GavRichList

Yes self taught. Technically awful as a result.

stickyfiddle

Completely self-taught on guitar but had piano, clarient and sax lessons for umpteen years before I picked up a guitar at 16.

Phil_aka_Pip

Classically taught on the violin as a kid - self-taught on the guitar as a teenager - did a course at The Guitar Institute back in the last John Major recession - had lessons to get Rockschool G5 and their Level 3 Musician NVQ between 11 & 8 years ago. Never had the self discipline to get G8 (L3 NVQ is about the same standard but the test conditions are way less stringent: with the Grade exam you get one chance to get it right but with the NVQ you can retry until you get it right).

If you're learning for self-enjoyment then you can cherry-pick at the facets of music that interest you. For a properly-rounded result I recommend a more structured approach with more formal goals.

thomasross20

I'm largely self-taught. 

Only lessons I got were at school yonks ago for about 6 months.

Rocker

Yes, self taught and entirely by ear. No books, videos or Internet in Ireland in the 1970s, a number of Showband guitar players showed me chords and little solo pieces. I knew nothing about scales when I played in pub/wedding bands. Still don't know all that much TBH.....

Fuzzdog

Self taught by ear mostly, with a couple of books here and there when I was starting out.

No complaints and I'd not do it any different if I had to do it all again, although perhaps one lesson to have someone point out that I held the pick wrong would have probably avoided a lot of extra effort. )

Roland

Self taught. Learning would have been a lot quicker with lessons. When I picked up guitar there weren't many teachers around, and certainly no money to pay for them. We learned by watching other guitarists, and by wearing out vinyl.

prh777

self taught but recently got a teacher.  It's thoroughly worth it.For a good one.

blobb

I am against teaching any instrument. Play with others - yes. Play over your own or others backing - yes.  Practice as often as you can - yes. Record everything (inc video yourself) - yes. Get bogged down with scales, chords and modes - no.   Just my view.

chickenbonejohn

I was self taught, but had lessons when I decided I wanted to play jazz standards, after unsuccessfully trying for years with books, CDs, DVDs etc. I took a few lessons and for the first time began to understand the rudiments of music theory, and got some great teaching on how to get more out out of the guitar for less input...money well spent and it;s stood me in good stead. However, the biggest leaps in my playing have been workshops with touring pro players, absolutely the best money I've ever spent. My "thing" is slide guitar, and I thought I was a fair slide player, but spending a day with a real pro really turned things around for me. Since then, if  have the opportunity to do a workshop with a great player, I take it.

stratman3142

I'm a rock/blues player but I took a few jazz guitar lessons after I'd been playing for about 11 years, mainly because of the Larry Carlton solo to Kid Charlemagne. I wasn't into straight jazz guitar, but Larry Carlton had that blues/rock sound and played notes that I couldn't understand.

A few lessons put me on the right track to understanding tonal centres, and how scales and chords relate to each other. Plus how to modify my simple scales to fit a certain chords.

I still can't improvise proper jazz guitar (I haven't got the ear for it) but I can fake a few jazzy notes and phrases that are enough for the way I want to play.

There's much more available in books and on video now and I continue to learn in that way. But lessons can be useful in getting over hurdles and those hurdles vary from player to player and occur at different times during their development. It took me a very long time to get started on my own and maybe a few lessons up front would have set the ball rolling much quicker.

octatonic

I'm a trained musician- I did music at school, then studied privately in my 20's, did 2 years at ICMP in North London.

I've also taught guitar for about 20 years.

As you would expect I am firmly in the 'get a teacher' camp.

Life is much, much easier if you do.

Whenever people ask about this I'm reminded about the Red Dwarf episode 'Eperdime':

CAT

Well, speaking personally, I hardly didn't get no formal education at all.

LISTER

No kidding, professor...

CAT

No, it's true, bud. That's why, sometimes, I don't know stuff. Like...

well, practically everything.

KRYTEN

Was this because you brought yourself up, sir?

CAT

Right. There was no one else around, so I had to teach myself. And

seeing as I didn't know anything to begin with, lessons were long and slow;

especially on Thursdays when I had double nothin'.

Very rarely is it possible to teach yourself an instrument with no previous experience learning an instrument- there are simply too many things that can go wrong in terms of technique and how people approach practice. 

This is if you want to get to a high level of skill (not necessarily a shredder, but just an informed and versatile musician). 

I'm learning drums at the moment- taking it seriously and yes, I have a teacher- having weekly lessons.

I know I could sit down with you tube videos and try to work it out but there is really nothing like having someone better than you assess your playing and be able to see the gaps.

They can also get you to focus on fundamentals- we tend to want to blaze ahead into 'the interesting stuff' when actually it is the fundamentals that make the biggest difference to how well you come across as a musician.

I won't spend years and years studying with a drum tutor- I reckon I'll probably have 1-2 years worth of lessons and then go off and work on my own voice.

The other side of it is how much work you will do if you go to a teacher- I currently play drums for a minimum of 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week. I reckon I am doing more than I need to but I have the time and the more work you do then generally the quicker you improve (although there is a point where it starts to work against you).

At least half the students that come to me don't do the work I set them- they are basically wasting their money. You don't get good by coming to a lesson unprepared and playing an hour a week.

Seeing a teacher doesn't make you a good player- doing the work they set, every day, regularly, for years- that is what makes you a good player. If you do the work then you'll progress.

The other side of it is how you practice- when I get given something to practice by my drum tutor I don't just do it as written- I try to reinvent what I'm given and finding a way to make the things I'm given into something I can actually use.

For instance, I was given this rhythmic fragment to practice this week:

It is a fairly basic kick/snare displacement exercise. 

Playing the fragment is useful- play it slow and often until you can get it up to speed.

Most students don't even do this but what music teachers want to see is something like taking that rhythmic fragment and building on some musical phrases from it.

Something like this:

or something like this:

 

or... you get the idea.

I try building 5-10 rhythmic motifs based on that small fragment and that practice that.

If you are a systematic thinker- logical and sensible in how you approach the instrument then maybe you can teach yourself.

I think of myself as a pretty logical person though and logically it makes sense for me to have a drum teacher- I just know how much easier and quicker it makes the process of getting good at an instrument. 

timmysoft

I'm totally self taught, never had any lessons. I've been playing 20 years, I'm still shit but I still enjoy playing and I don't find my playing causing me limitations in my writing.

M3MAN96

Thanks for the advice guys, I have to admit the the lessons I did have were good but just wanted to know whether it was really necessary! I'll see how it goes but after reading most of theses comments I think that I might take a look at lessons again if I become stuck with my playing.  

Phil_aka_Pip

timmysoft said:

I'm totally self taught, never had any lessons. I've been playing 20 years, I'm still shit but I still enjoy playing and I don't find my playing causing me limitations in my writing.

I've written stuff that I can't play and probably never will

samzadgan

all self taught...but i never taught myself any theory or scales...i basically got tab books and learnt songs at a teenager...started with metallica then slayer etc etc.

my technique was shit but over time i amended it as youtube became my main source of learning.

As a result i play weird timing and strange chord progressions that are part of the music i listened to/exposed to growing up.

would i better if i had lessons? maybe...would i write stuff as interesting as i do now?...maybe...

do i talk a lot of shit...? maybe.

Emp_Fab

Self-taught here too.  The problem for me, and I suspect, a lot of guitarists, is that I just want to play.  I see learning how to read music, learning the maths and theory behind it all as dull as dishwater.  Especially if learning all that stuff costs money.  It's like asking a kid to pay for his own maths lessons!

I know that everyone who has learned the 'proper' way will extol its virtues but I'm still wary of it - as mad as that sounds.  I'm of the (probably idiotic) school that thinks that learning the theory will somehow rob me of my freedom and creativity and will suck the joy out of playing as I'll no longer be following my soul but a mental set of rules.  I'm worried I'll end up like some kind of musical robot, churning out soul-less covers like those god-awful orchestrations of 'chart hits' you sometimes hear on the more highbrow radio stations.  Guthrie Govan goes to some length to try to dispel this in his books but I'm still like the village yokel eyeing this new-fangled 'wheel' thing with suspicion.

I play guitar to get enjoyment - to relieve stress created in other parts of my life.  To have to attend classes to re-learn how to do that properly is like suggesting I need wanking lessons.