A great moment in my life.

Alnico

I'm teaching Audrey to play.

I gave her my blue telecaster and she's really bitten by it, she plays almost every day, time permitting. She's been playing maybe 6 weeks.

I'm sat here after teaching her 'Smoke on the water' and she's got it on her phone, on spotify, playing along with it.

It's one thing teaching someone but it's entirely another wonderful thing to live with it and see and hear it grow every day.

To hear Smoke on the water again and a beginner struggling but getting there with it is a life experience I'm not sure I ever really considered until now but it's cool as hell.

I'm still trying to learn 'Shine on you crazy diamond', 'Comfy' and 'Time' properly, among others and they're a challenge to play perfectly.

What's everyone else learning and maybe not quite there with yet?

I suppose I mean all of you, on all levels from right at the start like Audrey is to 50 years down the line.

Anyone else teaching partners or kids?

I've also got my 9 year old Niece once a week for her guitar lessons and we just rebuilt her bullet strat for her (Details of that rebuild will be in another thread when Imgur starts to play ball) ,but that's a whole different experience to teaching a person you live with and see develop every day.

What you all up to?

Lestratcaster

I've been a tutor for 10 years and I have about 4 really good gems, they pay, turn up, and practice and as a result they're progressing very very nicely. 

He's not a kid but there's one learner who has been playing totally from scratch since September 2016, does 2 hour lessons once per week and can now play around 80 songs on the acoustic guitar. He's progressed amazingly well and is a great guy to teach. Listens to everything I say, practices and hardly ever misses a lesson. He still thinks he's shit but can play better than many learners for 2 years. I'm really proud of him and can't wait for the next 2 years. Its been great to see that progress from day one. He actually appreciates these things take time and it has to sound shit before it sounds good.

Another young child I've only been doing lesson with for 6 or weeks but they can already play 2 songs. Most of that is due to the fact they're a grade 7 at piano so they're well rehearsed up on basics like rhythm and harmony. And they already know how to be disciplined when practicing. They play very well and have advanced far quicker than most I teach from scratch.

A couple more are similar though they could already play a bit before they came to me. We get on really well and the lessons are always fun. 1 young learner did his Grade 2 Rock Exam on Sunday. Hoping for positive results.

I'm so thankful I get to do this and people give me money for it, I have sustained a reasonable living from it, and what satisfies me is making a difference to people's lives, they couldn't play the guitar at all before but now they can confidently hold a tune. Some are now performing in front of others, something they never thought they'd do. My role is simply more than teaching how to fret a chord or strum in time. Its more of a mentor/guide to make sure they're getting the most out of it.

The rest, I hate to admit are a pain in the arse, but work is work unfortunately though it does take out the fun.

IvanMC

It must be totally satisfying to teach a son, daughter... nephew... I'm not a parent but I'm a teacher. I used to dread secondary school students. Now I relish the job.

Fuengi

Nice one @Alnico lovely moment. My lad Herbie is learning now too, he's got @Flanging_Fred Hondo Strat at his house and every weekend he comes here he's learnt something new or improved. He likes to learn Alt J stuff which is great because I intruduced him to them. I've also taught him some U2, Marillion and Walkmen riffs which he likes plus the Satisfaction intro.

Alnico

Yesterday I drove to West Bromwich to meet @Strangefan and collect an early 80's Fender Switcher amp.
Initially this was going to be for my Niece however we decided that a Blackstar Fly is going to be much more suitable and apparently her big Sister still has the Squire amp that the guitar came with so for now, she's ok.
On looking at the Fender amp last night I realised that there's almost no damage and all it really needs is a really good clean and maybe a few new screws.

Audrey loves her Relic Telecaster and she's really got into owning a guitar of her own that she plays exclusively and is getting used to. She looks great with it, she loves playing it so after doing a cosmetic renovation and better speaker I'm going to give it to her.
The amp and her Telecaster will look great and sound great together and when she's brave enough it's got a drive channel and spring reverb so it's not exactly boring for a beginner.
I think it's 35w and it's a 1x12 so I've got some scope for a speaker replacement. 
She doesn't know any of this yet.

All this has reignited my passion for learning and playing much more too and my health situation means I spend a lot of time at home with FA to do so learning, teaching and taking on restorations like this has helped me fill in some pretty big gaps.

I'll post the amp progress in a separate thread. 

When they're a little more up to speed I'm going to sit them down in front of you tube and the 'Tuition' play list I've been compiling. 

Andy from PGS among some other amazing players, offer SO MUCH for beginners to feed  off and I can help them understand it. I've also got a stack of Lick Library DVDs and we'll be subscribing again soon so that'll only ever increase and access to their database is an insane amount of tuition so we'll all have lots to choose from. 

For now though it's the very basics right down to holding the pick correctly and hitting the right string with it. It's the very early days but they're both doing extremely well.

Strangefan

The switcher actually sounds pretty damn good doesn't it?  

Flanging_Fred

Fuengi said:

Nice one @Alnico lovely moment. My lad Herbie is learning now too, he's got @Flanging_Fred Hondo Strat at his house and every weekend he comes here he's learnt something new or improved. He likes to learn Alt J stuff which is great because I intruduced him to them. I've also taught him some U2, Marillion and Walkmen riffs which he likes plus the Satisfaction intro.

That's great to hear. I'm glad he's getting on well with it.

As an aside, my 5yr old has now officially adopted the Spongebob guitar and it's been proudly installed in her bedroom. She even made a poster to stick on her bedroom door to invite visitors to look at her guitar!

Alnico

Strangefan said:

The switcher actually sounds pretty damn good doesn't it?  

Yes it does man...especially with a Telecaster. 

pmbomb

How old is Audrey?

My 7 year old has asked me a couple of times to show her Californication, however we already stopped piano lessons as she wouldn't practice, so I'm not sure. She has to want to do it enough that she takes time out of TV/lego/drawing ehatever. (Keyboard is still in the corner in case she wants to try any time).

Alnico

pmbomb said:

How old is Audrey?

My 7 year old has asked me a couple of times to show her Californication, however we already stopped piano lessons as she wouldn't practice, so I'm not sure. She has to want to do it enough that she takes time out of TV/lego/drawing ehatever. (Keyboard is still in the corner in case she wants to try any time).

Audrey is my Girlfriend, she's almost 47.

Ruby is my Niece, she's 9.

I was 8 when I started but I had no distractions at all, it was 1980.

They're both very keen and both very into music to start with so I'm hoping they stick with it. Audrey constantly surprises me with how often she picks her Tele up.

I'm really pleased with both of them.

pmbomb

46 and 3/4 ? ;-)

lol sorry I assumed from the first post Audrey was a child, doh.

good job both I hope they stick with it. it's notable the FB jam attendees seem to be 100% male.

Bridgehouse

pmbomb said:

46 and 3/4 ? ;-)

lol sorry I assumed from the first post Audrey was a child, doh.

good job both I hope they stick with it. it's notable the FB jam attendees seem to be 100% male.

I dunno, some of them seem 50/50

mrkb

Bridgehouse said:

pmbomb said:

46 and 3/4 ? ;-)

lol sorry I assumed from the first post Audrey was a child, doh.

good job both I hope they stick with it. it's notable the FB jam attendees seem to be 100% male.

I dunno, some of them seem 50/50

Im 40/40/15/5...

darthed1981

Very good quick check to see if you are more man or guitarist... watch the video below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9ARDh71zw 

...

...

...

Now, did anyone notice that she was holding a guitar...?

Extra credit - did you identify the guitar before noticing how hot Una Healy is?

Bridgehouse

darthed1981 said:

Very good quick check to see if you are more man or guitarist... watch the video below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9ARDh71zw 

...

...

...

Now, did anyone notice that she was holding a guitar...?

Extra credit - did you identify the guitar before noticing how hot Una Healy is?

She’s no Olivia Coleman.

darthed1981

Bridgehouse said:

darthed1981 said:

Very good quick check to see if you are more man or guitarist... watch the video below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9ARDh71zw 

...

...

...

Now, did anyone notice that she was holding a guitar...?

Extra credit - did you identify the guitar before noticing how hot Una Healy is?

She’s no Olivia Coleman.

Well no, she's no Mary Spender either, but I like to remain unpredictable.

Bridgehouse

darthed1981 said:

Bridgehouse said:

darthed1981 said:

Very good quick check to see if you are more man or guitarist... watch the video below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9ARDh71zw 

...

...

...

Now, did anyone notice that she was holding a guitar...?

Extra credit - did you identify the guitar before noticing how hot Una Healy is?

She’s no Olivia Coleman.

Well no, she's no Mary Spender either, but I like to remain unpredictable.

Does Mary like it too?

darthed1981

Bridgehouse said:

darthed1981 said:

Bridgehouse said:

darthed1981 said:

Very good quick check to see if you are more man or guitarist... watch the video below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9ARDh71zw 

...

...

...

Now, did anyone notice that she was holding a guitar...?

Extra credit - did you identify the guitar before noticing how hot Una Healy is?

She’s no Olivia Coleman.

Well no, she's no Mary Spender either, but I like to remain unpredictable.

Does Mary like it too?

Well that's one for her next youtube Q and A....

darthed1981

Back on topic anyhow...

Currently I'm working on making sure I have a simple plug and go solution so I sit and play, ideally plugged in, not tinker with things, just turn on amp, get usable sound, play for a bit.

Obviously a bit of practice for the Hudds jam but also trying to work on just being able to play the basics, drop in on things, and of course play some acoustic and singing for the "open mic" at the gig.

Snags

It must be great to teach someone you care about (hell, anyone) and see them really start to "get it". I had a stab at teaching a friend a while back (just cowboy chords so she could accompany herself singing at home) and although I thought she was doing really well, she's pretty much knocked it on the head - combination of Life, not wanting to cut her nails, and not going from 0-60 quickly enough for her own interest, I suspect

What's everyone else learning and maybe not quite there with yet?

I suppose I mean all of you, on all levels from right at the start like Audrey is to 50 years down the line.

At the moment trying to fix the stuff I'm doing at Hudd in my head, so that when (not if) The Fear kicks in I won't completely flub it. And half-heartedly looking at some of the solos, just in case, but I fear that may be too little too late.

Away from that, and very embarrassingly, after over 30 years of playing (although not always regularly or with any real intent) I'm finally trying to muster up the discipline to learn and practice my basic scales, and improve my fluidity/fretboard knowledge. I did the classic self-taught thing: came from a formal classical piano background, only wanted to do the fun stuff, hacked about on chords for years, eventually learnt two positions of the pentatonic and have busked my way through with that knowledge ever since. I now acknowledge how badly that's limiting me, but sadly am still bored rigid by formal 'practice' - seeking to overcome that and just do a few minutes on e.g. major scales in different positions, building  up the memory and fluidity. It's not like I don't know the scales, I just can't play them well on the guitar.

maw4neu

I gave some lessons to my nephew, Joshua, many years ago when he was around 12 or 13, he's probably 24 or 25 now but I gave him a cheap guitar, way back then, as extra incentive,  and it worked . . . . He's a phenomenal player, way better than I could ever dream of being . . . Sadly he's not gigging at all at the moment, he's working shifts and the former band members are doing similar . . No one has time these days and everyone needs to work because everyone needs money . . When I pop round to my sisters place he always shows me what he's been learning and what he's been listening to . . when he plays my jaw literally hits the floor . . . Love him to bits . . .