I wrote this information out for my guitar students. If you're considering taking guitar lessons or if you have recently started learning guitar, here are five things I think you should know.
1. Practicing
How much you practice is up to you. I'm not going to berate you if you don't practice enough. I'm sure you know that you will get from this what you put into it. I'd rather you just tell me you didn't practice at all in the past week rather than try to fake it, or worse, cancel the lesson at the last minute. Even if you haven't practiced in the past week, there are still many things we can work on in a lesson.
In general, if you practice about 30 minutes each day, you will do very well. If you practice more than that, then I have no doubt you will become a very talented guitarist in a short time.
If you don't have that much time, don't panic. Just try to pick the guitar up as often as you can, even for just ten minutes at a time, and play through the work I've given you. For some people it's better to practice in many short spurts than it is to labour over something for hours.
2. Regular weekly lessons are best for learning
A large part of learning to play music is simply repetition and developing "muscle memory." If you play a song enough times, it's as though your hands remember exactly how to play it and, like Kenny Werner once wrote, you can just sit there and watch your hands play.
It's very difficult to develop muscle memory if you're not playing regularly and learning new material regularly which you can feed to your hands.
Students who are dedicated to learning and make a commitment to take regular weekly lessons are the ones who are not "beginners" for very long at all.
3. Learning to read music
I encourage students to learn music theory and to read music. I know from my own experience that learning these things will make you a better musician and will help you to learn so much more in the long run. And it's really not as hard as you think!
However, I also understand that not everyone has the same goals. If it's really not your bag and you have other things you'd like to learn without studying theory or reading, then there are still many things I can teach you.
But I do believe that most students should at least give it a sincere attempt because there's so much more you could learn as a result and it makes communicating about music much easier.
4. They are your lessons
When you start lessons with me, I will ask you what your goals are. This is important because every person has their own vision for what they would like to be able to play and how far they'd like to go with music.
If your goals change at any time, please let me know. That way, I can be sure that you're getting the most out of the lessons as possible.
5. It's all easy, you just don't know how to do it yet!
Relax and have fun with music. Don't stress about your progress. You will find that you will have periods when you feel as though you aren't learning much. Then, all of a sudden, you will pick up your guitar and play something beautiful, something you didn't realize you were capable of.
This is generally how it works with music and is certainly the case for me. Learning music is actually quite easy. Your brain and your body will absorb the material without you having to try that hard -- so long as you spend time practicing it.
If you do that, you will be surprised just how much you can learn in a little time!
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