Dave Wirth
I am rather fond of saying, "No one learns in a bubble." It's true. Many students march up to me in their first lesson and tell me that online guitar lessons were a complete waste of time. I won't blame them; There is no interaction with online lessons. Neither is there is any encouragement either. Playing music basically means learning from other people, people who can empathize with you and perhaps offer a suggestion or two. Playing music also means not limiting oneself to learning from one teacher, either.
The people I work with who have the most fun with guitar branch out and find other people to play music with. It's the jamming with others that is exciting about playing guitar. It's even more fun to play with a good drummer and a solid bassist. In six years of intense study, I played with countless musicians. Each one taught me something or at least inspired me to learn even more. Sometimes it was bad, sometimes beautiful, but always instructive. Also, the good news is that you don't have to buy lessons from everyone you play guitar with. Just play and pay attention!
But gingerly and begrudgingly I must also offer that learning guitar also means learning from more than one teacher, especially if the goal is to get a world-view that is incredibly wide. I had six teachers (see the list at the end of the post if you're curious), and each taught me something different, thus expanding my palette exponentially. I must say that as much as I do want to keep being a teacher for any one person, and be a complete teacher from scratch to mastery, it's better ultimately for a person to find many more sources of information. It's all about connecting the dots.
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I had six guitar teachers. They were:
- Jason Werkema (Grand Rapids Guitar Quartet)
- Chris Buzzelli (BGSU)
- Dan Lippel (BGSU)
- Jack Edward Smith (Rochester, NY area guitarist)
- Bob Sneider (Eastman School of Music)
- Nicholas Goluses (Eastman School of Music)
