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October 06, 2008

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

Good guitar lessons are hard to make

So I had some free time tonight, and I thought I'd try and whip up a short little guitar lesson. I ended up just noodling for over half an hour, not getting anywhere. I have learned over the years that it's not easy to create good guitar lessons, and trying to throw together one on a whim like that is really not a very good idea. I'm just wasting my time and I get frustrated. Should have used that time to plan a good guitar lesson for another time! Arrghh!

I actually do have a plan, which will be a series of blues lessons. However, those are not ready enough to make videos of yet. I keep thinking I can throw together some cool little lesson in a short time by improvising, and it just does't work.

From all the feedback I have gotten this last year, it seems a majority wants to learn to play lead better. Usually it's blues or rock they mention. I'm starting to think the more I do this stuff, the harder it gets. For example, playing lead is hard. It takes a lot of different type of skills together with experience to make it sound good. I don't really know how to teach this well. I am talking about right hand/left hand techniques, sound and tone, style, attitude, confidence and experience. There's also a million ways to do it.

I also want to gear more lessons towards beginners, since I think I could reach more people that way. The problem is, I find it harder to do the beginner material compared to more advanced topics.

This is turning into a pessimistic post, isn't it? Hmm, I'm sorry. I guess I need to go do something else for a while.

I do appreciate any and all feedback you might have about my lessons and learning guitar in general, so drop me a note if you have ideas or feedback.

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

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Posted by Robert Renman on October 06, 2008

Great Deals at Musician's Friend

Comments on this blog entry

Terry said...

Yes... coming up with guitar lessons is very challenging. I must have given thousands of them either privately or at local schools over the last 20 years. The majority have been improvised and geared to the student in front of me. I also have lots of pre-prepared lessons on scales, chords and songs and stuff for support. One key thing about lessons is that it is the teacher, that ends up learning the most as you gain experience and it is this awareness that becomes invaluable for your students.
Teaching beginners is definitely challenging and hopefully if they are prepared to put the time in they'll quickly become intermediate players and can really start to take on board some good guitar playing ideas!
I guess what may help is if we think back to when we started to learn to play guitar and what we think now would have really helped us then.
Top Guitar Site... always checking it out!

Comment added on June 08, 2009

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October 06, 2008

Good guitar lessons are hard to make

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