Quote:
Originally Posted by newtwanger
Here's where I'm at right now:
I have very good pick control.
I know the pentatonic boxes all over the fretboard.
I know the cowboy chords.
I know the power chords.
I know I-IV-V using the above chords.
I can play several songs by learning them note-for-note but not understanding the relationship of these notes at all.(Mostly Led Zep and classic rock).
I can sit with a song and figure out what chords and notes are being played BUT is it an A A7 Amin7 Amaj ??? whaaa?
I can learn anything I see in youtube "teaching" videos, but don't understand why these notes go together.
I can't:
Play solos over 12 bar blues as I don't understand the lead notes relationship to the chord being soloed over.
Make something up that sounds like proper music.
Understand what this arpeggio business is.
Feel like I'm a guitarist as I can only copy stuff I've heard.
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Bring that list to your first lesson. You've pretty much set yourself up with some realistic goals already (well... maybe not John 5... yet); you just need to let your teacher know what they are.
Also, I'd ask the teacher to "teach you how to practice." Nothing is more frustrating that being handed something and told to "go learn it." Your teacher should give you a game plan with each piece of material you are given. You should be working up to systematic approach to learning any new piece that come across, whether it's a solo, a passage, an entire song, or complete improvisation. In my opinion, this is one of the most important things a good teacher can offer.
Like the old saying, "Give a person a fish and they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they eat for life." -- or something like that -- you want the teacher to give you an approach to learning anything you hear or imagine; not just the stuff that they hand you in class.
The other thing I'd add is that the teacher is probably only 10% of the equation. The other 90% is you and your desire to apply what you are taught. If you can't put the time in to practice, don't expect to see much improvement or success. You get out of it what you put into it (the whole money thing notwithstanding).
My $0.02....