Re: What bad habits have you eliminated?
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:29 am
I just put my thumb where will keep my wrist straight. That's really the most important thing about neck hand technique.
mathias wrote:Haki wrote:That is a big part of why I take lessons.
Not to go off on a tangent, but what's your experience with lessons? I'm assuming here you're saying they're worth it.
And if you don't mind sharing, how did you find a good teacher (versus some highschool kid offering lessons), and how much do you pay? How often do you go?
Thanks!
NSFW tag cause it's long. TL;DR version: Worth it, looked online and set up trial lesson before committing, currently € 20 per 30 minute lesson, which is twice a week.
NSFW: show
To me there's no replacement for having somebody demonstrate a technique, guide you through it and then watching you play so they can correct any flaws. The last part is especially important and what separates a great teacher from a decent one. A lot of teachers seem to have an urge to play along with you and that leads them to not pay as much attention to what you're doing. Take jfrey's thumb position pic, my current teacher will occasionally just sneak up behind me to make sure I'm not cheating. She knows my goals and plans the lessons accordingly. If there's something specific I want to get into then I'll throw that out there and we do it. Books and instructional videos are cute and can be useful, but to me they don't compare to what a teacher brings. Plus I'm not patient enough to sift through them to get the good stuff and work out a plan.
What's also been a real added benefit for me is the structure it adds. My job can get hectic with overtime, sometimes I'm just glad to be home and be a couch potato. Knowing I have a lesson that I need to study for gives me a reason to get up and I've used it as an excuse to not stay for overtime. It also gives me something to play/work on. Whenever I'm not particularly inspired to write stuff I can at least work on my technique, using the pressure of the upcoming lesson as motivation. As somebody that's lazy and easily distracted this has been a huge help, it greatly increased the amount of time I spent practicing (and practicing for 30-45 minutes is usually enough to get me out of my funk). I can see the progress I've made it is a great motivator in itself.
Finding one wasn't that hard. I just googled [instrument] teacher [city], looked at all the adds on forums/CL/websites, ranging from high school students to people running music schools. Main thing I looked at was the type of music they were into, nearly all of them had links to their current and past bands which gives you a decent idea. When a teacher's idea of metal is Metallica then it's not going to work. I also wanted to learn basic music theory and work on ear training which is stuff that usually gets advertised as well when they're capable. That narrowed it down to a shortlist. From there you just work down the list. I always sent them an email detailing where I was at, what I liked in terms of style/music, what I was looking to learn from them and to set up a trial lesson. By dumping all that stuff in an email the trial lesson isn't wasted on boring chit chat, allowing more time for them to see where you're at and for you to get a feel for their teaching style. For me one lesson has been enough to get a decent idea on whether it'll work out or not. If it does, great, if not then you move on to the next one on your list.
All the teachers I settled on were actually students or recent graduates of the local performance arts college. Going off the ones I've met they seem to run a pretty good program over there. Mostly I paid € 15 for a 45 minute solo lesson. My current teacher has been raising prices as she's gone official and has to pay VAT and income tax on her earnings bumping it to € 20 for a 30 minute lesson (though regularly goes to 40-45 minutes). Most of the music schools charge about € 80-100 a month for a weekly lesson of 30 minutes, but don't give lessons during school holidays (13 weeks a year) while you're still required to pay the full monthly fee. Then there's the older farts that charge anywhere from € 20 to € 45 for a 30 minute lesson because they were once part of the backing band for one of the nation's more popular singers (whoop tee fucking do).
I started with one lesson a week. Eventually had two lessons a week, one for guitar and another for bass. Then my guitar teacher at the time moved away, spent a few months looking for a replacement but couldn't find one I liked.That happened when I was playing guitar in a doom band, which is not the most technically challenging. So I stopped looking and got more and more into bass. It generally took me just 2-3 days to get a handle on the bass lesson stuff so I went with two bass lessons a week. Been doing that for about a year now and will probably continue to do so until I'm satisfied with my playing (not likely).
What's also been a real added benefit for me is the structure it adds. My job can get hectic with overtime, sometimes I'm just glad to be home and be a couch potato. Knowing I have a lesson that I need to study for gives me a reason to get up and I've used it as an excuse to not stay for overtime. It also gives me something to play/work on. Whenever I'm not particularly inspired to write stuff I can at least work on my technique, using the pressure of the upcoming lesson as motivation. As somebody that's lazy and easily distracted this has been a huge help, it greatly increased the amount of time I spent practicing (and practicing for 30-45 minutes is usually enough to get me out of my funk). I can see the progress I've made it is a great motivator in itself.
Finding one wasn't that hard. I just googled [instrument] teacher [city], looked at all the adds on forums/CL/websites, ranging from high school students to people running music schools. Main thing I looked at was the type of music they were into, nearly all of them had links to their current and past bands which gives you a decent idea. When a teacher's idea of metal is Metallica then it's not going to work. I also wanted to learn basic music theory and work on ear training which is stuff that usually gets advertised as well when they're capable. That narrowed it down to a shortlist. From there you just work down the list. I always sent them an email detailing where I was at, what I liked in terms of style/music, what I was looking to learn from them and to set up a trial lesson. By dumping all that stuff in an email the trial lesson isn't wasted on boring chit chat, allowing more time for them to see where you're at and for you to get a feel for their teaching style. For me one lesson has been enough to get a decent idea on whether it'll work out or not. If it does, great, if not then you move on to the next one on your list.
All the teachers I settled on were actually students or recent graduates of the local performance arts college. Going off the ones I've met they seem to run a pretty good program over there. Mostly I paid € 15 for a 45 minute solo lesson. My current teacher has been raising prices as she's gone official and has to pay VAT and income tax on her earnings bumping it to € 20 for a 30 minute lesson (though regularly goes to 40-45 minutes). Most of the music schools charge about € 80-100 a month for a weekly lesson of 30 minutes, but don't give lessons during school holidays (13 weeks a year) while you're still required to pay the full monthly fee. Then there's the older farts that charge anywhere from € 20 to € 45 for a 30 minute lesson because they were once part of the backing band for one of the nation's more popular singers (whoop tee fucking do).
I started with one lesson a week. Eventually had two lessons a week, one for guitar and another for bass. Then my guitar teacher at the time moved away, spent a few months looking for a replacement but couldn't find one I liked.That happened when I was playing guitar in a doom band, which is not the most technically challenging. So I stopped looking and got more and more into bass. It generally took me just 2-3 days to get a handle on the bass lesson stuff so I went with two bass lessons a week. Been doing that for about a year now and will probably continue to do so until I'm satisfied with my playing (not likely).
