{"id":237,"date":"2007-12-12T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T04:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/2007\/12\/12\/taking-guitar-lessons\/"},"modified":"2011-07-15T02:19:57","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T06:19:57","slug":"taking-guitar-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/2007\/12\/12\/taking-guitar-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Guitar Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--CusAds--><p>If your a guitar player who thinks that he or she knows it all, then you should just skip this post! Also, this post is VERY LONG as well!<\/p>\n<div class=\"c354d1e329b235f1862b41000f5a4d18\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: right; margin:10px 0 10px 10px;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-3375789278566919\";\r\n\/* Guitar_inpost_300x250 *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"3631424768\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>Every once in a long while I come across a guitar player who thinks that they know it all. I think that we&#8217;ve all met a person like this who fits the category? I understand that in order to be a great player you have to have this invincible attitude or ego to obtain these lofty goals but come on, you can&#8217;t know everything. There is always someone out there that knows something that you don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>In my younger days, there were moments when I had this type of footprint attached to my persona. Sometimes upon entering a Brantford music store some musicians put down what ever they were playing and looked at it as if they didn&#8217;t know what this thing was that they had in their hands. Sometimes at a party or other social event guitarists would not play while I was playing or afterwards for that matter. This I thought was good for my ego, but later on I realized that we all were doing was just cheating ourselves out of a learning experience. After not playing for many years, I started to understand this problem. <\/p>\n<p>While living in a dorm\/frat house I started to play with many levels of musicians. I realized that some had these guitarists were playing these great little progressions that I had never heard of before and it spurred on my thirst for more musical knowledge. I made great efforts to stunt my level of playing and let other people shine. This approach made others relax and play without intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to today, I think that it is time for me to take lessons again, not to figure out songs\/styles but for technique. I know proper positioning, how to change chords efficiently, but I could use some work on understanding progressions better. <\/p><!--CusAds-->\n<p>Another area is finger picking. <\/p>\n<p>My classical picking is now at the level of a hack, but I can achieve the action and dexterity that I need to pull off a song or style without any noticeable problems. The classical stance is something that I do not use to any great extent but it does come in handy once in a long while.The real problem is with my thumb drone or an alternating bass picking style. The easiest way to understand this is to imagine a piano. You have the left hand working the bass or lower notes and the right hand doing the phrasing\/melody. In guitar, your thumb is the bass and the rest of your fingers are the right hand playing the phrasing\/melody. <\/p>\n<p>Bruce Cockburn is the master of this in my eyes! It&#8217;s almost impossible to pigeon toe his style into one word but this is one of his many fortes. The best example of this is one <a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Bruce+Cockburn\/_\/Going+to+the+Country\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\">Going to the Country<\/a> which I have been trying to finger out or master for many years. I wish that the intro to the song was there to introduce to you to what I mean about his playing ability.<\/p>\n<p>So now I am toying with the idea of taking lessons at the 12th Fret by a gentleman call Dave Martin. He specializes in picking, he loves the some style of picking that I do and best of all he has the same length of fingers that I have. While talking to him, he told me that he has come up against the same playing\/technique problems that I have so it would be nice to have someone who has similar issues in this area. <\/p>\n<!--CusAds--><p>They charge around $22.50 a 1\/2 hour so I&#8217;ll try him out for a bit and see how it works out! I&#8217;ll get back to you later on the results and besides, he probably knows something that I don&#8217;t!<\/p>\n<div class=\"c354d1e329b235f1862b41000f5a4d18\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<br\/>\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-3375789278566919\";\r\n\/* Guitar_inpost_300x250 *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"3631424768\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<br\/>\r\n<?php if ( is_search() || is_single() || is_page() || is_paged() || is_category() || is_archive() ) { ?>\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\nch_client = \"dragonden\";\r\nch_type = \"mpu\";\r\nch_width = 468;\r\nch_height = 120;\r\nch_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\nch_color_title = \"7dc246\";\r\nch_color_text = \"333333\";\r\nch_non_contextual = 4;\r\nch_vertical =\"premium\";\r\nch_sid = \"guitarlicks_betweenposts2\";\r\nvar ch_queries = new Array( );\r\nvar ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length));\r\nif ( ch_selected < ch_queries.length ) {\r\nch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];\r\n}\r\n\/\/--><\/script>\r\n<script  src=\"http:\/\/scripts.chitika.net\/eminimalls\/amm.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<?php } ?>\r\n<br\/>\n<\/div>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your a guitar player who thinks that he or she knows it all, then you should just skip this post! Also, this post is VERY LONG as well! Every once in a long while I come across a guitar player who thinks that they know it all. I think that we&#8217;ve all met a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,22,23,39,20,6],"tags":[197,3788,68,1449,1451,161,1445,92,502,1039,59,543,1452,131,238,1447,489,44,1448,1442,3793,1450,54,1441,55,3792,1440,46,70,1040,60,61,1444,1041,1042,1446,1443],"class_list":{"0":"post-237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-bruce-cockburn","7":"category-my-guitars","8":"category-home-and-lifestyle","9":"category-musicians","10":"category-playing-styles","11":"category-recreation","12":"category-songs-to-play","13":"tag-brantford","14":"tag-bruce-cockburn","15":"tag-chords","16":"tag-dexterity","17":"tag-dorm","18":"tag-finger-picking","19":"tag-footprint","20":"tag-fret","21":"tag-guitar-lessons","22":"tag-guitar-lessons-in-toronto","23":"tag-guitar-player","24":"tag-guitarist","25":"tag-hack","26":"tag-house","27":"tag-how-to","28":"tag-intimidation","29":"tag-intro","30":"tag-learn","31":"tag-learning-experience","32":"tag-lofty-goals","33":"tag-music","34":"tag-music-store","35":"tag-musical","36":"tag-musical-knowledge","37":"tag-musician","38":"tag-musicians","39":"tag-noticeable-problems","40":"tag-play","41":"tag-playing","42":"tag-playing-guitar","43":"tag-progress","44":"tag-progression","45":"tag-progressions","46":"tag-taking-guitar-lessons","47":"tag-the-12th-fret","48":"tag-thirst","49":"tag-younger-days","50":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feverishthoughts.com\/guitar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}