Hey guys, i've recently joined a band (lead guitar), this coupled with me being a perfectionist has made me think about getting lessons. I was wondering if it would be useful to get lessons or not, no sense in wasting money on 'em when i could be saving up for a Mick Thompson sig B.C. Rich.

Thanks

yea dude, get lessons, it helps you improve so much, and its far more worth while than buying a bc rich . Just make sure you get a good guitar teacher though.

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yea man. make damn sure he is a good teacher. you don't want to spend money on crappy lessons that don't help you out any.

A guitar teacher is always the best choice, but if money is an issue then you can still learn sufficently from books and online sites.

I've been taking lessons for 3 years and have come quite aways from it too. One great reason to get one is becasue you can get constructive critisism from a professional which can help more than anything else.

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definitally what darko said my teacher is awsome he has some degree for music (not sure what one) and on the days hes not teaching guitar lessons he teaches a music class at some university so id say hes definitally an awsome teacher. but yeah lessons helped me tremendously you can learn so much not just theory but other stuff like when to not use theory, i mean its good but if you always stick by it youll end up sounding too dull and textbooky so id say definitally go with the lessons!!

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mick thompson sig....horrible........

i've took private lessons for guitar, and drums, it helped alot. plus a few music classes in school, like guitar, percussion ensemble, A.P. music theory/harmony. ect.

it has helped me to understand alot of things(musically) better.

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How was that? I signed up for it next year but am afraid that its going to be very demanding. Is it the study of musical composure ingeneral, a certain instrument, history, ect?

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thanks everyone, I shall begin the search this weekend.



hahahahah, i quite like it, you guys aren't the type that shun Slipknot fans are you?

I've never had a lesson in my life and I always found books never explained it in a language that was comprehensible. I found that the best lessons you can have is to learn the techniques from songs that you play along to. Everything I know, even up to sweep picking, has been gleaned from jamming along to some of my favourite songs.

However, the theory side of my playing is somewhat lacking. Lessons would definitely improve this aspect but I'm in no rush to do so. My advice to you is: if you feel that lessons will improve your playing/knowledge for the better, then go for it.

It's important to pick a good teacher that will understand the level of accomplishment that you want to achieve. I remember a friend of mine had a guitar teacher when he was starting out and the teacher told him to play -12-14-15- with the index, ring and pinky. I thought this was a load of crap and carrried on playing it with index, middle and ring (I'd only been playing for about 12 months at the time). However, when it came to more advanced 4-finger patterns (eg, -12-14-15-18-), my friend tended to struggle as his fingers weren't used to the stretch. He's over it now (this was many years ago) but it set him back having to re-learn scales with different fingering positions.

PS: It's good to see another Brit around here, but Slipknot tend not to go down too well with folk! Check out the Thrasher thread in Chit Chat for the general consensus. Oh, by the way, I love your avatar!

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i pretty much taught myself everything. i used sites like wholenote.com and active guitar.com. if your a beginner, in my opinion, the best site to go to is www.guitar.about.com. thats what started me off on my road to becoming a better guitarist. but really, it's up to you. i learn pretty fast, so now i'm quite a bit better than most of my friends who have been playing longer than i have. but if i took lessons, i'd probably be pretty nasty right now. but i didnt have the funds for lessons. it's a great sense of accomplishment to teach your self though. but w/e. you decide what you want to do. i dont think we can really help you in that department. if you want to learn fast, tak the easy way out and pay for your lessons. if you want to learn slowly, but gain alot more understanding of what you are learning, teach yourself.

by the way, the mick thompson signature i a nice guitar, but i've heard that the freboard likes to peel off the guitar. i know it happened to mine, but mine is a lower class model, w/o the emg-hz's. and another thing, i've heard that mick uses emg81's. i guess bc rich is too cheap to put those on there guitars... so i'd suggest, if you really dig the slipknot tone, get 81's and tune to drop b.

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If you mean completely hate slipknot then yes, i at least do. And lessons will help you out so much, I started learning guitar without lessons and I eventually started taking lessons, and it excelled my learning so much faster.

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alot of it depends on the teacher, and how dedicated you are.
you'll learn alot of things about music, not just for a particular instrument, although your teacher will probably demondstrate on a piano or something.
you learn to hear intervals and tell them apart, i.e. someone plays two different notes, and you'll be able to tell "thats a perfect 5th" or "thats a minor 3rd". all by ear. you also learn how to read and write music on manuscript paper, you'll learn how chords are built, like a major triad-1-3-5, but a minor traid is 1-b3-5, ect.
i can't even get into all the helpful stuff you can get from that class.
but if you fall behind "you'll need to pull your head out of your ass or drop out of the class." as my teacher told me at the beginning of the year.

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Well, thanks guys, I've been playing about 4 years now, i don't really think it would be wise to just slog through it on my own, i think it's be a bit more useful for me to have some structure and have someone there to show me the best way etc..... (I'm 16 btw)

I don't understand why people have such hatred of Slipknot, it really does puzzle me, i think they have a good groove, they aren't my favorite band but I think they're pretty good.

@ Johnmansley
Heh, i thought you might. I'm from the north-west as well,near Blackpool, i haven't been to liverpool for ages. KHETTI SATHA SEKHEM!!!

I'm very dedicated. Unfortunatly..next year they wont allow anyone to drop out of an AP class untill the semester is over so I wanted to make sure that its worth it. Do they start off assuming that everyone has a certain amount of theory already known? I'm afraid that they will start off on a more advanced level or something (I'm horrible at writing music in notes).

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Yeah, Fleetwood. My old man works nearby in Lytham. I hear that Blackpool offers a good night out - plenty of good bars. I used to go out with a girl who liked to go up there for the occasional Saturday night out. Anyway, Liverpool is fantastic despite all the bad press it gets in the newspapers!

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well, in my town, the fucking state cut all the money from th schools, so theres no more music classes.. dammit, and i was gonna take music theory this year...

....Fuck you Mitt Romney...

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Well, at least you didn't have to go to Fleetwood High School, out of 1200+ kids, only 6 people weren't "townies" (thats a local label for the bunch of nobs who walk around in track suits with their pants tucked into their socks), they really aren't the nicest of people and I get live in a town full of 'em, yey me. HELP ME!!!!!!

Plus the school was just general shite, in maths we didn't learn maths, we just sat around and talked all day, i had a gay English teacher who fancied me, it was kinda flattereing in a way but very deeply disturbing lmao!
6th form is hella better, plenty of nice birds

its good to know as much as possible going into it, but they should start off assuming you may know nothing. but even then it will move fairly fast so it'll be hard to pass if you half ass it.
the thing is, they have to teach you a certain amount of material by the end of the year.
starting with how to draw a bass and treble cleff,note values, and other little things.
then by the end you should be able to dictate a fairly simple 4 bar melody by ear. i.e. the teacher will tell you which clef it's in,the key signature,the time signature, and the starting note. then he'll play the melody several times over for you. you need to figure it all out and write it down on manuscript paper by using what you've learned.

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