26
Thoughts…
Filed Under (General, Other Resources, Practice Session, Random, Random Thought, The Music Room) by Frank on 26-12-2008
Tagged Under : focus, Gear, Guitar, Lessons, Music, Practice, Practice Session, Teacher, The Music Room, Win
Do you know how to drive a stick shift car or anything with a manual (normal) transmission? If you at least understand the concept of driving a manual transmission car then you’ll probably understand the following analogy.
My guitar education feels like I’ve been stuck in first gear with my engine over revving to making up for the lack of gears. I’ve occasionally made it to second gear but either way I’ve been pushing hard and I feel like I’m not getting very far. I feel like no matter how hard I push each practice session I can only get so far — never where I want to be…
I’ve got two more prepaid lesson left at The Music Room. While they’ve been great, I’ve decided not to renew with them. It is important for me to mention that my teacher is/has been excellent but I feel like I should have progressed further than I have. I attribute this not to the teaching but my inability to focus as much time on guitar as I’d like. Quite simply, guitar is over-occupying my time (even though I want to put in more time). I figure if I’m not in weekly lessons I can focus a little more on other things (like Design Patterns or how Firefox works)… In addition to guitar…
My guitar studies will continue and I will continue to run Understanding Guitar. My plan, in regards to The Music Room, is to take the “ad-hoc” options. With this option, I’ll have to call in to schedule an appointment every week or two. I’m considering this plan a half self-study, have lessons plan.
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As an adult student, I find biweekly lessons work best since there is steady progress and I have enough time to learn through practice with occasional days off. Progress is slower but more thorough, I’ve been working on one song, fixing my chord fingerings, fixing my strumming, and now I feel I will be able to play the song soon. Over the holidays, visiting a musician friend, he asked me to play something, I played the song and he told me that my strumming was vastly improved from the last time he saw me
For me, having the discipline of a teacher has helped by preventing my natural inclination to take shortcuts so my progress is useful and can be used to build a musical foundation.
The bi-weekly lessons are a good idea. The Music Room, however, does not offer bi-weekly lessons.
They only offer the “ad-hoc” lessons or weekly-prepaid lessons.
When I start on the ad-hoc option, I’m not sure I will be consistence enough to schedule the lessons bi-weekly… Only time will tell right now…
How is the guitar going? I haven’t seen much on the blog; have you taken any ad-hoc lessons?
Hi Anthony,
To be honest, guitar has come to a complete stop. I didn’t want it to happen but my work got a new contract and I was assigned to the project. So, I’ve been working a lot. And any time not working is usually spent doing certain research in the IT field.
I hope to get back to it as soon as the project launches.
I have no intention of completely stopping. I just sometimes hit my slow patches and that is what I’m going though right now…
I do appreciate you taking a interest in my efforts and in my blog. I hope to continue to see you around!
Regards,
Frank