I just took my first lesson last weekend. The guy's an excellent mandolin player who's been teaching and playing for decades. We mostly played tunes for the hour so that he could see where I was at. I feel like I made a pretty poor impression because I was quite nervous and was flubbing up tunes that I have played flawlessly dozens of times in jams and onstage at open mics I do have a tendency to be intimidated (and hence, sweaty and nervous) when playing with someone new who I know is a very good player.
I didn't really learn anything from the hour long lesson. The one piece of practical advice he gave was that I play everything in first position and should expand my use of the fretboard, but I already was aware of this - it's actually one of the reasons I decided to take lessons. He also suggested I learn some songs. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy that if I'm just jamming with friends I could easily pull out 20-30 tunes but my nerves were such that I couldn't even remember the melody for Red Haired Boy or the words to All The Good Times
I'm hoping I'm more comfortable this weekend and play more like I normally do. I'm determined to stick with the guy for six months at a minimum. That should be in the realm of slightly over a dozen one hour lessons. If I feel we're just not connecting or I'm not learning enough for my money after six months then at that point at least I can say I gave lessons with the guy a fair shot. At the very least, I hope that spending an hour every other week playing one-on-one with an accomplished player will help to make me more comfortable in such a situation instead of the intimidated nervous-wreck I often become.
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