Self Teaching

[JeffD]

There is no reward for teaching yourself. Nobody says "well so and so is a mediocre player, but its ok because he taught himself." Nobody.

If you can nail it - it doesn't matter if you had lessons or not. And if you can't, it doesn't matter if you had lessons or not.

I hire fishing guides. When fishing on water that is new to me I do not have the life time or two needed to get the experience required to learn that piece of water. I hire a guide and have a great time.


The other thing that doesn't matter is how any of our musical heroes learned. How they got where they are is of limited use in determining how we need to go to get to where we want to be. Emulating how they play has some usefulness, but emulating how they got there is less useful, if not a waste of time. What I know is they got there working a whole lot harder at it than I have.

[SincereCorgi]

There is no reward for teaching yourself. Nobody says "well so and so is a mediocre player, but its ok because he taught himself." Nobody.

I pretty much agree with you, except that I do think that self-taught players can develop eccentric and pleasing personal styles that wouldn't happen with 'correct' instruction. I'm thinking of, like, all those great country blues guitarists who get the craziest sounds with two fingers and a weird tuning. Now, a lot of these kinds of styles aren't the least bit flexible, but I'm glad they exist.

I used to think that any talent worth a dime couldn't be quashed by correct training, but now I think life is too short.

[JeffD]

I used to think that any talent worth a dime couldn't be quashed by correct training, but now I think life is too short.

Probably some truth to that. Maybe a more accurate statement is that supreme talent (and attendant creativity) cannot be quashed by correct training. In other words if you are on fire, really on fire, you won't let a teacher stand in your way.

But we don't give advice for those that are on fire, because they are so few, and so self motivated they don't likely spend a lot of time reading on line forums to figure out what to do next.

Most of us "sub-geniuses" could really benefit from a teacher, and likely do ourselves a disservice if we turn down an opportunity to have instruction.

[stevedenver]

if ever there WAS a sub-genius.....Jeff

we'd find him in the shaded sun......

[haggardphunk]

There is a whole class of teachers out there who happily take people's money to teach them a new song every few weeks, with no real attention to building up a flexible technique. Some students want that, I think, and it's more like going to a masseuse or something, like a fun activity.

this! I went to one lesson and he pulled out mando tabs and wanted to teach me to play Cherokee Shuffle. I took it home, mastered it and then bailed on that lesson. I use www.mandolessons.com to learn fiddle tunes. I do my best not to use the tabs and only use the video and audio. It has helped with my ability to improvise. That said, I have pretty decent picking technique from playing years of guitar and not cheating picking practice is just so important if mandolin is your first stringed instrument.

That said, I do not plan on going to anymore lessons. I am not a pro musician and am just happy to be with a buddy jamming a little bit or playing in my office for an hour or two.