Your Guitar Teacher
What Should I Think About Before Meeting My Guitar Teacher?
Whether you are an adult, teen or kid, there are steps you can take to get ready for your first guitar lesson. Playing the guitar will likely be different from what you might expect. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind.
Technique begins with posture
Posture doesn’t refer to how straight your spine is but rather your finger position. Putting your hands in the right place on the guitar, and bending your fingers how they should bend, is part of the process. Be prepared, this may not feel comfortable at first. But getting proper finger technique from the first day will help you considerably down the road. Correct technique will let you play faster without wearing yourself out. It will help you switch chords more easily and it will help you solo with much more power and expression. Over time, the lessons get easier when it comes to finger technique.
Callouses will happen slowly
Holding down frets hurts at first. You are pressing down on thin strings, against a fretboard. Until you develop callouses on your fingers, holding down the strings will hurt a bit. The fretboard will feel more comfortable but it doesn’t happen overnight. Callouses will grow with practice, and once they are on your fingers then fingering chords is much easier, quicker and more relaxed.
Tuning gets easier
Tuning of your six strings is a patient process. It is completely okay that it takes you a while to tune your strings at first. Your guitar teacher will show you how to use a tuner to get your guitar into playing condition each time. Tuning the guitar is not something you usually see when you observe professional guitarists but we all have to tune and we all go through the process of learning how to do it with ease.
Those scales do pay off
At first, when playing your first major and pentatonic scales, this fact will not be obvious to you and that’s okay. Those scales start slow. Repetition is your friend. That gradual practice of training your fingers to move in sequence is training your brain. Muscle memory, as your muscles learn how to move together to make different notes, takes a while to establish. Be patient with yourself and let your instructor help you. Your fingers will get there. Take your time, breathe deep, and relax.
When you take guitar lessons in Philadelphia you will have many questions to ask your teacher before you even begin! Write them all down and remember, no question is too dumb to ask. When you take lessons at the David Joel Guitar Studio, we have heard it all and we most likely have an answer for it all! The above are just a few things you should know when you are about to head into your first lesson. You may feel overwhelmed but remember, you are learning to play because you made that decision so enjoy it and have fun!