Regardless of what we’re told, this guitar business isn’t as simple and straightforward as many people would have us believe, and finding some quality guitar instruction that fits your individual wants, needs, and personality isn’t always easy.
Basically, we are presented with two general models when making this decision (offline and online), and we discussed some pros and cons of an Internet-based curriculum in the previous article in this two-part series.
The offline, “face to face” route is certainly the most traditional, but is it really the best way to go, considering the almost myriad factors that make up an individual’s guitar playing experience?
Again, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach here, and this includes the learning processes to become the guitar player you’d most like to be. Let’s dive into some common benefits and drawbacks of the offline model in this article and help determine which one is best for your situation:
Offline guitar lessons
Advantages:
1. Personal, face-to-face interaction with the instructor (also a possible “scam”)
2. Increased ability of students to ask questions and receive relevant feedback on performance and progress.
3. There is usually a greater possibility of working with curricula tailored to the individual, but this is not always the case.
4. Fewer choices regarding potential instructors can mean less overwhelming when deciding which path to choose (also a possible “con”).
5. It’s usually easier to examine the potential guitar teacher’s ability, strengths, weaknesses, personality, and overall “vibe,” but this can also be misleading. Remember to think for yourself here, and not just follow the recommendations that others have given you, no matter how qualified you may think those people are to make such recommendations.
The truth is that most people don’t really know what works and what doesn’t, but they have ideas about what was/is more comfortable for them or those close to them in a given situation: the fact that a guitar teacher has a degree in music education, or are “good with kids”, have years of experience playing live, etc. means next to nothing when it comes to your unique situation, goals, and development.
Doctors go to school for years to be qualified to diagnose and treat diseases, but people change doctors and ask for second opinions all the time. Why? Because years of training and general competence in a given field alone do not equate to the most beneficial experience for someone personally. Be your own judge when it comes to this process.
Cons:
1. Potential for too much personal interaction for those students who are particularly shy, self-conscious, or too “rigid” for those who need to work within a different time frame to complete the curriculum. Some instructors have set schedules regarding course material and its completion, and this doesn’t always work so well for everyone (this is especially true in workshop or group type instruction).
2. Usually working within a set schedule from one meeting/lesson to the next, so instructor and material availability is more limited than with an online model. While I make myself available to students and encourage any necessary interaction with me outside of scheduled class times, meeting at 2 am to discuss the finer points of what we covered the week before is not always a viable option.
If you’re working within an online model, you can more or less access the content at any given time (as long as you have internet access), but you’re pretty much limited to workable, agreed-upon meeting times with a one-on-one teacher.
3. Basically, it’s about taking the best of who and what is available, in relation to your personal schedule, where you live, etc. Not all guitar coaches or methods are created equal, and you’ll be somewhat limited as to who and what is available to you based on the criteria mentioned in the first sentence: if you live somewhere where there aren’t many options outside of the guy on the street you know a handful of chords and play from time to time as a hobby, you’re not likely to find local instruction that can take you much deeper than that same handful of chords, at least in terms of theory, application, and “guitar playing” in overall, if that makes sense.
Likewise, if you find someone who you think is qualified and a good fit for you, but your hours don’t match up, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Just because someone is available in your area does not mean they are necessarily available to you personally.
4. Potential (probable) inability of the instructor to take you beyond a particular place in your knowledge and/or game, as per #2, #3 and #5, listed below.
5. Unqualified “teachers” offering lessons (or what I affectionately call the “FOS Factor”), which can often be more prevalent offline than online. Remember: Just because someone offers instruction does NOT make it worth your time or money. Also, the fact that a future teacher comes recommended by someone else doesn’t really mean anything, other than the idea that someone recommends them, as we’ve already covered.
The bottom line is that some people who don’t know what they’re doing make money by charging a fee to teach other people who don’t know what they’re doing, and this works because they don’t know any better.
This group of “teachers” generally stick to a fairly regimented and rigid curriculum, as they themselves lack the depth of understanding and the ability to deviate too far from what they feel works, or what they have read/heard. /etc. works of people who *do* know what they are doing.
This is a problem for many reasons, one of which is an inability to understand that not only is every person and game situation different, but as an instructor you must be able to shift gears and abandon one method in favor of another course. effectively, often in real time.
Sometimes it’s worth dealing with feeling overwhelmed by searching for solid online instruction, simply because you can see if someone can actually play the game, if what they teach is legitimate (the internet can be used to find information too!), etc.
Good. As I said in the first article in this series, these lists are not exhaustive or fit every person’s criteria in every situation. However, they do give a good overview of the common advantages and disadvantages of both online and offline guitar study courses and in the end you have to decide for yourself which path you will take.
For me, the ideal situation is to work one-on-one with a good, qualified instructor and add Internet resources as supplementary materials. However, as we’ve seen, that “ideal” scenario doesn’t always work out, so being prepared and thinking for yourself becomes crucial to this process. And isn’t that the goal of the guitar anti-hero anyway?
I hope you have found it useful and that you put it to good use. Now get to work and break some ground with your own guitar playing.