I took my first guitar lesson last night and while not exactly like I was expecting, it went by pretty fast. We even went an extra 15 minutes without me realizing it. Overall, I was impressed and decided to sign up for a month’s worth of lessons with him.
The instructor is really nice. He wrote down some chords for me to practice, told me of a finger strengthening exercise to try and asked about bands that I like. I mentioned Fuel in my list and he tabbed out one of their easier riffs for me to practice with. I thought that was really cool. I also got the impression that apart from parents, this guy sees nothing but kids all day and appreciated the chance to talk to an adult student.
The only thing that surprised me was that he didn’t ask me to play for him last night or even show him my hand position on the guitar. Does that seem odd for a first lesson? I did go home and practice for longer than usual on the stuff he told me work with because I finally feel like I have some direction to head in. Maybe that’s the point.
On a side note, I was sitting in the waiting area before my lesson began and a boy walked in who looked about 13 years old. He sat down on the couch next to me and I gave him a “Hey, how’s it going?” to be friendly. He answered, “Fine. Thank you sir.” in a nervous voice. I’m 29 but I felt about 150 right then.
I’m more impressed that a 13 year old boy these days remembered to say “sir” to an adult. And surprised that at 29, you’d still identify a 13 year old as an age peer!
Now, if I were older than the instructor, and the kid were also a much more advanced player than me (both possible), then I’d feel old, in a “I’ve missed the boat, and the train before that, and the plane before that” kind of way.
Don’t let the first 6 months of guitar playing stop you. It’s worth every grueling second of hand pain, fingertip shredding and squonked out chords to turn yourself into a human jukebox. There’s no such thing as too old unless you have arthritis or something. It’s immensely rewarding and all of the pickers on the boards started out just the same. Trust your teacher and do the work that he tells you to do and you’ll be amazed how fast you can progress.
For a first lesson, it is a little odd, yes. I would usually ask a new student to play a little bit or show me what he/she could do just to get an idea of where they were at. If it was a rank beginner, I might not have bothered, though. I actually took the same approach of showing them a couple of chords in the first lesson, asking what they liked and then tabbing out a simple riff or chord progression from a favorite band. It’s always good to give them something right out of the box that they’re going to like to play.
Having said that, 99% of learning an instrument comes from the practice, not the lessons. Being able to motivate yourself to practice through the sore fingertips and the frustration of gettiing it wonky until you get it right is the determining factor of whether you’ll ultimately be able to play or not. I would estimate that only about 25% of my beginning students (just talking about students who had never played before, not students who were more advanced) actually stayed with the instrument for more than a month or two.
Hang in there for that first few months and it will pay off handsomely. A guitar can end up being a great friend eventually.
I took lessons last year at age 29. And I was the only adult and probably the only woman in the portfolio of clients People always thought I was dropping off a kid or something.
I had to perform on stage with a group of teenage boys (as their parents watched from the audience) as part of my last lesson.
There is a reason that it was my last lesson and it involves my face being a pretty shade of blush while I played garage band participant with some kids that have never heard of Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Oh and I just kindof sucked at guitar, so it was not much fun.
People always thought I was dropping off a kid or something.