“Don’t Dream It, Be It”
I don’t know about you, but I am a dreamer. I day-dream incessantly. I always seem to be coming up with fun and beneficial ideas of things I could do for myself or “get into.” So far that seems to be as close as I get to these goals is an idea or a dream about what I want to do with my life and for myself, and not taking the initial plunge and getting started. These dreams are across the board from eating right, exercising, writing, getting a band together, and also learning to play an instrument.
I’ve always wanted to play an instrument, and although I am currently a budding vocalist with some natural talent (I hope) there is something so “Cool” about being able to learn how to play an instrument; in this particular case how cool the guitar would be to learn. This idea has especially struck a chord with me since I have been working at Starland School of Music. I am surrounded daily by extremely talented musicians who are teaching the eager and excited music students.
You would think a person in my position would be even more willing and able to take the first steps to learning to play an instrument, but I also forgot to mention that on-top of being a daydreamer, I am an inherently lazy person, and perhaps a procrastinator, but I believe it is deeper than that.
I believe that underneath all my excuses of why I won’t start lessons (time, money, family, work) and on top of my natural lazy nature is a kind of fear. It is likely that I have fear of not being able to succeed at something I start, and will essentially end up “wasting my time.” A fear of not being good enough or being judged at how fast I will learn to play, and a fear of embarrassment, BUT for the readers out there I decided to let it all the fear go and push past these things and take my first guitar lesson from our very own guitar instructor Mr. Alex Doty.
Paula’s Official First Guitar Lesson
“Pretend you don’t know me and that I’m a real new student.”
Thank you Alex for donating your time and teaching talent to me for this.
I have already admitted a few of my faults, but I will also mention one of my weaknesses is time management, and as I was rushing in with my wet hair thrown up in a knot, Alex was there in the front patiently waiting for me. There wasn’t much time for casual chit chat as we headed straight to the “B.B King” teaching studio with my store borrowed nylon string Yamaha clutched nervously in my hands.
Upon entering the music learning studio I had my usual pessimistic side voice making comments in my head about how I was wasting my time, and that I was going to look stupid, and that I was wasting his time, and the question “What could I possibly learn in one seemingly short 30 minute private guitar lesson?”
Then Bam!
Right when we shut the door Alex turned into a side of him I have never seen:
Professional Guitar Instructor.
Alex was still charming and humorous, but he had a sincere quality about him as he began explaining things to me right away wasting not a second of the guitar lesson. He went over the parts of the guitar, pointing to, naming, and explaining each guitar part, which I am already familiar with, but I wanted to put myself in the shoes of a novice to guitar.
The first bit of actual hands on instruction that surprised me was that Alex began explaining the proper way to hold a guitar, and correcting the way I was holding the nylon string guitar sitting in my lap.
By watching musicians perform hundreds of times in my life I never even began to imagine that playing guitar properly would involve such delicate technique. My mind was blown away to learn that I have been holding picks wrong every time I had played around with picks before.
In the first ten minutes of my private guitar lesson I realized that proper guitar playing requires a certain finesse. It then occurred to me during my lesson that it would be impossible to learn these things from a book alone or a YouTube video!
The extreme value of private lessons dawned me in that moment…Alex was sitting there evaluating my movements and technique, and was there to correct wrong technique immediately. He was there to positively reinforce my correct technique, and not just that, but was able to show me the easiest way possible to get the desired effect from my playing.
It’s quite brilliant that with one slight difference of the placement of my wrist, hand or finger could make or break my struggle of learning how to play. Try learning that on YouTube!
After training me on the logistics of how to hold everything (guitar, pick, my posture) we got into my first exercises with Alex emphasizing the importance of playing slowly and correctly first rather than trying to do it fast (and most likely wrong). I’d go and look down to pluck the guitar string and after the note sounded I would I’d glance up to check for annoyance in my guitar instructors face. I was also looking to see if I was testing his patience. I felt a made up empathy for him that he must be tired of doing this everyday over and over, BUT there was no sense of that at all from him each time I gazed up from the guitar.
By the end of the lesson Alex had taught me 4 or 5 exercises for the guitar to have as homework for the week to practice. The guitar playing exercises may seem boring and repetitive at first, but the instructor is laying a solid foundation of guitar playing to build upon.
So I Wasn’t Jimi Hendrix After One Lesson
The number one question I get from potential or new students is : “When will I be able to start playing songs?”
I’m not sure there is an exact answer to that question.
I know we all want to magically start rocking out some tunes on the guitar right away, but if one was to put in the work at the very beginning then the future advancement and possibilities of one’s guitar playing abilities are endless.
I look forward to another lesson with Alex, and so far I have let life’s little distractions discourage me from practicing as much as I had liked to commit to (shhh don’t tell him!) I still feel proud of myself for taking that first leap.
If you’d like to find out more about how to take your first leap into music lessons please give us a call!
You can find out more about our guitar instructor Alex Doty here.