During my tenure as a guitar teacher I've had many different types of people come for lessons. I've had students as young as 5 and as old as 65. I've had students that were either more technically adept or progressing too rapidly for me to keep up. Fortunately this has been a rare occurrence, but it has happened.

To give this a bit more context, I started playing guitar when I was 17, so I've been playing for nearly 8 years and teaching for 5 and a half. The amount of experience I've gained in this short time – at least from my perspective – has been incredible.

That's the thing about passion; it propels you forward and inspires you to want to learn. A lot of my students seem to think that it's all about talent, but I don't believe that at all. Passion comes first, and when you've discovered your passion, your skills and knowledge grow exponentially. You'll have that innate desire to explore your capacity. Take Nuno Bettencourt, for example. He tried picking up the guitar when he was young but he had trouble progressing and his brothers were better than him. Still, he loved music so he kept working at it; he went on to be a technically and creatively proficient guitarist and has played in many bands.

If you don't find yourself improving or progressing then you probably have one of two problems (at least in a general sense). Either 1) music or guitar isn't your passion, or 2) you have a personal problem that needs to be dealt with. If you don't have the enthusiasm towards music that you thought you would have when you first started taking lessons, it's nothing to cry about. You can take what you learned from this broader experience and apply it to your true passion. However, personal problems can be much harder to overcome. For example, if your attitude towards guitar is that you are entitled to be a great player but you don't work at it, then you're in trouble. If you're unwilling to learn from people who have more experience than you or have a better (or different) understanding than you, then your pride is hindering you immensely.

There are two specific instances in my life where I suspect this was the case. I had one student that was more technically capable than I was at the time but he didn't have a good understanding of theory, so he wanted to learn more about it. That's great, but he thought that theory would give him the unshakable confidence he needed to play the way he did in private in front of people. What he really needed to recognize was not that theory was going to fix all his problems but that confidence in self was going to give him the drive to learn theory. Sadly, he never came back after 2 or 3 lessons. I'm not sure why he left, but I think that he incorrectly assumed that I had nothing to teach him, even though I had more experience in 1) playing in bands, 2) performing solo, 3) studio recording, and 4) a better understanding of music theory.

Another occurrence was with a musician that I used to work with fairly closely. Again, I had more experience playing guitar, playing in bands, and a better understanding of composition. I don't expect anyone to blindly accept my suggestions or advice, but it seems to me that my guidance was ignored more often than not. He had an unwillingness to learn from others.

In a more generalized sense, I have seen the attitude of entitlement more often than I like to think about. Sometimes the parents project it onto their kids, and sometimes my students get frustrated or disappointed because they don't seem to be picking it up as fast as they should be. Bottom line, no one picks it up over night. There are a few prodigies in this world, but they are few and far between and placing that expectation is unfair for everyone involved. Even though Edward Van Halen probably has a lot of natural talent, he still used to practice for 6 hours every night. The aforementioned Nuno Bettencourt had to work really hard at it before he felt confident on his instrument. There are many other examples I could raise, but the point is that you have to practice no matter how much talent you have.

Conclusion: why do we think we're too good for some teachers? Why do we think we're too good to ask for help? If you ask the right questions, most teachers and musicians are more than willing to share their ideas with you. Students should always come prepared to ask their teachers good questions if they intend to learn. Learn from the example of Randy Rhoads: he used to sit down with every guitarist he met and learned something from them. If the person you're talking to has more experience than you in any way, they deserve your respect. Even if they don’t, you can probably still learn something from them if you're just open to it. There's no need to accept everything blindly, but focus more on what you can take from a particular lesson or example. This article was written by David Andrew Wiebe, web designer, graphic designer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, songwriter, guitar instructor, and music expert. Interested in winning a free CD? Click here for more info! Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Recommendations? Email me.

Published on January 4, 2008