👩‍🏫 A teacher, or on your own?

Oh my goodness you will open a can of worms with this subject. Personally I would never attempt to learn something that I was passionate about by myself. I did not learn Math, Science and English on my own. I had a teacher for good reason. All my life I played squash and I always had a coach. And now I have a guitar teacher. Thank goodness. He is a great support, a mentor and a good friend. He keeps me honest. 

I have both a zoom tacher and an in person teacher --  can not imagine not having a teacher at all.  The in person lessons allow small adjustments of tone, style, etc.  The zoom lessons add a theory element as well as introducing music I am not familiar with.  Progressing on your own is possible but guidance from an experienced and knowledgeable person is much more valuable.  Would you teach yourself how to do surgery?  Of course not  -- same with learning the guitar.

I was self taught for many years prior to ever taking a lesson. That was well before the Internet and YouTube. Today with all of the online instruction, we can go pretty far in our learning. However, a good teacher is invaluable when it comes to feedback on our sound quality, phrasing and form/posture.   

The one thing I'm never sure about is when it's time to move on from one-on-one lessons—whether that means finding a new teacher or stepping away from lessons altogether.

I began learning my first instruments - ukulele and acoustic guitar - during covid (early 2020). There were no teachers available. I ordered instruments from Amazon and learned online - Artistworks for the ukulele and GuitarTricks and JustinGuitar for steel string guitar.

I chose guitar as my primary instrument and found an in-person teacher after about a year. We didn't click and I stopped taking lessons after a few months. I found another teacher. We did click personality-wise, and I learned a great deal of music theory from him, but he kept introducing me to new songs when I felt I hadn't gotten a grasp of the previous ones. So, I stopped lessons once again. By then I'd joined JamPlay and TrueFire (which are now merged together). So, I had a lot of online learning at my disposal.

In late 2022, one of my acoustic guitar forums held a group learning called "Classical Conditioning" lead by a woman who played steel string and classical. Together we followed Bradford Werner's Method Book One. And I was bit by the classical bug.

I could not find an in-person classical guitar teacher but signed up for a number of online learning platforms. I tried Zoom coaching on another site. The interactions were good, but the sessions were very short - 3 sessions of 15 minutes each month. I felt I needed more time and signed up for coaching here at Tonebase which I believe has helped a lot. However, I did miss the immediate feedback from live coaching.

I also signed up for an online group class in May, really liked the teacher, and have just started weekly one-on-one lessons with her. She's in Canada so the cost is great (favorable currency conversion) as well. Win-win.

If I had to start my musical journey all over again, I would have tried to find a better in-person teacher or worked with someone through Zoom a lot sooner. There is something to be said for having an expert listen and watch what you're doing and providing that clear instruction and instant feedback. I could play a passage a thousand times, but if I'm doing something wrong and can't identify it, I will always struggle. And who wants to struggle?

If I was interested in being more than a hobbyist, I'd be more inclined to work with a teacher on a regular basis. As it is I love exploring new music, techniques, and exercises on my own. Would I be better with a teacher? Probably. But I've always loved learning new things and at this point, I'm comfortable with my mix of friends, online resources, and invaluable teaching tools like recording myself. 

There's also the practical issue of finding a GOOD teacher. Years ago I had the pleasure of working with a professional guitarist who also happened to be an excellent teacher who was very good at identifying and correcting issues. There are still things I work on that he gave me 30 years ago. I've also worked with teachers who seem to look at students as a necessary evil to be endured while they pursue their real goals, lol.

I'm very happy for people who have found a good teacher they can work with. Best of luck to everyone whatever path they choose. 

Hmm, very interesting responses. Ideally, I'd love to have a teacher in person, inches away from me, observing every bodily movement I make. Unfortunately, there aren't any to be found where I'm from. I've looked for online one on one coaching, but they're quite expensive for me, especially because of currency values.

My initial forays into learning was in YouTube. This is where every cautionary tale starts. I saw this guy who had a decent following who had some very basic and useful knowledge about how to approach this instrument. However, as I explored more and researched more, I realised how meticulous and nuanced the pathway is to learning classical guitar. The guy I mentioned talked about things like rubato, dynamics, expression and articulation in an introduction to a video and started playing a piece so metronomically and flat that left me perplexed and aghast.

One of the things that some accounts on YouTube do is, they'll post a video on how to learn a tremolo piece like recuerdos without a disclaimer that tremolo is an advanced technique that you should not learn as a beginner or that you should approach it with caution. It's understandable, of course, that they'd want to grab a learner's attention by focusing on a piece like recuerdos.

I'll end this by complimenting TB as I've learned a lot from here and the community. What you've done well is create a vast library that caters to the needs of beginners and advanced. I also benefitted hugely from a 90 days coaching program from Martin. I especially liked the apoyando and left hand independence exercise recommended by him.

If there's one suggestion I'd make to TB is perhaps its content creation has slowed down a bit from its initial days. Also, perhaps it can increase  livestream with guests. And, make the platform more interactive for all members by giving feedback like workshops or the two week intensives like they used to do. Ok, that's more than one suggestion, but there you go, my two cents on the topic.

I had a teacher when I was learning electric guitar as a 12 year old, when I started.

Since then I have basically learning on my own by watching Youtube videos until I joined Tonebase. My experience with classical guitar is completely self taught.

• A couple of years ago I was feeling stalled. I got a package of 5 lessons with a teacher virtually. Until then I was only following Tonebase, learning from lessons and courses.
• The lessons I had with the teacher changed radically how I approach guitar learning and really changed my sound. I was so thankful for taking the initiative and looking for help. It turned out my posture was not right, I was not polishing my nails properly (this improved my sound quality), I was having issues with coordination and was not doing any warm ups before playing. All these things were impeding me to progress and after corrected I consider myself on a completely other level of playing. 
• I wish that when self teaching we would be able to notice our own areas of improvement. This feedback we get from someone else watching us play can unblock our learning and correct many mistakes we keep running into. Having another experience person available to give tips and feedback is extremely valuable.

I continue to learn by myself by watching lessons on Tonebase and learning new pieces to add to my repertoire. However, I have committed myself to have a lesson at least twice a year to help improve my learning.

I got a teacher after retirement and blundering around on my own for half a century.  One of the best things I ever did.  I didn't know what I didn't know (well, I knew some of it, but couldn't see my way to solving the problems).  Mostly we have zoom lessons.  I occasionally go to her studio for a lesson, but that takes half a day, so only occasionally.  Lately I've been (gasp) cheating on her with another teacher for occasional in-person lessons.  Working in very different areas with the two.  With my regular teacher I work on repertoire and the technical issues that come up along the way.  With my occasional teacher I work on very basic problems with sound production.

I am an online learner and have never had a teacher for guitar playing.  This has definitely presented its own challenges but I believe that I have arranged things in such a way to meet them.

For instruction on playing guitar, I have primarily been using Classical Guitar Shed during the last couple of years to provide video instruction and to lay out a course of action to develop technique in a sensible order.  They also provide support through online community meetings (weekly for beginners and monthly for all), and will critique your playing through personal video reviews.  I supplement this with Bradford Werner's teaching graded books and videos.  There has been a lot of trial and error along the way to find what works for me.

For repertoire, I will use the above sources for guidance as to pieces to learn and play as well as TB's level system suggestions.  Many of the pieces suggested come with lessons on how to play a piece of interest.  Much more recently, I have been using a TB coach primarily to assist with the learning repertoire.

As an online learner, I believe self-discipline to be of utmost importance.  Without it, it is too easy to skip anything hard or that doesn't catch your fancy.  Luckily, my career (before retirement) required me to be self-disciplined so it is a trait that is well ingrained in me and has served me well in my guitar journey.  But that is not to say that interest doesn't wane sometimes.  To help that along, I have been setting out annual goals for myself and then measuring my progress against those goal on a monthly basis.  I am also finding that having a TB coach to whom I am submitting videos to on a regular schedule helps with self-discipline.

The one thing missing from being an online learner is the lack of immediate feedback.  This is partially offset by the quickness that my TB coach and video reviews mentioned above do respond to my queries.

I think I have shied away from using a teacher due to the cost and the uncertainty about the quality of any teachers available locally to me.  

Great topic. As a teenager I wanted to play guitar, of course to be cool etc. So it was on my own - you didn't get cool going to a teacher. Eventually, realizing I wasn't progressing past a certain point (there was no internet in those days) I went to a teacher. Due to my moving around or teachers moving away my  lessons went in bits and pieces. Looking back I wish that I had had proper lessons to start with, but not every teacher is a good teacher. Since I have a degree in education and taught for 20 years I can say that a poor teacher is probably worse than no teacher. I was lucky enough to have teachers who established good habits with me that I didn't have to do much backtracking, the biggest draw back to teaching yourself - you develop bad habits that have to be undone. Also a good teacher should be able to encourage you as well as challenge. You can tell if you have the right teacher for you - you want to play and you want to do whatever it is they have given you. This can change over time - the teacher who is perfect for you as a beginner might not be the same teacher for you at a more advanced stage.

A teacher who works by a program that they apply to every student who sits down in front of them rather than a good thoughtful teacher who listens and watches carefully to decide what that student needs and has the ability to deliver that. So here I am after over 50 years of playing, I can play reasonably well and can teach myself somewhat but I also occasionally go for lessons but now those lessons are very focused. If I am venturing into some new territory or trying to reach a higher level and having difficulty I find a teacher who is qualified to help with whatever specific goal I have and will take some lessons. That might be a month (4 lessons) or two or it might be six months or a year but it is with a specific goal in mind.