Guitar Nerds Anonymous

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Dooks-Fatberg in reply to @almac68

My teacher is classically trained, has said once i have mastered good posture, correct playing for all chords and picking / strumming techniques, he will teach me every trick, every lick he knows. i figured that if i am going to invest circa £800 on lessons this year, then I want this to set me up to a very competent level to play jazz, funk, soul, reggae, rock standards

Hmmm... not many jazz, funk, soul reggae or rock standards were written or played by people with classical training or technique. I'm not saying your teacher isn't good... but if you want to play the stuff you mention, is a classical foundation the way to go?

If you want to learn that stuff, why not find someone who'll teach you that stuff? Sure you need a few rudiments, but sitting upright with your guitar on the "wrong" knee, thumb behind the neck and plucking the right hand in classical style isn't going to work for... well any of it.

for example, it's way harder to play loads of Hendrix stuff without using the thumb-over "barre" chord thing that any classical teacher will beat out of you.

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owl in reply to @Dooks-Fatberg

I agree with all of this. Whilst a classical foundation on guitar is rarely bad thing, it is very far from the quickest route to a mastery of the popular styles you describe as your focus and if anything rather circuitous. You can learn musicality and theory whilst starting off with popular styles/techniques/rhythms etc which would be much more useful if that's what you want to play. The best route to progress is learning stuff you actually like listening to. It makes motivation through the tricky bits and the plateaus so much easier....

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