Where to go from here

One of the advantages to a forum is that when one person has a question and it gets answered, anyone else with the same question can read it as well. Not only that but add any follow up questions they might have.

Your experience has been a huge help. But one thing you have to remember is that everyone's experiences are different. You might have needed lessons, and most of the musicians you know needed lessons but that doesn't mean everyone does. I have 2 friends that play guitar, 2 that play bass, 1 that plays drums, 1 that plays keyboard and a sister that plays keyboard. And only one of them took lessons.

It's entirely possible that I could take lessons and find that my teacher is also self taught too. At which point I leave and go back to teaching myself.

And you say my attitude is very representative of a group of people who by and large don't suceed in life. Well, I've tried explaining my attitude towards music but you've misunderstood me each time. And you don't know me well enough to say which group I belong to. So what you are basing this on, I have no idea.

I don't mean to be rude but if you truly wish to help me, try and understand me THEN give me advice. Don't make assumptions about me then give advice based on them. No one learns anything that way.

Yes, OneWingedAngel, you do need a teacher. Fortunately, the world is far more flexible than what some people make it out to be.

Sure, some people learn the guitar quite well by paying their $15-30 to sit face to face with their teacher while he goes over proper technique, correct chord fingering, and appropriate scale choices (box patterns, yuck). Other people learn guitar by studying with absentee teachers -- Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, etc.

One of your heroes, Kurt Cobain, learned from the latter method. As did one of his heroes, John Lennon. If the former method works for you, great. You should at least give it a try. Both Lennon and Cobain did. You never know, it may work better than you had anticipated. But I've found, like Lennon and Cobain before me, that this method just doesn't really work for me.

What does work for me is learning the songs I like and then playing the hell out of them. I play them virtually every day (All the way through, both with the CD and by myself). Eventually, you start to internalize the songs. You automatically know which chords sound good together and which licks fit over a given chord structure. The more songs you know, the more it will click for you.

My guess is that we've probably already pretty well rehearsed the arguments for seeking instruction and the reasons why someone might choose not to do so. In any event, it's best not to personalize the argument, I think.

So it might be best to let the topic rest unless there's a new perspective that hasn't yet been mentioned. And let's keep the discussion at an abstract level and not make too many inferences about who might or might not follow any given bit of advice.

Thanks.

You can lead a dead horse to water and flog it 'til it drinks. That's my new saying.

Maybe I'll shorten it to:

"Flog it 'til it gets up and drinks"

Yep, somebody print the T-shirts.

dammit geoo the horse was just about to get back up. Now look what you gone and did.

You can lead a horse to water and flog it 'til it drinks. That's my new saying.

:evil: Sorry Sir :evil:

Naa I know I shouldnt have said anything. It had nothing to do with me. Its one of those I should have read twice before hitting that tempting little Submit button.

Geoo

/goes off to sulk in the corner like a bad boy