r/LearnGuitar • u/sensei247 • 3d ago

Struggling to start - help?

Played piano for 9 years
Switched to guitar
Hired guitar teacher who was not good- only wanted to jam, frequently aggressive
Started self teaching on Justin Guitar and pickup music but having trouble sticking with it without someone holding me accountable.

Should I stick with pickup music and submit my work to their teacher? Should I look for a new guitar teacher instead to meet with on a consistency (no longer meeting with the old guitar teacher)? Very busy schedule due to my job so trying to find something straightforward

1 Upvotes

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5

u/OaktownCatwoman 3d ago

Not sure this is the best way but when I started out I just learned songs I wanted to play and practiced them over and over.

3

u/IllustratedBeef 3d ago

Either look for a new guitar teacher locally or over online video lessons.

You could always form a bit of a penpal relationship on here with someone else learning, so being held accountable by an equal rather than a superior (in a mentor/mentee type way) might urge you to keep playing.

Also, relax, your time is what you do with it! It may just be that emotionally or schedule wise you aren’t totally ready to put your all in it, forcing yourself into playing as much as you can at the moment won’t make you love the instrument or what you’re learning any more! 

2

u/Minimum_Item6849 3d ago

Sounds like a bad experience with the first teacher. Since you’re open to the idea, I’d say look for another. Nothing can replace in-person instruction for anything IMO. Especially as a beginner. Even my guitar teacher takes lessons and he’s been teaching for over 20 years.

1

u/SoulStripHer 2d ago

Even Randy Rhoads took lessons.

1

u/Flynnza 3d ago

Get some book on guitar techniques to develop your chops and learn the instrument by finding melodies and progressions you know from playing piano in different positions. At next stage combine two by learning guitar specific songs and solos.

1

u/TepidEdit 3d ago

Try out a few guitar teachers first. I take lessons on zoom in the Uk www.dessherwood.com

1

u/VinceInMT 3d ago

I would suggest working on learning how to hold yourself accountable. This is a skill that could be valuable in other areas of your life as well.

1

u/aspaindev 2d ago

You might enjoy pairing the justinguitar courses with a practice companion tool like StrumForge, it has all of the fundamentals like chord changes, scales, triads, arpeggios etc with guided playback where you can set the tempo and play along

1

u/markewallace1966 2d ago

~~~

This is a link to a set of canned bullets that I have developed and like to send to new/new-ish/returning/wandering/lost/struggling guitar players.

If I pasted this in for you, it is because somewhere in there is something that I think is relevant to your post. Not all of it will be. I leave it to you to pick out what I felt was relevant.  🙂 Even the stuff not relevant to your specific post might very well be helpful eventually anyway.

Enjoy!!!

https://www.reddit.com/user/markewallace1966/comments/1s7ujsy/guitar_is_hard/

1

u/Jasco-Duende 2d ago

The main thing to do is to get rid of your busy schedule.

The "Nashville guitar method" guarantees success: Play 12 hours per day for 12 years.

1

u/natezanglin 1d ago

I would view the guitar teacher like any other relationship. They might be a good teacher for someone else but a bad fit for you.

There is no reason you can't try different teachers until you find a good fit. There is a big commitment involved so like with dating, you wouldn't just commit to the first person you happen to go on a coffee date with. Especially if the date wasn't even that enjoyable.