Whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned professional musician, I'm here to help you reach your goals. You may want to simply sound good on your instrument, to jam with friends, or to become an expert at any and all aspects of playing, songwriting and performing. Whatever your aims are, it's my purpose to give you the best directions along the way.
You can help me help you, by keeping the following ideas in mind as we work together:
- (You may already know this), but, playing guitar and bass are not easy. If they were, as they say, "everybody would be doing it". It takes energy and commitment, just like everything else you do. The necessary time and effort varies a lot from person to person.
- There are no tricks, and no real shortcuts. There certainly are techniques, practice methods, theoretical approaches and big ideas that can make learning a lot easier (that's where talented teachers come in,) but students still have to apply these things.
- Ultimately, all musicians, virtuosos and hobbyists alike, eventually accept that musical development is a lifelong process. The challenges and rewards never end. Bearing that in mind, I encourage you to take a long-range view; if you enjoy that instrument, if you love music, you're going to be doing this your whole life. It's the cumulative playing and practicing that makes the difference, with the biggest growth observable in hindsight.
That's not just a feel good pep talk. It's the inescapable conclusion of looking at my own life with music, as well as the musical lives of all my peers, and all my students. We're mostly impatient about improvement, and it takes us a while to realize that a little work now-and next week, and the week after, leads to massive growth, over time.
We tend to forget that when we first picked up our instrument, it was awfully hard, and our fingertips were sore, and we didn't know a darned thing. What was impossible, became possible, then fairly easy, then as natural as breathing. It just took involvement, and the passage of time.
We'd do best to remind ourselves of that fact as we continue to advance, because it makes us realize that our goals are attainable, if-and only if-we keep playing and practicing, bit by bit.