Guitar Lesson - Trying A New Instructor | Never Too Late To Learn Guitar

Sep 4th 09 Posted in Guitar, Lessons

Guitar Lesson - September 4th, 2009

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Teacher

I decided to try a new instructor. A friend of mine (who appears in my Jam Session post) is taking bass lessons from Kit Ruscoe who is also a guitar instructor. I’m not switching because I have a problem with my other instructor, Bruno Pelletier. I actually think he is a great instructor. I’m switching for a couple of reasons. First, since I’ve only seen one instructor, I’d like to get an idea of another instructors style and see if it’s a better fit for me. And second, even though Bruno is a great jazz guitarist and instructor, he’s not quite as up on the current rock/blues scene (he didn’t know who The Black Keys were). And as much as I would like to play jazz, playing blues and rock is what I’m after. Admittedly, at first I was specifically looking for a jazz guitarist as an instructor because I thought they would make better instructors when it comes to music and guitar theory. But Kit seems to have a good mix of theory (he’s actually classically trained) and rock expertise.

We didn’t really cover a lot of new ground on our first lesson. It was more of a recap of the basics to see what I already know, although I did learn a few new things when to come to playing open chords. He showed me how using one finger instead of two when possible on chords like E and A and how using my second, third and pinky finger on the open G chord (rather than the traditional first, second, third fingers) would come in handy in certain situations.

He’s also a stickler for posture and breathing… two things I know I need work on. I find I hold my breath and clench my teeth a lot while playing. He’s constantly making sure I’m loose in my wrists and fingers… no straining!

Kit definitely has a unique style and personality, so I’m interested to see how things progress with him. I gave Bruno a couple months and now I’ll give Kit a couple months and decide what to do from there.

How many instructors have you gone through? How did you you finally settle on one?

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