Crossroads as a musician

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » July 1, 2003, 2:34 am

Well... I found one of the best guitarists in LA, but he is like 2 hours away. Good teachers are hard to come by....plenty of good musicians, but most folks can't teach themselves how to tie their own shoes, much less others..

This guy is DAMN good, and has helped Dan, from Death By Stereo, to have amazing chops.

So... 25 bucks/hour is more than a fair price for lessons. That being said, homeboy is in East LA....not a very safe place, but during daylight it seems acceptable, at least for the time being.

Basically, I can turn into a phenominal guitarist with a few gunshot wounds or... sit here and bitch about it in this forum.

....fuck gunshot wounds, being taught by 'The Tapping Ninja' would be kinda cool

EDIT: I finally got my drummer pinned down...if I can finally get him and my bassist together, we might just have something going! Problem is mostly with our schedules...we have all been friends for 10 years or so, but have fucked schedules when put together......hope things work out!

Both of em are DAMN good at their respective instruments... way ahead of me at least. At least the bassist and I have similar musical interests!!

Truant · Post by **Truant** » July 1, 2003, 2:35 am

go for it

Kriista · Post by **Kriista** » July 1, 2003, 9:57 am

coming by a good teacher, more importantly , one that inspires you is REALLY hard to come by,

so i concur

Innkubbus · Post by **Innkubbus** » July 1, 2003, 6:07 pm

I always felt that lessons were kind of a waste of time. The best thing about lessons is that you learn all the notes and all the terms and all that good stuff. I never took any lessons (except for piano...yes, I took piano lessons...go ahead and mock me

) and I can play probably 99% of the music out there on guitar. Lessons are really great for learning how to write music though. If I write something I can't communicate it to my friends who know all the names for the notes. I have to write out tabs usually

BTW...what kind of guitar/equipment you using?

Truant · Post by **Truant** » July 1, 2003, 7:33 pm

There are two kinds of lessons. Lessons where you pay some guy to teach you how to play a song you know. And lessons where you pay a guy to help you find yourself as an artist. I believe Cane is talking about the second, heh

Generally, most people use lessons for the former. learning to play chords, scales, read music, etc. And so there seem to be OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS of people out there who think this is needless and they can teach themselves...and they can...but don't confuse the two

random info brought to you by tuesday, aka The Pixies day.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » July 2, 2003, 10:21 am

Yeah, I am not looking for a teacher for learning songs, etc...been playing too long for that. I am looking for a coach, so to speak, to help me use my current knowledge and skill to take me to the next level, whatever that is, heh.

As far as gear... well, I had taken a 5-year hiatus, mostly due to financial reasons (had to sell all my gear a ways back in order to survive). Now, I have a decent Ibanez(no tremolo, thank god) and a lil Marshall studio amp with a Boss MT-2 distortion pedal. Not a bad setup for now. Of course, I will need to upgrade eventually, especially if I start something..

I have a bassist and drummer, both seasoned and professional, but our schedules are not exactly on the level as we all have regular jobs. Being a professional musician was a big dream of mine a ways back... now that I am playing again, I just want to have fun with it...much more relaxing and rewarding to me than doing it for a living.