Biting the bullet - getting guitar lessons

I've been playing guitar on and off for close to 30 years now, well to be honest I played for 8 years, then put the guitar in the loft mostly and got it out again when we moved to a nice big house 18 months ago. I'm entirely self taught and haven't had much in the way of role models in that time. During the first 8 years I was mostly rhythm guitar in a series of Blues Bothers tribute bands (at Uni) and then groups with similar setups during the first three years of work. Time was always tight and so I didn't have the necessary time or space for noodling around for hours on end.

Now I (mostly) work from home and I'm back in a band and I have both the time and inclination to practice. It occurs to me that I'm not very good and I'm pretty sure that I don't even hold a guitar in the usual way. I remember when I (very, very reluctantly) learned to play the violin as a teenager. Despite being reluctant to both practice and play, because I had lessons I got very good quite quickly.

I know I'm now an old dog but I think I could usefully learn some new tricks. At the moment I believe I'm a minimally acceptably capable rhythm guitarist with a decent repertoire of extended chords who knows a handful of decent blues licks. I think I'd like to learn how:

- To hold a guitar properly (rather than the spasmodic death grip I have on the neck at the moment)
- To play some county licks which will help to modulate some more boring and predictable solos
- To find my way around the neck, I find myself pinned in the tonic position

Any suggestions as to other things I should consider ?

Is there anything that you yourself would like to learn ?

Sounds like you have a plan, man; go hard!

Me?! Well, my playing has got very stale since I stopped playing out and most of my chops are very rusty indeed; any lead lines I play now all sound the same whereas when I was "singing for my supper" as it were, I tried to keep things fresh by mucking about with modes, putting passing tones into my phrasing and using different chord inversions and extensions. Alas, these days, most of that hard won skill has been buried under an avalanche of mediocrity!!

You have an opportunity, and the motivation, to challenge yourself; kudos!

Lessons are the way to go.

Last year, a friend of mine asked me a question. Should he invest into lessons or buy a $300 looping station to play along with. I recommended lessons. He bought the looping station. He has NOT advanced since that time... he should have taken the lessons. There is NO replacement for lessons. All the great gear in the world will not bring the satisfaction that good playing brings.

A good instructor can take you as far as you want to go. But it's all up to you to do the work. You get out of it what you put in.

I encourage anyone with the interest to take music lessons.

Hats off to you Don, it takes a certain amount of courage to admit you need lessons, maybe one day I can admit that too...until that day I'm gonna play the same old crap I've played for the last 20 odd years...

If you have the motivation and the time to devote to it Don, do it!
I was seriously thinking about taking some lessons myself a couple of years ago but I put it off. Then I had a stroke, and while I'm more or less recovered (90% maybe) from that, osteo-arthritis is now robbing me of the dexterity I once had.
Moral of the story: do it now! There may not be a "later".

Justin Guitar

Whenever someone talks about guitar lessons, I always refer them to Justin Guitar.

You'll probably breeze through the Beginners section, but the hand-holding method was just what I needed to get me straight.