Everyone who decides they want to become a guitar player has to ask themselves a pretty important question quite early on: Do I buy a guitar and teach myself, or do I sign up for lessons with a guitar teacher? It can be quite hard to decide, as there are so many factors in the decision; money, time, creativity, goals, motivation, and so on.
On “Being Self-Taught vs Taking Guitar Lessons,” blogger Lance Vallis tackles the debate. Vallis questions the both the benefits and drawbacks of both options, exploring them in great detail. When you take lessons, he explains, you’re put in an environment that limits your creativity. This is interesting, as it is important to note that many famous guitarists, including Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, were mostly self-taught. “There already is a Dave Matthews,” writes Vallis, emphasizing the importance of originality in being a musician. When you invest in a musical education somewhere such as Berklee College of Music, you’re entering a curriculum that will be shared by countless other students. The result of this is that you come out an extremely skilled musician, but you’ll be similar to many of your classmates.
Along with the loss of creativity in music lessons, there are also quite a few benefits. From musical colleges like Berklee to simply spending an hour with a guitar teacher once a week, taking lessons can help push an amateur guitarist to keep improving. Not only does the presence of a mentor help motivate the student to practice regularly, but it can also increase the efficiency of the learning process. Someone teaching you is going to know the both the good and bad habits of guitar playing and can easily point you in the right direction during times of struggle.
As someone who picked up guitar a couple summers ago after years of consideration, my beliefs are on par with Vallis’. After hearing that so many of the greats learned themselves, I wanted to see if I was up for the task. Like Vallis, I understood that taking lessons takes much of the self-drive out of guitar, especially if you’re practicing out of a desire to impress a teacher instead of personal satisfaction.
One of my idols on guitar is Mark Knopfler, founder and lead guitarist of Dire Straits. Knopfler is not only self-taught but known for his unique playing style which he claims would infuriate the guitar teaching community. His biggest song, 1978’s Sultans of Swing is my favorite guitar piece of all time, and I feel like it would be nothing special without Mark’s touch. His love of fingerpicking results in beautiful guitar licks following each lyric, as well as solos unlike any other. Had he taken lessons as a young man, this song surely wouldn’t be the same, if written at all.
Kerr Hall, home to Northeastern University’s musical community, houses many established musicians. One of these, Lena Hildrich, leans on the side of taking lessons. Having picked up guitar during her teenage years as a hobby to complement singing, she wishes she’d had more guidance in the learning process. Hildrich highlights a lack of musical knowledge as her biggest impediment to greatness. She believes that had she taken lessons, her knowledge of these advanced topics would have made it easier to learn individual songs.
Although I see the points she makes, I’m still in support of teaching yourself. Although knowing how to play scales and write chord progressions are integral in composing your own pieces, I don’t believe they’re essential to simply being able to play. Even still, so many famous songs are written without the use of these, as many songwriters never learned themselves.
With foundations of being able to play the guitar being so easily accessible, it’s easy to see why so many people go about teaching themselves. Learning just a few chords is extremely gratifying to someone starting out, and it helps bring about motivation to delve deeper. When I learned the easy ones, I felt like I fit right in with other guitar players. I was able to look up my favorite songs and quickly found that many of them were compatible with my bare-bones knowledge.
This isn’t to say I don’t care for the intricacies; I just believe in finding them yourself. If you truly have the desire to do something, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding the drive within. When someone else is telling what to do, as well as when and how to do it, it becomes less novel and more routine. Given that guitar styles vary so greatly, you can mold your skills however you’d like, without ever having to worry about going against a teacher’s wishes.
Coming of age in this world comes as we search for our identity, and during these times many habits both good and bad are formed. We seek new skills and tastes and shed many relics of our childhood. If learning to play the guitar finds itself in someone’s development, it is likely to be combined with countless other novelties. I feel like taking lessons takes from the experience of forming yourself, as it changes the source of the motivation from your growth to getting the most for your money, and even your time. These are both in severely short supply at a young age, and adding stresses associated with a passion like guitar has the capacity to easily spoil the passion.
No one knows whether or not you should take guitar lessons but yourself. If you know that you struggle to motivate yourself to learn without considerable aid, lessons might be the best choice. If you want to learn the ins and outs of the instrument over being able to strum your favorite tunes, a teacher might be able to supply these in a more streamlined fashion. If none of these apply and you just want to uncover more of yourself, you should conduct the research on your own allotted time and being your six-stringed journey.