I’m switching guitar instructors. It is not in my nature to blame shortcomings of mine on my instructors, but there is an extent to which I’m certain this isn’t my fault.
I’ve been taking from this guy for about six months now and still the only thing I can play is what I taught myself prior to beginning lessons with him. We’re talking ten chords, tops, with some sort of half-done strumming pattern.
We’re not learning chords, scales, or patterns of any type.
Mostly I go in and say “Well… I’ve been trying to play this song, but I don’t know how to make those chords there… so I have go acapella for a bit… and it seems like something I should learn to do. You know?”
He tends to look at me when I do that. He peers out at me through his greasy curls while he taps his pencil on my stand and says “hm”.
This ‘hm’ is not a pensive sound. It is not the sound of someone who is trying to decide the best way to teach me bar chords. It is not the ‘hm’ of a guy who is trying to figure out the nicest way to say I’m not ready to learn those things.
It is somewhere between “How dare you” and “I wish I was listening to her just now so that I could respond at all.”
I don’t know if either of those are true feelings that he has, but it’s all I can figure.
SO I’m choosing to look for a new teacher.
Take that.