Learning Music is a Lifetime

Commitment

So you just bought a new instrument and want to learn how to play it. Maybe you have been playing an instrument for years but have reached a point where you do not feel like you're progressing or you have become stagnant in your playing abilities.

For both the beginner and the more experienced players, continual music education is an essential ingredient towards progressing with your instrument.  It may seem impossible to find the right instructor for a mandolin and banjo, yet maybe less so for the guitar student. The guitar player will find a number of competent players in the area who could guide them in learning how to play.  The choices for the mandolin and banjo player (depending on the area you live in) are few and far between. When I started playing banjo in the Detroit area in 1969, I had a very difficult time finding anyone who knew how to play the banjo, let alone, someone competent enough to teach me how to play it.

Today, opportunities are so much greater thanks to the internet and wide selection of DVDs, books and other instructional materials. However, nothing beats the hands on personal instructor for a competent instructor.  Even the master blues guitarist BB King King stated in a 1991 interview that the advice he would provide to the younger student would be to find a good instructor, stick with him, and learn as much as you can. Says BB, "The sky is the limit and more you put into your instrument, the more you will get out of it".1

When I say that learning music is a lifetime commitment, I am quite serious. When I first teach a class in the local community adult education program, the class is filled with an enthusiastic group of students anxious to learn how to play a guitar. Some, although they are in the minority, think they can learn an instrument in a short period of time. Others are more realistic regarding the time it will take to learn but they fail to practice the designated amount of time requested by the instructor. A competent and qualified instructor will take a genuine interest in their students. They will not only want you to succeed, they will push your towards becoming a successful musician.

Keep in mind that everyone is a beginner at one time or another. Your instructor, unless they were blessed with a God-given natural talent, only found in  a small percentage of musicians, had to learn from someone as well. If you teacher is smart, they also recognize that they must continue to develop their own continuing educational program. Yet it doesn't surprise me when I hear from an inexperienced aspiring musician that they personally believe that they have perfected a song or know a little bit more than their instructor. When I was younger, I remember a guitar player who offered to teach me theory and pentatonic scales.  After one or two lessons, I moved on thinking to myself that "he didn't teach me how to play a song correctly and only taught me scales".Years later, as I was playing my guitar in college, I realized just how naive I was about learning the instrument. It was the instructor, not I, who knew what he was talking about.

One Final Thought......

FretMentor will continue to establish interactive musical goals that will assist each student in playing and performing the instrument of your choice (whether it be guitar, banjo or mandolin).Take a tour of the "Classroom" to learn some theoretical concepts which will help you apply your technique across the instrument's fingerboard. In a different manner, you can enter the "Performance Stage" or the "Forum" to join in the discussions or learn how to play along with other musicians.

Most importantly, enjoy your stay here, have fun picking and come back at your convenience to learn more as it is posted.