Guitar Lessons Derby

You will of course need your own guitar, and if you prefer, can talk over which guitar might be suitable for you in your first lesson.

For both Acoustic & Electric Guitar, you can't go far wrong with the brand 'Fender' for your first Guitar & look to pay under £100. There are lots of other Guitar Brands within this price range but The Fenders always seem to play and sound much better.

Which kind of Guitar you buy (Acoustic or Electric) depends on what genre of music you like the most. If you like all types of music and are unsure, perhaps an acoustic Guitar might be the way to go?

You don't have to read music to be able to play Guitar, however it's a great skill to have and the basics are surprisingly simple. You will be shown the basics (amongst other things) and this will prove a great aid to your future lessons and other learning. Music Tab is much easier for the Guitar and you will quickly pick this up.

In your first few lessons as well as tackling some simple strumming and melodies, you will be given a very important and solid technical foundation from which to develop. A good teacher is imperative - if you wish progress well, developing poor habits from the start can hinder future development.

Everyone wants to learn as quickly as they can but we all progress at different speeds, we all find different aspects of learning the guitar different from another person. We all have different musical tastes, and different musical Goals. You're with the right teacher when you are striving towards your own goals, enjoying it, and learning new things that you hadn't realised you'd like.

Practice is everything, 'what you do' in your practice time will determine how good you will become. Aged 7-9 beginners, well... it's often difficult to maintain good concentration levels at this young age, but aiming for 10 min's a day, 3-5 days a week would be good for starters. If / when it gets frustrating... put it down, have a break and try again a little later.

For the maturer student it can be a little easier to practice 30 min's to 1 hour per day. This would be an ideal amount of time to progress well in your early stages of learning. With this amount of practice you could be well on your way to learning your favorite music much quicker than you think. If you can get up to a couple of 'good' hours practice per day, you're really going to progress.

Remember though, enthusiasm comes and goes (for all of us), and sometimes it is not a good idea to practice too much when you are not in the mood...

A professional musician can practice anything from 2 - 10 hours a day. If you reach this stage you've probably decided to take your playing far more seriously and may have even embarked on what is known as a 'woodshedding' phase... (Rather like when your granddad used to disappear into the garden Shed to make things for hours on end... or was that just possibly to escape from Grandma?)

Paul is available for private tuition on two evenings in the week (including Monday) and at the weekend on Saturdays. Lessons are taught from his studio in Ilkeston.