MY FIRST MUSIC TEACHER
When I was seven my parents sent me to Saturday morning violin lessons at the local primary school. The 'music teacher' used well-proven methods to teach me what he considered the two most important things for me to learn. Firstly, he was a virtuoso violinist of greater status than any other musician living or dead. Secondly, I was 'tone deaf' and had no future in music. Being an extremely fast learner, it only took a couple of weeks for me to have my Saturday mornings back to myself and him to have the term's tuition fees, which were paid in advance, for two hours work.

A few years later I got my first guitar, learned C and G7, then figured I could make them fit everything! Although I had a number of teachers and 'practised' quite a bit I never really got to a level I could play with other people (more they didn't want to play with me). I learned lots of chord patterns but couldn't tune the thing properly myself and never really listened to the noise I was making!

A friend told me to get an electronic tuner. They are really essential for 'tone deaf' musicians! I got one. Still no offers of full time band work coming in my direction!

By accident I met a music teacher who did something which really took me by surprise! He asked me what I wanted. I gave him a look I saw a French baker use on an English tourist who went into his bakery and asked 'Avey vous du pain?' ('Have you got any bread?').

  Well I pointed out the sign above his door which said 'Guitar Tuition' and told him I wanted some.

In the next thirty minutes he taught me more than any other teacher I had met.

TEACHER / TUTOR INDEX
If you've ever wondered about getting some lessons, but are not sure where to go, or what you want to get out of it, this section will help you.

Who Says This is Better Than That?
Is there any such thing as bad music?
My First Teacher
If at first you don't succeed, try a different angle.
Get What You Want
In order to get what you want, you first have to know exactly what you want, and what you'll have when you get it.
Take Action
None of your plans are going to work out if you don't make it happen.
Persist and Practise!
Perfect practise makes perfect.
"Learning Music"
Learning about music is a never-ending process, better get started!
Music Tutor Contact Details
This page contains a list of music teachers you can contact.

See a list of Musical Tutors.

He started by making me write down specifically what I want to achieve with my guitar over the next three to six months and how I would know when I had achieved it! Radical idea! Once I had done this he worked with me to come up with a plan to get there. It included a list of things for me to learn, what we would cover in each lesson, the practice I had to do, and some books to study to understand the theory!

During the course of the next few months he taught me something else that totally changed my music forever. There is no such thing as 'tone deaf'! There are just people who have 'learned to recognise different subtlety in sounds' and people who have 'not learned yet'. He gave me a really simple method to educate my ears. Play scales on an instrument that is in perfect tune and listen! Not exactly rocket science, just hours of practice.