WHAT DO YOU WANT?
There's a bit in Alice in Wonderland where Alice is chasing down a country lane and comes to a crossroads. Instead of doing a deal with the devil or writing a song about it, she sits down under a tree and starts crying. A Cheshire cat sitting in the tree asks her what's wrong. She say's she doesn't know which road to take! The cat asks 'where are you trying to get to?' and Alice replies 'I don't know'. The cat then gave her a very deep philosophical bit of advice 'If you don't know where you are trying to get to, take any road'.

If you don't know what you want, it really doesn't matter what you do because 'you ain't going nowhere' anyway (was Dylan influenced by Alice, or Alice by Dylan?).

Write your objectives down on paper and put a deadline on when you are going to do it by.

HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE THERE?
When you define what you want (your objective), make sure the way you define it is black and white. So you will know exactly when you have done it.

Examples of black and white are: To practice for 30min every night this month. To know all the chord changes to a specific song. To smoothly do a II V I change from any chord. To play the melody to a song with one finger on the keyboard. Compare this to these loose objectives that are not black and white: To learn the drums. To get really good at the guitar. To know lots of songs.

It is really easy to lose heart when you set yourself loose objectives like 'learn to play bass'. But if you set clear objectives you can see your progress. It makes it all so much easier and more fun.

DEFINE YOUR PLAN
Now you know 'what you want' and know 'what it will be like when you get there', you are ready to define a plan for how you will get there.

You are likely to find a music teacher, or two, or three, become very good value for money at this point. Because you know exactly where you are trying to get to you have a yardstick to measure the potential value you can get from a given teacher. 

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.

Teachers come in all shapes and sizes with different experience, interests, and abilities. The value you get from your music teacher will depend on three main things: 1. How clearly you have defined what value means to you (we just talked about your objectives), 2. How much effort you put in (you do the learning and the practice, the music teacher shows you how and what), and 3. Choosing a music teacher that is suited to what you want to achieve.

Do you remember the silly joke about a person who asks an Irish Policeman how to get to the local post office? After getting extremely frustrated in many attempts to explain the route, he gives up and says 'actually, if you want to get to the post office, it is much easier if you don't start from here!'

As well as knowing what you want to achieve you need to be honest with yourself about where you are now. What are you good at? What are you bad at? Then work out what you are going to get from where you are now to where you want to be. Break it into small steps. Work out how much time and effort you will have to put in to get there? Is it worth it? What will it feel like when you get there? Are you willing to put that amount of effort in for that feeling?