Who plays guitar?

[phylodog]

I tinkered around with guitar when I was in high school and just a little when I was in the Army but hadn’t picked one up in 25 years until a few weeks ago. My current job has me spending a lot of time away from home and much of it is down time sitting in hotels. A few weeks ago I decided that I should do something more productive than watching YouTube videos and surfing gun forums so I picked up a Traveler guitar. I never took any lessons and the few songs I could play back then were self taught. I’ve been watching YouTube videos and trying to learn different chords and practice exercises which I feel is a better approach than what I did before but I would like to take some lessons and really try to work at things the right way (I’m sure I have some bad habits already).

Does anyone know any teachers in the Hamilton County area they would recommend? With my schedule, keeping lessons on a regular basis will be near impossible so I’m hoping for someone with some flexibility in their approach as well as the possibility of conducting some lessons via video conference. My interests are country and classic rock and possibly some classical down the road. I’m in the process of deciding whether I want to buy an electric or acoustic guitar right now but I plan to have both. I’m leaning toward an acoustic to start.

Any recommendations?

 

[KokomoDave]

Too bad you are looking in Ham County. Kokomo has Rhum Academy that is outstanding. Maybe some of the guitar shops have recommended instructors?

 

[femurphy77]

2nd on the local guitar shops! I looked into learning a few years ago and found at the time that even Duke Tomato was giving some lessons.

 

[Ingomike]

You may want to look into Carmel Music Academy. The founder Jon E. Gee is a bass player in Mellencamp's band and is very active, along with his wife in the academy. He also was with Roadmaster, Henry Lee Summers, and Ted Nugent. The company was recently featured in an article that asked about his teaching philosophy and it seemed well thought out, not based on learning to read music first, rather allowing the student to find the love in the music by playing first before going into technical aspects. They have students from children to 85 years old.

Give them a try...

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I took lessons when I was probably around 12 years old, but I got tired of being taught "Little Brown Jug" and "Beautiful Dreamer" so I didn't stick with it. When I picked it up again, I bought a Neil Young "Decade" songbook that had the chord diagrams. Neil used a lot of the basic chords (C, D, G, A, F, etc.) and it was music I liked. Lots of stuff on the internet that have the chord diagrams included too now. I used to play trumpet in high school, so at one time, I knew how to read music, but it never transferred over to guitar.

Once I learned the basic chords, I could often figure out a lot of songs by recognizing certain chord progressions and just "guessing" at them. I'd hear something and think, "Hey, that kinda reminds me of such and such", and go from there.

 

[phylodog]

You may want to look into Carmel Music Academy. The founder Jon E. Gee is a bass player in Mellencamp's band and is very active, along with his wife in the academy. He also was with Roadmaster, Henry Lee Summers, and Ted Nugent. The company was recently featured in an article that asked about his teaching philosophy and it seemed well thought out, not based on learning to read music first, rather allowing the student to find the love in the music by playing first before going into technical aspects. They have students from children to 85 years old.

Give them a try...

I’ll stop in there for starters then. I know Mellencamp’s guitar player but didn’t know the connection with Carmel Music Academy.

 

[littletommy]

I’ve played for 40+ years now, and several months back, I really got the itch to learn some bluegrass. Damn, those bluegrass flat pickers are crazy good, and I felt like I had no playing experience at all watching them tear through a song. I’m starting lessons this coming month, my years of playing rock and punk were not any help when it came to bluegrass playing, and lessons from a person sitting in front of you are the best way to go. You’ll most likely be frustrated numerous times, but you’ll also have that “ah ha” moment that will make it all worth while. Good luck with it, and keep us posted.

 

[Ingomike]

I’ll stop in there for starters then. I know Mellencamp’s guitar player but didn’t know the connection with Carmel Music Academy.

Good luck, let me know if it works for you and you try them...

 

[Hookeye]

Ultimate Guitar used to be THE tab place.
Dunno anymore.
Guys that submitted tabs with ****** edu were bad ass.
Had every little detail for all of Maiden's stuff.

I had half of Maiden's "Live After Death" memorized (bass).
Spent many a night w DVD, print outs and vodka.

Damn good times.
Miss it.

If I get everybody to move out of my house, I'll get back to it.