Paul Swanson Guitar Tuition
Professional guitar tuition for all levels in Leamington Spa and Warwick
Is *Your*
Technique?
Novice or Guitar God?
Instant Grading
Fast TrackMethod for Beginners
Learned to Play
in 6 Weeks
In One Easy
Interactive Lesson
Guitar Theory
Beginner to Advanced
Fast Progress
Guaranteed!
I Just Want
to Play Music
Interested in
Technique
Demystifying
the Guitar Neck
Desktop Fretboard
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Progress
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For Guitar Pro/
Tuxguitar
Tablatures
This isWhat it’s
All About
Performances
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4) An Advanced Player?
From my experience in ten years as a guitar tutor, very few guitarists who consider themselves advanced players feel the need or desire to look for professional guidance.
For many (in fact most), this is a big mistake that condemns them to remaining at the same level for the rest of their lives. I see many guitar players (keen amateur and professional) who’ve played for years in bands successfully after reaching a certain level, but have never been able to improve past that level, despite huge amounts of time invested into their search for improvement.
What they are missing is the information that endless books, videos and internet tabs do not contain, namely how to get your fingers to do the things they won’t. I consider this, after a solid 6 years of intense and successful investigation into my own failings, my speciality. Examining hundreds of students’ problems from 1,000 different angles and finding out what works and what doesn’t, then applying the effective methods to my own playing has given great insight into the barriers we all face.
To make progress we need 2 things.
1) Understanding of what is required to improve.
2) The dedication to do it.
No teacher can give you dedication. Any teacher can tell you to practice lots .. “Keep doing it and you’ll get it” (We all know this is not the case). A *good* teacher will show you *exactly* what you need to do to move forward in the direction you desire. Then it’s up to you, but you’ll find it’s a lot easier to find that dedication when you have new understanding of what improvement is and how to get (and measure) it!. A good teacher will ensure you gain this understanding as soon as possible.
Most advanced players have taken lessons at some point in their past, and no doubt benefited to some level from doing so. However at some point they must have decided that lessons were of no further use to them. Now maybe that was true at the time, and they were making reasonable progress on their own, but twenty years down the line when they haven’t improved in the last fifteen, is that still the case?
There are definitely psychological barriers in having to effectively ask for help with a subject you are supposedly familiar with, and all sorts of excuses can be found to avoid dealing with these.
The truth is, lessons do not have to be particularly expensive or time consuming. An advanced student who takes a 50 minute lesson a month with me will spend £270 for a year’s tuition, and under 20 hours of his own time in taking them.
In return I will provide expert guidance along a systematic path to improvement, with clearly defined targets, and insight (from many different angles) into how to achieve those targets. The student will learn how to approach problems that he is currently unable to solve. No advanced student should need spoonfeeding, what is normally lacking is understanding of where he is currently at, and the way forward.
Many guitar players spend a lot more time and money than this, in looking for and buying guitars and accessories in the vain hope that new equipment will make them sound better.
(this is known as G.A.S. -
A better investment of time and money is usually looking to
improve the player rather than the equipment.
Finally, one hidden factor is how much time lessons will actually save you. If you practice an hour a day on average but are not improving, you are wasting 350 hours a year.
That’s a lot of time down the drain!
Learning the guitar is all about taking what seems impossible, getting it to a stage where it feels achievable, and steadily working toward making it feel easy. Anyone can do this, to any level they want, with a combination of desire, commitment, patience and naturally, good instruction.
Fast Progress
Guaranteed!
“Oh I don’t have time for lessons”
“Lessons are expensive”
“I’m happy at the level I’m currently at” (and have been for 20 years)
etc. etc.