Here are two more interesting emails I have got lately.
I hope you find the emails and my thoughts useful…
Today we are talking about one of the worst things I’ve heard a guitar teacher say and a student who made a big breakthrough…
Email #1
Hi, I am Steve from Colwyn Bay UK. I’ve had a number of guitar teachers over the years. One teacher was always turning up late to my lessons. 30 minutes or even longer past the time allocated for my lessons.
My last tutor had told me I needed to learn barre chords to play any song. which I knew to be incorrect because a lot of 60s songs have open chords. Despite me having tutors for over 20 years they’ve not taught me much and I still can’t play a full song on my acoustic guitar. I’ve not played much this year either. Not due to the lack of wanting to, but because of the lack of progress through my past tutors.
Steve
I’m glad Steve didn’t let these so-called tutors get the better of him.
I mean, there’s one tutor who had a complete lack of respect for his time…
To another tutor actually lying to him.
Steve has had some bad luck with his tutors.
This is why I tell anyone learning guitar…
If you get a real-life tutor, don’t stick with the first one you try.
Try out at least 2 different tutors (ideally 5).
You’ll be shocked at how different guitar teachers are.
Some are awful, some are great.
Some you will click with more than others.
…But no matter where you get your tuition from, be it online or offline…
Ignore silly comments like “you have to be able to learn barre chords to play any song”.
That is ridiculous, silly, and a downright awful thing to say to a student who is paying him to learn.
It’s a lie, and I’m not sure why he would say that.
Probably something to do with the teacher’s ego.
The thing is, barre chords are tough, require patience and time, and can cause injury.
If they’re learnt the wrong way, they can cause a student to quit for good.
I mean, it’s not like the teacher was on commission and getting a bonus from the gods of guitar for every barre chord a student played!
Anyway, rant over.
Just be warned, there are teachers out there like that lurking in the shadows!
Email #2
“Thanks for reaching out for thoughts on the transformation course.
I have found it useful to reinforce good basic techniques. I originally started out with your fingerpicking course, then after a few months started with the Acoustic academy courses. After that found the 7-day course and found that it reinforces and pulls together good technique that is scattered thru the other courses.
In the beginning, I was just happy to be able to hit the right notes and chords, but after the transformation course I find myself paying a lot more attention to technique and am seeing the benefits of refined technique.
Most of all, the element of having fun is probably the most important. Things really started to take off with the “most awesome musicality” lesson in August and then the Carulli chord lesson.
The other thing that helped was an invitation to play with a local guitar group at an area church. (Found out the group has existed since the 1930s and our banjo player is 91!)
I was originally hesitant to join then, had a fear of embarrassing myself, but with your courses I figured I had a lot of the basics and I’m having fun in that setting. And last night I surprised myself by picking out a melody of an old hymn and then adding open chords, Carulli chords and triads, this is fun.”
Thanks
John
There’s some really awesome stuff in this email.
Of course, it’s wonderful to hear how John has enjoyed my courses and how they helped.
Huge credit to John for coming so far.
I like how he sees how the courses work together.
That’s something I’ve done intentionally over the years.
I basically created my framework of lessons and zoned in on different areas for different courses.
You have the 7-Day Transformation course, which is a short but focused course on my methods.
You have my fingerstyle and strumming books (which of course focus on fingerstyle and strumming).
Then there are other courses and at the top is the crème de la crème, which is the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy.
It’s the place where my most dedicated students hang out and make the most progress.
The key thing is, there is new and unique material in each course, but the core values of what I teach are present throughout each course.
Anyway, that’s a little background on the thought process behind creating these courses.
What I love most about the email is that John has now got the confidence to go and play with other musicians.
Doing so can be scary as hell and he deserves a big applause for doing this.
It’s a really cool achievement.
Anyway, if John’s success sounds appealing to you, you might want to check this out below:
There are some new lessons coming on the 1st of December, including an extra special bonus lesson.
Find out more about the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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