What/Who has helped you learning most!!

I had a teach for a couple of months in the '80s, an old guy who played professionally at a famous local restaurant frequented by the mobsters. He had me learning from Mel Bay books and I couldn't take it anymore, Glow Worm was not what I wanted. He had just started showing me stuff not in the book, what he called 'the boogie woogie scale' which was the blues scale, and some triads. I should have stuck with him but I fired him. From that point on I went self taught. I'll tell you the rest of the story in the words of Mitch Hedberg.

"I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision... because I didn't know how to play it, so I was a shitty teacher. I would never have went to me."
- Mitch Hedberg and Slowhands
 
I looked online throughout the years for a teacher. This winter with covid, I stumbled upon Michael Palmisano doing a DD on Althea. I had just started getting into the Dead and thought, wow how perfect. After watching his video, he mentioned his online course, Guitargate and I thought what the heck. I took a chance and signed up for his monthly program and immediately loved it! I cannot say enough good things about him and his courses!
Some background on myself. I have been playing guitar off and on for probably 5 years. I am a bedroom/hobby player. I know almost nothing about theory or anything like that. But after taking his lessons it has really improved my knowledge of music which has led me to more theory which has really opened up guitar for me. I cannot recommend him enough. For anyone more advanced he has some good classes on the Dead and some blues.
Im a long time lurker in this forum, have never posted, but if anyone reading this is thinking about a class or looking for somewhere to learn, I highly recommend him.
 
Easiest to go with what @11top said, and say other band mates.

But the biggest one was prolly this dude Aaron Holstein who now does this project called Vibesquad. He’s an Ableton Live instructor now I guess too, but when I met him it was because I joined his acid jazz band in the 90’s.

He came up in “the jam band” scene of colorasta, went to school with the dudes from Phish and got me into jamming with the incredible string cheese incident band (all of which I f@cking despised at the time... and still kinda do) but, he made me work on stage!

F@cking hours each night on tour for a few years, barely hanging in there in front of a live audience, and having to learn to improvise at a pretty high level. Forever grateful to that brilliant man.

Take his course, buy his sh!t. He’s the real deal.
 
A friend of mine, Tommy Harkenrider has been both a great inspiration and teacher. While we haven’t gotten together in over a year due to Covid I rarely play anything now without consciously feeling his influence. He’s a well schooled in the early blues and jazz that featured guys like Bill Jennings, Tiny Grimes, etc.

Here with Nico Duportal in the foreground:

Here with Albert Lee & Brent Harding:

and with Kid Ramos, another long time friend
 
Chuck Murphy from the south side of Chicago. Still trying to apply what he taught me. Really great cat!

He's running a nonprofit music School named, The Music School!
 
Will echo @vchizzle's comment regard bandmates.

Practical application of knowledge and experience are IMHO the best teachers. Using your eyes and ears are the most useful ways of learning, not so much by using your voice, unless you are also a singer.

Singing/playing together is a hardship for me. My fingers won't do what they're supposed to when I sing.

This may be the reason why I was at best a rhythm and occasional solo guitarist, but better MC while engaging the audience in interactive conversation...
 
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After 30 years it’s impossible to pick one particular thing, but in the last 12 months (being locked down) I’ve found inspiration from watching and jamming along to jam tracks on YouTube, particularly the ones with a chart of the notes of whatever the suggested mode is.

By doing this it has introduced so much more variety into what I play.
 
After 30 years it’s impossible to pick one particular thing, but in the last 12 months (being locked down) I’ve found inspiration from watching and jamming along to jam tracks on YouTube, particularly the ones with a chart of the notes of whatever the suggested mode is.

By doing this it has introduced so much more variety into what I play.

For anyone who might feel the need to download (for a fee, of course) quality backing tracks you can jam along to but not cut into your data usage, there's:

https://bandcamp.com
https://bobbysbackingtracks.com
https://www.coffeebreakgrooves.com
https://jtcguitar.com

These are IMHO the "best" quality backing track websites you can find. YouTube is great but there's an inordinate amount of wading through videos to locate the best recordings.

Bandcamp, Bobby's Backing tracks, CoffeeBreak Grooves, & Jam Track Central seem to have good ones.

Plz post your favorite backing track websites that you like. Thanks in advance!
 
For anyone who might feel the need to download (for a fee, of course) quality backing tracks you can jam along to but not cut into your data usage, there's:

https://bandcamp.com
https://bobbysbackingtracks.com
https://www.coffeebreakgrooves.com
https://jtcguitar.com

These are IMHO the "best" quality backing track websites you can find. YouTube is great but there's an inordinate amount of wading through videos to locate the best recordings.

Bandcamp, Bobby's Backing tracks, CoffeeBreak Grooves, & Jam Track Central seem to have good ones.

Plz post your favorite backing track websites that you like. Thanks in advance!

The point of my post was to highlight the videos that offer assistance with what to play I.e. the learning part.
 
Learning to play Bach taught me more about music than anything else.

That's the good news. The bad news is that I learned Bach on piano, not guitar.

"Maybe you should stop playing guitar, Les."

"Maybe you should STFU. I like the tone of a guitar."

"But you suck."

"Did that stop the Germans from bombing Pearl Harbor?" :mad:
 
A few years back PRS teamed up with Michael Palmisano(sp?) and offered free lessons on his Guitargate site. I found them helpful.
His stuff is no longer free but I really enjoy the videos he puts out. Seems like a very good guy too.
 
Playing along with drum boxes and backing tracks.

And I played rhythm guitar. Chords. Getting the chord changes down as the song progressed, which also really helps you unlock song structures. Anticipating the next section ("Uh, oh, here comes that funny odd bridge sequence").

Not soloing. Not lead lines. Rhythm. Chords. Playing in time and developing some endurance.

Then you can start doing lead work. But first, rhythm.

=K
 
I consider myself an ‘advanced beginner’. During lockdown I bumped into ActiveMelody, the guitar teaching website of Brian Sherill. He’s mostly focussed on blues and country but hey, he got me playing all over the neck in no time.
What’s more he’s an outstanding teacher (l can tell, because I am one myself), and you could learn a lot from the free part of his website videos.
 
Myself. I concluded that the first and most important who taught me to play is myself. And this applies not only to playing the guitar but also to life; for example, I had to switch careers; I've started to write my assignment for university and college https://writix.co.uk/write-my-assignment and had to learn all by myself. Yeah, of course, I googled stuff and got the information, but I have to admit that the most important thing is to decide to teach yourself first and then use someone's experience.

Any thoughts about it?
 
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