We often say at Brian Baker Guitar Studio that the best time to start learning guitar was a year ago and the second-best time to start is today! Now that we have a new year upon us, many like to start making resolutions and aiming to make big changes in their lives. Starting to play guitar isn’t a major lifestyle change but it comes with many benefits that add to anyone’s general wellness. Playing music has been proven to make your brain work in unique ways and the feeling of making quantifiable progress, such as when mastering a difficult song to play – can be highly gratifying and motivating! So why start taking guitar lessons in the new year (or ever) instead of just learning on your own? Find out in this 7-part list we wrote to show you why you need guitar lessons!
1. Tailored Approach – At Brian Baker Guitar Studio, each student has their lessons prepared separately from every other student to ensure every student we teach is getting a musical education that is made to fit their unique needs as a musician. If our students know what they’d like to learn, then we focus on that! If our students are unsure of what they’d like to learn, we get them started on the right foot and make sure they’re learning the skills needed to really improve their musicianship.
2. Be Guided in The Right Direction – Our teachers are all local musicians and we all started from the place of not being able to play our instruments like any beginner! Through trial, error and many years of practice, we learned the things we needed to in order to continue growing as musicians. We take all our musical experience and build our lessons upon that, ensuring that each student will be guided in the direction that will help them grow and bloom as a musician. Don’t spend years and years going in circles before finding the right direction to go musically, have one of our instructors share what they have learned and with practice, you will be making progress in leaps and bounds!
3. Form Good Habits – Guitar lessons form good habits in many ways! The most direct way good habits are formed from lessons are on the neck of the guitar itself. There are many ways to play guitar wrong – believe it or not, and some of these ‘wrong ways’ can lead to hand, wrist or forearm problems for the rest of your life. Make sure you are taking proper care of your hands while playing guitar as your playing is observed by someone who can immediately tell you if it looks right or wrong. Simply going to guitar lessons each week is habit forming in itself, it will make you commit more to your musical education as a whole. The habit of always picking your guitar up to practice is a fantastic habit to build.
4. Get Experience Playing with Other Musicians – Guitar lessons are not just all work and no play. One of the greatest benefits of getting guitar lessons is being able to play guitar with your teacher! This helps you in every facet of being a musician; timing, ear-training, confidence, tone, coordination, music theory and much more are all practiced at once when you play your instrument with another musician. Playing with other musicians can lead to big growth in your playing, not only because you have to learn to expect what the other person is going to do, but also because other musicians often have lots of new tricks to show and teach you.
5. Learn New Music – There is so much music in the world that not any one person is going to know all of it. Playing with and learning from other musicians can open up your music taste a lot! Hearing music played right in front of you instead of on a recording can be truly eye opening and a much rawer listening experience - it can pique your interest in ways it has not been before! Be open to new music!! You ALWAYS will find more music to love.
6. Gain A Support System – Lots of people pick up an instrument in their lives but many of those people won’t keep picking it up due to a lack of accountability - the accountability that taking guitar lessons can offer. When you have a guitar lesson each week with a guitar teacher who is eager to see you learn, it makes you want to show that you are progressing and learning the songs and techniques you are being taught. Without someone to guide you or watch your progress, it can be a much more difficult challenge to always keep picking that instrument up. At Brian Baker Guitar Studio, we have many ways we support the growth of our students. We have our Facebook group where students are welcome to post their music and guitar playing and have it watched by other members of the Brian Baker Guitar Studio Community, including their instructors. We also offer performance opportunities through-out the year to help our students get used to performing and have some fun doing so! (COVID Pending) When you have a guitar teacher, you always have someone to ask any music related question to which can make learning a lot easier!
7. Get an Outsiders View on Your Playing – This last one ties together most of our reasons to take guitar lessons. Having someone watch you play your instrument who has had a lot of experience and has heard a lot of guitarists play can help you in large amounts. Your teacher will be able to assess your strengths and weaknesses and make a true effort to help make your guitar playing shine. By watching you play, your teacher will be able to see the natural direction you are headed in and be able to offer teachings that will compliment your playing and improve it immediately.
Guitar lessons are an invaluable resource to guitar players. If you want to start playing, or you want to start moving your guitar playing in a new direction – we recommend you try a couple months of lessons with us and see what guitar lessons can offer you!
