I’ve been taking 2 summer classes in addition to my normal lessons.
The first is about recording and recording equipment. I bought a small personal stand alone recorder about 6 months ago so that I could hear my playing and determine if progress is being made. The reason for it is that I don’t think you can accurately hear from your playing position.
The first few classes have were a little slow but the last few have been fun because we had a chance to actually record and play with equipment including mic’s and recorders. It’s been a pretty useful class.
The second class was called Zen and the Art of Guitar. It’s covering a bunch of things though some of these things are not all that interesting to me at this point. The important points that I’m getting out of the class are little bits on theory as it applies to guitar, some practice components and regimes and insight on a possible new teacher. The class has a lot of hands on and is covering soloing, improvisation, working with backing tracks and soon other stuff like open tunings and more.
This class started aggressively out of the gate so I’ve gotten a lot of value out of every class. In fact, to be truthful, the teacher, Mick, is a bit intimidating.
Based on all of that though, I have decided that after a year and half, it’s time to change teachers. Edward has been great for the start of my guitar learning. He’s got a nice soft style with lots of patience about him which was exactly what I needed and wanted at the beginning. Now what I need is someone willing to push me harder. Mick, with his more forceful style, will probably provide that so I’m hopeful that I’ll make some different and perhaps more progress over the next year.
Should be fun.