When to take lessons?

I cannot play the guitar-I tried but never had the patience and my fingertips are soft.

Anyway I bought Mimi(Veronica`s 13 year old daughter) a guitar. She(Mimi) wants lessons her mum would find not easy to pay for.

My suggestion was leave it a while,I cannot play but I do know where the basic chords shapes are, know where to find barre chords and can strum a few patterns. I still have a guitar so suggested Vee and Mimi came over one day so I could show her and see if she had `hard pads` on her fingers(no point until the fingers get hardened)

Does that make sense?-get the basics before spending money??

Re: When to take lessons?

Not really, when ours wanted to learn instruments we don't play anything we had to find them lessons or they would not learn anything. One plays guitar, one piano, and one was a good singer. All started with recorders and tried violins - my ears still bleed from that time in their lives

Re: When to take lessons?

Hey ho-not making sense was always something I was good at

Re: When to take lessons?

I think it depends on what music you want to play. If you want to play classical music or jazz, then lessons and a good knowledge of musical theory is probably essential. If you want to play rock/pop/folk/blues - just pick up a guitar and teach yourself. One tip I would offer is to put nylon strings on Mimi's guitar - they are much kinder on the fingertips while they are hardening up.

Re: When to take lessons?

I agree with Mick. There are plenty of teach yourself books around for guitar. Perhaps better to start with one of these and see if she wants to take it further?

Re: When to take lessons?

you do need a lot of pluck to play one of those

Re: When to take lessons?

You can buy reasonable books with DVD's in The Works or The Range, the DVDs are better to follow than a book on it's own. We bought one which had several popular songs from the seventies onwards, including up to date stuff which made them more appealing to learn.