I’ve been taking guitar lessons for a couple of months now. I’ve had five lessons, once every two weeks. I went into the lessons knowing “cowboy” chords and barre chords, how to do some basic fingerpicking, and how to play a number of old folk standards. I had played guitar with friends 30 or so years ago – John Denver, Bob Dylan, stuff like that. I never learned music theory.
I love to sing, but don’t sing very well, so I decided I wanted to learn to play more “instrumentally”. I found a teacher locally, whose style I like and who has experience teaching. FYI, here’s a couple of YouTube videos of him:
Maybe I like this one because the Grateful Dead did a cover of this old song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuW_5L-AVPs&feature=PlayList&p=BC5AD3F473CBCC8D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13
This kind of instrumental might be good for me since I
can’t sing. Of course I can’t play, either….. 
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE-wkACzhGM&feature=PlayList&p=BC5AD3F473CBCC8D&index=14&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
Anyway, he started me off learning the A minor pentatonic scale at the first (open) position and the second (3rd to 5th fret) position. He had me practice some licks in that area. He moved up the neck, and now I’ve been playing the A minor pentatonic scale up and down the whole neck (adding in a flatted fifth). He had me record some shuffles and play lead using those scales. He then fine-tuned my lead playing with trills, hammer-on/offs, slides, etc. Yesterday’s lesson added learning the E minor pentatonic scale up and down the neck (basically moving the A forms), and added (this is from memory, I don’t have my notebook with me) in the first three frets a 6th, 2nd, and what he called the “white man’s note” but I can’t remember right now which one that is). He wants me to continue jamming with a shuffle and also suggested playing the E scales to New Speedway Boogie (he knows I like the Grateful Dead).
So, I feel I’m making progress; I certainly know more than when I started. What do you think of his “curriculum”? He eventually wants me to learn all the “caged” keys up and down the neck and learn some chord forms around the neck at which point he says that I should be able to sit in and play with groups. Do you think I’m missing anything important at this stage? Do you think there’s another direction I should also be looking at? I know that every teacher’s approach is different, and although I’m happy with my progress, and happy with my teacher, he's the only teacher I've had, and I wonder what other people are teaching/learning?
DAB
