First Uke lesson today- from guitar instructor

No uke teachers in my berg, so I decided to call a local guitar teacher and see what he can do to help me move to next step in my learning..

Here's my situation:
1. played for a year
2. played guitar as a teen 40+ years ago so a lot of muscle memory cam back (barre chords no issue..move around the fretboard pretty good)
3. I don't sing, but am ok at fingerpicking, solo
4. Haven't had chance to play with others, so I have no sense of 'rhythm' in strumming. Haven't used metronome much
5. When I practice, I've found myself just noodling around..no structure.

What I want from this teacher is to get a practice structure/routine and to learn some music theory..

any advice as to what questions to ask? direction to go? or should I just let him evaluate me and see what he says..

thanks.. Bob

Any chance this is with Frank at Exum Guitar? (I remember seeing you were local to Waco in one of your posts when I searched just recently). Frank taught my wife ukelele for a bit (though we are on hiatus now due to some things at home). I think Frank is really ideal for the things you say you are interested in most. I took guitar lessons under him and thought the practice routine he developed for me was exceptional.

No matter who your teacher is, if they are not very familiar with teaching Uke, you may need some patience as they try to wrap their heads around the different notes. The GCEA is so close to guitar that I often find it very confusing (And I had three years of music theory in college). Chords are not a big problem, but pointing to a specific note I just can't help getting wammied by 15 years of ingrained nut and body as reference points for the open string and octave being DGBE.

I'd do my best to communicate what you want, rather than relying only on their evaluation. I tried that with my first instructor way back, and they were constantly teaching under my current level and knowledge. But it can be hit or miss. A very skilled instructor should be able to evaluate you fine, but even then, they can't guess specifically what we are interested in most.

Sure hope you enjoy your lessons!

oh_wrd said:

Any chance this is with Frank at Exum Guitar?

Sure hope you enjoy your lessons!

Click to expand...

wow.. you guessed that right.. it is Frank in Waco.. just got back from initial meeting. He went over what/how he teaches. I think he will be good to work with and I think you're spot in that I need to be clear with what I want to accomplish in order for him to help me reach my goals.. which means I now how to actually think about my goals

Or you invest in webcam, mic and speakers and take lessons over skype