I got my first guitar in about 95 and have been totally self taught. I stagnated massively for around 15 years in the middle when I infrequently played then got frustrated all I could do was some Nirvana power chords.
Started playing again around 5 years ago and had my guitar professionally setup - what a world of difference that made! I’ve made decent progress since but it’s still all just the odd riff or solo here and there and there’s a lot I can do a lot better. Using YouTube videos is only getting me so far and some 1 on 1 I hope will do the trick.
My wife started taking piano lessons and it inspired me to do the same for guitar. I’m sure it will be helpful even if they’re going to rip my technique up and start again.
Have you had lessons or are you self taught? What helped the most for your playing?
I just had my first lesson with a guitar teacher and I can already tell it’s going to be a massive help to me. Within the first five minutes he helped me understand that my picking technique was not quite right and helped me see that I was placing my thumb wrong on the back of my neck. I’ve spent the last seven days trying to focus on just fixing those things and I’ve already noticed an improvement.
My biggest struggle now is slowing down the songs I’m trying to learn into small chunks and learning to play those perfectly. Like, I know in my head what the song is supposed to sound like and I am having a hard time stopping my brain from telling my fingers and my hand to pick/strum it at the speed my ears hear it at…it feels so slow to learn it with a metronome and it is really discouraging me.