Áine,

I did as you suggested, and when I entered my address, I was told that my file had been updated, then I was told that my info wasn't found--I tried to reregister, and was told that I was already registered, when I tried to use it, it wasn't there--any other suggestions?

Lamarca,

The big problem is that every guitar teacher has to make their own decisions about what a student needs to learn, and then develop their own excercises, drills, and methodology for teaching--(except for classical guitar, which is a whole other thing)--a few people do a good job at this, and they are mostly really good players who feel a need to pass on what they know (as opposed to mediocre players who have a need for money)--but most teachers haven't been properly prepared to do this sort of work, and fall very short--

Then there is the politics of music thing--which is to say, the deal where the teacher/player has the view that no matter what type music anyone wants to learn how to play, the only stuff that is important is what the teacher wants to play--

My friend Bob, who plays everything from blue grass to classical, has pointed out that on piano, it doesn't matter what kind of music you play, the piano always works pretty much the same way, but with guitar, there are a whole bunch of different ways to play that have nothing much to do with each other-

Ask a Travis-Picker to show you some Reggae, or a Blue Grass flat-picker how to play a Jimi Hendrix lick, or a speed metal player to show you some Jobim-- and see what kind of response you get!! The techniques don't have much to do with each other, and the people generally don't have much to do with each other either!!!!

Each genre has its own bag of tricks, its own feel, and it's own body of material--your teacher has to know the genre in order to teach it to you--or they have to be crazy enough to want to figure it out!!

As to figuring it out yourself--well, a lot of people do, but it takes a long time, because it takes not only a good ear, but a good knowledge of the instrument, because it isn't enough to just be able to hear something, you've still got to figure out how to get the instrument to make the sound--

The best thing is to be someplace that you can hear and see people playing the kind of music that you like--and then get someone to show you some stuff--