Advanced Guitar Teacher Dyce Kimura offers Advanced Guitar Lessons in MIami

Advanced guitar lessons in Miami by Dyce Kimura.  Today I am talking to advanced guitar students. I wanted to do a video blog about some things that I have seen in advanced students, and maybe I can help you. This video is targeting specifically people who are hitting a wall in their playing. Advanced guitar lessons in Miami. If you’ve been playing for at least two years, and you’ve been learning on your own or just with some courses or tutorials, maybe you took some classes here and there but, you are hitting a wall, and you feel stuck, and you’re not getting much better, I want to talk to you.

So you are already practicing. I assume you are probably really smart because you are learning on your own, you are able to teach yourself. You are able to go on YouTube and figure stuff out on your own. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. But you can’t seem to get any better than you are now. You have fundamental problems in the way you are playing. And you are not even sure what the problem is or why. You just know that if you do something a little too complex, you can never solve it. I want to talk about what could possibly be going on in your playing, curriculum and practicing routine that is the problem. I am a full time guitar teacher and I am fortunate to work with a lot of advanced students. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. They come into my office after already been playing for years, sometimes decades. I got a guy right now, and he’s been playing for 50 years by himself and then he finally came to see me. So I have situations like that where I am interacting with people who have been at this for a really long time, and they finally decide to come see me, and they are stuck.

If you are stuck, you have to be willing to take a look at what you are currently doing, and what you are not doing. And at what is working and what is not working. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami.  So a lot of people that I have been meeting who have made it but are self-taught, but advance on their own, the way they got to where they are is they took a lot of online courses, or they did a bunch of YouTube stuff, and it had a lot to do with just copying what they see on the screen. ‘Monkey see, monkey do’. So they learn a chord, the guy taught them a chord, and then they learn a song, because they saw a video that played the song. They read the tabs. But they are having fundamental issues. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. They don’t know how to improvise for instance. They can learn a song note for note, but they cannot improvise. They cannot understand the applications of scales and modes. They are struggling with basic music theory like when does a minor chord work versus a major chord. How to write chord progressions. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. And a lot of times there will be funny little quirks in their playing too, like they don’t use their pinky, they are not fluid with alternate picking though they think they are. They don’t understand the fundamentals of rhythm like eighth notes and back beats and stuff. They didn’t really take the time to learn the pentatonic scale because they seem too easy and they went after much harder scales like, mixolydian or Dorian or Aeolian and then couldn’t even play basic stuff. Sometimes they have issue with gear too. Like they just can’t even make their gear sound good, and they keep buying more stuff to hook into it hoping it will sound good. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I experience all kinds of people who are coming into my office with varying degrees of frustrations when it comes to playing the guitar. I just wanted to address that.

Advanced Guitar Lessons in Miami Advice

This is just such a huge topic but it is exciting for me to work with advanced students and it’s also challenging for me to work with advanced students. Sometimes they have what I would call a ‘holy grail mentality’ or a ‘silver bullet mentality’. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. What it is, is let’s say they are on a level of 100 and their goal is to get to like 315, and they just start doing songs at 350 that are way above their level. But in their heads they say, well if I can get this song figured out then I will actually be at 350. And these people are usually really smart people. They are usually the people who are so smart in life that they’re like, you know what I’ve taken a lot of shortcuts, I always figure out the fastest, and quickest way to get things done, so I can just cut to the chase here. I can just get the tabs, I can get the songs like the guitar pro, I can get the software that is going to teach me and I can just play these complex songs. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. They’ve been feeding themselves a steady diet of 350, and they are actually a 100, and they’re stuck. I keep stressing the fact that they’re stuck because if this is you and you are not stuck, then this really doesn’t pertain to you. This only pertains to those that are stuck.

Imagine if you did that behavior, if you are a 100 and you won against 350 all the time, if you let’s say did that exact same mentality but you did it in a gym, you can lift 100 but you always put on 350, what would happen to you? You would probably need surgery, multiple surgeries. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami.  Imagine if you did that. We’re trying to learn a new language. Let’s say you’re in second grade and you’re trying to get a PhD but you’re really in second grade. So these are usually people that are pretty smart, they figured out the game and they’re just cutting right to the chase, or very patient. I’m not trying to vilify you if this is you because I am using some negative connotations like impatience. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. But there are some frustration there about things not happening quick enough on your timeline. So there’s certain venning, 100 and 105 and 110 and 115, they’re going straight to 350. They get the 350 song, they get the silver bullet. And there is this big lie. This big, delusional lie that says that if you can play that you’ll actually be at that level. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami.

I used to do that, when I was 16. I had a silver bullet mentality. I wanted to play “Little wing” by Stevie Ray Vaughan and I spent the whole summer, I bought the book (this was back in the nineties, and we didn’t have any internet), I had the music stand and I sat there in a chair all summer long, and I learnt to play it note for note. And to my credit I did it. At least like half of it. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I did improve from that but I still had fundamental issues with my playing. What I want to say is that what you really need to do is to really, properly assess yourself. A lot of students that I interact with, because they have no coaching and they did it on their own, they end up kind of delusional in thinking (and this is the key) they are 350. But when I come to see them I say you know what I think we need to go back to 100. I think you missed some fundamental things in 100. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami.  By the way, usually these people who are stuck that are advanced, they’ve never played in a band or they’ve barely played in bands. That’s usually the theme. And the reason that’s so important is they never took and apply the stuff they are learning in the real world. Imagine once again, if you did that with learning anything else in life, if you try to do that with tennis, let’s say. If for ten years you just played tennis, you just played against the wall for ten years, you just beat that tennis racket against the ball, and you’re nailing it. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. You’re playing against the wall and you’re just thinking man, I’m way up here in my rankings. And then the day comes that you actually get into a tournament and you totally got crushed. But you stick with it, and you realize you had the time of your life because you finally learnt what the game was all about. One more analogy. Imagine if you do that same thing (that you never played in a band), imagine you did that trying to learn another language. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami.  Let’s say you’re trying to learn Russian when you are here in America. So you get the software, you get the Rosetta stone, and you’re getting 100% on all your tests and quizzes. And you can do everything perfectly. You memorized everything, it’s immaculate. You are an A plus student. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. So in your mind you start to think you are really hot stuff. And then the day comes when you get on a plane and you go to Moscow and you’re saying “where’s the bathroom” and you’re stuck and nobody knows what you’re talking about. They’re talking to you way faster in a different dialect than the girl in the software, they’ve got ebonics and slangs, and maybe they don’t like you because you are American. I don’t know, I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami.  If you would like to watch a video of me teaching an intermediate guitar lesson to see if that is a better fit for you click here.

If you try to learn music in the way you would try to learn tennis or another language let’s say, that just wouldn’t work, if you don’t learn to apply it. So what happens is usually these are smart people that are busy, and they are just on their own learning on the internet, and they really want to get good. They’ve invested a lot of time, money, energy, and resources, a big part of their life. If you go to their house, maybe even have a whole music room dedicated to music, but they won’t go the extra step to learn to apply what they are using into real life situations. And that’s just like the tennis player, it’s just like the Russian student. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. They are going to be a little bit off, they are going to be a little bit funny because they have never actually been in the game.

And a lot of those guys that come to see me, and I have a good time with them and we have this discussion. But I have to get into the pathology there, because one of the issues that I have to really confront if that’s the case is, I’m dealing with somebody who in their mind think they’re 350 and they are actually 100. And don’t get me wrong, in some areas they are 350. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I have people that, don’t know how to do a basic pentatonic scale, or they don’t know how to do some basic improvisation in E minor nice and slow and like 80 BPMs. And yet they are over there working on C sharp mixolydian. It’s like they don’t even know how to apply that. They would never even learn that and use that in a situation.

One piece of advice if this is you. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Take everything that you’re learning, and everything that you are trying to learn, you want to make it apply to what you currently know. And that’s how you build. So if you are learning some basic stuff like basic chords, and use of chords, and basic riffs, and then you learn this really hard song or a really hard scale that’s not connected to anything you are currently doing. You want to scale but you’re not using any songs, there’s no backing track to jam to. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. You are just learning it for the sake of your own intellectual stimulation. If you do that consistently as a habit you’re going to have this hodgepodge, spotty knowledge of music that’s not connected, and you’re not going to have this application for what you know to use it in the real world. Then you are going to end up being delusional because you are going to think that you are way up here but you are actually way down here. So, I encounter that a lot. I just want to address the source of where this is coming from. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s the internet. The internet is a great invention. I love it. I’m talking to you on YouTube right now, I’m blogging constantly. I’m all over Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The internet is awesome but it starts to breathe these types of people because there’s this instant access ability to complex ideas, that prior to the internet, you had to actually know a person that had these ideas. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Maybe you could get a book, but you’re not going to get as far as you can with a book as you can with just a YouTube video. And so what happens is you start to have these people that are advanced and learning on their own, and they’ll just pull up a YouTube video or just Google something, like I want to do sweep arpeggios in a harmonic minor scale at 160 BPMs and 16 notes, let’s just google that. And boom! There it is. And they just start working on it. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. And action is good but without the practical application their wheels are just spinning. What’s even worse is when they are struggling with it and then they book a lesson to come see me, and goes “you need to explain this to me” and I’m like “you can’t even comprehend this stuff”. You think you are 350. You really need to be over here at 100, maybe working at like 105, so you can get like a nice burn. Let’s not go into the emergency room because you ripped your shoulder off at 350. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. So that’s a challenge that I sometimes have to get into the pathology.

So the internet is great because there are so many ideas. But I just want to caution you. If you are stuck, and you’re advanced and on your own learning online and have never played in bands, and you have done very little one on one private teaching, then you are like that guy playing tennis against the wall. That’s what you are. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I want you to know that, and I’m saying this to help you to realize that you need to get out there, get in the jam, get on craigslist, maybe meet some people (not everyone is going to stab you in the neck on craigslist.com) but get out there and take a risk. Go to the open mic and take a chance and see if you are really worth your salt. So the internet is spawning kind of a new generation of guitar players that are kind of like ADHD. They are like, give me something quick, give me easy, and they won’t take the time to actually really learn a concept, or a groove, or let it sink in. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Somethings you can learn intellectually, but a lot of things on the higher levels when you get to intermediate and advanced, you have to do it and keep doing it, and then they start to become more apparent. In becoming more apparent we can talk about it, because your mind is open to the concept, and then we continue to do it, and I challenge you in different ways, and then you really get the concept. Then you realize in 20-20 hindsight that if I just laid it all on your lap as when you were just learning the concept, it would have completely blown your mind and rocked your world.

Like what am I talking about? I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Things like improvising. Let’s say in the E minor pentatonic, and let’s say you are in G major, then so you can play in E minor, but E minor is actually E minor Aeolian, or you could use G major, or you could use A Dorian, or use B minor Phrygian, or C Lydian, or D Mixolydian, or even F sharp Locrian. These are all modes of playing that apply to the same concept, the exact same scale with a different spin on it. What else? I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. How about playing an E major and you could use a relative minor and C sharp minor. But then you say, well, I want to be able to use E minor pentatonic and E major pentatonic at the same time. How do I do that? That’s a really fun topic to talk about if you are advanced. But if you don’t even know the E minor pentatonic we really can’t go there. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Just because you can comprehend that you want that doesn’t mean that you are ready for that lesson. Sorry to get technical just now but I wanted to give you some real life application of what I am talking about. And this is stuff that I encounter in lessons all the time. The challenge is to really be able to get people to be willing to take the haircut because a lot of people are smart people, they are stuck, and they are frustrated. They come in paying for lessons, spending good money and they just want the silver bullet, and it doesn’t work that way. I teach advance guitar lessons in Miami. When I was learning to play in the eighties and nineties, it didn’t work that way. I went to my teacher. I had to walk to the train station which was ten minutes, then I had to ride two trains to go see him and it took like an hour. Then I would wait in the lobby, then wait to be seen, then I would have my thirty minute lesson which I had to work two paper routes to pay for. Then I would ride both trains home, and I would walk home carrying my guitar and I would go practice it. I would practice 8-10 hours a day. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I would go right back to him, the same exact guy, if I had a question about the thing that he was teaching me. So I ended up being very thorough in my building, and I was playing eight to ten hours a day and I was always playing in bands. Several bands at the same time. Plus I was going to shows, and hanging out in studios, and all my money was spent on CDs and books. I was ravenous for the information. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. But I was getting a very thorough application and that’s how I learnt to play. Nowadays, people are learning something they saw on YouTube, and then an hour later they are working on something from somebody else and they just consume that and they work on it. It’s like a little snack.

Advanced Guitar Lessons in Miami Solutions

Advanced Guitar Teacher Dyce Kimura offers Advanced Guitar Lessons in MIami

The next day they might download a course on how to play slide guitar and open G. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Then the next day they might learn some modal stuff and then hey here’s a guy on YouTube teaching, oh I saw somebody on snapchat doing this thing real quick, what’s that? And then they end up getting this ADHD, like fats food diet of music. Again, no band experience, no application. Learning Russian, but never been to Russia. Playing tennis but went to tournament. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. If this is you, you’re going to end up delusional. You are going to end up thinking you are way up here and you are going to get crushed to find out you are down here. I want to help you. That’s why I am making this video. By the way it’s the same issue, the same kind of mentality with gear. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Listen, if you have a good guitar and a good amp and you just plug your guitar straight into the amp, if you cannot get a good or even great guitar tone with those two factors, then don’t keep buying more pedals. Don’t think that another pedal is going to be the Holy Grail. You just need to learn how to turn those knobs and play that thing in a way that sounds lovely. This is all stuff that I encounter all the time. I just want to say that teaching music is an art and it’s a science. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I have to get into the head of the student and figure out what’s going on with them. What they are thing? How are they perceiving things and why they are perceiving it that way? What lead up to them becoming this way? And then, how can I explain it in a way that’s palatable, that’s really going to help them, and the whole time, to encourage them while at the same time bringing them down to reality. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. This is for advanced students by the way, not for beginners.

That’s a lot right there. That’s what a good, private guitar teacher does. It’s just that the teaching game has changed so much with the internet. Again, I am not against the internet. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I am on the internet right now talking to you. But if you are using the internet in this way, try to check yourself. What are some solutions you might ask if this is you? Well, you can come see me for a lesson. I am available on Skype and also in person in Miami. But if that’s not an option for you, get in a band. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. And if you can’t get in a band, get in a duo or trio or quartet. Get in some kind of situation where you are playing music. It will challenge you. Learn how to get into situations where you can be an asset to that group. As opposed to making the group an asset for you. See where you can contribute and give. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. If you are a heavy metal guy. That’s all you practice all the time. Just lead guitar with just metal, and then you are struggling to find a band because you’re just trying to find people that will back you up, and all you can find is a country band where they want you to play bass, do it. If you want to get good (I am talking to people who want to get good), there shouldn’t be any limitations with what you need to do. By the way, a lot of playing music is about human relations and social intelligence. I offer advanced guitar lessons in Miami. A lot of the greatest bands in the world, they break up because they cannot get along. So if you are able to merge and blend into group situations you will become a better player and person. A lot of jaggedness or issues or developmental problems or things that you might have missed or even this form of musician delusion that I keep talking about, will get solved if you can do this. Hopefully that helps you. It’s interesting. I get a lot out of really looking on the internet. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. I mean I’m all over Instagram and stuff. But on Instagram they give you one minute. There’s a one minute video you can put on and the same with YouTube. But with YouTube I can go more in-depth. But a lot of time, people’s attention span is like one minute. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Maybe 20 seconds. You have to wow me in 20 seconds or I’m going to go to the next thing. And so, because there is an underlying theme of urgency, people are just giving it all they’ve got. Like this is really extreme and I have to captivate your attention so you can stay and subscribe to me. So because players are exposed to that, then that becomes our expectations and that becomes what they can do. I teach advanced guitar lessons in Miami. But how little that works in real life, it’s interesting. And there are many correlations here but I am going to keep it just to music. But I see it in all walks of life, which I see on the internet and how it applies to all types of different social situations. Feel free to subscribe. Definitely leave me a comment if you have any questions about what I’m talking about. I offer great advanced guitar lessons in Miami. Or if this is resonating with you, I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment, send me an email to dyce@dycekimura.com. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and I will see you at the next video. Thanks so much.