If you play Indian guitar with details, you will have to play a 3/8/5 slide on the 1st string and similar slides on other strings too.

It is a level 02 slide. Needs more familiarity with the instrument. Without slide, there is no fluency.

When you are struggling with a slide, and need help, what would a teacher usually tell you? Practice, focus on the slide… Only practice.

Not good enough… If you can understand what a good player is giving attention to, or not giving attention to, sequentially or simultaneously, you can model that to see immediate improvement.

Below is how an observant teacher with self awareness can model his moves and give you:

  • focus on the slide – but the slide has 3 notes, where to focus on?
  • the moment you hit on the 3rd fret note, your eyes are on the 5, with peripheral vision (right eye corner for right handed players) on the 8th fret.
  • The 8 is played with a feeling – how the body feels when moving that particular distance of that number of frets
  • now, take care of the thumb (yes, the thumb, which is not on the fretboard at all). The beginning of the move, the thumb is behind the 3rd fret, as you move to the 8th fret, the thumb moves till the 5th fret or till between 5th and 6th fret spaces (somewhere around and behind the metal strip), letting the playing finger to go till 8 and come back to the 5th. The thumb need not move to behind the 8th at all. Lesser the movement of the thumb, better the group of muscles used, lesser the mass moving, the pivot of rotation is somewhere on the forearm at a more advantageous place. Also, it prevents overshooting, helps easier braking and change of direction at eight and gives precision to the stop at 5.

Now… tell me… do the teachers you tested do this much work for you?

When someone ignores good online teachers and resort to their local teacher, they may want to remember the anecdote of searching under the light even though the key was lost somewhere else, just because here there is light… even though they will never find the key there.

Learning guitar is not about the teacher sitting with you. It is not a contact sport like Judo.

What you need to look from the teacher is:

  1. does he or she play the kind of music you want to play, at least to the skill level that will impress you.
  2. does he or she know how to explain – not just where to press and hit, but what is really going on. It is often not what you play but how that matters. Because then, you can use that learning to play other songs and notes well too. Leading to…
  3. does the teacher have the ability and awareness to sense your situation, match with ideal models and give you the next 1% change for your skill level and goals, clearly in an executable manner, keeping in mind your motivation and purposeful practice in mind?

Take care.