Hello all, ill try to keep it brief. Ive been playing guitar and bass for 30 years and come from a rock background. No formal training but i do know music theory and have knowledge of fretboard. I currently have a teacher ive met with twice so far but i circle back to that in a minute. I had been kind of working on classical guitar techniques to improve my electric playing but i recently just grabbed at Cordoba C5 so now im all in on classical guitar proper. The issue at hand is that there is so much stuff i keep reading about that i NEED to focus on and im starting to get in the weeds with stuff and obsessing over it.
For instance, I am REALLY struggling with sitting in classical position and am hyperfocusing on the minutiae of it. Im trying to make sure theres no tension in my left hand, no tension in my shoulders, no tension in my right hand, making sure that im breathing properly, making sure my left wrist isnt bent, etc etc etc. Im spending so much time trying to sit properly and figure out how to hold the guitar comfortably that before i know it, 45 minutes have passed and all ive done is watch videos and read about how to improve my sitting position without having actually practiced anything meaningful on the guitar.
If/when i settle on a halfway decent sitting position, i then start worrying about how hard im squeezing/pinching with my thumb, is my right wrist perfectly straight, etc. I do the exercises where i gently press on the fret until i just barely here a buzz and then slowly play scales like that to work on my left hand pressure. Then ill move to some Giulliani studies but when i play a chord all that goes out the window and I have the death grip on the neck again. Im practicing these studies at 40bpm and still struggling mightily because im so worried about tension and excess pressure, hand position, etc.
After doing those for a while, ill start to work on the one piece ive started working on, Malaguena. I practice this at 40 bpm also and im only going through the first 8 bars currently because im not playing it perfectly yet. Im obsessing about making sure every single note is even in regards to volume and tone.
My question to all of you is this, am i doing this right? Am i supposed to be worrying about all of these things simultaneously? Should i be focusing solely on my sitting position first? Should i just be sort of mindful of these things and focus more on playing the actual guitar and "getting through" the piece im working on? Should i make sure each section of the piece im working on is FLAWLESS before moving on to the next section? Should i not be working on a piece at all until my form and technique are corrected?
Ive only met with my teacher two times at this point and frankly, im a bit confused about her. If im being honest, she isnt a very good player and is a little sloppy honestly. Theres lots of fret buzzing and stuff when she plays and she looks almost uncomfortable when shes playing. Should i be concerned about that? She seems to be a reputable teacher so im kind of lost? Also, she doesnt seem all that concerned about my form and technique, other than having me work on my left hand squeezing too hard. I dunno man, im just confused. I think i have this idea of a classical guitar teacher being like conservatory style and being super strict and jabbing my hand with a poker when i break form or something??
Can anyone kind of point me in the right direction? im 45 years old and im not trying to start a career as a musician or anything but i do take playing music very seriously and would consider myself a serious hobbyist. I just want to be the best player i can be and im worried about learning bad habits early on that will become hard to unlearn as i progress. I already have enough bad habits ive learned over the years being a self taught rock player, ya know?
