He left w/o telling me good bye. I've known him for 3 years.

[Lady_Chaos]

Okay, so my Guitar Teacher, Alex, who happens to be one of my good friends, decided to move away without telling me he was leaving.... I've been taking lessons from him for 3 years, and it came as a HUGE shock. I now have this weird, kinda twitchy guy as my teacher. He does everything differently and I just don't know about him... Every time he asked me why I did something differently, I'd say "Because Alex did it that way." and if I wanted to say something I would point things out and say "Alex did this..." and the new twitchy guy would get annoyed... It's not that I was "ehh" to his teaching, it's just he teaches differently from Alex... And I was kinda in shock the whole lesson. I kept spacing and hitting wrong notes/strings.... I don't understand why he left.... Don't understand it.... I just.... why? why would he just leave? I'm so confused.... I don't even know why I'm spouting this.... Nothing will help... WHY????????? WHY WHY WHY???? Whyyyyy???????? I've been crying for a while now... It just doesn't make sense... He even said "See you next week" last lesson.... and he's been telling me "Make up a list of songs you want to learn over the summer" so I did that... and I even practiced Little Wing so much my fingers were cramping and my wrist felt like someone was shoving a needle all the way through it.... I was planning to play the song perfectly and have him be so proud, but then he wasn't there.... and I f**ked up horribly... :'(


Okay, so you know that he left and all.. well.. it turns out he doesn't leave till the end of june, and last week he just got ihis wisdom teeth taken out... So he is leaving because his wife is going to Puerto Rico University to major in her spanish class o.O Luckily, I won't have the weird antsy guy i met last week as my teacher *wipes brow* I'll have a guy named Seth, that seems pretty cool and Alex recommended. so I'll get to see him a couple more times... which is awesome.. I'm sad hes moving away still... but at least I know why... I think this will turn out well... =D

[Aneklusmos]

I'm so sorry! That's horrible. I hope my guitar teacher doesn't do that to me. I don't know why he would do that. Are you sure it's permanent? Maybe it's just for a little while. For now your just going to have to manage the best you can unfortuanetly. If it makes you feel better, try calling him and asking about what's happening.

[Blue63]

Wow that's horrible, I know these personal mentors really make a strong impact. I've been taking karate lessons from my teacher Dan for like 7 years, if he dissapeared, wow I don't know. So I'm incredibly sorry!

It's pretty clear there was something else going on, not related to you or guitar. Something sudden must have done it. Talk to some of the other teachers that know him, maybe try and get his email address, just to find out what happened. Put your mind at peace, I know that's got to be rough though, good luck!

[byee]

Wow, I can understand your pain here. I become attached to my instructors, too (Cello here!), there's a real bond there that goes beyond just liking someone. They're giving you something, sharing themselves, and you, with them. It's the whole bonding thing, you become dependent and trust their instruction, you show them vulnerability, and they accept it and make you stronger and better. And in your case, he was a friend, too. That's a double loss. I'm really sorry.

I think when things happen that are totally out of character for someone, you have to assume that *something* happened, and as hard as it is to accept, *whatever* it was was so overwhelming and compelling for them that they needed to basically drop everything (and sadly everyone) and attend to it without considering the impact that might have on those left behind. I think you should consider that probability, and make an attempt to contact him and see what happened.

In the meantime, frankly I'd postpone new lessons until I've dealt with the loss sufficiently so the emotions of the perceived abandonment don't interfere with this new relationship. Right now, you're too upset at the loss to really concentrate on the lessons, and surely on forming a new relationship with a new person. Give it some time and try to find out what happened with Alex and settle that as best you can.