Why Getting the Best is Better.
GUITAR MASTERCLASSES with Richie Robinson
The age-old adage that you get what you pay for is most often true.
The dollar amount we think we can afford right now opposes our sensibility to buy the very best.
Is the very best worth it, or is it better to just buy what we can afford and make the most of it?
A number of years ago I got a leather jacket. It was worth about $250. It seemed very expensive, but though that jacket is a little worn on the inside, it still looks new on the outside, and is very warm and comfortable. So far, that adds up to around $7 a year, and is likely, at that rate, to cost only $4 or less per year for its service. An amazing price!!
Similarly, I was buying boots at the time, and would pay $40 to $60 for boots that invariably would only last a year. At one point I bought a pair of boots for around three times the price. They are still awesome now, adding up to less than $4 a year so far.
These days, I wear $500 RM's and wouldn't buy anything less. My current pair has cost about $50 per year so far, and are likely to last well enough to only cost around $20 per year or less, for very comfortable, good looking, and practical footwear.
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You see, the wisdom of getting the best came to me early enough in my career for it to really make a difference, and, like my jacket and boots, has given me rewards for decades well beyond the cost, and rewarded me incomparably to the inferior learning I had received from “affordable” guitar teachers previously.
Even more so, I had to spend a considerable amount of time and effort unlearning all the things that were holding me back that I had learned from “affordable” teachers.
If I had understood what getting the best had meant when I was new as a student, I’d have saved a decade getting my act together.
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I’m not sure how to value a decade, and who is, but really, why spend money just to waste a decade of your life?
Since then I have only got the best I can get. I never value a couple of instant dollars over long term gain because I know how truly expensive such thinking can be.
These days, I charge only a fraction of what I earn per hour as a performer for lessons, but the payback for me is in the knowledge and joy that my students will never have to lose years unlearning mistakes they would learn with an “affordable” teacher.
They will instead be setting themselves up to make the very most of their musical ability right from the very first lesson.
All the best in your musical development
- Richie Robinson -
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© Richie Robinson Music 2000
