[carvinC980t_kid]

i'm sorry, but maybe you can play technically better, but knowlage of music theory is much harder to have down really well then playing. i took lessons for 8 years and while i stopped learning technically many years back i never quit learning. learning about music has tought me so much i can easily pick up just aobut any instrument and write music for it. i don't see how grades me nothing in terms of music?

formal teaching should only stop if you plan to stop at the stage and not expand yourself. IMO a musician understands music and the theory behind what he or she is playing. there is a difference between playing your gutiar and being a gutiarist and being a musician who plays guitar. when you have a guitarist who only knows pentatonic scales then you have a guitarist who knows all of their modes. id say the first is a guitarist who likes playing guitar... nothing wrong with that, but i think it doesn't deserve the term musician. the second who knows and can play all of their modes would be a musician. i think the term "Musician" is over used and is something that is earned when you know and understand music. not just play it.

the only time formal teaching should stop really is if you are statisfied with just being a mediocer "musician" who plays shows and doesn't want more. there is nothing wrong with just wanting to play and not caring, but i think you should save the term musician for the ones who know their instrument and what is behind it.

i'd NEVER goto college for performing though. that is when the teaching should stop, because if you are a guitarist, bassist, or drummer and aren't looking to do classical things or make money as a studio musician then you are wasting time and money going to school if it is for a degree in performance. because, honestly... no record company gives a darn if you have a degree in performance. they care if you can sell or not and that is it.

to think you out grow lessons though is kind of ignorant. recently this past year my orchestra played with a guy from the national piano assocation, or soemthing like that, who was basically a guy was competing in a music competition that is one of the best around and they guy was 20 something years old and a world class pianist and he still too takes lessons everyonce and awhile. becasue if you don't take lessons and you don't write music that challeges you then you are going to get rusty and so he takes lessons to keep him on top of what ever he is playing, but he doesn't learn much. just keeps his skills sharp.

a musician can play anything even if you don't like it. a musician is someone who is knowlagable and versital when it comes to playing their instrument.