Between work, family, friends and school fitting in time for practicing a new skill has become more of a challenge. Online courses for education have become increasingly popular over the last decade for this very reason, and for an aspiring guitar player this might be the only way to squeeze in time to learn.

Free Online Guitar Lessons

The internet offers a wealth of online guitar tutorials, a great deal of which are free. Are the free online guitar lessons just as good as lessons you would pay for? That may be a matter of personal opinion but the old adage “you get what you pay for” speaks volumes about free online guitar lessons.

The average free online guitar lesson begins with the instructor teaching you how to hold a guitar. Next they explain the strings and the frets, very quickly. Then they will typically dive right in to showing you how to strum a few chords. So far so good, but most of them will not teach you a thing about musical theory, notes, chords and other concepts that you should know.

These lessons are fine if you want to learn enough guitar to memorize a few songs to play for a family gathering, but you will probably never jam along with a song on the radio at will if this is how you were taught.

These courses teach guitar like a parrot is “taught” to speak. Parrots learn to talk by mimicking human voice. Parrots do not understand what they are saying when they talk, they simply copy the sounds that they hear. This is not how you want to learn to play guitar.

Play as You Practice

Let there be no confusion, I am not saying free online guitar lessons are no good. I have come across several free guitar lessons that were very informative from well meaning musicians trying to help out their fellow man. My problem with these courses is that they start out teaching you a few basics and jump right into playing.

It is true that guitar is not a spectators sport so it is good to promote playing while learning, but they skipped some elementary steps and dove in a little too quickly for your average beginner. For someone with any prior guitar knowledge this would be no problem at all, but for an absolute beginner, this can be very confusing, frustrating and damaging to your guitar playing ability.

How Do You Learn?

So how do you find a solid free online guitar lesson that will help you achieve your guitar goals? Do your research. Watch several free online videos to get a feel for the teachers, their methods, their curriculum and your ability to follow what they are saying. We all learn differently and prefer certain teaching styles. Some people learn better visually, seeing what they are learning helps solidify the information in their brain. Others are perfectly content to read a book and let their mind fill in the blanks.

For the guitar in particular, learning visually is a requirement. Concepts that would take you less than five minutes to learn with a visual example would require a teacher to write a whole book on the subject. In this aspect, free online guitar lessons are all good in the sense that they all provide video.

Do Free Online Guitar Lessons Work?

In all honesty, my best advice is to take free courses with a grain of salt. There is a great deal of guitar instruction in most of these lessons, but they usually jump around a bit skipping over key details. This can be confusing and frustrating for the absolute beginner.

The worlds greatest musician may not be the worlds greatest teacher. I would suggest eventually finding an instructor or course that you have to pay for, and using the free lessons as practice or review of what you have learned. This is a great way to track your progress.

Try TABS Guitar

You do not necessarily have to be a whiz with music notation and theory to play the guitar. There are other methods such as TABs guitar. TABs will get you playing the guitar rather quickly, but for the beginner that would like to be considered an advanced player eventually, even a small amount of education on standard music notation and musical theory makes a world of difference. This more well rounded approach to playing guitar is better suited to playing and writing your own music.

If you learn to play guitar with an inexperienced guitar teacher who does not have a good grasp of teaching the guitar you will be fighting an uphill struggle that most novice guitar players lose. You will most likely end up feeling like you are doing something wrong when in all actuality your lessons were poorly constructed and less than user friendly.

Learning to play guitar may not be rocket science, but it is a new skill that requires lots of practice and lots of patience. You will encounter enough frustrations learning from a great teacher, do not set yourself up for added difficulty. The lack of lesson structure and choppy content could be the breaking point from you becoming a great guitar player, or quitting from sheer aggravation.

Did you know that 65% of beginning guitar students quit within 2 months? Why? Lessons or a teacher that didn’t work for them. Find the best guitar lessons that will work for you with a video guitar lessons review.

For the top rated online guitar lessons check out Guitar Superstars.

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There are two basic routes available – private lessons with a teacher, or teaching yourself. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of these choices for adult learners.

Lessons With a Teacher

1. Private guitar lessons for adults

Children who are learning to play the guitar often have private lessons with a guitar teacher. This isn’t always the obvious solution for adult learners however, for a number of reasons. For one thing, adults typically respond to different teaching methods than children. Some teachers may be less experienced or comfortable with adult students, and in some locations it can be hard to find teachers of the style of music you’re interested in. Even after finding a good teacher, adult students often find it difficult to attend lessons regularly. Budget can be an issue too, especially if you’re going every week.

On the plus side, a teacher will demonstrate the correct technique, and will provide encouragement during tough times. If want private lessons, ensure that the teacher is happy to teach adult students, and request references from previous/existing students. Don’t be afraid to interview several teachers if you can – most will offer a no-obligation consultation to new students.

2. Group guitar lessons

You can also learn guitar as part of a group. Group lessons may be offered by private teachers, or by local colleges, music stores etc. These can be lots of fun, and the cost is usually lower than one-on-one private lessons too.

However, some people don’t want to learn in a group situation, and these lessons often seem to be targeted at young men; if you’re not part of that demographic, you might not feel comfortable. If group lessons appeal to you, make sure that they’re teaching the kind of music you want to play.

Teaching yourself to play guitar

1. Tutor books/DVDs

Many adults choose to teach themselves to play, especially those learning pop and rock styles (as opposed to classical guitar). Traditionally, people have taught themselves using a tutor book. Today these books often include CDs, so you can hear how the music/exercises should sound, and sometimes DVDs too, showing you the correct hand positions, posture etc.

Most guitar instruction books are written for a mature audience, so adults often feel comfortable learning guitar in this way. They’re also much cheaper than private lessons, and you can go at your own pace, with no need for travelling or fitting in with someone else’s schedule.

The downside of learning this way is that it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you should be doing from written instruction and photos alone. Your motivation may also wane, especially if the book teaches music you don’t like much.

2. Online guitar lessons

Today, many people turn to the internet for adult guitar lessons, for good reason. As well as being economical and allowing you to learn at your own pace, quality online guitar lessons usually combine written, video, audio and software content, making them more effective and fun to use than books. They’re flexible too – e.g., you can play a video over and over again. Internet lessons cover many musical styles, and can be downloaded and/or viewed online, so you can access them from anywhere. And online guitar lessons are usually created with the needs of the adult learner in mind.

You do have to select your instruction carefully though. Since anyone can put up a website and call themselves a guitar expert, the quality varies, so ensure that you choose lessons from a competent instructor.

Jamorama is a top quality, professionally produced course of online guitar lessons for adults, and is perfect for anyone wanting to learn to play rhythm or lead guitar. Find out more about the course at http://learntheguitaronline.info or check out my review of Jamorama to read more about my experience with it.

Sam Marks is a guitarist who enjoys writing about music and sharing helpful, high quality resources, and may receive compensation as a result of making these recommendations.

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The beginner guitar lesson course that has been around the longest is Guitar Tricks which was started in 1998. Since then thousands of lessons have been posted on their site from over forty guitar teachers. You get access to all these video guitar lessons by registering with them and paying a monthly fee. Guitar Tricks will give you twenty-four free lessons just for registering with their site.

Another course of beginner guitar lessons that features free videos is Amazing Guitar Secrets. This course was created by a seasoned guitar teacher named Dan Denley who also presents all the guitar video lessons. The course not only features videos but audio tracks plus ten books. You can view the material on the web or by having it all delivered to your door. Dan Denley runs a blog which features sample videos or video guitar lessons specially made to present his course plus you can read comments by readers of the blog. Just do a Google blog search for Dan Denley.

Jamplay is another beginner guitar lesson course that you can access by paying a monthly fee. The videos are presented in an informal, friendly way but at the same time are packed with solid information. The guitar teachers are specialists in every genre you can name, even Hawaiian slack key and classical guitar. The best thing about Jamplay and Guitar Tricks is that the lessons are being updated all the time so you are not stuck with one bunch of teaching material forever. Jamplay have a range of free lessons on their website plus full details of how they teach guitar and who their teachers are.

Now for Next Level Guitar. If you have not seen examples of the other video guitar lesson courses on YouTube, you have probably noticed the ones from Next Level Guitar. Many of them are presented by an amiable dude in a backwards baseball cap who lives and breathes guitar. They have well over three hundred lessons on their website divided up into genres and skill levels. They also have a forum which will give you an avenue for getting answers to any questions you might have. As for free video lessons for beginners, there are aver forty of them for you to check out so even if you do not join, you will get some valuable material for your next guitar practice session.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

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The most important reason is that online guitar lessons are more cost-effective and affordable. It’s a known fact that a local instructor can typically charge you at least $ 20 per lesson. Let’s say you enrol a guitar class for a year, your cost would be at least $ 1040 (excluding the printed materials). The worse thing is that you may not even start to learn the intermediate or advanced techniques within one year. On the contrary, some of the top online guitar courses would only cost you a one time price anywhere from $ 20 to $ 200 which is obviously a lot cheaper.

Online guitar courses could also save you a lot of time and hassle. The traditional guitar class has this one downside that may not be so obvious to some people. Imagine that you have to set a rigid schedule and travel back and forth the class every week. It’s wasting time and gas and if you don’t think so, try to do your math and add up all the time and money you spent on travelling in, let’s say, a year.

We all have our own study or job, friends and family so sometimes it’s very hard to sit down and practice the skills you have learned. Now imagine that you are not prepared for the next week’s lesson because you haven’t had the spare time to practice. So even if you attend the class, you won’t be able to follow or catch up the lesson and you’re just wasting value. By taking online guitar courses, you can learn to play and practice your guitar anytime and anywhere you want. It’s definitely better for someone who has a busy lifestyle. You’ll never worry about missing a lesson.

Some people prefer to study on their own so that they can learn how to play guitar at their own pace. Learning through online video courses is no doubt the best way for them to do so. They are like some intensive programs that allow you to skip those parts you are not keen to learn and focus on those of interest to you. If you miss something in the video lesson, you can always watch it over and over again as many times as you want. Whereas if you’re in a guitar class, you can’t possibly do so. Besides, verbal instructions from a guitar teacher may soon be forgotten if you’re an absent-minded person.

Most of the top quality online guitar lessons are very creative and innovative. Their lesson materials not only have texts, diagrams and graphics, but also include videos, audios, jam along tracks, interactive guitar-related softwares and games. Some of those stuffs like tuning softwares, ear training games etc. are even free of charge. Besides, you can also learn the beginner guitar lessons for free from some of these online courses. You really can’t find these free stuffs in most of the offline private guitar lessons out there.

So try out the online guitar course and see if it really works for you. As far as risk is concerned, most of the guitar courses offer 60-day or even up to one-year money back guarantee so your risk of losing is minimized to zero.

Read our review from http://www.coolest-guitar-lessons-review.com/ and find out which online guitar course is the best.

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So now the guitar lies under the bed, waiting. Because the need to be an electric guitar player is stirring anew, like the rumblings of last night’s Bengal Curry. Again your imagination goes to work, this time with a dash of much needed reality in the mix. Now you can clearly imagine yourself striding purposefully home after your day’s work or study, going directly to that quiet place where you begin releasing the guitar demon that dwells behind your plastic pen pocket. This time things are going to be different.

That is a good start. You need to have a space where you can give your electric guitar lessons the attention they deserve. The people you live with are going to have to understand that a person who takes electric guitar lessons needs to be cut some slack. At the same time you might need to take serious stock of how you use your time. You have a job or studies to do. You need to keep your room clean and help out with chores around the house. You cannot devote time to electric guitar lessons with other obligations following you around with expectant looks on their faces. Are there TV shows you always watch? You need to include the “me time”. If you practice in the living room you should do it when other people aren’t using the it. If you find you have much less time to devote to guitar lessons than you thought you had, don’t give up. As your guitar studies progress you will find that electric guitar time and “me time” are the same thing!

So what kind of electric guitar lessons are best for you? Examine the simplest solution – buy a guitar lesson book. Too simple? It really might be all you need. Some people need the guidance of a face to face teacher or the experience of seeing their guitar lessons on video, but there are many people manage with printed instructions and music.

If you need a more intense experience, but you do not have a live guitar teacher near where you live, then give online electric guitar lessons a shot. With online lessons, you just sit in your room and soak up the teacher’s instructions, and then do your practice. You do not waste time travelling to teacher who you may not care for! Some people do better without a teacher making them play it until they get it right. Online electric guitar lessons are more student-friendly. You can approach any obstacles in your own individual way, in your own time. One of the most outstanding advantages of online electric guitar lessons compared to tuition with a live teacher is the expense. You can get even the very best lessons on the internet for a fraction of what you would pay your local guitar teacher!

You can also buy your guitar lessons in video format. Video lessons are available for students of all ages and stages. With videos you can review your lessons as many times as you want, and even if the joy of electric guitar lessons leaves you again, your video lessons will be waiting for you when it gets back.

Ricky Sharples has been playing guitar his whole life, and is presently engaged in building a blog called Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free. Ricky’s blog features free tools, lessons and resources for guitarists of all ages and stages. Ricky updates the blog regularly so if you are interested in learning to play guitar there will be an enormous variety of tip, tools and tutorials for you.

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What Are Formal Guitar Lessons?

Formal guitar lessons consist in a guitar teacher imparting his or her knowledge of playing guitar upon a student. The effectiveness of the guitar lessons depend in large part upon the quality of the guitar teacher. Naturally, the beginning guitar student must have a strong desire to learn.

There are many guitar instructors, so called, that try to teach people how to play guitar for a fee. Unfortunately for someone looking for easy guitar lessons, an incompetent guitar teacher might make a new student believe that guitar mastery is a couple months, or even weeks away.

An ineffective guitar teaching method is obvious when the teacher focuses on performing for the student, rather than teaching the basics from which the student can build upon. Over the course of a few short weeks and months, the new student becomes an ex-student. I cannot begin to tell you how many people I run into that tell me they took guitar lessons for a couple months and then quit.

The Components of Excellent Formal Guitar Instruction

Before I get started on this subject, let me assume that you are not looking to become a performing classical guitarist. If your aspirations are to play in a classic orchestra such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, then you will need to enroll in an accredited music school. I am guessing though, that you want to play some popular music tunes. Okay, with that out of the way, what are the components of excellent formal guitar instruction?

1. Hire a Professional Guitar Instructor

Your guitar teacher should be someone who has earned a music degree from an accredited college or university. You definitely should not take guitar lessons from someone who is self-taught. Just because a guitarist can play “Eruption” by Van Halen does not mean they can teach you how to play guitar. Therefore, I recommend that you take formal guitar lessons from an instructor affiliated with a reputable music store. I have found that some of the best guitar instructors work out of family owned music shops, not chain stores.

2. You Need To Be Dedicated

If your guitar instructor does not demand that you practice at the very least, one half hour per day, then you are not going to adequately develop as a guitarist. Mastering the guitar takes years of practice and learning. If you plan on taking guitar lessons just to learn one or two songs you happen to like, you will never learn those songs or any others. Be realistic about your ability to devote the time and effort needed to really learn how to be a good guitarist.

3. Your Guitar Instructor Must Be Demanding

A demanding guitar teacher is very essential. I am not saying the person must be mean or cruel, but there are certain standards in regards to proper posture and fingering. If you find that your guitar teacher is constantly correcting your posture and repeatedly telling you to use the tips of your fingers, then you have a real gem of a teacher. As a beginner, I cannot tell you how many times my first guitar teacher told me to change position, use the tips of my fingers, and to “do it again” until I got it right. You might not like being told over and over to readjust your body or replay a certain guitar part, but it is well worth it.

4. The Basics of Guitar Music Theory

Despite your worst fears as a beginning guitarist, you will need to learn some music theory in order to understand how music works. The guitar is a complicated instrument because of the immense diversity of musical options on the fretboard. The guitar is what I would consider a 3-dimensional instrument. Whereas, the piano is a 1-dimensional instrument. Why? All the notes on a piano are in a straight line.

Now, effective guitar instruction will teach you how to read music. Yes, reading tabs is fast and easy, but it does nothing for helping you understand the musical structure of a song. You can be assured that music theory for guitar is not at all difficult. You just need to focus a little bit. Remember, this is not classical concert guitar school. Learn it and move on. You will find that music theory is an aid to being great on guitar.

5. Do Not Expect To Be Jamming Immediately

You have to learn to crawl before you can walk. And, you have to learn to walk before you can run. You will have to play “Tom Dooley” and “Streets of Laredo” before you can play “Dust In The Wind.” There is no way around it. If your first lesson as a beginning guitarist is to learn how to play a contemporary rock guitar solo, then you will be an ex-guitar student very soon. You must be persistent until you are able to play some more difficult tunes. You will eventually walk and then run. Give it time and practice.

Guitar Lessons Are Expensive

If you cannot afford in-person formal guitar instruction, there are some wonderful options available to you. Distance learning via the internet has taken the world by storm. Some online instruction programs are excellent. I have looked at some of these and find the quality of the teachers to be top notch. Also, the educational materials that accompany the lessons are comprehensive. The only drawback is that you are left to your own devices, which might be a problem.

A solution would be to perhaps take an in-person guitar lesson every so often to make sure you are on the right track and not developing any bad habits in terms of form and method. But, it is possible to learn how to play the guitar from a very good online instruction program.

William Meisseur

Easy Guitar Lessons

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It is always great to learn guitar with a teacher because guitar teachers usually become your friends because the teachers and the students share the same passion… the guitar.

Here are the pros and cons of learning with a guitar teacher.

Pros:

* With normal lessons you will practice guitar with other people, share experience and make new friends and that is great!
* If you have any question you can ask the teacher and have a real time answer.
* If you feel stuck with something in particular like Tapping or Sweep Picking your teacher can tell you how he get through it and prepare special exercises for your needs.

Having a guitar teacher is great, but there are some possible cons too.

Cons:

* Guitar lessons with a teacher use to be expensive, for something like 3 hours of guitar lessons with a teacher you can have like a whole year of online guitar lessons.
* Maybe you don’t have the time to take guitar lessons in a music school, it is really hard to take guitar lessons with a teacher if you have a full time job or if you want to spend more time with your girlfriend or boyfriend, children and family.
* If you have bad luck, like i had many times, you can get a bad teacher and pay a lot of money for nothing. I tried several guitar teachers until i found a good one, having a bad guitar teacher can discourage you if you are just beginning with the guitar.

Now lets see the pros and cons of online guitar lessons. If your budget is limited and you don’t have enough money for guitar lessons with a teacher you can go with online guitar lessons, there are great online guitar courses in today’s market.

Pros:

* Online guitar lessons are really cheap and you can have lessons for a whole years for the same price that just a few hours with a guitar teacher.
* You can practice and study guitar at any time, they are ideal if you have a full time job or if you are very busy with school or college.
* Some of them are really great learning systems that make all the guitar learning process something fun, they give you cool exercises like classic and modern rock songs. You need to have fun while you practice because learning how to play guitar is a long process and you have to enjoy it if you want to become a good guitar player.

Now lets see the cons of online guitar lessons.

Cons:

* If you learn guitar just in your home you won’t be in contact with other musicians, this is not a real problem if you already have friends that are guitarists, drummers, bassists or any other kind of musician.
* You can’t ask anybody for more info, but then again this is fixed if you have friends that are musicians or if you ask in online forums

Remember that it doesn’t really matters if you go with online guitar lessons or if you take lessons with a guitar teacher, there is something more important than that… and that is you. You are the only one who will play and learn guitar for you, your guitar teacher can’t play guitar for you. You need to be committed with your guitar to learn fast, if you are really committed with you learning process you will learn how to play guitar in a fly.

Playing guitar is an awesome thing and it feels great, if you want to learn how to play guitar just do it!

If you want to learn more about online guitar lessons check this article: Online Guitar Lessons. And visit Riff Church to get daily guitar lessons, learn how to play power chords, major chords, arpeggios and more.

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There can be many reasons why people quit guitar lessons. Sometimes it is because the teacher failed to inspire you, or because the lessons weren’t focused enough on your specific musical goals, or because the teacher was only mediocre and didn’t know how to help you achieve a specific result. However, another (often misunderstood) reason might be that your own approach to guitar lessons wasn’t as effective as it needed to be in order for you to make real progress.

After teaching tens of thousands of music lessons to all types of guitarists and also mentoring guitar teachers around the world on how to teach more effectively, I began to notice similar and consistent patterns used by most students for learning to play guitar.

I also noticed that the specific approach the students applied to studying with a teacher had a direct influence on their progress. Very often 2 different people can get very different results by studying with the same guitar teacher, because the ways in which the students approached the learning process in general are very different. For example, one student believed that he knew better than the teacher did about how to reach his musical goals and resisted some of the instruction his teacher was giving him. It later became very clear to him that he did not know better. The other student soaked up everything his teacher was instructing him to do and quickly became a world class guitar virtuoso.

I have found there are 3 types of students who become easily frustrated with their guitar lessons. As you read the rest of this article, be honest and ask yourself if any of these 3 descriptions sound like you. I’ll be the first to admit that at one point I had the characteristics of each of the “ineffective student behaviors” presented below. Looking back many years later, I now understand that one of the reasons why it took me as long as it did to master the guitar (more than 20 years), was due to my own inefficient approaches to learning when I began the journey.

The “Teach me something new today” student type.

You may think it is common sense that guitar lessons should consist mainly of presenting new content, and expect that the guitar teacher’s primary job is to show you things that are “new” to you. However, if we examine this approach a bit deeper, you will see that focusing “only” on seeking out new information will not bring big results long term.

First of all, too much new content quickly leads to overwhelm and burn out (and does not allow enough time to apply the information you are learning). This feeling of overwhelm is what causes you to become frustrated and quit lessons (or worse yet, quit guitar). Second, simply “learning new things” does not lead to mastery. I have had many students come to me being able to do some cool things on guitar. For example, they may have good technique, or a good understanding of how music works, or have good ears. But more often than not, their ability to APPLY and INTEGRATE what they “know” to playing music was very poor. At this point, “learning more new things” is not going to help these students to significantly advance their guitar playing. Simply being “aware” of a concept is not enough. You don’t truly “know” something until you can apply and integrate it with your other musical skills fluently.

This type of training in applying and integrating what you know is probably the single most valuable thing you get out of music lessons and is one area of musical development that is almost universally lacking in many guitarists. This results in massive frustration and disappointment that many guitar players often experience (but often do not realize WHY they are frustrated).

When you take lessons for the first time, you may think that it is great that your teacher shows you something new in each lesson. But if your teacher does nothing else than “show you things”, then as more lessons go by, you will start to notice that you are not really making any significant progress (because no application and integration is taking place). Most people will quit lessons at this point, and will continue to perpetuate the myth that guitar lessons are ineffective, without really understanding the real reasons for their lack of progress.

The type of student who is only interested in learning new things, typically does not stick with guitar lessons for very long. If a guitar teacher begins to talk about a concept the student may already be familiar with, the lesson is perceived to be a waste of time. Because these students may have heard about this concept from somewhere else, they believe that they “already know it”.

Of course, receiving new information is a part of any comprehensive lesson plan (and certainly you will learn a lot of new things by taking lessons), but it is the order in which this information is presented, and the way you are trained to USE, APPLY and INTEGRATE that information that makes guitar lessons with a good teacher so valuable. If learning “raw data” in a linear fashion (and practicing) was all it took to become a great musician, then anyone could buy some books and after studying them for a few years and practicing on his/her own become a highly advanced guitarist. Of course most of the time, this doesn’t happen.

The moral of the story here is to remember that you came to your teacher to learn and grow as a guitar player. In order for this to actually happen you will need to have some patience through the process and realize that sometimes when you ‘think you know something’, you in fact may not really know it yet to the point that you can apply it and integrate it with your other musical skills.

“The Perfectionist”

The next type of student wants to master every little thing their teacher presents in a lesson (or that they discover on their own) before working on anything else. While on the surface this seems like a good idea, it is far from the most efficient approach to becoming a great musician. Learning music is best done in a non-linear approach, meaning that multiple things should be worked on simultaneously without stressing out about totally mastering everything in a linear order.

I like to compare learning music to baking a cake. You don’t make a cake by cooking one ingredient at a time and then finally putting them together when each one is ready. If you baked your cake in this way, it would take you a long time to finish and more importantly the cake would not taste as good as when the ingredients are cooked together!

The same goes for musical skills. If you waited until you became a great virtuoso master of technique before beginning to work on (mastering) music theory, then turning to songwriting, and then switching to improvising, it could take you many decades to finally become really good and your skills would not likely be integrated together. What I recommend to you is to follow a non-linear approach (as described in the video above). When learning a new skill, don’t wait until you completely master it; only make sure that you have the fundamentals down and begin immediately to look for contexts to apply it. Then work on integrating this new skill with everything else that you know how to do/play. Application and integration are unique skills that must be practiced separately. This key link will enable you to go from being “the student” who is able to “do lots of things” on the guitar, to becoming a great player who can use all of his musical skills to achieve complete musical expression.

This (non-linear) approach will also prevent you from getting out of balance with your skills and at any level of your musical development, you will be able to apply and integrate everything you know. It is important to note that a ‘non-linear approach’ is not an ‘illogical’ approach. So if you are looking for a systematic and logical approach to learning guitar, you should understand that this systematic, geometric (non-linear) strategy IS in fact the most effective, most efficient and most logical path possible.

The challenger

This personality type often comes out in a player who has been playing for a while and has studied with other guitar teachers in the past. This student may come into their first lesson full of preconceived ideas about what lessons should be like, and dictating to the teacher what and how to teach. I should clarify here that I am not talking about asking questions when you don’t understand something or telling your teacher about your goals. There is a big difference between doing that, and trying to dictate to the teacher what and how to teach. If the student knew that much more about teaching than the teacher, then the student would BE the teacher, right? If you know how to successfully learn guitar on your own and you are TRULY happy with your progress without a teacher, then maybe you don’t need guitar lessons. But if you seek help from a qualified guitar teacher, this means you realized that whatever you were doing on your own wasn’t working as well as you wanted it to. Therefore, you should accept the fact (or at least the high probability) that your guitar teacher knows many times more about guitar playing and teaching guitar than you do and can successfully teach you to play well. (Otherwise, why would you give the teacher your money?) Of course not all guitar teachers are the same, and some are much more qualified to teach than others. If you follow the advice I give in the guide for choosing a guitar teacher, you will be sure to find the best teacher for you.

I always tell my students that in order for them to receive the most benefit from working with me, it is their job to articulate to me their specific musical goals and list their musical challenges. Then it is MY job to come up with the most effective strategy possible to solve their problems and get them to their stated goals as quickly as possible. But in order for that to happen, they need to have faith in me as a teacher, and commit themselves to moving forward together through the learning and training process. My most satisfied and advanced students all followed this advice.

If your guitar teacher has already created many great musicians, chances are, he knows what he is doing and will be able to help you as well. But his ability to help you will be limited (and the process will take much longer), if you constantly challenge everything he tells you to do. Again, asking questions about something you don’t understand is normal, and is part of the learning process. But creating the overall lesson plan is your teacher’s primary responsibility, not yours.

If you recognize yourself as one of the student types described above, think about your current approach to learning guitar and change your mindset. On the surface it may seem like a small action to take, but the difference this can make to your guitar playing may be greater than you have ever even imagined before!

T. Hess teaches guitar players around the world via online guitar lessons. Visit http://www.tomhess.net to get free guitar tips, assessments, surveys, mini courses and more.

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The advantages of online guitar lessons are in their versatility. You can find lessons using tablature, lessons on video, tutorials on power chords and improvisation, all right there on your computer. The thing with free guitar lessons is you have to put the package together yourself. It is best to find, if you can, lessons that are in a series that takes you through a learning process rather than an unconnected bunch of lessons bookmarked from different sources.

Usually the beginner guitarist finds the biggest hurdle right at the start. Tuning the guitar. Your lessons will eventually show you how to tune the guitar by ear but at the very beginning you will need some kind of electronic guitar tuner and a brief tutorial on how to use it. Do not worry, it is not rocket surgery. You can pick up a guitar tuner at a music store, but they are easy enough to find online for free.

Now we come to where some kind of series or package of free lessons is needed. You see, you will need to learn a little music theory before you start learning chords and playing songs from tabs. You will, for example, need to know about things like triads and octaves. Also some explanation of how as you work your way up the neck of the guitar the same notes recur at differing pitches.

Chord progressions are a major part of your guitar lesson experience, so you need to get a thorough understanding of scales and their relationship to chords with examples of the common chord progressions. By this time you will be actually playing the guitar so your lessons should include some material on how to hold the instrument and use of the plectrum.

So much guitar music is available in tablature form now that learning to read sheet music is practically unnecessary. Your online guitar lessons will introduce you to guitar tabs and how to read them. Once again, they might look scary but they are very simple to learn. You will probably be able to find some free guitar lesson videos which show you how to read tabs if you are more comfortable learning that way. Just do a search on some of the video sites. Online video lessons will help your progress by giving you the opportunity to see a guitar teacher playing slowly and up close, but do not forget to look for a guitar forum to get your specific questions answered.

If you can’t find a set of guitar lessons which suit you, you might need to do a web search for the individual components. The main things you should be searching for are: “free online guitar lessons” “free guitar tabs” “basic guitar chords” “beginner guitar tabs” and “guitar forums”. There is a wealth of free guitar lesson material online, so make the most of it!

Ricky Sharples has been playing guitar his whole life, and is presently engaged in building a blog called Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free. Ricky’s blog features free tools, lessons and resources for guitarists of all ages and stages. Ricky updates the blog regularly so if you are interested in learning to play guitar there will be an enormous variety of tip, tools and tutorials for you.

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Guitar Lessons- Private Instructor or Online?

The traditional way of learning guitar is by taking private lessons from a guitar teacher. The student typically meets with the instructor once a week for 30 minutes at a cost of about $15-25 per week. This is certainly a great option, and perhaps the best way to learn to play: under the personal guidance of a dedicated teacher. However, in many cases private lessons are not a good option due to the time, cost, and transportation factors involved.

The good news for guitar players is that there is a wide range of alternatives to private instruction. Guitar lesson and instructional books have been a mainstay for years. Technology developments then brought us lessons in the form of videotapes and DVDs, as well as multimedia software programs to run on the PC.

Today, widespread access to the internet has caused a major revolution in guitar instruction methods and availability. Now an abundance (some might say over-abundance!) of information on various guitar lesson choices is available in minutes through your favorite search engine. The array of choices is staggering, ranging from free online guitar lessons, to high-end distance learning guitar instruction leading to a certificate from Berklee College of Music,

Aside from better visibility into the options, there have also been tremendous advances in the technology used to develop and deliver the instructional material. Interactive video lessons in which the student controls the pace of learning and the tempo of the material are a good example of this. Online guitar lessons and products can be accessed immediately on the Web, either on-demand or downloaded to the local PC. This gives great flexibility on when and where to learn.

Guitar Lessons Options

Aside from private lessons, there are three basic formats of guitar lessons and instructional material.

Books- If you’re on a budget and like the idea of the portability of a book, this may be the way to go for you. Books often come with a CD to provide audio tracks. Typical Cost: $15-25

Video-based lessons- In my experience, pure video-based lessons are a good “icing on the cake” to help you learn, but not typically a good foundational guitar lesson program. They often lack supporting learning materials needed to be effective for baseline learning.

Multimedia Online Lessons- The Web, plus advances in the technology for creating learning material such as video, has really opened the door to some great multimedia guitar lesson programs.. These can be delivered and accessed on several ways: downloaded for use on your PC; accessed directly from your PC with a live web connection, or as a physical CD/DVD that you run on your PC.

Sorting through the many options can be made easier with information dedicated to this topic on various guitar websites, such as this online guitar lessons guide.

Wrap-up

For those wanting to learn to play guitar, or to play better, there is no better time than now to take advantage to the available online guitar lesson and learning options. The realm of guitar instruction is certainly one that has benefited from the Internet!

Look for the next article in this series:
“Guitar Lesson Tips: 10 Keys to Choosing the Right Guitar Lesson”

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Related articles on EzineArticles.com:

“Basic Guitar Chords: “How to Easily Master the Guitar Chords You Must Know”

“Guitar Chord Diagrams: An Essential Tool for Learing to Play the Guitar”

Copyright 2005 Peter Bussey of http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com
This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and the resource box, with hyperlnks, are included.

Peter Bussey has been an avid guitar player for over 10 years. In 2004 he became Editor of The Guitar Players Toolbox, a website dedicated to helping advancing guitar players improve with practical tools, tips, and information. Visit http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com for a variety of free, practical resources on guitar lessons, guitar chords, guitar chord charts, song chords, and more.

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