Guitar Lessons For Beginners: Where to Start

Posted by writer on August 18th, 2009 at 05:48pm

Starting guitar lessons for beginners can be a daunting task for some people. Learning the notes, strings, strumming, tablature, chords, tuning, and other basics can seem like an awful lot to master. Learning to play the guitar involves so much more than playing chords or learning tabs, one also needs to develop ways to express the feeling of the music.

Having a teacher to guide you through guitar lessons is helpful to avoid confusion as to where or how to get started. Learning to play different songs and different styles of music is easier to learn from a listening and watching a teacher (either in person or on a video) than learning from a book.

As such, there are multiple ways for a beginner to learn about how to play the guitar:

Get a private teacher

This was the most common method of learning to play the guitar for beginners before the availabilty of electronic lessons, affordable video and computers with internet access.

A student will be able to receive lessons custom-made to fit his or her needs under the tutelage of a private teacher. An experienced guitar teacher is a very effective and inspiring way for beginners to learn to play guitar.

There is a drawback to this intensive learning method, however. Private tutoring, which can cost over a hundrend dollars a month, may be too expensive. You will have to spend even more if you plan to hire a professional guitar teacher. If you are busy or if the teacher has few available time-slots, scheduling lessons can be an issue.

Subscribe to online lessons

An alternative to getting a private teacher is to subscribe to guitar lessons via the Internet.

The lessons can either be similar to or totally different from getting a private teacher. The available video style lessons include those that are pre-recorded, live webcam demonstrations, and there are lessons of diagrams and text, too. Jamorama is the name of one of the popular providers of online lessons – they have rock, lead, and acoustic guitar courses. (For a review, see Jamorama Acoustic Guitar.)

If you choose the former, then you can expect rates to be slightly less compared to hiring a private teacher, but the lessons will be a lot less interactive and customized because of the virtual limitations. While private lessons with a tutor or teacher are not as affordable, they provide invaluable face-to-face benefits you’d get from the interaction with the teacher. Playing videos on a computer or having to download them can be a drawback (and Internet access is required).

Buy guitar lesson DVDs

A third choice for lessons are those on digital video (DVDs).

These are similar to video-taped online lessons, but come packaged into DVDs instead. You can bring them around with you wherever you want to go, pop them in a DVD player and begin learning at your own leisure. The quality of DVD lessons is generally far better than online videos. They are also pretty affordable, and are comparable in price to online audio-visual lessons. (See a review of Learn and Master Guitar.)

As far as disadvantages to DVDs, about the only one is the slightly higher cost as compared to online lessons – due to their having to be packaged and shipped. The finer points of becoming a good guitar player may require human interaction to steer you in the right direction, and a DVD lesson cannot always do that for you. Some of the best DVD courses include support from guitar teachers or advanced students, email support and community forums for sharing your progress and asking questions. Getting feedback from the teacher can be needed for a new student – this is possible with some of the DVD or video programs.

So there you have it, the three primary means to learn guitar lessons for beginners. As you decide between these online, DVD, or private lessons, pick the method that you believe will help you the most to attain that goal of playing the guitar!

Tags: beginners, DVD, guitar lessons, learn to play, music, online

Under General