So you want to play guitar? Guitar lessons, in one form or another, are a must for anyone who wants to learn to play the guitar. Established musicians also rely on guitar lessons to gain new skills and take them to the next level. Finding the right lesson, course, or product sounds simple, but there are so many options available that it’s a difficult task to figure out what’s best for your individual needs. These guidelines will help you sort through your options and make a good decision.
Guitar Lessons – Private Instructor or Online?
The traditional way of learning to play the guitar is by taking private lessons with a guitar teacher. The student typically meets with the instructor once a week for 30 minutes at a cost of around $15-25 per week. This is without a doubt 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 guitarists is that there are a wide range of alternatives to private instruction. Guitar lesson and instructional books have been a mainstay for years. Then technological developments brought us lessons in the form of video tapes and DVDs, as well as multimedia software programs to run on the PC.
Today, widespread access to the Internet has brought about a major revolution in the methods and availability of guitar instruction. Now, a great deal (some might say a great deal!) of information on various guitar lesson options is available within minutes through your favorite search engine. The variety of options is staggering, from free online guitar lessons to high-level distance learning guitar instruction leading to a certificate from Berklee College of Music,
In addition to better visibility of options, there have also been tremendous advances in the technology used to develop and deliver 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 are immediately accessible on the Web, either on-demand or downloaded to your local PC. This gives great flexibility on when and where to learn.
guitar lesson options
In addition to private lessons, there are three basic formats of guitar lessons and teaching material.
Books- If you’re on a budget and like the idea of a book’s portability, 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, purely video-based lessons are a good “icing on the cake” to help you learn, but they are usually not a good basic guitar lesson program. They often lack the supporting learning materials needed to be effective for reference learning.
Online multimedia lessons– The Web, in addition to advances in technology for creating learning material like videos, has really opened the door to some great multimedia guitar lesson programs. They can be delivered and accessed in a number of 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.
Selecting from the many options can be made easier with dedicated information on various guitar websites, such as this online guitar lesson guide.
To wrap
For those who want to learn to play the guitar, or play better, there is no better time than now to take advantage of the available online guitar lessons and learning options. The field of guitar teaching is undoubtedly one of those 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”
==================================================== ============
Related Articles on EzineArticles.com:
“Basic Guitar Chords: “How To Easily Master The Guitar Chords You Should Know”
“Guitar Chord Diagrams – An Essential Tool for Learning to Play Guitar”
Copyright 2005 Peter Bussey of http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com
This article may be freely reproduced online, provided the full article and resource box are included, hyperlinked.