If you are thinking about beginning guitar lessons, you’ll need to decide which types of lessons will be most suitable for you. The choice will depend on factors such as your lifestyle, budget and preferred learning style.
Types of Guitar Lessons
There are three basic types of guitar lessons to choose from – you can have individual (or group) lessons in person with a private teacher, you can learn from one of the many tutor books/DVDs that are on the market, or you can opt for online guitar lessons. Let’s take a look at these options in more detail.
Private Teacher
For many people, a private guitar teacher is the first choice for beginner guitar lessons. However, it’s not always the best choice. Private lessons are a good idea if you want one-to-one attention – it is very helpful to have someone there in person who will answer your questions and demonstrate what you’re meant to be doing. Private lessons are also more commonly taken by those wishing to learn more formal guitar styles such as classical guitar and flamenco guitar.
On the other hand, private guitar lessons can be expensive (typically $30 an hour or more), and can also be more time consuming, as you’ll often have to travel to the teacher’s house or studio (although some guitar teachers do home visits). You also have to fit in with their schedule, and many people find that they feel self-conscious when playing for a teacher. Teachers also have their individual limitations – they might not cover all of the styles you want to learn to play on the guitar, and some may not be a good fit, personality-wise.
Tutor Books/CDs/DVDs
People who want to teach themselves to play the guitar from the comfort of their own home often turn to beginner guitar lesson books, DVDs and CDs. The advantages of this approach is that you can learn at your own pace, there’s no-one looking over your shoulder, it’s cheap, and these materials are available for just about every guitar style you can think of. The DVDs can be especially helpful, as you are given a demonstration of the correct way to play, and you can watch the same segment as many times as it takes.
On the downside, it’s not always easy to figure out exactly what you should be doing from the photos and descriptions in a book, or from a poorly-shot DVD. You also have to be self-motivated, as there won’t be anyone to encourage you to keep going when you hit a rough patch (which you will, at some point!)
Online Guitar Lessons Course
The third main type of beginner guitar lessons is those which are available online. There are many sites which show you how to play the guitar – some are free, whereas others charge a fee. The quality is very variable (though you usually get what you pay for), but a good course of internet guitar lessons combines the advantages of both private tuition and book learning. You can learn at home at your own pace, for a relatively low cost (most complete online guitar lesson courses cost less than a few lessons with a teacher). The main advantage of online lessons over tutor books is that they are typically delivered in a multi-media format, with text, video, audio and often software too. So they cater to different learning styles, and make the learning process more interesting. Most internet guitar lessons are available as downloads, so you can save them to your computer, and they’ll be available for you any time you like.
The downside of learning to play the guitar online is that not all of the lessons are high quality, you need a computer and internet access to get them, and again, you need to be self-motivated.
Whichever option you choose, beginning guitar lessons is a great step to take, as learning to play the guitar is one of the most fun activities out there!
Related posts:
