May 16, 2010
Guitar Lessons Can Be Boring
You can see it, can’t you, as you head into your first guitar lesson? The future star, making their entrance! And then the fantasy vanishes and you drop to earth with a big thud. You don’t get to play a note, but spend that whole first lesson learning “the basics.” If you’re wondering whether you really need to spend so much time on those, the answer is a resounding yes. Before you learn to play a note, you need to lay a solid foundation of knowledge about your guitar, to prepare for all that glory that comes later.
The Guide for Learning Guitar series of lessons at www.about.com is a perfect example of the correct process in action. Take the first lesson, which starts out with all sorts of important information about the guitar itself: what the parts are, how to tune it, and even how to sit down and hold it correctly. You learn how to hold and use a pick, and how to press your fingers on the frets properly. It isn’t until almost the end of the first lesson that a few simple chords are mentioned and a sample scale is taught.
You can use the analogy of a car to explain why one’s early guitar lesson may be about the basics and end up rather boring. While most drivers don’t know how to fix their engine, they do understand how to use the pedals and steering wheel, check the oil, put in antifreeze, use the instruments on the dashboard for heating, rear window defog and air conditioning etc., and often they can even change a flat tire. In the same way, a beginner acoustic guitar student needs to learn to perform general daily maintenance to keep their instrument working. And they need to drive, or rather play it properly, to avoid damage to themselves and to the guitar.
This is why every guitar lesson in the beginning should include some of this basic knowledge about the guitar and how to use it. Even if a student only wants to learn guitar chords and go off and play folk music or loud rock and roll power chords, they will be lost if they can’t deal with the most foundational elements of their own instrument. Creation of musical masterpieces will come eventually. But they’ll stand on a much more secure foundation if the student gets “the basics down” first.
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April 21, 2010
Formal Study or Self-Study Guitar Lessons
Can you learn to play guitar online and not bother with formal lessons? That’s what many websites claim, when they offer to teach guitar proficiency in just a few sessions. The prospect is certainly attractive if you aren’t sure you want to commit to the expense and time of real life guitar lessons. But it might be wise to stop and think about whether you would be learning properly, or whether you might miss something important by not studying with a real live person.
In the past, you might have avoided taking lessons by studying on your own from guitar lesson books similar to those used in a teaching studio. But now you can learn guitar online as well, in two formats often used in combination. Written web pages provide diagrams showing where to position your fingers and what combinations of positioning will create which chords. But as online video technology has increased in power, written descriptions are often supplemented by videos showing you how it’s done. And sometimes the written material is eliminated altogether, with the video and its commentary constituting the entire lesson.
While it’s true that if you learn guitar online you’ll actually get to see a demonstration of how actions should be performed, which you’d never see with a book, you may still be missing something. Qualified teachers who are able to see you play can detect flaws in technique on the spot, and immediately give a demonstration to correct them. If you take formal guitar lessons, then you get the benefit of this sort of guidance, which you simply can’t get from a pre-taped or written lesson.
The personal oversight and training in formal guitar lessons may not be necessary if you just want to learn casually, and don’t plan to go much farther than your own entertainment. If, on the other hand, you are learning guitar with some professional goal in mind, then you simply can’t do without the one-on-one lessons taught by those with advanced training. Even for casual playing, you may still hope to benefit by learning professional techniques right from the start. It all depends how dedicated you are and where you want to go with your music.
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