How to Learn to Play Guitar

Most traditional guitar instructors spend a lot of time on learning how to read music first and they don't do anything with guitar tabs. Personally, I prefer to start getting into playing songs immediately. I can go back and learn music later if I decide I want to get serious and start writing my own music.

The major disadvantage to one on one guitar lessons is how time-consuming they are. When I took guitar lessons in my teens, it took weeks of lessons before I could even play a simple song and I spent most of my time doing boring drills. This was frustrating and made me not want to practice during the week because I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere.

Take an Online Guitar Course

The big advantage of one on one instruction is that you have another person to show you exactly what to do and the guitar teacher can also show you what you are doing wrong and how to correct it. This can be a big help with fingering in particular, as some folks have a hard time getting this right.

The first method of learning guitar is the most traditional, taking one on one guitar lessons with a professional guitar teacher. For most students, you would attend your guitar class for an hour to two hours once a week and then the rest of the week you would practice at home.

With a good video course, you should easily be able to mimic the instructor's movements and fingering, so it pays to take a look at a few different online guitar courses and making sure they have some sample video instruction available so you can be certain you will be able to follow along without getting frustrated.

There are basically two different approaches to consider when you want to know how to to learn to play guitar. We'll take a look at the pros and cons of each method so you can decide what is the best way for you to learn to play guitar.

The big advantage of taking your guitar lessons online is that you will be able to start learning to play actual songs right away. Most online guitar lessons start with learning guitar tabs which makes it much easier to just get right into playing songs. You also will have access to the material at your own pace. So you don't have to take a class, spend a week doing drills, only to come back and learn more drills that you have to work on for a week. You can move from lesson to lesson as slowly or as quickly as you can master the material.

The other disadvantage of taking one on one guitar lessons is, of course, cost. Weekly guitar lessons do add up to a pretty penny and can cost as much as $30-$100 per lesson depending on where you live and the demand for your particular guitar instructor.

The second method of learning guitar is to take classes online. A long time ago I may have recommended just buying guitar books and videotapes or DVDs to teach yourself how to play guitar, but the internet has come a long way and so has bandwidth and so I think it makes more sense to do the guitar lessons online. You still get both written guitar lessons and video instruction, but for what you'd spend on those materials bought at a music store vs what you would spend online, you come out much better off online and usually wind up with way more lessons for your money, regardless of which online instruction course you decide to take.

How to Learn to Play Guitar

One on One Guitar Lessons

Not only will you get more for your money, but you'll have access to over 148 video lessons that will have you playing guitar like a rock star in no time.