Tuesday, February 15, 2011

How Should You Learn to Play Acoustic Guitar? With a Personal Teacher, Online, or Through Self-Teaching?

By Scott Forrester


When it comes to learning the acoustic guitar, you have some choices to make. The Internet has made many things more convenient, but a personal instructor has it's advantages, too. Maybe you could just get a lesson book and teach yourself. Here, we look at the pros and cons of each so you can make an informed decision.

The Internet has a lot of methods by which you can learn to play the guitar as a student. Most of these tutorials online are put together by professionals who know what they're doing. Some of these tutorials offer written lessons, some have video lessons included, and others offer both, in combination. In my opinion, the combination method is best, for several reasons.

One of the ways you can do this is to get a text lesson and learn it, but this has disadvantages because you'll have no idea if you're actually learning correctly. Learning from a text lesson and nothing else is probably the least effective when it comes to learning acoustic guitar. At the end of this lesson, you'll usually get a little song or piece of music included (in text) that incorporates the lessons you've learned in the lesson a true, but you're not going to know how it should sound.

Learning from just a video has more effectiveness, but you don't get the benefit of seeing it on paper. So you see the material played by the video dude and you can hear how it is supposed to sound, yet you couldn't identify it in sheet music. Needless to say, this is not the best situation either.

A combination of video backed up by sheet music of it is the most powerful way to learn the guitar. Here, you can see the music in print, you can hear how it should sound AND you can see it played properly. Plus you can even go over it again and again until you have mastered each lesson.

The use of a personal instructor is another good way to learn guitar. A good instructor can show you the proper way to do everything. They can show you how to do it, listen as you play the material and point out areas that need work. He/she can also tell you what you are doing well and direct you that way. The only thing is if you don't practice, you may spend two or three lessons on the same material.

Self-teaching is actually a good way to go and may be underrated in some things. You can get a book and teach yourself the lessons, but if you just do that, will you have the ability to play guitar? Will you have become fluid or agile on the guitar? You're basically in the same situation as the person who chose to do text lessons online.

However, no matter which method you pick, none is going to have a positive effect or help you play guitar unless you practice. Practice is the key to becoming the best you can as a guitarist. Take each lesson home and practice until you can do it backwards, forwards, upside down, and in your sleep. What does that mean? PRACTICE. Practice, practice, practice, and then practice again.

No matter how you go about learning how to play acoustic guitar, practicing is what is going to make you the best you can be. Whether you go to a teacher in person and pay for lessons, or whether you do a tutorial online, practice is what really makes the difference between success and failure.




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