Beginners Guitar Lessons

Archive for May, 2009

I have this guitar and I used to pay for lessons, but my teacher never taught me anything new. I have some basic background knowledge on how to play. Does anyone know good sources such as books that I could buy to teach myself. I have plenty of time to practice if theres a book for newbies like me. Thanks!

check out this website. just look up a song you want to play and it will give you tabs. if you are not familiar with tabs, google it. there are also chords which give you the music notes such as EM, GM, G7, etc.

My mom's friend, from work, is selling his guitar for $20 including a book. I asked my mom if we could buy it and she said yea. (and maybe his 2 other guitar's, she said)
But the problem is, I don't know how to play a guitar. Sure I have played one before, well no, it was an ukelele
I don't want to take lessons because I feel guilty about making my mom and dad pay for the lessons, when they've already given me so much. So I'm planning to learn all by myself.

another question: I know how to read a scale (some of it)… but i don't know where to put my fingers…. so what do i do???
Last… how should i thank my mom for buying a guitar? Lol i told her that this is my birthday present (birthday is on the first of September)

Lol, sorry i gave so much info (excited that i'm getting a guitar)… best answer get's 10 points and A LOT OF THANKS!!!

It sounds cliche, but practice, practice, practice.

And see if any of your friends play. Most muscians enjoy passing their knowledge on.

That and read up on it online. There are many videos on youtube to help.

Also try cyberfret.com for almost every sort of lesson, scale, chord and note. They even have a tuner online. And try ultimate-guitar.com for tabbed out music and chords for virtually every song ever.

And good luck, it takes some time but its worth it. Just remember to have fun and not get frusterated.

I have owned guitars for years and my dad was in a band but I haven't really learned any actual songs on the guitar. My dad has tried teaching me but because my parents split and I live quite far away I rarely see him. I don't want lessons because I don't like the idea of a set time so I would like to teach myself. Is there an easy solo I could learn?

Smells like teen spirit- Nirvana
Hit me with your best shot- Pat benetar
Iron man- Black Sabbath
Eruption- Van Halen

I'm considering providing private guitar instruction over the internet using a webcam. Does anyone have recommendations as to the best setup to use (ie Skype vs MSN or any other methods)?

Also, I'm trying to find some students who would like to serve as guinea pigs. Is anyone interested in trying this out? I would give you free live video guitar lessons in exchange for your feedback.

I'm an experienced musician and teacher but I don't have any experience with video calls so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian
http://www.MyOnlineGuitar.com

You just might want to post this over in the computer technology category–not a lot of geeks here.

Sounds like you will have a good service there if you can get it up and running. You probably will need the student to have a very high-quality webcam that can be focused for a tight shot on the fingerboard–a built-in 1.3 mpixil webcam for the student probably won't give you enough resolution.

And, of course, the student will need some fairly robust broadband. Frankly, it might be cheaper for them to get face-to-face lessons!

As for software, for that I have no ideas–again, ask the geeks over in that other area of YA.

Trying to decide whether to take guitar lessons in class or online and save money.
I'm a beginner and my friend is kinda intermediate… he thinks(LOL).
We want to get the best instruction, quick!
I think it's the competition among teachers that makes some thumbs-down your answer, Switch.
I gave it thumbs up.

I think that a combination of both would be a very good way to start. You can take one private lesson to learn the correct posture and left hand positions, and then switch to online lessons to save a significant amount of money and time. If you have a bit of self-discipline, you can actually get more from online lessons. You can then go on with online lessons and have some private tuition say once a month or every two months to sharpen the edges and clarify anything you don't fully understand.

Let's make a small calculation and try to figure out some points:
Normally, you would take one lesson a week if you want to see any kind of result in say 6-12 months. Let's assume that one hour of guitar lessons costs $40 (which can actually be higher). So, it would make $160 a month and $960 for six months. This is actually an awful lot of money to spend. Instead of this, you can go on with online resources – and there are some very decent resources that can provide value with a very small investment in terms of money- and have one lesson a month which sums up to only $240 in 6 months. You can find below an article I've found that can help you get in the right direction. Hope this helps you a bit.

I just bought a online guitar lesson program and i was wondering after i finish the online lessons should i look into getting a teacher? Will they teach more then the online lessons.

A live teacher will increase your progress so much because they can respond to your questions, correct your technique and change the direction of your lesson to fit what you need.

My 10 year old has taken guitar lessons for about 8 months. She has also taken piano lessons for about 5 years. She knows some chords. We may need to stop her lessons. To keep her learning, we were thinking of an instructional DVD. Is there one that would be especially good for her age. We, as her parents, don't know guitar. Therefore, we want a good program to help her to progress. Thanks.

There is no video replacement for lessons.

just got a guitar for christmas and my busy schedule wont really allow me to make appointments with an instructor. Was looking for a site that can teach me the essential things to playing a guitar that i could reference at my own pace.

YouTube.com
All-Guitar-Chords.com
Ultimate-Guitar.com

Youtube for lessons/songs.
All-Guitar-Chords.com for scales, chords, ect.
Ultimate-Guitar.com for guitar tabs/how to read tabs.

Smoke on the Water

I just started playing guitar and need to learn chords, progressions and scales. What are some websites that offer free lessons on line?

Or better yet, this site is free, and has all the free instructional videos you need.

http://codeshredlessons.com/lessons.html