Should I learn guitar online at a cost?
- Thread starter lunar
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Caporegime
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I'd rather spend it on English lessons tbh.
You mean so you can correctly learn the difference between "amount of" and "number of"?
He missed out a single word and a question mark - the post made perfect sense otherwise, don't be a ****
If you're planning on doing it online, then I wouldn't pay for it to be honest, plenty of free tutorials on Youtube. If you want to do it seriously, then (in my opinion) you'd probably get more out of £100 worth of in-person taught lessons from a decent teacher, as they can then give you personalised feedback on what you are doing right/wrong.
If you want a structured course you can track yourself with, Justin Guitar has recently revamped his beginner material: https://www.justinguitar.com/
Most will say you will benefit more from a face-to-face tutor and they're likely right. You can easily pick up some bad habits that will limit your ability and chances of success. A face-to-face tutor can also manage your expectations to deter you from giving up.
I tried online years ago, gave up, and then a few years later got in person tutoring for a couple hours a week where I learnt a lot which built a lot of confidence. But then we had a baby etc etc and that had to stop. I jumped back into it using the Justin Guitar stuff earlier in the year and I found it much easier to pick up following my tutoring. The tutoring gave me a good base to follow the course confidently but another baby shoved it back on the back-burner as there is now nowhere to even quielty plug in an electric without disturbing someone in this house.
I will play that open mic before I'm 40 (I have exactly 3 years from today to complete this!)
Most will say you will benefit more from a face-to-face tutor and they're likely right. You can easily pick up some bad habits that will limit your ability and chances of success. A face-to-face tutor can also manage your expectations to deter you from giving up.
I tried online years ago, gave up, and then a few years later got in person tutoring for a couple hours a week where I learnt a lot which built a lot of confidence. But then we had a baby etc etc and that had to stop. I jumped back into it using the Justin Guitar stuff earlier in the year and I found it much easier to pick up following my tutoring. The tutoring gave me a good base to follow the course confidently but another baby shoved it back on the back-burner as there is now nowhere to even quielty plug in an electric without disturbing someone in this house.
I will play that open mic before I'm 40 (I have exactly 3 years from today to complete this!)
Man of Honour
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I really have no idea what the best way to learn is but I can tell you how I started 52 years ago and I'm still playing in bands.
My Dad had always been in bands and one day when I was 12 I finally gave in and he taught me the chords of E, A and B and started to get me play 3 chord tricks which were basically every 50s Rock n Roll songs ever written.
He then taught me a simple way of playing C#m which then evolved into 4 chord tricks and a lot of other songs were easily learnt from the 50s/60s.
I then added chords of my own like C, D, G and minor chords and that propelled me again.
Next on the list was learning how to Barre chord, basically form the chord of E but move up the neck using your index finger as the nut of the guitar.
I'd now cracked it and I was playing in my Dads band 2 months later and I've never stopped.
I'm rehearsing tonight and I've had to learn 4 songs - 2 on guitar and 2 on keyboards so I use an online site called Ultimate Guitar which I have a lifetime subscription to, within minutes I've learned the song.
My Dad had always been in bands and one day when I was 12 I finally gave in and he taught me the chords of E, A and B and started to get me play 3 chord tricks which were basically every 50s Rock n Roll songs ever written.
He then taught me a simple way of playing C#m which then evolved into 4 chord tricks and a lot of other songs were easily learnt from the 50s/60s.
I then added chords of my own like C, D, G and minor chords and that propelled me again.
Next on the list was learning how to Barre chord, basically form the chord of E but move up the neck using your index finger as the nut of the guitar.
I'd now cracked it and I was playing in my Dads band 2 months later and I've never stopped.
I'm rehearsing tonight and I've had to learn 4 songs - 2 on guitar and 2 on keyboards so I use an online site called Ultimate Guitar which I have a lifetime subscription to, within minutes I've learned the song.
Caporegime
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Coming from someone that has a lot of regrets when it comes to time, try your best to make it happen man
I'm a self taught player too, and I also use Ultimate guitar, it's invaluable. I've probably got some bad habits but that's how I learnt and that's how I now play.
The main advice I can give is don't ove do it initially, get too frustrated and give up, I didn't pick a guitar up till I was 16 and because I just wanted to be able to play straight away, it was quite frustrating. Especially in comparison to a few friends who had played at school and learnt early in life.
I'd focus on chords first and finger positioning, get that working well with your strumming patterns. Build fingers strength and learn to barre properly. Then if you want to, learn your scales. Understanding scales will propell you to another level, and reading the neck of the guitar will become so easy.
So for now, master the chords and enjoy it, it's not a fast process even when going for lessons. There are hundreds of songs out there with a 3 or 4 chord structure, so try and nail them, good luck!
The main advice I can give is don't ove do it initially, get too frustrated and give up, I didn't pick a guitar up till I was 16 and because I just wanted to be able to play straight away, it was quite frustrating. Especially in comparison to a few friends who had played at school and learnt early in life.
I'd focus on chords first and finger positioning, get that working well with your strumming patterns. Build fingers strength and learn to barre properly. Then if you want to, learn your scales. Understanding scales will propell you to another level, and reading the neck of the guitar will become so easy.
So for now, master the chords and enjoy it, it's not a fast process even when going for lessons. There are hundreds of songs out there with a 3 or 4 chord structure, so try and nail them, good luck!
Man of Honour
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I'll just add a bit more and expand on James above.
Over the years I've taught many people, the majority who lost interest when they realised they had to put a bit of work in.
The first thing I'd ask people is "What exactly do you want to learn? Do you want to become a 'Musician' or do you want to sit with an acoustic and strum songs?".
If they answered Musician I would tell them I'm not the person for them.
I'll go back to my first 'student' in the 70s and he said he'd love to be able to play American Pie by Don McLean so that's what we set about doing.
I taught him G, C & D which were the chords needed for the first 3 lines in the chorus, he went home, came back the following week and had cracked it so we then went on to the last line in the chorus which was Em, A, Em D (I think).
He went home and played until he could sing all the chorus while strumming.
Third week I said that he now knew all the chords to the song (might have been a couple of minors and 7ths) but he was equipped to play it so gave him the chord sheet.
On the 4th week he played all the song to me plus a couple more that he decided to learn because he now knew all those chords.
There wasn't a 5th week and a few months later he was getting up and doing a couple of songs at open mic's.
You then get the opposite, a bloke said he would pay me extra to go to his house and when I got there he had bought a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a full Marshall Stack
He hadn't got the slightest clue and I helped him to sell them on a month later.
Over the years I've taught many people, the majority who lost interest when they realised they had to put a bit of work in.
The first thing I'd ask people is "What exactly do you want to learn? Do you want to become a 'Musician' or do you want to sit with an acoustic and strum songs?".
If they answered Musician I would tell them I'm not the person for them.
I'll go back to my first 'student' in the 70s and he said he'd love to be able to play American Pie by Don McLean so that's what we set about doing.
I taught him G, C & D which were the chords needed for the first 3 lines in the chorus, he went home, came back the following week and had cracked it so we then went on to the last line in the chorus which was Em, A, Em D (I think).
He went home and played until he could sing all the chorus while strumming.
Third week I said that he now knew all the chords to the song (might have been a couple of minors and 7ths) but he was equipped to play it so gave him the chord sheet.
On the 4th week he played all the song to me plus a couple more that he decided to learn because he now knew all those chords.
There wasn't a 5th week and a few months later he was getting up and doing a couple of songs at open mic's.
You then get the opposite, a bloke said he would pay me extra to go to his house and when I got there he had bought a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a full Marshall Stack
He hadn't got the slightest clue and I helped him to sell them on a month later.