How I Learned To Play The Guitar
Learning the guitar is a journey that lasts a lifetime.
My First Ever Guitar Lesson!
I was excited. My dear friend Andrew Little was already a decent guitarist and yet for some reason he was too shy to go to lessons with the new guitar teacher without a mate so he asked yours truly. I was 14 years old at the time and in my first year at high school. I loved music but I'd never learned any instrument except the recorder and in that I had no interest whatsoever. However, for some reason I thought I could enjoy learning the guitar. I rang my parents to ask if it was ok and they agreed. I thought to myself "How can I possibly learn guitar? I don't even own a guitar!" That particular problem was solved pretty quickly when another friend that was learning told me that I could use his guitar until I had my own.
Guitar Lesson Day....
The day of reckoning arrived. Andrew and I excused ourselves from our respective classes and headed across to the music room. We gingerly knocked on the practice room doors where our lessons were being held. After a brief moment we heard a voice from inside beckoning us to enter. We went in and met our teacher - Mr. Peter Thwaites. He was awesome right from the get go. He had long hair because every guitarist in the 80s had to have long hair, he had a quirky accent and always said "Shuzzbutt" or "Schweppes" and he knew how to teach.
My First Guitar Chord...
D! I was awful. To this day I'm still amazed that Peter didn't rise up and cast me into the gloomy pit of non-guitarists. My fingers were terrible. They disobeyed my every command and it seemed the sense of rhythm that I thought I had decided to forsake me during that brief 17 minute guitar lesson of doom. To make matters worse there was some black dots on paper that might has well have been Egyptian hieroglyphics written by Amun Ra himself. I later came to understand that that was classical guitar sheet music! My friend Andrew was already far too good for that page and he was learning from the next book...."Oh great" I though to myself. I'm stuck in here sharing a lesson with the best guitar player in our year. Andrew new all the basic chords and could even do a little solo with a pentatonic scale whilst I could scarcely recognise my own stubs flailing about on the fretboard like a fish flops around on a beach when you've landed it.
But I had Fun...
Despite the trauma of that initial guitar tutorial I understood that something inside me had been triggered. How little did I know that the first guitar lesson with Peter Thwaites and Andrew Little would shape and influence my life from that day to this.
Final Words...
Learn guitar! Nowadays with the advent of the internet learning classical guitar or any style of guitar be it electric guitar or acoustic guitar is easier and more accessible than ever. After I finished at that school I couldn't find another teacher in the area that we moved to so I had to resort to teaching myself. If that scenario had taken place 15 years later I would have been able to use YouTube to learn or I could have found a teacher online. Do yourself a favour and check out my online guitar lessons and all of the free videos that I have up on YouTube. They're an incredible resource that enables you to learn anywhere that has a guitar and an internet connection with a device.
Let your fingers fly!
Josh
Learn Guitar Online
Learning guitar can be a scary thing - especially with a new teacher. Learning online using Skype can be a cost-effective & super convenient way to learn.
Introduction
The option of learning guitar online has been around for many years but there are still many people that are reluctant to learn using this method, preferring instead to go it alone or learn in-person with a tutor. Years ago I too thought that learning online wasn't really possible but I was wrong.
The event that changed my mind occurred when I was on tour in the middle east several years ago and I needed to learn a fairly complex guitar solo with extremely limited time to do so. Under normal conditions I would've taken a couple of days to learn it by ear but in this case I had less than 12 hours to try to nail it. I was trying to think of an easier way to get it done and I thought of YouTube. I typed in the name of the song and voila - there was a lesson for it! A kind person had posted it on their channel and it took me about an hour to get it all down. Needless to say after that I was hooked and I realised that learning guitar from an instructor on a screen was an entirely valid option. I had learned guitar stuff from the Hotlicks range of videos that were popular prior to the internet so learning from a screen wasn't totally foreign to me but with YouTube & Skype there's a difference and that difference is the ability to interact and receive feedback. The old school instructional DVDs and videos were a strict one-way affair.
The new age = Interactivity
YouTube opened doors with comments section. I have no doubt that most of you that are reading this post have come here because you've watched one or more of my tutorial videos on YouTube. You'll notice in the comments section on my videos that there are tons of questions and I answer them all. This is the wonderful opportunity that online guitar learning offers - interaction with the tutor in the video. The downside with YouTube is that some of the creators that post content don't respond to questions for various reasons but you may (if you're lucky) receive feedback or an answer from someone else. Sadly, though it is hit and miss.
Fortunately, Skype lessons can give you that much needed feedback or answer to that question. The downside with Skype guitar lessons online is usually the price. YouTube is 100% free whereas a private lesson with a guitar teacher online could cost anywhere from $5 to $200 for an hour and a private one-one-one lesson in your home or studio could be even more expensive. You'll also need a decent internet connection, a webcam, and a microphone, and somewhere peaceful to do the lesson and that can be an expensive outlay for some although a smart phone or tablet has all of those features and they're usually within the grasp of most people.
I would say if you are really serious about learning guitar definitely consider online guitar lessons as a viable option. It can also be a great option for those that have hit a plateau and need some assistance or advice to overcome that plateau and move forward.
Let your fingers fly!