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PHIL KEAGGY - Grammy nominated and seven-time Dove Award winner, is one of the world’s great guitar players and a pioneer in contemporary Christian music.
- June 29, 2016
- Guitar Lessons
Many people picking up the guitar for the first time are thinking about taking online guitar lessons. Should you learn guitar online? Whether it’s out of convenience, affordability, or a lack of other options, learning to play the guitar online is a popular option.
If you’re one of those people mulling over your options, you might be feeling confused by all of the different companies out there. Which one is right for you? The experts at Pro Lessons are professional musicians who’ve played with popular acts like Brantley Gilbert and Alan Jackson. We would love for you to choose our website as a resource for your guitar needs, but that’s not the only advice we have for you in this post.
Before you get settled in on where you want your hard-earned money to go, let’s talk about a few pointers that will maximize your potential in the online guitar world.
1. Think About the Kind of Music You Want to Learn to Play on Guitar
There’s a pretty good chance that you haven’t thought this one through just yet, but it’s something you want to keep in mind for a few reasons. First, it’s good to have dreams and goals in mind when starting out on a new project. You wouldn’t begin remodeling your kitchen or restoring an old car without some kind of goal in mind, right? No matter how big or small your dream is, when you pick up the guitar, you want to remember what the stakes are.
The second reason you want to think about what kind of music you want to play is that this will inform what kind of lessons you might be looking for. There are a lot of sites out there that say you can learn guitar online, but not all of them have the same specialties. One site might be really good for beginners but doesn’t offer much for advanced players. Another may boast about teaching blues guitar, but all you really want to do is play rock-’n’-roll.
You want to have a general idea of the music you want to play because that will push you in the right direction for online guitar lessons.
2. Sign Up for Online Guitar Lessons
You might be asking yourself, “Why can’t I learn guitar online just by watching YouTube videos?”
While that might sound good to you now, think about that attitude in a different context. Do you think it would be a good idea to learn subjects like history and english just from randomly hopping around videos online? There’s a time and place for those kinds of outlets (more on that later), but you need something a little more structured if you really want to learn guitar well.
Online guitar lessons should be taken from a company that has a curriculum in place and qualified teachers providing instruction. These are pretty much non-negotiable. Aside from those two aspects, there are a lot of other factors that come into play.
There is a small handful of reputable websites offering free guitar lessons. Most of these cater more to first-timers than those with experience but that may be something you’re interested in. You can find out more about a few of these sites through our review posted here.
The majority of websites will cost you somewhere between $10-$25/month, but the money is worth it when compared to the cost of private lessons and the advantages these sites often have over their free counterparts.
No matter what lesson plan you choose, the importance of them cannot be overstated. The lessons you will learn offer measureable progress of your aptitude as a guitarist and their consistency will keep you focused on a clear path.
3. Practice Guitar Whenever You Can
Without practice there would be no Michael Jordan, no Tiger Woods, no Carlos Santana. In any competition, hobby, or skill set, what separates the greats from the average joes is practice. Not to say that natural born talent doesn’t come into play, but anyone with talent can be outperformed by someone with the determination to succeed.
This is why practice is so heavily stressed in just about every advice column out there. A guitarist that doesn’t care enough to sacrifice a few hours of his/her week to becoming a better guitar player is going to settle on a very low level of skill as a musician.
Sometimes you also have to remember to practice in a smart way as well. Think about recording these sessions on something like YouTube. You can even set your videos to private so no one ever bothers you. Recording your practice sessions will help you pick out mistakes you are making and, after some time has passed, let you see how far you’ve come. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next Justin Bieber.
If you’d like some more tips on practicing, check this post.
4. Find a Way to Share Your Guitar Experience with Others (It's How You Learn Guitar Online)
No matter what your favorite hobby is, there’s a good chance it’s much more enjoyable when shared with others. Movies, music, rock climbing, whatever you do that makes you happy. When we share this experience with others, it opens up conversation and we learn more about the topic at hand.
Imagine if you had the ability to be the next Buddy Guy, but since you never opened up to anyone else about your favorite hobby, you simply lost interest.
When we invite others into our dream to become a better guitar player, it gives us a support structure of friends and family that will keep us accountable and encourage us. Maybe that means putting together a band with a few of your friends or playing a few Christmas carols this December. If you lack anyone who can support your journey, then maybe post a video or two online or find a forum for guitar players that can point you in the right direction for the best gear or anything else you need as you learn guitar online.
Life is simply more fun when we involve others.
5. Learn Guitar Online & Discover Other Resources Online That Will Help You Become a Better Guitar Player
This is the part where we wrap back around to say that YouTube isn’t so bad. The importance of finding consistent guitar lessons online is still the same, but it never hurts to check out other websites. If you want to tackle a certain song or need a little extra help figuring out the next step, the entire Internet is at your disposal. This is where learning guitar online beats private lessons because, in those instances, you are at the mercy of your teacher’s knowledge.
There are all kinds of resources like online tuners, blank diagrams and music sheets, jam tracks, and others that are free for you to use online.
With the Internet, you are never too far from the assets you need to become a better guitar player.
So now that you’ve decided to learn guitar online, the rest is really up to you. Will you take the lessons from here and apply them to your life? Or is that guitar going to sit in the corner and collect dust?
One of the first steps you can check off of your list is signing up for online guitar lessons. Here at Pro Lessons, you can learn guitar as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player. We have some talented musicians who can show you what it takes to be the guitarist you’ve always wanted to be. On top of that, our rates are very affordable. If you’d like to learn more about how we can teach you to play guitar, check out the link below.
