Learning guitar online is absolutely the newest way to learn how to play guitar music. The advantages are so obvious. You will enjoy more flexibilities and convenience at a lower price. But the next question is: how can you figure out which online guitar lessons product is the most suitable for you? I am here to tell you some tips before you pay the money.
Some online guitar lessons may allow you watch some demonstration videos or free lessons. It is a good idea to watch all of them. The videos provided are nearly as same as the online guitar lessons you may buy later. You will have the chance to try the product first. When you are watching the videos, you may consider the sound quality. If you cannot listen clearly to what the teacher is playing, you know that you need to find another online guitar lessons product.
Before giving you the second tip, I want you to recall the time when you were a student. Did you fall asleep in class? Were you tired of the massive words in the textbook? I think you may answer YES to both questions. So when you are looking for online guitar lessons, try you find the ones that include video guitar lessons. Learning through videos must bring you more fun. And you will learn fast as you can observe how the guitar teacher use two hands to play guitar.
Have you ever imagined to play with famous bands like Linkin Park or Green Day? Some online guitar lessons products offer you this opportunity. They may include jam tracks for you to do that. All tracks are recorded by professionals. If you feel bored with having video lessons, you can play guitar music with the tracks. It will refresh you and then you will have full energy to return to the video lessons again.
Of course you have to read the content of the online guitar lessons. It is because their target audience may vary. Some target guitar beginners while the others may focus on intermediate or advanced players. You have to check this carefully. Although people always say learning how to play guitar is an easy task, it is really difficult for guitar novices to learn advanced techniques. You should learn guitar step-by-step.
Another feature which is useful for you is called discussion forum. You must face difficulties when learning guitar and you must need someone to help you solve the problems. I suggest you buy the online guitar lessons with this feature. Also some products offer you updates about guitar learning and even weekly phone calls. You will learn faster with them.
Last but not least, you need to think carefully about the bonuses. Most online guitar lessons products offer you a list of bonuses. They say you can get all of them free. But do not be fascinated by them. Some of them are really useless. You need to decide which will help you learn guitar. I recommend you to choose bonuses like metronome and ear-training software.
They are what I will tell when my friends ask me how to choose a good online guitar lesson. Hope you will also find them useful as well.
If you are not sure how to find online guitar lessons, you may visit Guitar Lessons Guide. There is a detailed review of four popular online guitar learning products.
Most guitar beginners have the same question in their mind. Should I choose traditional guitar lessons (TGL) or online guitar lessons (OGL)? There is no absolute answer. Each of them fulfills different learners’ need and has their own strengths and weaknesses. I am going to discuss them with you and give me my recommendation at the end.
There are four aspects I would consider. I think price plays the most important role. TGL is much more expensive than OGL. It is normally $40 for each thirty-minute lesson. If you have one lesson a week, the price will be about $160 a month. It even has not included the transportation fee and parking fee.
Traditional Guitar Lesson
For OGL, you can visit some online guitar lessons review sites to research the price. I have done this for you. You may buy an OGL product at $30 to $50, depending on what learning material you want to have. The cheap ones may only offer you e-books and sound tracks while the more expensive ones normally contain a list of guitar video lessons. But no matter which one you choose, it is still cheaper than the TGL.
You can find lots of OGL products on the Internet but I would say some of them are really bad. The quality is not guaranteed. It is the main disadvantage of choosing OGL. You may feel hard to buy the right product. But I will help you to do that. I will tell you what to consider when choosing an OGL in another article.
But I can say that if your goal is just to play guitar music for fun and play songs for your friends or family, OGL is certainly enough for you. Another advantage is that as most OGL is video-lesson-based, you can repeat the videos to learn as many times as you can. You may even skip the easiest topic and learn the most difficult topic first. You have the control.
Online Guitar Lesson
TGL is really suitable for guitar learners who want to be a famous guitarist all over the world. You can learn from basic to advanced level. You will learn how to read notes, play chords and scales gradually. The only downside is you can just absorb what your guitar teachers tell you. It is uncommon that you can select a particular topic to learn. It is because TGL usually have fixed syllabus. You can only learn step-by-step.
You will feel more convenient if you choose to have OGL. You can control how long the lesson should last for. You can choose learning guitar in the morning or at night. As long as you have a computer ready, you can learn anywhere you want. But TGL only allow you to learn on a fixed schedule. You cannot speed up the learning progress unless you pay more money for more lessons.
But OGL require a high level of self-motivation. You have to plan the learning schedule and follow the plan by yourself. For example, you need to schedule the time to watch the video lessons and the time to practice what you have learnt. Unlike going to TGL, the guitar teachers in the video lessons will not check if you have done the assignments. You need to manage your time well and make commitment.
My conclusion is that it is worth for guitar beginners trying OGL first. Because of the lower cost, more control of learning progress and more convenience, you will gain more fun by learning guitar online. If you find guitar is not suitable for you after a month, you will not waste too much money. Even though you think you need to learn guitar seriously after a week, you can also switch to TGL later. So I strongly recommend you to start with OGL.
I have recently found a detailed review of some online guitar learning products at Guitar Lessons Guide. Hope it will give you more idea.
A perfectly good sense of rhythm is valuable to a guitar player. If you have already acquired it without attending any guitar lessons, you are so lucky. It is the best gift from God to a musician. Do no worry if you are not one of them. You can train it by learning guitar with a metronome which is an important tool to everyone learning music. And now I am going to tell you how to do it.
Musicians usually use metronome to keep a steady tempo or beat when playing a musical instrument, by listening to the clicking sounds produced by the metronome. You can select different BPM (beat per minute) to play with. The range is normally between 40 to 200 BPM.
Mechanism Metronome
You will find metronomes mainly in two types. They are mechanism metronome and electronic metronome. There is a pendulum rod swinging on a mechanism metronome to give you a steady tempo. The beat can be adjusted by moving the rod up or down. If you move it up, the beat will be slower.
Electronic Metronome
There are more and more guitar players use electronic metronome. The reason is that apart from giving you the beat by producing clicking sounds, there is also blinking light to indicate the tempo. You can use electronic metronome in concerts or performance to count the rhythm secretly. No one will hear the clicking sounds if you set it right.
For those who do not believe the power of metronome, you can try a free online metronome first. The function is the same but you need to play guitar with a computer. I would say it is worth trying at least one time.
Before learning guitar with a metronome, I would like to ask you to do one thing first. Switch on the metronome and find a tempo that you feel comfortable. Then spend a few minutes to experience the tempo by moving your body back and forth or stamping your foot. This little task may help cultivate your brain to get used to a steady tempo.
After doing the small practice, you can take out your guitar and really play with the metronome. Whatever songs you choose to practice, I highly recommend you to begin with at slow tempo. Play the song slowly and try to play every note cleanly. Your brain will then be more familiar with the fingering patterns by doing so. Do not worry if the music you produce is not as same as the original song. It will be the same later.
If you can play the song perfectly in that slow rhythm, you can increase the speed a bit. But do not increase to much. You should do it step by step. Practice the song again with a faster tempo and also try to play every note cleanly. Repeat the same procedure until you can play the song perfectly with the original tempo.
I am not sure if you find my tips on using a metronome to learn guitar are useful or not. But I suggest you trying it as least one time. You can find an online metronome to start with. It will not cost you any money. If you find this method practical, you can buy a real metronome later to help you.
You may have played guitar for some years but still think that the guitar music you produce is not perfect. One of the reasons may be you have not practiced enough what you have learnt from the guitar lessons. But holding a guitar pick with wrong method could be the reason too. This little thing is always overlooked by most guitar learners.
Guitar Picks
In the past, animals bone and tortoise shell were the main material to make picks. But nowadays most picks are made of plastic. There are many shapes and sizes of picks you can select. It is a personal choice. You should try different picks to find out the one the is most suitable for you. If you have no idea, I recommend you to try a medium gauge first. You will learn guitar easier with picks of medium size.
I am going to tell you the right way to hold a pick now. There are just a few steps to follow.
Assuming that you are a right handed guitarist, you should use your right hand to hold the pick. Stretch your right hand palm and let it face the ceiling. Clench the fist softly and use the thumb to press the left side of the index finger. You need not cover the hold index finger. Just touch the first knuckle.
You should then find a pick and put it into the gap of the index finger and thumb. It is a good idea to insert it deep. When your are playing guitar, your only need to use the small tip to strum the strings. Also do not use too much strength to hold the pick. A little bit power is alrealy okay otherwise you cannot use the pick flexibly.
The same as you use left hand to practice fingering, you also need to practice how to use the pick. To begin with, just choose one of the strings to strum. You may want to strum it up and down. When you feel more familiar, you can then strum chords. You should also try different strumming patterns. If you cannot hold the pick and it drops, do not be frustrated. Just pick it up and try again. You can finally do it.
You can keep your middle finger, ring finger and little finger touching your palm. You can also extend them. By extending them, you can use them to pluck strings, do tapping or adjust the volume button. It is also your preference. Both of them are correct.
When playing guitar with a pick, some people may hold the pick in different ways. I would say they are wrong but I personally do not like there methods. I would tell you what they are and your decide use them or not.
The first one is using the thumb and the middle finger, rather than the index finger to hold the pick. The second way is putting the pick into the gap between the thumb and the second knuckle of the index finger. And the last one is to hold the pick with thumb, index finger and middle finger. I have tried all of them but I think these methods decrease the flexibility of playing a pick.
That is all about holding a guitar pick. Spend some time on practicing it. You will find this small change helps you produce better guitar music.
Changing guitar strings is simple. You can acquire it in a half and a hour with this guitar lesson. After you have learnt it, you may want to do it at least once a month, as a regular practice. If you are a big guitar player, you should do it before each performance, which is to avoid breaking strings in front of a large group of audience.
Changing the strings is a little bit time-consuming for guitar novices. However changing guitar strings is vital. The new strings will make your play the guitar easier and give you brighter sound. It is worth spending time learning how to change the strings.
The first thing is to select the correct strings. Acoustic guitar needs acoutsitc guitar strings. Electric guitar strings are suitable for electric guitar. You should purchase classial guitar strings or nylon strings if you are a classical guitar player. Last but not least, bass guitar strings, surely, are for bass guitar. Do not use the strings and your guitar wrong.
You should think about the thickness of the strings as well. Guitar beginners should consider a medium size. You will have better sound with thicker strings, but it is difficult for guitar newbies to play with thicker strings as they do not have enough guitar skills. Thinner guitar strings can help you learn good guitar skills as well. They are much easier to play.
Pliers, string winder and a soft cloth are helpful for you to change the strings.
String Winder
You may want to place your guitar on a flat floor or table first. It would be better if you change the strings one by one. If you remove all the strings at once, the tension of the neck will also be loosened. The shape of the neck will be changed and the sound quality will be affected. You may think that removing all the strings can let you clean the fingerboard completely, but it is not the only way.
To help you loosen one of the strings, you may want to use the string winder to tweak the tuning peg. If you are going to change all six strings, you can change the sixth string (the thickest one) first. Pull our the string from the tuning peg and the hole of the guitar bridge. It will be easier if you use the pliers to do so. Once the string is removed, clean the fingerboard.
Tuning Peg
Then take out the strings you need from the package. Insert the string through the hole on the bridge and slip the ball in place. Bring the string to the tuning peg. Bend the string when it is insert one inch in the tuning peg. Tweak the peg with the string winder counterclockwise. When it is tight like the other string, you are done.
You will now have some excess string to deal with. You can cut it as much as you want. But do not cut too much. You will not have deep enough tone for playing guitar if you do so.
Changing guitar strings is easy. You will do it quicker and quicker with more practice.
As a good guitarist, you need to choose suitable equipment to play with. You need to have a guitar that fits your guitar music style. If you are learning electric guitar, you may need to have more accessories. I would like to tell you more about different types of guitar and the accessories.
Types of Guitar
Acoustic guitars give bright and loud sound to a small group of audience. You may play an acoustic guitar with a pick or your own fingers. It does not require an amp. They are usually used to play with classical or country music.
Rock, jazz, blues and popular music are normally played with electric guitars. You need an amp when you are playing an electric guitar otherwise it will only produce low volume of sound. You may also use some electronic devices to produce special or distorted effect.
Bass guitars also require an amp. They are similar to electric guitars. They normally have four strings but five-string and six-string bass guitars are common as well. Some people are used to pluck the strings by fingers while the others may prefer to use a pick. You may easily find the sound of bass guitars in rock and heavy metal music.
The most common guitars you always see are for right-handed guitarists. You use left hand to play the chords and right hand to pluck the strings. There is a kind of guitar called lefty guitars which are especially designed for the left-handed. They are only the reverse version of the right-handed guitars. If you want a lefty guitar, you may need to place an order in advance as there are not many choices in most guitar shops.
Choosing the right guitar is as important as chooing a high quality guitar lessons. So decide what kind of music you want to produce first.
Accessories for Playing Guitar
Basically if you have a guitar with strings and your hands, you can start learning guitar and playing many songs. But as mentioned above, you may need an amp to increase the volume. Always remember not to use a bass amp to play an acoustic guitar. Each kind of amp is designed for a particular type of guitar. If you do so, your guitar can also produce sound but the quality may not be good enough and it hurts the amp.
A guitar capo is useful for great guitarists too. You can attach a capo to the neck of your guitar. Then it is the same as using your index finger to play a barre chord. It helps you play chords, like Ab and Bb, easily. If you wish, you may also buy a stand or tuner for your guitar.
Now you have a general overview of learning guitar. Please leave a comment to me if you want to know more.
