Reason #1: Enjoy learning at your own pace.

You are your own boss if you get online guitar lessons. You don’t have to struggle with your instructor’s pace, or try and keep up with your class. The great thing about this is that it conforms to the uniqueness of each individual. No two people learn the same things at the same time. There are those who easily learn basic guitar chords after a few minutes, while there are those who will really struggle with it the whole day. With online guitar lessons, you get to learn at your own comfortable pace.

Reason #2: Choose your own music style.

If you are in a class, of course, you can’t just easily choose the style of music that you would like to learn. Most of the time, you are given the modules of learning how to play the guitar, and teach you the chords needed to learn to play their “dictated” songs. With online lessons, you can choose your kind of music right from the very start.

Reason #3: Multifarious lessons

It would be immensely boring to go over the same module or book and repeating the same lessons over and over again, agree? But with online lessons, the whole internet is your module! Just think of the various guitar websites and the programs that they offer – the list just goes on and on. This will keep your lessons at a variety so that you won’t easily get bored and lose motivation.

Reason #4: Learn anywhere, anytime.

Are you a night owl, or an early bird? With online guitar lessons, it doesn’t really matter. The internet is open twenty four hours per day, seven days a week including holidays – so it’s up to you to decide when you want to take your lessons, or when not to. This is one of the best advantages that you can get with it. If you are not in the right mindset, or if you are rather too tired, you can definitely postpone your lessons for now, and get back to it once you are up and ready. Plus, you no longer have to walk or drive just to get your lessons because you can get this right at your very home. What more could you ask for?

Reason #5: Visualization is easy

The good thing about online video guitar lessons is that you have the power to rewind, pause, and even skip the parts that you have already mastered. You don’t get that kind of power when you are with your instructor because if you ask him to repeat some steps over and over again, he might get infuriated. I’m not bad-mouthing guitar instructors here; I’m just saying that this is a reality that you must accept. With guitar lessons, you can just go over the parts that you were having some difficulties with until you get it right – plain and simple.

So, what do you think of online guitar lessons? Did I convince you? If you still feel it deep inside that you ought to get a private guitar instructor or enroll in guitar lessons, then by all means, do so. Bottom line is, you have to choose the best method that you feel most comfortable with. Cheers!

To effectively learn how to play the guitar, you must plan everything ahead of time so that you won’t waste time and effort on doing something that will not help you speed up the process. So let’s start!

The Concept

Learning the guitar is like constructing a building – first, you need to build a strong foundation so that your building will stand tall and firm. In learning the guitar, you need to have a strong foundation too – and that is basically learning how to play guitar chords. Your whole guitar playing scene will somewhat be dependent on your knowledge and mastery on guitar chords. So for starters, you have to do well in learning how to play guitar chords to have a better future with your guitar journey.

The Basic Chords

As a beginner, you are lucky that these basic chords are really simple to pull off with a little practice and dedication. Once you have learned even three of those basic chords, you’ll be amazed at the possibilities that you can do because you can already play tons of songs with those. The famous beginner’s song “Wild Thing” by the Troggs can be done with only the basic A Major, D Major and the E Major chords and there are lots more. These basic chords will really take you a long way.

Try practicing three chords at a time. Once you have mastered those, try to look for a song that you can apply what you have learned. Alternatively, you can look for a song first which uses only basic chords, practice those chords, and then apply those in the song.

There is no magic trick in learning these basic chords – you just simply have to work your fingers off and practice them over and over again, until you can finally form and transition from one chord to another until it becomes natural to you. The keywords here are consistent practice – that is the secret.

The Method

Now that you know that you need to learn how to play guitar chords first, the next thing that you need to consider is to know how to do it. Perhaps the most obvious and easiest way to do it is through the internet. Personally I would highly recommend those very useful instructional videos that you can easily find over the internet and some are even easily accessed in YouTube like these videos below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djlrhXYVyJQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX5nHnwgKvM&feature=relmfu

Another thing that you ought to have is a guitar chord chart. There are lots of downloadable chord charts in PDF forms that you can get for free. This will then be your ultimate guide for your whole guitar endeavor.

So putting it all together, learn the very basic guitar chords first using a method that you like best (I personally recommend online videos) and lastly, don’t forget to consistently practice. I’m pretty sure you’ll find challenges and difficulties along the way, but like I said in my previous posts: treat them as “friends” so you can easily overtake them. I can still clearly remember when I was able to pull off my first beginner song, Wild Thing by the Troggs, the feeling is just extremely overwhelming and gratifying. You’ll be able to feel that once you have mastered your basic chords and applied it in a song – soon.

Happy playing!

I’m quite positive that almost everyone had a hard time when they were first learning how to tune their guitars. Tuning your guitar is one of the most important aspects of the guitar learning process that you shouldn’t miss. You might not know this, but practicing on a badly tuned guitar does not only sound awful to the ears, but it will delay the learning process too.

I understand what you are going through right now as I also took the same path while I was still learning. In my journey, I have learned a lot of things about the guitar and since we are talking about tuning a guitar, I will be sharing the tips and secrets to help you to tune a guitar better.

1.  Tune your guitar every time you get to hold it. You’ll be surprised how easy it is for a guitar to go out of tune. Tuning your guitar each time will definitely make you better too
2. Take care of your guitar. Don’t leave it in extremely hot or cold areas because it can cause your guitar to go out of tune. Avoid dropping or bumping your guitar as well. If you carry it around, make sure it is in its protective case.
3. Invest in a quality tuner if you perform in noisy environments. You don’t really need to break the bank to buy a good one. You can start with a tuning fork, or an inexpensive guitar tuner that you can bring with you on gigs. However, it is much better if you can practice tuning by ear – this will make you a better musician in the long run. You can use the tuner to tune the Low E string and you can then tune the rest of the strings by ear.
4. Learn how to properly attach the strings to the head. If the strings aren’t really correctly attached, those strings will just easily go out of tune while you are playing.
5. Tune UP! This is really a must. You must always start lower than the desired note and then slowly tighten the string until you reach the correct pitch. This will help prevent the string from going flat when you are already playing which tends to happen if you “tune DOWN”. If the faulty string is higher than the desired note, loosen the string and then tune it back up till you reach the desired note.
6. Do a couple of “bends” and then tune the string. This is really helpful especially if you have new strings in your guitar. If you don’t know what bends are, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHdY_XMQsNo. You don’t really have to be an expert in order to do bends.
7. Always double check the “faulty” string before tuning it. Check it with both adjacent strings to really confirm or verify which string is out of tune. Sometimes, the suspected string may not even be the faulty one. So, don’t forget to double check.
8. Play a chord that you know very well. If it sounds a bit odd, or off, then chances are, the guitar is out of tune. You’ve really got to trust your ear.
9. Don’t forget to “stretch” your strings. This applies to newly replaced strings on your guitar. You have to tug on the string and stretch it, and then start tuning it. You don’t have to pull too hard, a few firm tugs will do.
10. Be consistent with your practice. If it’s really too hard for you, don’t lose heart. Just continue practicing until you get it right. Everyone has had difficulties tuning their guitars in the beginning, so it’s not only you.

Happy Strumming!

If you want a more relaxed, practical, yet more or less the same as those expensive lessons, I highly recommend that you teach yourself guitar. If you have the will and the determination, you can be your very own guitar teacher. Plus with all those resources, and available online lessons on the internet, this is really a big possibility.

Becoming Your Very Own Guitar Teacher

You don’t need to be musically trained, or need to have a background in musical theory to be your own guitar teacher. What you need is the ability to assess yourself and be able to tell if you are doing the right thing or not. In other words, aside from becoming your very own teacher, you will be your own self critique.

There is no amount of practice that will benefit those who are practicing bad performance habits, so as your own teacher, you have to immediately realize that you are doing something that needs corrections. It may be quite tricky, but with consistency, things will be easier and everything will just fall right into place.

The Materials

Like any other student-teacher relationship, you are going to need materials that will help you achieve your goals. There are quite a lot of options for these materials or medium that you can choose so that you can start your guitar journey. These come in the form of online guitar courses, a guitar lesson DVD, a Guitar manual and among others. In my experience, I would highly recommend an online video guitar course that can be easily accessed anywhere with an internet connection. You are really lucky nowadays that the internet is here. Back in the old times, people like myself had to rely on those boring guitar manuals and handbooks.

With your materials, you can take your course right in the comfort of your very home and if you feel that it is becoming  overwhelming, you can always take a break or two before going back to the course again. You don’t get to enjoy this privilege if you are with a guitar instructor or if you are in a music class.

The Second Opinion

It’s always good, if not best, to ask another person on how you are doing. Just be open to whatever the other person has got to say whether it is good or bad, and treat those as constructive criticisms that will help you improve your performance.

It’s really great to be your own guitar teacher. So if getting those lessons are too expensive for you, consider becoming your own instructor and enjoy the privileges.

Good luck and happy learning!

Let me set your expectations ahead of time: tuning your guitar is quite tricky, especially if you aren’t all that use to it yet. But with practice and repetition, you’ll effortlessly tune your guitar in no time at all.

Familiarize.

Knowing what a perfectly tuned guitar sounds like, is the very first crucial step. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to discern whether your guitar is out of tune or not – your ears will be the one to help you. Just follow the simple rule: if it sounds awful, then it probably is out of tune, granting that you are doing your chords correctly of course.

Tune by ear.

Tuning your guitar without any tuning paraphernalia is indeed possible. Let me share this video below:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS6musPnlZ8

To put it in context,

i) Pluck the 6^th (E) string on the 5^th fret, and then play the open 5^th string. Tune the 5^th string until it sounds like the 6^th string

ii) Play the 5^th (A) string on the 5^th fret and then play the open 4^th string. Tune the 4^th string until sounds like the 5^th string

iii) Play the 4^th (D) on the 5^th fret, and then play the open 3^rd string. Tune the 3^rd string until it sounds like the 4^th string.

iv) Play the 3^rd (G) string on the 4^th fret, and then play the open 2^nd string. Tune until the 2^nd string sounds like the 3^rd string.

v) Play the 2^nd (B) string on the 5^th fret, and then play the open 1^st string. Tune until the 1^st string sounds like the 2^nd string

If all the strings of your guitar are out of tune, then it’s pretty much going to be impossible to get it in tune using the method above. However, what happens most of the time is that there are only one or two strings that need fixing. This is when you can do the above steps to determine which string or strings are out of tune, then fix and tune as necessary.

Remember, it doesn’t necessarily have to be perfectly standard. Your main goal here is to make sure that the strings are in tune with each other. You’ll end up frustrated if you strive to have your guitar always “perfectly” tuned. Just make sure they are in tune, and focus on practicing your guitar chords.

Tuning your guitar the first time can really take a long time, but just be patient and in time, you can easily tune a guitar in no time. You become better when you learn how to tune your guitar. You can even purposely make your guitar out of tune, and then try to fix it again. Word of caution: don’t overdo it though.

Happy Tuning!

Side Note: If you want to know what some easy guitar chords are, and how to play them, CLICK HERE.

Let’s talk about difficulty. No matter how you go about it, difficulties are really inevitable and they are always there to bother even the most experienced guitarists from time to time. So starting now, you have to embrace difficulties and treat them. So here are a few tips to help you iron things out.

Practice, practice, practice. This is no secret; practice is indeed the only way to overcome every difficulty being faced. The more you practice those easy guitar chords, the closer you are to becoming a guitar hero. The secret here is short, but frequent and consistent practice. You can practice ten minutes every morning, another ten minutes after lunch, and then lastly, you can spend another twenty minutes practicing before going to bed. Do it your way – no one’s forcing you to practice if you don’t feel like it.

Be resourceful. Don’t stick to only one reference book. It pays to do a little research so that you will know different tips and tricks up your sleeve. You’ll be surprised at how many ways you can form one single chord and the techniques that you will learn if you just shed a little time of research.In the video below, you will see a few different ways on how a G major chord is being performed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlDXIVxYxBw&feature=fvwrel

So among those ways, you can just simply choose which style you feel most comfortable. It still is a G major chord anyway.

Put everything you have learned into practice. In case you are wondering if those three chords that you have just mastered will suffice for playing a song, the answer to that is a big yes. There are a lot of easy songs that you can practice on the guitar that only involves three easy guitar chords. Unbelievable? Let me show you this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDAyJmefBY8

With only the chords A Major, D Major and E Major, you can already play Wild Thing by the Troggs with style. There are hundreds of easy guitar songs out there that you can definitely practice even if you only know a handful of those easy guitar chords.

Learn to appreciate your hard work. Give yourself a notable pat-on-the-back for all the challenges and difficulties that you have overcome. The next time you master the C Major chord without looking, treat yourself and do something that you like doing. Forget the guitar for a moment and indulge yourself with life’s simple pleasures. Taking a break from all that grueling guitar practice can help you stay focused and motivated the next time you pick up your guitar and start practicing again.

The last and the most important tip of all: ENJOY. Learning the guitar should be fun and interesting. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Always keep in mind that you are doing just fine and sooner or later, you will be one hell of a guitar player who can leave his audience speechless.

Good luck!

If you have already started practicing and learning the guitar, you will totally agree with me that this is really difficult, especially if you are doing it on your own as opposed to having a guitar teacher in a formal setting.

But here’s what you really need to know: it doesn’t have to be all that difficult! I’m not saying it’s going to be easy either – I’m just saying that there are a few things that can lighten up the load. It may still be difficult, but with practice and repetition, everything will just become easier as you go along.

Here are the things that you can do to that will teach you how to learn guitar more effectively:

Carefully choose the medium that you will be using to learn guitar.

Whether it’s going to be an online course, or if you plan to hire a guitar teacher, care must be taken before you make the final decision. Is the online course that you are signing up for dependable and has a lot of good reviews? How does it stand in the online guitar community? Are you comfortable with your guitar teacher? Can you easily understand him and is he patient enough to help you learn the guitar effectively? Those are the questions that you should think of before you buy, or hire a guitar teacher. If it’s an online course, it should be a student-paced learning system, which is mostly the trend of online guitar courses nowadays.

CLICK HERE for the online course I recommend.

Find a learning buddy.

Like with anything you do, it’s always more fun to do it with a friend. This is true when you are learning the guitar as well. The great advantage of having a learning buddy is you can help each other grow because you can share best practices and help each other find mistakes that could possibly delay the learning process. Plus, practice sessions will never be a bore if you have someone to talk to. Probably the only exception to this is those people who are considered “loner learners” who thrive better when they work and learn alone. But for the vast majority, this really applies.

Lastly, enjoy the process and don’t take things too seriously.

Learning the guitar is hard – but it doesn’t really have to be. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself if you are having serious issues forming that dreaded F chord. Just always remember this: the hard part is only at the beginning. Once you have gotten a strong foothold playing the guitar, and once you have done enough practice, playing those chords will be as natural as blinking your eyes. You must enjoy and find happiness in what you are doing so that you will find it easy to accept difficulty, and overcome challenges that are really inevitable when you are learning the guitar.

Learning the guitar is a never ending process. According to one famous guitar trainer, the length of time needed learn everything there is to know on guitars is forever. So lighten up, enjoy whatever you are doing and pretty soon, you’ll be able to play your favorite songs on the guitar with ease and mastery.  Just be consistent in practicing and never give up on the very first sight of difficulties. Good luck! 

I’m pretty sure you are excited to play the guitar as much as I am so let me share a few tips that has helped me out a lot when I was starting out. Here it goes:

Make sure you have the right instrument.  

Your guitar plays a very big role in your journey to learning how to play it. If you settle for those cheap guitars, most of them sound terrible, and you may even have a hard time tuning it properly. The strings on those guitars are either too high on the neck, and some even have the strings too far from the fret board which makes it quite a challenge when you are practicing guitar chords. You will be exerting unnecessary effort to fret those strings, when you should be focusing on  executing those chords.

I am not saying that you ought to get the most expensive guitar in the market – that’s really a bad decision, especially for a beginner. What I recommend though, is you could get better deal if you look for a good quality second hand guitar. It is cheaper, yet you get more than you pay for, except that is has been used already. If you aren’t sure as to what are the right characteristics that you need to look for, it would be of great help to have someone with you who knows a lot about guitars when you buy one. It should “fit” you just right.

Tune your guitar.

Practicing on a guitar that is out of tune, will not only make practicing guitar chords worse, but it will be awful to listen to as well! Once you have your guitar, practice tuning it.  You might also want to practice tuning your guitar by ear as well because this will be very useful. Once you master the art of tuning your guitar, you will immediately know if one or more strings are out of tune with just one strum.

Practicing on a guitar that is perfectly tuned will help you get familiarized with the different chords and what they sound like, making things a bit easier for you to learn to play the guitar.

Practice good guitar habits.

If you start practicing the wrong things, chances are you will be stuck doing it your entire guitar playing career. It is really of the essence that you start practicing the right things. Practice the proper way of holding the guitar. Proper posture will not only help you become more relaxed and tension-free, it will help you survive long hours of practice without getting too tired.

Know the correct thumb placement and finger positioning. You may think that these are very little things, but doing those incorrectly can prolong your learning process and can give you unnecessary strains in your back, shoulders and hands. If you start doing things the right way, then you are definitely off to a better start.

So there you have it! Those are teeny tiny tips on how to get you started correctly with your guitar journey. So again, make sure your instrument suits you just right, know how to tune it, and harness good guitar habits. If you practice those things, no matter how small they may seem, it’ll truly help you get a good start on your way to learn how to play guitar. Cheers!

Guitar Lessons Online:

While there is a big difference having an instructor who is there in front of you correcting yorr mistakes in real time, you can still get that same edge even if you are taking guitar lessons online. But, like any other, there are few disadvantages to it as well. Imagine, a typical private guitar instructor charges more or less $15 to $25 per hour, and you can expect it to include more or less the following:

• Getting ready of the lessons’ materials, modules, etc.
• Checking and making sure that the guitar is in the correct tuning
• Getting your fingers ready
• Reviewing previous lessons
• Question and answer portion of last week’s lessons and correcting mistakes
• Learning a new lesson

Now this pattern basically repeats every single session that you meet with your guitar instructor. This method has been practiced by most instructors and has been proven to be effective every single time. There’s just one main fault to it: it takes a long time to learn the guitar, and not to mention, it is really costly too! Now, think of getting online guitar lessons. You’ll probably be able to get rid of the first three points above and focus more time on learning how to play and practice the guitar. Plus these:

You’ll be your own boss. You won’t be forced to wake up early in the morning (if that’s your schedule) and you will be the master of your time. If you want to prolong the session, go ahead! If you are already tired after a few minutes, then stop and rest by all means. There won’t be a pouting guitar instructor who will reprimand you if you don’t get there on time, or if you ask for another break.

You’ll have complete privacy in your home. No more drives, no more cab rides for you. All it takes is just a short walk to your computer and voila! You’re ready to take lessons. If you are quite the shy type, then no one will be there to watch you struggle as you learn those chords.

You control what you want to learn.  With online guitar lessons, there is really no stopping how far you go in learning things about the guitar. If you want to skip a few less important guitar theories, you can do so. If you want a more practical approach to learning the guitar and practice a lot, no one’s there to stop you.

It’s totally cheaper. Like what I have pointed out before, guitar instructors are paid by the hour. With guitar lessons online, you can save more than half of what you pay for those expensive guitar tutors and expensive tuition fees on guitar schools.

You learn at your own pace, making learning faster.  Since you control what you learn, you are sure to grasp every lesson you are learning. You have the option to skip, review, or even rewind those previous lessons that you had trouble with before. Learning things at your own comfortable pace can definitely speed up the whole guitar learning process.

So, are you still having thoughts of getting guitar lessons online? The decision is really up to you. One tip though, make sure you like your choice and you are comfortable with it.

By the way, I don’t have any intention of insulting those private tutors and music schools because I was actually a product of these. I just would like to point out how great online guitar lessons can be as an alternative to those. Everyone has the right to know the advantages of each choice so that they can choose what they really want.

So, what’s it going  to be? Better make that choice now! Good luck and happy learning!

Today I’ll be sharing with you the best way to learn guitar so that you will be able to impress your friends with your guitar skills in no time at all.

Before we go further, let me tell you this: there isn’t really a single “best” way to learn the guitar because every person is unique. Choosing the best way is very subjective because not all methods work for everyone. And let me tell you this as well: learning the guitar is never EASY. If you think of it this way, then you are in for a very big disappointment because that’s never going to happen.

The Perfect Approach

You must understand that learning the guitar is a process – it consists of step by step procedures starting from the very basic and working up till you reach the advance levels for guitar gods. While you are still at the basics, it is important that you start learning good guitar habits so that you carry it with you during the whole learning period.

One main problem of beginner guitarists is that they are at a loss as to where they are going to start. The internet can be an ocean of information and knowing where to start can be quite tricky. Most guitarists would just randomly pick up bits and pieces of information and attempt to apply it which could be a ground for developing bad habits that could greatly affect their future learning.

Here are the most important requirements that you should have if you want to learn the guitar:

• Good set of instruction manuals, learning materials, and etc.
• Lots of frequent practice sessions
• Realistic goals and expectations.

If you have those three, then you are good to go. You might want to focus on the first requirement because this is the “star” among those three. Without this, those two won’t be of any help at all.

The Best Way

Here it is: the best way to learn guitar is to 1) set your expectations correctly with the right mindset, 2) get the best quality guitar lessons, and 3) pursue it until you reach the end of the modules.

Consistent and clearly illustrated step by step modules will get you to where you want to be – and that is from a beginner guitarist to an expert guitar player. Having the right mindset will help clear away unnecessary frustrations and let you have the luxury of having fun. After all, you should enjoy every single minute of learning the guitar.

On a final note: if you are dead serious in becoming an awesome guitar god, then stop rummaging through the internet for those minute lessons, and invest in great guitar lessons. You have to look at what is the most convenient for you and it doesn’t have to break the bank. You can find quality and concise guitar lessons online if you don’t have time for formal guitar lessons. But, whatever it is that you choose, remember to always have the correct mindset.