Online Guitar How-To - A Guitar Player's Guide to Choosing the Best Online Guitar Program

Right now is probably the best time in all of history to be learning the guitar, or learning anything for that matter. There are so many great options for online guitar lessons. The problem comes when it is time to choose the right training package. If we are trying to choose a guitar how-to, a guitar video course, or a multimedia guitar training package, how can we be sure which one is right for us? It helps to ask yourself a few questions.

Question #1: What will I be able to do?

I think this is a very fair question to ask of any training program. If I spend time with this course, what will I be able to do at the end of it? What skills will I master? What songs will I be able to play? Do I just get a few beginner level guitar skills or will it help me really become a capable advanced guitar player?

Question #2: How fast will I learn? Will I see immediate results?

The world is moving fast and we have to choose carefully what we devote attention to. We demand immediate gratification. Do I get to learn the "good" stuff right away or will I be stuck with "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on my guitar?

Question #3: How will I learn? Will I stay interested?

Everybody has a different style of learning. The best online guitar programs use lots of different teaching methods. Look for programs that combine audio, video, and reading with interactive software, games, and a variety of teachers.

Question #4: Which course gives me the best value for my money?

The key here is to find a balance between cost and value. Personally I am happy to pay more if I am certain that I will be able to learn more and do more with it. I'll take a more expensive guitar how-to, a guitar program that will really help me advance my skills over a cheaply produced and cheaply priced program any day.

The cheapest guitar program is usually not the best guitar program. You have to look at the total picture. Does it teach you what you want to know? Does it help you learn in the way that works the best for you? Will it keep you active and engaged for the long haul? All of these are important considerations.

As I did my own research into guitar learning programs, I kept coming back to two programs that really stood out beyond the rest.

One is a multi-disciplinary guitar how-to a guitar program that will teach you not only how to rock, but also how to play the blues, classical, funk, jazz and world guitar.

Another is an acoustic guitar how-to a guitar program that will give you a very comprehensive training on how to play all aspects of the acoustic guitar and includes lots of really useful bonuses.

Learning Guitar For Beginners - A Guide to Getting Started

There is much more to learning how to play guitar than just picking up the instrument and starting in. It's very important to begin with the basics. You need to know what your goals are, and you also need to have a good guitar learning program. You should be able to expect to learn certain things in just about any beginners' guitar course you might try. You'll need to know those things before you can move up to an intermediate guitar course. Here is a summary of the things you should learn during any guitar for beginners course you might take.

By the time you finish your guitar course you should have the information you need to decide which type of specialty you might like to explore. Your choices include classical guitar, jazz guitar, rock guitar and country and folk guitar, but there are many others. Keep in mind, however, that all these guitar styles start off the same way, with the basics.

You will begin by learning the parts of your instrument and how they interact, what makes a guitar good, and how to maintain it. This information will make it a lot easier to get the kind of sound you want.

You will learn the difference between steel strings and nylon, and when you want to use each one, what kind of neck flexibility works for which kind of playing, and how guitar shape affects sound. You will also find out what different strumming techniques do, and the difference between upstrokes and downstrokes. Most players just learning to strum will start with a few basic chords: C, G, D7 and F. Be sure you can find out how the chords are constructed and how they interact with one another.

You'll also learn finger picking, which may seem too advanced to be in a guitar for beginners course. It also might seem like it would be better with a different kind of music. Finger picking is a valuable technique, however. Learn to use both hands and how to have a fair amount of dexterity with both. Even if you never use a technique like finger picking, it is better to know it than to not know something you need to be able to play what you want.

Tuning and knowing how each chord works with each key are also important skills to master during your guitar for beginners course. You'll start off using open tuning and then try barring, which is pressing down the strings across the fret and completing the chord using the rest of your fingers.

You'll learn scales, too - they're the basis of almost all guitar playing out there. Once you have a good grasp on your scales, your ability to progress will increase greatly.

It can be tempting to jump right in when you want to learn guitar, but don't do it. Instead, get a good grounding in the basics and become a truly skilled guitar player. You'll be able to accomplish a lot more when you get into advanced techniques. Everyone who wants to play guitar skillfully, including people who end up as professional guitarists, need to learn the basics. Those professionals sound great now, but at one time they were beginners too. Isn't it amazing what a little bit of practice can do?

When you first start out guitar for beginners can seem a little overwhelming at times. But if you can exercise patients and a little focus you will be jamming with the best in no time at all. For more wonderful tips and tricks visit http://www.guitarblaster.com

Learn to Play Guitar - A Beginner's Guide

This article is devoted to learning how to play guitar (and even those just thinking about learning to play or giving the gift of music to a loved one) and how to approach gaining some kind of proficiency on the instrument. Now, we've all seen people playing the guitar at various times, sometimes on TV, sometimes up close (a real treat), playing various kinds of music and at varying skill levels. I think the hardest obstacle to overcome when you're earning how to play the guitar or thinking about starting is the thought that playing the guitar is only something musicians can do, or is only for people who are musically inclined. The simple fact is that anyone can learn to play the guitar. It's just a matter of spending some time with it on a regular basis, and practicing in a manner that's both fun and productive. Once it becomes part of your routine, it's only a matter of time before your skill level and confidence develop.

When I started learning the guitar, there were a couple of learning aids I found to be indispensable. They include:



Learning to Play Guitar Chord Reference Book - This is really helpful when you're not sure how to play an F chord or a B minor, or want to learn some other ways to play it

Artist Songbook - This is a songbook which has the piano, lyrics, and guitar chords to your artist's favorite songs, and is great for learning how to strum and change from chord to chord

Classical Guitar Book - This helps you familiarize yourself with the feel of scales and arpeggios, and also improves your sight reading

Guitar Tab Songbook - As you progress, you're going to want to play some of the guitar parts from your favorite songs note-for-note, meaning exactly as your favorite guitarist plays them. This type of book has the music for this both in standard notation and guitar tablature

I had a very insightful guitar teacher who started off each lesson by showing me a new chord and how to play it. Some good chord reference books that tackle these types of chords are the Whole Book of Guitar Chords and The First Book of Chords for the Guitar both written by Dan Fox. Once I had a feel for the chord, he would choose a song from a songbook from one of my favorite bands that used this chord (say a B minor or an A7) and would have me learn that song using an appropriate strum pattern. My mom played the piano, and would often visit the music store to buy sheet music songbooks from her favorite artists, so eventually I got her to buy me a few gems of this type:



Beatles Complete - This is a valuable book for two reasons. One is that it's The Beatles. The second is that The Beatles composed songs with relatively few and very easy to play chords ("I Saw Her Standing There" has three), and also songs with many and often unorthodox chords ("Michelle" has, um, a lot), especially when used in rock music. This makes it a great vehicle for learning new chords incrementally via their songs

Neil Young - Decade - My brother wore out this recording and when I started playing some of the tunes from it on the guitar, it gave his little brother some instant credibility. Many of the songs in this book were recorded by Neil on the acoustic guitar, so it lends itself to the beginner who's learning on an acoustic

Led Zeppelin Complete - This is a strange and beautiful book. It has the main guitar riffs for every Led Zeppelin song on the first five albums (I - IV and House of the Holy) but it's in standard notation. I spent a summer learning every song in this book and not only did my guitar playing improve, but so did my sight reading

Eric Clapton Deluxe Revised - This contains some of the best songs from Cream, the Layla disc by Derek and the Dominoes, and some of Eric's early solo work, but it's unique in that it has a separate section with some of Eric's best guitar solos transcribed. Eric is a great role model when you start learning how to play a guitar solo, because some of his solos are simple enough that they can be played by a beginning-intermediate guitar player (though it takes a lifetime to learn to play it with as much feeling as Eric)

Once we covered the chord of the week and the song that went with it, we would tackle a classical piece. One of the best classical books I can recommend, especially if you're not a classical guitarist, is Classical Studies for Pick-Style Guitar - Volume 1. This book is great for developing your right-hand picking and also for developing your sight reading since all the music is in standard notation. There are some interesting pieces by Matteo Carcassi, which require you to arpeggiate various chords, and also some Bach Inventions that are arranged for duet guitar, so you can play with a friend. You can hear how this sounds in an on-line guitar lesson I created at WholeNote - Bach's 8th Invention.

The one thing that's changed over the past decade in sheet music for guitarists is the emergence of guitar tab songbooks. In the late 1990's, an archive of guitar tablature files was collectively created and dubbed the On-Line Guitar Archives (OLGA), in which random guitarists from around the world created text files containing their own transcriptions of how to play your favorite songs by your favorite bands. The problem was that the quality and accuracy of the transcription was hit or miss. Sheet music companies finally wised up and started releasing accurate note-for-note transcription books, which were the real deal. In my day, you were a god if you could play the guitar solo, "Eruption", played by Eddie Van Halen off Van Halen I, because you had to learn it by ear off the record, which is pretty much impossible. Today, you can just buy the Van Halen I guitar tab songbook and get all the music for Eruption both in guitar tab and standard notation. Oh, and they also throw in the rest of the songs from Van Halen I, and from Van Halen II, as well. I've always loved the whacked-out intro that Eddie plays in Mean Street, which opens the Fair Warning recording. The Van Halen Guitar Anthology Series has the tab for this, note for note, including every last harmonic, pick scrape, bend, and tap. It's unbelievable. And it's not just Van Halen. You can find similar guitar tab songbooks for The Beatles, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews Band, Nirvana, Green Day, Audioslave and pretty much anyone else you can think of.

Finally, as you develop your practice routine, the one thing most often overlooked during practice is being able to play in time. When you start to get comfortable with chords and strumming, there's a natural tendency to stop or to hesitate while switching between chords. A good metronome will make you aware of this and force you to play in time. The Qwik Time QT-7 Quartz Metronome is a good budget option and provides a good click, while the Wittner Wood Case Metronome w/ Bell and Cover is the kind you can hang onto forever and pass along from generation to generation (and I should know - I have one from my grandfather). The Fender MT-1000 Chromatic Tuner/Metronome is unique in that you get both a metronome and a guitar tuner in one convenient package. Very handy, indeed.

You too can learn to play the guitar today! Hopefully, this gives you a bit of direction as you learn to play the guitar. Remember that it's simply a matter of spending some time regularly practicing some of the basics and then applying them to your favorite music. Keep expanding your knowledge of the basic chords and learn to play songs that use them, along with the strumming patterns of the tune. Combined with some classical pieces for dexterity and developing your sight-reading chops, you'll be well on your way to mastering the guitar in no time!

Rick Ferguson
Learn to Play Guitar