I wish I would have stuck with or learned how to play the guitar when I was a kid!

Does that sound like you? More an more men and women in their 40′s and 50′s are picking up a guitar and learning how to play guitar. Some are starting from scratch, others have put it down to pursure careers and families, and now have the itch to play again. Whether you’re 15 or 50, rank beginner or semi-skilled, you’ve probably looked around the internet to see what online guitar lessons are all about. Here are some things to look for.

There’s of course, no substitute for private lessons, but that can be expensive and inconvenient. Online materials are getting better and better. If you’re seriously looking to learn how to play the guitar, you should be able to find just what you need.

Griff has been a professional touring musician and guitar teacher for the last 20 years.You can sign up for free Guitar Tips at http://www.griffhamlin.com/Tips-List

Picking out what you want for your very first guitar is a difficult and tricky choice. You probably do not know a lot about guitars to begin with, and with the thousands of selections available, it is easy to be confused.

The first decision involves choosing between either an electric or acoustic guitar. Once you have made that choice, the next thing you have to do is to determine the budget that you are comfortable with. If you are really serious about learning, it is recommended that you avoid buying a cheap and low-quality instrument, as such guitars tend to impede your learning. When it comes to upgrading, you will also find that getting a good price for your guitar will be difficult.

Typically, acoustic guitars have six strings, are hollow and have a sound hole. Electric guitars are not hollow, and require a guitar amplifier. However, electric guitars may be easier for beginners, because the strings are easier to press down, and do not cause your fingers to get sore as easily as compared to playing on an acoustic guitar.

One of the most important factors that you have to consider, when choosing between an acoustic or an electric, is what kind of music will you be playing. If you like to learn how to strum your favourite songs, an acoustic guitar may be better. If you are a great fan of rock music, then you might like to start off with an electric guitar. This is important, because if you start off with the wrong kind of guitar, you will find it much more difficult to find the motivation to play regularly.

Interested in learning how to play the guitar? Learn more about guitars and get links to free guitar lessons at LearnGuitarFree.com!

The Good & the Bad

There are several websites that provide guitar lessons, some even for free. The modules are usually designed by guitarists that have already found success in music and are now trying to provide some useful tips to beginner guitar players. There are both advantages and disadvantages if you want to learn guitar fast online.

The Good

Many of us don’t necessarily want to learn to play the guitar like pros. They just want to learn a few chords to play at campfires and impress their friends or family with their music playing skills. These people are not interested in investing time and money into a more complete learning program, such as private guitar lessons. For them, being able to learn guitar fast online is a great thing.

Even if you would like to learn how to play the guitar well, you might not have the time and resources to do it. If you have a job, a family and various errands to run every day, traveling back and forth to guitar classes might not be for you. Being able to learn guitar fast by practicing whenever you find some free time without having to leave the house is a good thing.

Online lessons are often more dynamic and successful in keeping you focused than a theory book. They usually include graphics, animated images and demo sounds to make it easier for you to learn. If you get stuck, you usually can ask the guitarist providing those lessons for help.

And last, but not least, online guitar lessons are very inexpensive, sometimes even free. In contrast, private lessons are often expensive and you have to pay per hour. Not everyone wants to invest so much money into learning to play the guitar.

The Bad

As tempted as you might be to learn guitar fast online, you have to consider the drawbacks as well. If you are serious about playing the guitar, nothing compares to a good teacher. Online lessons can only provide a standard teaching program, while a teacher can tailor his/her method on your learning style.

Online lessons can not actually focus on your particular learning needs. You might want to focus more on certain aspects, but a teaching program is standard and tries to respond to the needs of average guitar players. In contrast, a private teacher will give you personal attention and respond to your specific needs.

With online lessons, no one will applaud you when you’re progressing and get you motivated. A private teacher can provide you with positive feedback and knows how to increase your motivation when necessary.

Finally, you might be making some mistakes you won’t even notice and end up playing badly. With online lessons, no one will be there to correct them. A private teacher will spot your mistakes fast and correct them in time before they turn into long-term habits.

If you want to truly learn to play the guitar well, it might be better to dedicate a little more time and work to the learning process. However, for many people who don’t want to become superstars or don’t have the time to do it, the opportunity to learn guitar fast online is actually great.

Article by Peggy Hoeben http://www.jamorama.infortool.com

Learning to play the guitar can be a daunting task. Thankfully, there are several different ways you can master the axe. Which way is best for you? Here are the major learning methods available:

Traditional Lessons

This is how a lot of people learn to play the guitar, and for good reason. There are many benefits to getting personal lessons:

• You get hands-on advice, and corrections on every detail as you learn
• If you have any specific questions, your teacher can help you out immediately
• Your lessons are customized to your learning curve

However, there are a few minuses to learning from personal lessons:

• - This is the most expensive way – each lesson costs on average $20 or more per lesson, and at one lesson per week this can add up fast
• - Lessons have to be scheduled, so this is a commitment with both time and money

Personal lessons are still considered to often be the best way to learn, since each lesson is personally customized to each student.

Instructional Books/Videos

Books and videos can be an effective tool for learning. The perks?

• These can be specific to certain types of guitar styles, or even specific techniques
• This is one of the cheapest ways to learn, with books and videos anywhere from $5 and up

What are the downsides to these methods of learning?

• - Again, these can be specific to certain styles or techniques, which means learning the guitar fully will usually require multiple purchases
• - Any questions you may have are not able to be answered by books or videos

Books and videos can be very effective to learn from, but they are fine-tuned to learning specific guitar skills or geared towards a very limited experience range.

Learning Online

The Internet is a huge wealth of knowledge, and can often contain good information:

• Some of the information is free, although it can be hard to find
• The Internet is international, so if there are no books, videos, or instructors available in your part of the world, you can still learn if you can get online
• There are some online guitar lesson packages that offer full instruction for a decent price – in some cases these can include written lessons, computer programs, video and audio files, or even all of these combined

So what’s bad about learning online?

• - Similarly to books and videos, a lot of the free lessons are specific to people of a certain experience level, so finding lessons best for you can be a chore
• - Spending money on a product that doesn’t work to help you learn can be a major disappointment – do your research before purchasing

Learning guitar online can be a good way to learn. The catch is finding quality instruction from the huge mass of information available about learning to play guitar.

Play By Ear

This last method is the cheapest by far, but also the hardest. The perks?

• It’s free!
• Making your own mistakes and correcting them can often lead to learning more effectively, even if you don’t learn exactly how other people have (just look at Jimi Hendrix)
• This will definitely lead to having your own personal style of playing, and possibly unique skills other people don’t have

But it’s not all perfect:

• - It’s the hardest way to learn since you have nothing to help guide you along the way except yourself, and it is also the method that takes the longest by far
• - Learning something wrong and not being corrected right away can be VERY hard to un-learn, and can sometimes cause damage to the guitar or even yourself
• - Many tips and tricks that would help you learn effectively will be missed

Even though it’s hard, a lot of people do start learning guitar this way. It can be done, but just be cautious about making mistakes.

Conclusion

The method you use to learn guitar is ultimately up to you. Figure out which method works best for you and what you can afford. Anybody can learn guitar, it just takes time, effort, and some determination.

Alan Marquez is a guitarist with over 10 years of experience. He plays on a weekly basis and has taught guitar for over five years. See his reviews on online guitar lesson packages at http://LearnGuitar.ReviewsOfStuff.com/

You are apparently interested in playing the guitar. Or maybe you are educating yourself before you make a time and money commitment for a child. I believe that being able to play a musical instrument can be very satisfying and enriching, provided the choice of instrument is appropriate and provided that it is voluntary.

This article focuses on the choice of instrument. The guitar certainly has been, and probably always will be, one of the most popular instruments. Why? I imagine it is because a classic guitar can be taken just about anywhere. You can always play a few strings and soon have a circle of people join you in singing. Even young people join in, especially when some of the classic rock songs are being played.

The classic guitar is generally played at a lower volume than the electric guitar. Many young people however are more excited about playing the loud electric guitar, which requires an amplifier and with that an electrical outlet nearby. It also might require some soundproofing, unless you live in a very remote location. Neighbors generally do not appreciate a group of teenagers jamming at full volume at 10 pm or on a Sunday afternoon. And it is amazing what sound effects can be created with guitar and amplifier. It opens up a whole new avenue of creativity. It is important when learning to lay the guitar, that a clean technique is learned from the start. This is especially critical when it comes to body posture. Wrist problems can arise by not properly positioning the hand and having to contort the wrist, in order to reach the strings. Ignoring any pain from the wrist, could result in having to stop playing the guitar.

Learning how to play the guitar requires a good teacher or good learning program (book, video, audio) and commitment on your part to hours of practice. You can find a good teacher in your local area and you can find good programs on the internet. Many of these programs offer a combination of books and videos. Some include free newsletters or free sample lessons. Check the different avenues out so you can determine what works best for you. It might be a combination of learning with a teacher in person, supplemented by a downloadable program.

So before you run out, buy a guitar and sign up for lessons, ask yourself if you will dedicate several hours each week to practicing and playing the guitar. If you do, you will be able to enjoy many hours of enjoyment playing this wonderful instrument.

Christiane Perrin is the mother of 2 teenagers who play guitar and drums. http://www.learnguitareasily.blogspot.com

I get lots of e-mail inquiries on my website as to why I consider my system, Guitar-eze, to be so much simpler than virtually all the other guitar methods out there. The reason is ? Guitar-eze is based on the well-known but highly under-utilized, and under-appreciated, open-D tuning.

That?s right ? the guitar tuning that so many greats used and built upon, from Robert Johnson (open-E some of the time, but the exactly the same thing, a whole toner higher throughout), Keith Richards (Street Fighting Man, Jumpin? Jack Flash unthinkable any other way), Joni Mitchell (with her jazzy, ringing open-string inflections), and so many more. Open-D can be much more than a one-off alternate tuning, as so often characterized, even from renowned instructors and players, in the method books and websites . Here?s a little clarification on just one amazing aspect of open-D guitar tuning.

One of the great advantages of open-D tuning is its ?visual? aspect. For anyone with event a limited background musical theory, this can be a real eye-opener when learning guitar. Speaking from personal experience (as an aspiring guitarist with a moderate understanding of theory i.e. what chords and triads were), it became the point when the light bulb came on for me. In standard guitar tuning E A D G B E, the starting open chord is generally not usable (a permutation of an A11 or some such). The only way to build chords from that starting point is to utilize various finger-fret combinations, so as to create note groupings that sound the chords you want to play. Not only is the mastering of often tricky and unnatural finger positions a major stumbling block, especially for absolute beginners, the actual finger positions ?mean? nothing. You can?t tell from a E-chord or an A-chord (first position) why they are what they are. Contrast this with open-D tuning, D A D F# A D. Even with no finger to fret, you can ?see? the chord as you look down your strings. The four highest D F# A D are the triad for a D major chord (octave doubled).

What and advantage this is! Permutations are as simple as adding one finger to any one string, to any fret higher than the root note. For instance, staying in our open-D for the moment: Add your first finger to the first fret on the A string (makes it an A#). You?ve just created a D-augmented (D ), a modification universal up the whole of the fretboard. Move that same finger up one more fret on the same string ? you?ve create a D6; again, a modification that can be used up and down the fretboard of the guitar.

For anyone with even just a rudimentary understanding of the rudiments, the logic should be highly appealing. Now, you?re no longer memorizing chord positions, without understanding what the relationships are. You?re seeing the relationships right at your fingertips.

For the experimenters out there ? go nuts! Add one finger to any string starting at any position on the guitar (i.e. a one-finger major barre chord, which is what open-D gives you up and down the neck of your guitar), and you?ve discovered a new chord ? check any theory book and it?ll tell you the name of the chord you?ve just created by making that modification. It?s an endless supply of new chords. Of course, it?s expandable to more than one finger, too.

By trying different combinations off the basic starting point of a major chord, you?ll hit some beauties and, of course, come clunkers. But what a way to hear and ?see? how chords are structured and built. Also, because you have repeated strings in open-D (three Ds, and two As), you can try modifications on the repeat strings and see how the texture of the chord changes with the pitch of the note you’ve changed.

My book focuses on open-D as a starting point to guitar versus standard tuning. The above example is what I refer to as the system?s ?versatility?. It?s something you simply cannot glean as simply when your starting point on the guitar is E A D G B E. I make the point that the system is great for either end of the guitarist spectrum (whether newbie, frustrated, or advanced) ? whether you are theory-based or an ear-experimenter, open-D is much more than just a folkie alternate tuning for one song. It can be a stand-alone playing style (as I?ve done for twenty-plus years), or a viable alternative to add to your existing arsenal.

Frank Foxx is a semi-professional guitar player and part-time guitar teacher who plays exclusively in the tuning of open-D. He has written a guitar method book, extolling the virtues of what he considers to be the most versatile and easiest of all guitar tunings, entitled Guitar-eze A Simpler Approach to Playing the Guitar. His website is http://www.easierguitar.com. He keeps a blog at http://open-d.blogspot.com dedicated to helping guitarists and aspiring guitarists see the light.

Playing guitar requires a technique that is uniquely different from an instrument such as piano. Think about this for example, you can drop a roll of quarters on a piano and get a clean crisp sound out of the keys. The guitar requires a little more finesse with both hands in order to get notes to sound (other than the open strings). Most beginning guitar players focus most of their attention on the left hand (or fretting hand for you lefties), and rightly so. The left hand needs to learn the grid pattern of the fretboard ? where the notes are, where to hold your thumb, how much to squeeze down etc. For the most part, their right hand just holds a pick and swipes away at the strings with little regard to control.

A strong right hand is essential to becoming a complete guitarist. The right hand is the key factor in controlling dynamics, tempo, and clarity. If you want to increase your right hand control and accuracy, practice scales, arpeggios and chord rhythms with palm muting. By palm muting, you are ?training? your right hand to be where you want it to be at all times. Make sure each note comes out equal. Don?t go so fast that you can?t hear each note clearly, you may be over-muting or not muting enough. It may be tricky at first, but stick to it.

Here are some ideas to get you started. First, keep in mind that there are no rules in playing music or guitar. However, as my students know, I do create ?temporary rules? for the sake of developing certain techniques or theory knowledge. So, for now, let?s make alternate picking a temporary rule. Downbeats will get down-picks, and upbeats will get up-picks when playing eighth notes. When playing sixteenth notes, the first sixteenth gets a down-pick, two is up, three is down and four is up. Discover different rhythmic variations of eighths and sixteenths, use strict alternate picking and of course palm mute all of your notes. Palm muting should sound like the notes are muffled, not choked off.

This practice strategy is great for acoustic as well as electric players. Work palm muting into your daily practice schedule for at least 14 practice days. When done properly, you will start to notice a great improvement in your overall dexterity!

John Maurice Doyle is a top Elite Performance and Guitar Coach in Los Angeles, California. His clients have included A list Hollywood celebrities, international rock stars, and hundreds of pro artists. He is the owner of Green Monster Music and creator of the internationally acclaimed Monster Guitar Method interactive guitar instructional DVD series. Visit http://www.greenmonstermusic.com and download your free guitar lesson and listen to his Guitar Monster Podcasts (also available on iTunes).

http://www.greenmonstermusic.com

I?m on a mission. To convert.

To convert guitar players and aspiring guitar players to open-D. It?s the tuning so important to guitar in the last number of decades, but too often, so overlooked by the mainstream. Standard tuning has a stranglehold on the business of learning guitar. The reason, to me, remains unclear.

As a starting point, an open tuning is clearly the logical choice. What easier way to begin to play guitar, but with an open, major chord? How much more confidence could an aspiring guitarist (of any age, but more on that later) need than to be able to play a nice sounding chord without putting finger to fret? That?s what you get when you start with an open tuning.

My personal story went like this. Frustrated novice guitar player (?novice? for years on end!). Gets nowhere with guitar for years. Does research (i.e. reads guitar magazines). Realizes many of the greats played in alternate tunings (K. Richard, J. Mitchell, E. James, R. Johnson, R. Cooder, J. Page, etc, etc.). Re-tunes guitar until he finds one that works ? open-D. Presto! Light bulb comes on, a better guitar player is hatched.

Open tunings are mentioned, frequently enough, in magazines articles, transcriptions, books and the like. But very seldom or never have I seen an outright promotion of their use as a stand-alone approach to guitar (my god, even Keith switches to standard tuning every now and again!). And open-D, the most logical of all starting points, is rarely mentioned at all. I have yet, in 20 years of public performance, have anyone come up to me and say ? ?How about that ? you play just like I do, in open-D?. People do come up, but the comments are almost always, ?You sure use some funny chord positions? or ?Are you playing in a different tuning?. Amazingly, many guitar players associate ?open tuning? with ?more difficult?. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, to make the transition from standard tuning is a bit of a learning curve, but once you?re there, POW! You?ll never want to play any other way (although just adding proficiency on an open tuning to your standard tuning is a giant leap).

Which brings us back to beginners. No matter what the age, a beginner, whether 6 or 60 years old will find open-D an easier way to start playing guitar. It is so obvious. Focus on the strum without any fingers on the fretboard, and then work your way up to one finger on the fretboard (the basic major chord in open-D is just one finger). What a way to develop early confidence. The truth is, and I am living proof, you would never have to make the flip to standard tuning. But if you wanted to, it?s just small tweak up to standard ? sort of drop-D tuning with three other minor adjustments back and forth, to and from standard E A D G B E, to D A D F# D.

One question that arises ? why open-D, then, of all the potential starting points? The absolute simplest choice may be, for easier understanding of theory, keys and harmony might be open-C C G C E G C, but that gets a tad floppy sounding, as the guitar strings are so slackened. Going the other way to open-E E B E G# B E might be going too far the other way, though it?s used. Open-D seems the perfect choice! For singers wanting to accompany themselves, of course, it becomes an issue of vocal range tied to the guitar tuning. A capo may be in order.

Frank Foxx is a semi-professional guitar player who plays exclusively in the tuning of open-D. He has written a guitar method book, extolling the virtues of what he considers to be the most versatile and easiest of all guitar tunings, entitled Guitar-eze A Simpler Approach to Playing the Guitar. His website is http://www.easierguitar.com. He keeps a blog at http://open-d.blogspot.com dedicated to helping guitarists and aspiring guitarists see the light.

Congratulations, you just bought you first guitar! Now that you’ve met the love of your life and made that big commitment, you’re probably excited about building a good relationship with your new partner. But where do you begin? You’ve just come home from the music store with this beautiful, mysterious stranger, or perhaps even rescued an abandoned orphan from the flee market or pawn shop. Cradling it lovingly in your hands, you admire it’s graceful form and captivating voice.

Before you lay several items that you acquired along with your purchase- a case, strap, picks, and of course, that book or video explaining everything you need to know in 10 easy lessons. You stare at it blankly, wondering what lanquage it is.

This is often the experience of a new guitar enthusiast. Love at first sight engenders high hopes of playing like a Rock Star overnight. Then reality begins to sink in and you reallize that it’s going to require some effort and hard work to make this happen! But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. A positive attitude will go a long way in helping you meet your goals. In fact, setting some short-term and long-term goals is one of the first things you should do. Here are a few suggestions:

GET TO KNOW YOUR GUITAR

- Familiarize yourself with its various parts
– memorize the name of each string and how they are numbered
– Understand what type of guitar you have
– Learn how to take proper care of your instrument

GET TO KNOW YOURSELF

- What type of music do you enjoy?
– Do you like to sing?
– Do you want to be in a band or play professionally someday?
– Do you just want to play for your own personal enjoyment?

I often receive calls for help from individuals who are frustated because they are having trouble understanding the book or video that came with their purchase. If this is the case for you, consider taking some lessons from a private instructor. It can be a great way to get moving in the right direction. If you set up a weekly guitar lesson, then you will probably begin to establish a regular practice routine too. This is because you will feel a sense of obligation and accountability to your teacher. A guitar teacher can also watch your progress and offer helpful advise and critique so that you will be able to develop good technique. This is an invaluable asset which you will be unlikely to get from a book or video.

Local music stores often have someone who teaches right out of their store, or they may be able to provide you with a list of teachers in your area. If there is a college or university nearby, be sure to check the bulletin boards and school newspapers. you could also contact the Music Department to see if they know of any instructors who may be offering private or class lessons during after school hours.

Most importantly, be sure to take the time to do a little personal inventory and get to know your instrument by answering the questions in this article. Then, you will be able to establish a good mental picture of where you are now and where you want to be in the future.

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Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABC Learn Guitar. She has been writing songs and providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years. For free guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on songwriting, recording and creating a music career, please visit: http://www.abclearnguitar.com

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Taking guitar lessons is so much easier when you can see and hear examples of what you are learning. The going rate now for private guitar lessons is around $20-$25 per 1/2 hour or $40-50 per hour. Learning your guitar lessons from video is the fastest way to increase your guitar playing abilities. The beauty of computer-based guitar lessons is that the lesson can contain all forms of media, from text and pictures to tablature files to audio and video.

The main advantage of video based guitar lessons is being able to see how the instructor is actually playing the material. Another valid tip is when taking guitar lessons is to not over play. One problem with guitar lessons is that a lot of great instruction and nuances are soon forgotten. However, taking guitar lessons is very much like taking traditional guitar lessons at a music store. The soul purpose of taking guitar lessons is to help you become a better guitar player. Another big thing with guitar lessons is just making somebody feel comfortable enough to play. This can be accomplished with DVD’s.

Video guitar lessons are the most convenient, efficient, inexpensive method for learning guitar ever created. There are plenty of free guitar lessons if you are looking to learn the guitar, but you get what you pay for. Try to find interactive guitar lessons with tab and music playback. You may have looked into guitar lessons, but couldn’t find any instructors to fit your schedule. Specially commissioned video, audio and graphics integrated to provide enjoyable and effective guitar lessons is the way to go.

Believe me with this method you’ll learn to play guitar while saving hundreds of dollars in guitar lessons. Learn to play the guitar online using free guitar lessons and chord charts is not a bad way to go when you first start out. There are a number of guitar lessons online that are available now. A Search Engine for finding guitar lessons and other guitarist related resources is a good place to start.

You can begin playing right now by simply going through the free guitar lessons offered on Internet. There are blogs containing facts about guitars, famous guitar brands, guitar tabs, famous guitarists, guitar lessons and other useful guitar information. There are many guitar lessons online that help guitar enthusiasts to at least get some of the basic and intermediate know-how in guitar playing.

Choosing a guitar can be an extremely complicated task. Choosing a guitar based on price alone is not the best bet. There are many possibilities when comes to choosing a guitar, you will find that there are many options for guitar players when choosing a guitar.

Taking guitar lessons is so much easier when you can hear and see examples of what you are learning. In fact, a mix of online and offline guitar lessons is probably going to yield the best results for your guitar playing skills. DVD Guitar Lessons is most beneficial for beginner to intermediate guitarists although advanced guitarists may also find something new to consider. One of the major problems with private guitar lessons is that students go back the next week forgetting what they have been taught the previous week.

Taking guitar lessons is one of those things that everyone seems to give a shot at least once in their lives, so give it a try. Look for Guitar Lessons that provides all the tools you need to begin learning to play guitar right away. If you have ever wanted to play then getting guitar lessons is definitely something you should consider. Another big thing with guitar lessons is just making somebody feel comfortable enough to play.

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