Hey there, my name’s Matt
and I’ve been playing guitar for over ten years since August 2003. I started out pretty much just like you, with no idea how to play electric guitar, acoustic guitar, metal guitar, or any kind of guitar. And the online guitar lessons at the time were just awful! The internet still felt prehistoric back then and the only place I had to go was Ultimate-Guitar.com and the forums.
So I learned despite all of that…..How can you learn to play despite all the bad advice and websites out there??? First off you need to understand the pros and cons to using videos, personal lessons, and ebooks to learn. And then you must understand what exactly you need to start learning. I want to talk mostly about the online guitar training available throughout the net right now, but if you’d like to learn how to play guitar in 7 days then check out this article. Otherwise, let me tell you about my experiences learning how to play like a pro all by myself…..
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Learning Through Videos
This is, IMO, the least effective way to learn the guitar for several reasons….
First, you spend way too much time trying to find the right video with the right song with the right angle with the right way to explain how to play Master Of Puppets.
There’s a plethora of lessons online through YouTube and other guitar sites, but you’re also taking away time from practicing the real skills you need to play.
Watching videos prevents you from building your ear skills, breaking down tabs, and actually playing, believe it or not.
Most of the time, I got caught up being entertained by some of the wacky videos out there that I forgot what I was looking to learn.
Despite all of this, you can learn, and I like to believe that some of my videos are pretty good.
I’ll post some links to them below.
What I suggest is that you……
1. Make a list of what songs you want to learn
2. Determine if its within your ability because you want be playing Yngwie your first week
3. Start building up your ability to execute the techniques necessary to play the riffs
In Person Lessons
The obvious cons to paying for personal lessons is that……
They’re expensive. They’re way too short. Many teachers won’t teach you what you want. And also, many teachers don’t have much experience teaching beginners.
The main reasons you should take in-person lessons is if you just don’t have the discipline to work on playing guitar yourself.
You need a lot of conviction to get through the hurt fingertips, awkward chord shapes, and tricky combinations and right & left hand techniques.
After you learn your first couple of riffs, which I show you how to do in my Clueless Beginners Guitar Course, you’ll get the hang of it all relatively quickly if you put in the work.
But if you don’t like to read either, then I highly suggest an online guitar lesson site like Jamplay.
Learning From Guitar Books
By now you’ve probably figured out that I’m not a big fan of most guitar resources, and the stuff you’d find in Barnes & Noble or Amazon isn’t that great either.
Writing is really tough, and explaining the step-by-step process to learning guitar isn’t easy either.
And most books are based on the premise that learning chords is all that’s necessary to play most songs.
Well…….yes and no.
Lots of songs are just strummed chords, while others, like Metallica metal riffs, require intricate mixtures of techniques.
So what I did was I broke down the process of playing a riff step-by-step from interpreting the tab, applying the right techniques, to executing them in combination.
And I use riffs from popular bands like Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, and many, many more.
Check it out down below…….
Online guitar lessons is a mixed bag and you’re never quite sure what you’re getting in most cases.
But hopefully this short article gave you an idea of what you need to do in your own situation and what to expect if you’re just getting started.
If you have an questions about anything concerning learning to play guitar, then email me at the contact form at the top of this website.
–Matt, Play It Loud
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