Better to learn guitar by myself or from lessons? How to teach myself?
Hello, I had been wanting to learn guitar for the absolute longest time now and will have a lot of free time coming up this second semester of my senior year in high school. Was wondering if it will be better to learn guitar by myself or from lessons.
I used to be in orchestra playing the violin until my junior year of high school so I guess you could say I have some composition social class.
Also, at the age of 18, is it a small late to learn guitar or no?
Thank you all!
I taught myself at age 17, and learned quickly. There are huge advantages to learning late with regard to body size and finger strength. Sounds like you have enough social class to teach yourself.
I’d recommend you buy a book to learn the basics, with some chord diagrams. Learn the basic chords, and expand from there. Playing along with a song by ear, playing the melody on one string, is also fantastic practice. Tab is a valuable thing to learn, various online tutorials give reasons for this simple notation.
Excellent luck
It’s best to take a few lessons to get you ongoing on the right track, and make sure you are playing the right way. You can then learn a lot on your own owing to youtube.com, and other various sites.
It’s not late at all to learn. You can learn an instrument at any age. I ongoing at 14. By the time your 25, nobody will know that you ongoing at 18… assuming you dedicate yourself to playing every day.
The best, simplest, and fastest way to learn is with lessons form a excellent qualified local instructor. Over 90% of all people who try to teach themselves end up quitting after a small time due to frustration and lack of direction. A excellent teacher can show you the proper way to play and help keep you motivated. That life said, there are several resources to help you to learn. Books, DVDs and websites all offer valuable information but none of them can take the place of a qualified instructor sitting in the same room with you and showing you exactly how to do it. Books, DVDs, and websites can’t answer a question for you or point out if you are doing something incorrect and why. I always recommend to start off with a few months of lessons to insure that you are learning the proper techniques. Once you get the basics down then it is much simpler to take up again on your own.
I’ll second everyone else’s responses here: It’s never EVER too late to start learning a new instrument. And lessons are better. Classical lessons can help enormously, even if you don’t play classical composition. Beyond doubt start out on lessons for at least a month or so. If you don’t keep inane with lessons, at least learn tablature and some scales. I’m sure you know that scales are the backbone of composition since you played violin (king of the classical world!). Strumming patterns are excellent to know too. And chords of course, but that’s a given. I’d start learning all of that (admittedly not very fun) stuff before I start just trying to play songs.
18 is as excellent as any.
Learning the Guitar
You need a course of instruction.
The best way is with a confidential teacher
2nd would be class lessons
3rd regularly get together with other guitar players
or if you absolutely will or cannot do the above, Buy a book on how to play the guitar and follow it religiously.
Last would be to find some free online lessons and skip around in them doing what YOU reckon you want to do next.
You can save a lot of money by compelling advantage of modern technology and using instructional DVDs to learn guitar. I took lessons years ago and found them frustrating, since I couldn’t question questions between weekly lessons and if I mastered the material ahead of time, I felt wedged in place when I was ready to go forward. But there’s a fantastic DVD set that will teach you everything you’d learn in years of lessons for less than $40. There are three DVDs (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and a book that accompanies each of them. The instructor is fantastic and walks you owing to everything and tells you when to refer to the book. And the advantage of DVDs is you can use them whenever you have time and review information as necessary. I’d been playing in bands for more than 20 years when I tried the DVDs and can’t believe how much my playing has improved. It made me wish these had been available when I was 18 and just getting ongoing on guitar (18 is beyond doubt not too ancient to learn guitar — especially with your musical social class).
Here’s a link to the DVD set at Musician’s Friend:
http://books-videos-composition.musiciansfriend.com/product/Rock-House-Learn-Rock-Acoustic-Guitar-Beginner-Intermediate-Hands-of-Steel-DVD-Package?sku=942720
Excellent luck! And my apologies to all the guitars teachers I offend by redeployment this.
Hi,
First of all your are never to ancient to learn to play the violin. I have even a student who is 63 years ancient and she is doing fine and learned to play basic level violin within some months. Within one year she could play more advanced pieces.
I made a website for beginners. The site is about how to hold the violin and how to hold the bow. I also added some excercises and made detailed pictures of the finger positions.
Hopefully you can start with this:
http://www.violinfromscratch.com/home
Deborah
I taught myself how to play guitar by watching youtube video lessons on the basics and then I got a friend to help me read tabs and I ongoing involved everyday and I got better.I just ongoing when I was 17 so it’s never too late to learn how to play!
When you’re learning anything for the first time, it’s overwhelming to try to pick the most reliable source of information. You can buy a cheap book or even try to go owing to reading a lot of free lessons that are offered online. Keep in mind though that just like many things, you get what you pay for. A walmart book or free articles are only inane to take you so far, and you probably won’t learn what you in fact want to learn.
The best inexpensive yet reliable option is video lessons on the web. You in fact get taught how to play. I personally have spent years and years developing a system and making an online instructional website that is quality (not just trying to make a buck–like most sites out there). In fact, I offer a new video lesson every single week, answer questions, have a forum. It’s set up just for people like you. I in fact take the time to help you as you learn. I’ve tried to make a very simple way to learn. I reckon you’ll like it! http://guitarmann.com
Anyway, here’s a blog post I made recently about choosing on online guitar instruction website. Excellent luck learning! http://guitarmann.com/articles/the-best-online-guitar-lessons There are also many other guitar blog posts you can check out!
Stephen