Do I really need guitar lessons to learn to play anymore?
I’ve chose to learn to play the guitar.. But do I really need lessons? I mean, currently, you can learn practically anything you want with a small research on the internet. I’ve got several books and a dvd or two. Will getting lessons be necessary?
Thanks.
If you already know how to read composition, then no.
If not, I’m not sure a book can teach you that properly.
But, I play 4 instruments, and I’ve only had formal lessons in one of them.
Once you learn how to read composition, you can read composition for any instrument. (except percussion is different.)
Get some help with that, then all you need to know is where the notes are on the instrument, and voila.
If you never want to leave your garage or bedroom, no, you don’t need lessons.
If you don’t care if you ever get as excellent as your hero, no, you don’t need lessons.
If you never want to do more than strum along, no, you don’t need lessons.
If you want to pursue excellence in musicianship, you bet your ass you need lessons. If you’re inane to practice 2 or more hours a day, you may as well get the lessons, so you can make the most of that time.
Guitar, especially, you can get quite far on your own, but there aren’t many self-taught guitarists out there who are in fact GOOD. Yes, they exist, but we can’t assume that each of us is in that top 5%, because that is very unlikely. I reckon I answered one of your questions not too long ago… you had lessons for a style you weren’t interested in playing with a classical guitar you don’t really like. So you quit, like 80% of the people who pick up anything. Spend a lot of time in a composition instrument store. Hang out and chat with the salesguys/girls. Yes, they want to sell you something excellent that will keep you playing, and thus coming back for all your picks, straps, cables, other guitars… a composition store that rips people off doesn’t stay open long. Figure out the kind of composition you want to start playing. Then get the right style guitar for that composition, and take lessons in that style. Learn to read composition, plus scale and chord theory.
You can get far as a hobbyist, but you can’t let it get you down when you place on Van Halen or no matter what and reckon, “man… I’ll never play like that…” Well as a hobbyist, no, you won’t. But if you really place your all in (people spend a dozen years in university to master this stuff man! Like freakin surgeon!) you can. You really can.
It’s like golf… if you handle it as a leisure activity, yea, you’ll lower your handicap and have lots of fun. It takes foremost obsession to lose that handicap and start getting par.
Excellent luck!
Need? No.
With enough determination, lots of practice, and an ample amount of patience, it is entirely possible to teach yourself guitar. I did, and I don’t suck.
Before I take up again, I’ll admit to having a bias. I can be a cocky SOB when I want to be, and the method I chose to learn guitar is no different. Also, I ongoing very young, while my brain was still figuratively speaking like a dry sponge, ready to absorb anything. I’ve never had a single lesson, and there are certain elements to my style that reveal the fact that I am not a schooled musician. Then again, my heroes are all (for the most part) self taught.
It is by far simpler to learn guitar with lessons. Also, there are several “improper” ways of playing that a) can be avoided owing to lessons, and b) are hard to change once they become ingrained in your self-taught style. I place the word improper in quotation marks because of my bias; I feel that sometimes, these are also things that give you flavor, that are marks of uniqueness in a musician.
If you do choose to teach yourself, I highly recommend a poster called “Guitar Chords,” available at most composition stores and I’ve also seen it at other places in their poster collections. Not only does it look cool on your wall, but it also makes an simple reference, and it’s a excellent in-your-face reminder to pick up your guitar and practice. Involved new things often is the key to improving your playing. Also key is to remember that everyone sucks at it for the first small bit, and if you can get over that first hump, the rest is smooth sailing.
So yeah, the key word in your question is “need.” Many people don’t need lessons to learn, but it sure can help.
I have never taken a lesson and never will.
How excellent you get depends on the time you practice, a teacher can only motivate you to practice, that’s the whole thought in the rear lessons. If you can keep yourself motivated, playing 1-2 hours a day, doing scales with a metronome, learning chords, you have zero need for a teacher. Look stuff up online, you can learn more than your teachers know with the power of the internet.