What’s this week’s guitar lessons question? Let’s dive straight in…
Question: When I was a beginner, my teacher would give me assignments to do for 1 week.
Then, I would practice 40-60 mins daily and by the next week I would have it pretty good. After becoming "intermediate" exercises are taking much longer to master… what to do? it seems there’s no end to it.
My teacher said in 2 more years I will have a very strong foundation in guitar playing. Is he exagerating?
Answer: As a beginner, your instructor would give you fairly simple exercises to work on that you could master fairly quickly. Now as an intermediate player, the lessons become more difficult and require more time and effort to complete.
2 years is a conservative estimate. It could actually take much longer to develop a "very strong foundation" in playing. This is not a race and you should not be concerned about how long it takes you to get to a certain level, or how "hard" your lessons have become. Immerse yourself in the experience. Join or form a band with other people your age that are on a similar level as you are. Practice as much as possible and try learning other things than just what your teacher shows you. I tell all of my students to spend a couple of hours each week learning some songs or any other things that are interesting to them. As an instructor I can only help them develop a strong foundation in playing. It is up to the student to "fill in the blanks" and make the effort to really learn what I show them. When a student comes to me and says, "I figured this out" or "I was messing around with this" I get very excited because it shows that this is a student who is really into playing the guitar. I will often take a whole lesson to expand on what the student has "discovered". This makes the process much more enjoyable for the both of us. It allows me to use their interest to help them better understand a technique, or a bit of theory, or some aspect of playing that we may or may not have already covered.
We’ve had a reader question come in on the subject of guitar lessons. Let’s take a look:
Question: I’ve been trying to learn how to play for a while now. The problem is, I find a website that gives shit instructions for beginners and I get frustrated and quit. (Or the site lets me see the first lesson or two free and then try to rob me blind with monthly subscriptions, etc. to their site)
So if anyone knows of any (free) really thorough, step by step guitar lessons sites, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Like, I find one a while ago that broke things down nicely. It showed you a few chords, had you practice them in different patterns until you were familiar and then moved on. Unfortunately, I completely forgot what the name of that site was. >__>
Answer: I think this one is very easy to follow.
http://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-000-BeginnersCourse.php
Keep the learn guitar questions coming! I liked this one:
Question: What Are the Benefits of Taking Guitar Lessons Compared to Learning from YouTube?
Answer: Nothing is better than having an actual live teacher in front of you. They can observe your playing and point out what’s good and what needs work. They will often draw your attention to things that you never would have noticed as well. They can jam with you, which is one of the best ways to learn (it’s also why I specified having a live teacher in the room, you can’t jam over the internet) They will craft a lesson plan specifically for you, complete with exercises that will help you target your weak ares.
There really is no comparison. One on one private tuition has always been the best way to learn a musical instrument, and nothing is posed to change that.
Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:
Question: Hey.
I’ve had a few different guitar teachers and they’ve all been trying to teach me how to play guitar like a pro but all I want is to learn how to play some of my favorite songs.
Then my friends told me there’s this guitar teacher that teaches cool rock & pop songs so I gave him a call. He turned out to be a teacher like all the others. We had guitar lessons for the whole school year but I’m sick and tired of it. I want my parents to tell him I don’t want lessons anymore but they said I have to do it.
I know he’s going to give me a call on September 1st and I want to prepare what I’m going to say.
Any ideas?
Thanks so so much xxxx
Answer: First of all tell him you thank him for taking his time out to teach you. Make up an excuse such as saying: "I’ve learned what I wanted to learn", "I’m really busy with other things" or "I want to play another instrument and don’t want to play guitar anymore". I doubt that he will be mad at you for not wanting him to teach you anymore, he was lucky to be payed for it.
Good Luck 
Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:
Question: I want to be good at finger picking and straight picking
Answer: You should be if you are able to continue to follow the instructions of a good teacher.
Stay in there.
What’s this week’s guitar lessons question? Let’s dive straight in…
Question: I’ve looked everywere on the net . I just want to get good enough so I wont be so embarrassed to try to learn and pick with em. I wanna be able to join in a jam sesion and not completely make an ass out of myself but the people i know that play are really good and don’t really like having to completely start from scratch i can strum a few chords but i need to be able to carry a beat or something i know to pluck the bass notes then strum but i rlly need some practice exercises to help me at picking out the notes i know this probally wont get any responses but any help would be greatly appreciated only answer if u r a bluegrass picker plz
Answer: Dude, this is not the question of being a bluegrass picker or not. You need to understand the basics of guitar, chords, scales, bluegrass scales and chord progressions before you even think of mastering a genre. You cannot restrict your playing to just bluegrass or blues or metal and be biased to only learn and play them. It doesn’t work that way at all.
If you have a rock solid foundation on the scales,chords and know how to build them and how to play them all over the fret board then you are ready to become a bluegrass or blues guitarist and you can play style or genre with ease. If not, then you have a long long way to go, buddy. Remember there are absolutely NO shortcuts in learning guitar.
What’s this week’s learn guitar question? Let’s dive straight in…
Question: Hey guys!
Basically, I bought a Yamaha, beginner guitar and I really want to learn how to play it because I don’t want the guitar going to waste and just sitting there!
So, I’m asking, what is the best way to learn guitar? Whether that be buying a DVD, or self teaching by learning notes. I don’t know where to start. Oh and also, how do I know if I need to tune my guitar?
PS – I’m not really considering going to guitar lessons because I don’t want to spend so much money and what not.
All answers are appreciated,
Thank you!
Answer: Well, guitars have a scale EADGBE or (Elephants are darn good booger eaters) which the first string (the biggest) Is the "Elephant" which is also the low E. Use this website to learn a few beginner chords
http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/guitar-chord-charts/free-printable-guitar-chord-chart.html
After learning these chords, search YouTube for a real easy song to learn….
Lastly, you can buy DVDs and books at your local music store.
Hope this helps!
What’s this week’s guitar lessons question? Let’s dive straight in…
Question: Good Places to Take Guitar Lessons in Columbia, Maryland?
Answer: Any college or University. You do not have to be a student to take lesson from the staff or advanced student.
Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:
Question: does anyone know of a website that gives really good online guitar lessons? im looking to learn how to play
Answer: http://www.jazzguitar.be/
xx
Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:
Question: And about how much do they cost?
Answer: Now-a-days, you can get them on YouTube.com also piano lessons. Everything’s for free now.
