If you have been itching to become a guitarist – be it for professional reasons or just as a hobby, and you’re wondering about the best way to learn the guitar, then the answer is mostly in the title of this article – download some acoustic guitar lessons for beginners, or take online guitar lessons – but of course, not just any lessons! However, before getting into that, let’s consider the guitar itself – because this will also have an effect on the speed at which you learn.
Choosing The Right Guitar
If you’ve already decided that you want to learn the guitar, the chances are you have already decided which one you would like to learn – electric guitar or acoustic guitar. There is of course also a middle choice between these two – an electrified acoustic guitar – ie. an acoustic guitar with a built-in pickup, which can be connected to a sound system.
Unless you are rich, and can afford a high end expensive guitar, you are probably going to be looking for an inexpensive beginner’s guitar – just to test the waters, and see if it’s really for you. However, even with a cheap guitar, there’s a couple of points to keep in mind if you want to learn the guitar fast – you don’t want your beginner’s guitar slowing you down! To this end, there are three points to keep in mind.
First of all, make sure that the guitar has a reasonably good action. This refers to how hard it is to press down on the strings. If it’s really hard to press down on the strings, then it’s going to get very painful on your fingertips, and also slow down your playing. But most importantly, it might discourage you from continuing! Of course, after a couple of weeks your fingers will develop calluses, and it will become much easier to press down on the strings for longer periods of time, but even so it’s really important to get a guitar with a light action.
Secondly, make sure that the neck is a straight as possible, otherwise you will likely get buzzing on the strings in some positions. If this becomes a constant irritation to you and your audience, you will quickly lose your enthusiasm, and you won’t learn very fast.
And finally, even if it’s a beginner’s guitar, make sure you are happy with the sound quality – that’s the aim after all – to produce music that both you and your audience will enjoy. If you are not happy with the sounds which are coming out of your guitar, it’s also going to slow down your progress.
Reasons To Download Guitar Lessons
One of the main reasons to download acoustic guitar lessons for beginners is that you can usually find a much more comprehensive guitar course on the internet than in most shops. That is, you can get a complete guitar learning kit. If you get the right tools, then your chances to learn how to play guitar fast will be much greater. So let’s examine what might be good to have in such a complete guitar learning kit.
First of all, a good instruction book with detailed lesson plans is essential. It should cover the basics so that you’re well prepared for the more advanced stuff. But even with the best instruction book, it really helps to hear how a good guitarist plays the lessons that you’re working on, and at a speed that you can play along with. This means you want to have some ‘jam tracks’ that you can play together with over and over again until you get it right. Thirdly, some video lessons, so that you can really see how it is being done – the proper way to hold your hands, the proper way to use a guitar pick, etc. And finally, some software tools like a metronome, a guitar tuner, and an ear training game.
There is a course like this, and it’s called Jamorama. This course can really help you to learn how to play guitar fast and what’s more, you can download acoustic guitar lessons for beginners for free. Alternatively, you can find out more about their regular and advanced courses here.
Taking Online Guitar Lessons For Beginners
If you are more comfortable with taking your guitar lessons online, then you have the advantage of being able to log on from any place where you have access to a computer with an internet connection. Online guitar lessons are also normally in video format, and the best online lessons we have come across can be found at http://www.guitartricks.com. They also have a set of 24 free lessons, so it’s easy to find out if this is a good way for you to learn the guitar.