Do I Need a Guitar Teacher ?

I was recently surfing through an Indian Forum for Guitar Learners -  Indian Guitar Tabs and I came across a question from a guy who had just bought a new guitar and wanted to learn how to play it. A very valid question from a beginners perspective. His question stated .. "With so much of material in terms of videos and websites available online, should I learn on my own or should I learn from a teacher ?"

Now guys ... If any of you reading this blog post are very new to learning the guitar and don't know where to start, I insist you all to keep this is mind .... NEVER DEPEND ON SOMEONE ELSE's OPINION on what is right or wrong for you .... no matter how PRO a guitarist that person is ... Obviously facts cant be denied and debated on .. like one cant say that C Major chord does not consist of the notes C-E-G ... its a fact .. cant be debated or denied .. but someone's personal point of view will most likely be debatable in all situations...

This is very much applicable to our highlight question in this post as well. The reason is that the answers will vary from person to person .. Its not that they are wrong in what they suggest to you ... on the contrary they are all right in their own way .. but what was right for them may not be right for you ... Guitar learning is a very personal matter.

I learned the guitar all by myself  and I never spent a single penny for it. The life experience that have shaped me as a person are not the same as your life experiences. I have learned things in ways diversely different than you guys and it holds equally true if you said the same to me. Thus the way any two individuals have developed a way of life and internal ways of learning are very different.

The bottom line is - "You Have to Find Out Yourself if You Need a Guitar Teacher"

A generic methodology I would like to suggest here, to anyone stuck with this question is this:

1. Google up guitar learning websites and sift through atleast 20-25 sites to see if you are comfortable with the material on any of the sites you come across.

This may take a few days but be patient and do it, it may most likely save your money !!!!

I personally like the way - http://guitar.about.com/od/guitarlessons/u/lessons.htm is structured and many of my friends whom I have guided to learn the guitar find this site very very helpful....but that may not be applicable to you ... so go through it see for yourself...

NOTE: I am in no way associated with the above website and it is just something I find useful that I am suggesting to you guys.

 2. a. If nothing clicks... find a teacher and learn the basics and practice well. But DO NOT stop your search for online content. Probably revisit the sites you came across in point 1 and see if they look helpful now. Most likely, a couple of them will.

2. b. If you are able to narrow down to some such sites .. begin your lessons and practice until you reach a point where u are stuck. If you are not able to get your way ... restart at point 1. above.

Discussing issues on your favorite forums will also help.

The key point is knowing what you need to learn next .. and just follow the same methodology as above in any situation u are stuck with and decide for yourself ...

This will ensure that you spend money on a teacher only after exhausting your options and yet you can learn a lot despite minimizing expenses ...

Feel free to post questions regarding this article, if any .. I don't get much time to proof read the content I post here. So in case there is anything that you have not understood in the article, I would certainly answer your queries through comments ....

Great Learning Material for Guitar Beginners

Hi Guys,

Check out this link: http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm

 This is a site I use quite often when I am in a mood to go through some basic things about guitar practice.

A very good point about this site is that it teaches you some music theory and then some popular songs too, relevant to the major part of what you have learned in that lesson which makes up for excellent practice and also keeps you satisfied with the effort you have put into learning. This is a major physche builder and confidence booster to a beginner as it makes results of our learning effort visible and that too quickly.

Got any questions ???? Let me know ...

Some General but Key points on Guitar Learning

I know very well how you feel when the thought of learning to play a guitar comes to your mind for the very first time. The first time I touched a guitar was around 8 years back. The look, the feel , the sound of those 6 strings were incomparable to anything else in my life then. This feeling is also accompanied by an image in our minds. The image of a "Rockstar" for most of us. I for one do not like that word, because it has a grave tendency to mislead masses into accepting the popular "Rockstar" image without any insight into the life of the person we call a "Rockstar". Truth is far dissociated from the image and its very very important for an aspiring guitar learner to understand this.

I had to mention the above stated fact here because I have seem many of my friends and many of their friends as well, lose enthusiasm towards learning to play the guitar in just a few months after they have bought one. And it was quite evident to me that it happened because of their wrong reasons to learn guitar in the first place.


I was no different . However, at some point in time in during our breakup (me and my guitar), I happened to come across a random piece of music, very simple in structure, probably just a couple of notes clubbed with a play of timing. One thing peculiar about all such pieces was that all of them had the capacity to give me goose bumps, the moment their waves touched my ears. Such instances always brought a question to my mind "How could one play such a beautiful piece so simply over a couple of strings?". And I would be back with my guitar trying to figure out how it was done. After a couple of such breakups and re-bonding sessions, I learned that playing the guitar is not a world in its own, but a part of a bigger universe called Music. The concepts of which are very simple and the the reason it seems so difficult to the beginners is a mere "not being used to" factor and the vastness of the possibilities of arrangements of the basic ideas of music.

As a conclusion to this small article, I want to press on few facts which I would summarize in the points below:

1. Learn Guitar for the right reasons - Don't be mislead by the "Rockstar" image !!!!
2. Develop a feel for music and LISTEN to every note and combination of notes in any musical piece you come across - nothing else can inspire you more to learn the guitar than an AWESOME arrangement of simple musical notes.
3. Have patience with your guitar practice and start learning the basics of music theory alongside developing a comfort with the instrument - this will make your guitar learning real real faster

I understand this is a small article and will require elaboration on a lot of points stated therein. I will be posting more articles explaining how's and why's of guitar learning. Building a good foundation A.K.A "Philosophy" for whatever you want to learn in life will take you to great heights and that is what all geniuses have done in the past. It makes the learning process more efficient and lean, leading to quality and timely results. It may have sounded didactic - but - THATS THE TRUTH until you figure it out ... :-)

Till Then .... enjoy the experience..