Guitar lessons online need help

[milod]

40...

 

I dunno... I'd disagree about starting with notes, especially on guitar. I was 4 when I started with notes and unnamed "chords" on piano. Then at 9 or 10 it was trumpet. I played well enough on trumpet, I guess. Did the normal high school and college band and orchestra stuff and a small "for money" dance combo or two.

 

But the guitar ... I started just after my 18th birthday with chords; the bass runs just seemed to come along unasked, as did melodies - both over the top of chords as part of them.

 

I think of the guitar as a chord maker with capability of bass lines and melodic lines. Frankly I can play melodic lines better and faster as a fingerpicker while making left hand chords. When I got into a bit of classical guitar, essentially I translated the written material into chords so it'd make sense to me, rather than the other way around.

 

Okay... why?

 

I think the bottom line is that each of us will learn differently. "Theory" meant little to me until I started playing guitar beginning with the chords and playing notes around them. Your head may "learn" quite differently. In fact, it seems to me that it definitely does.

 

To me that doesn't mean one of our learning strengths is "right" and the other "wrong," but rather that it does explain how each guitarist of some years on the instrument will do some things more naturally and - unless they're intentionally "copying" what another has done - with a personal "style."

 

That's not a value judgment. To me the proof is personal satisfaction with one's journey into one's art, regardless of chosen genre(s), modes of playing - or even skill.

 

Back in the '50s a reeeally good guitarist/musician/arranger etc., Mundell Lowe, was on a tv program that at least once was on Youtube, and he noted that there's not a single "method" for teaching guitar. Much of that is because IMHO it's not a single instrument, it's many.

 

Ah, well. Back to work.

 

m

[gary wilson]

I would tend to agree. I think a basic understanding of individual notes, the concept of different keys, and keeping time provide an important foundation before tackling chords. Some music books / lessons want to have the student score early successes (immediate gratification?) by being able to play along with some popular songs. I think the student needs to really want to learn - to have the motivation to keep at it - and learning a few chords might be fine for the first month or two. To me, chords are combinations of notes - and if you don't have a working knowledge of notes - chords are going to be somewhat elusive once you've mastered "The Cowboy Chords".

 

Thanks for the comment and yeah, I don't have a working knowledge of notes and also don't have any knowledge about "The Cowboy Chords" but I will search about it.

[fortyearspickn]

Thanks for the comment and yeah, I don't have a working knowledge of notes and also don't have any knowledge about "The Cowboy Chords" but I will search about it.

 

They're the basic chords in the first position (1st thru 4th fret) so called because the old cowboy songs were written in them. So, C, F, G7th covered most songs. Same song could be sung/played in a higher key using G, C and D7th. Some drug store cowboys might get fancy and play A, D and E7 or go so far urban as to play with E, A and B7th. But, strike one minor chord and you're demoted to being a 'folkie'. G'Luck.

[fumblefingers]

I would tend to agree. I think a basic understanding of individual notes, the concept of different keys, and keeping time provide an important foundation before tackling chords.

Some music books / lessons want to have the student score early successes (immediate gratification?) by being able to play along with some popular songs.

I think the student needs to really want to learn - to have the motivation to keep at it - and learning a few chords might be fine for the first month or two.

To me, chords are combinations of notes - and if you don't have a working knowledge of notes - chords are going to be somewhat elusive once you've mastered "The Cowboy Chords".

 

I may humiliate myself by admitting this amongst the many talented musicians and players here, but I play chords and notes and I don't even know what they are. In fact, to this day, I could sit down and show you the chords I play, and then you could ask me what chord it is and I could not, for the life of me, tell you. I basically copied finger placements from many different sources- other players, books, whatever. I watched people play songs I like, and watched where they were fretting. After learning chords, I started to play be ear, ie. "hey, this Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here chord sounds just like the start to John Mellencamp's Pink Houses" sort of thing. I just love the guitar, and I see what I can figure out. I'm sure I am a nightmare to a musician or a teacher, but I'm happy with what I have accomplished on my own. I am always improving.

[gary wilson]

I may humiliate myself by admitting this amongst the many talented musicians and players here, but I play chords and notes and I don't even know what they are. In fact, to this day, I could sit down and show you the chords I play, and then you could ask me what chord it is and I could not, for the life of me, tell you. I basically copied finger placements from many different sources- other players, books, whatever. I watched people play songs I like, and watched where they were fretting. After learning chords, I started to play be ear, ie. "hey, this Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here chord sounds just like the start to John Mellencamp's Pink Houses" sort of thing. I just love the guitar, and I see what I can figure out. I'm sure I am a nightmare to a musician or a teacher, but I'm happy with what I have accomplished on my own. I am always improving.

 

Hi,

I am also trying the same thing about trying to copy some other guitarist and think to remember the position of handling the guitar and other things.

[gary wilson]

I just received the LearnAndMaster and so far, I think it's a good deal. I took lessons for a year and then my instructor left the music store. The second instructor was really talented but I just wasn't getting it. So, I decided to go with the Steve Krenz course. It's a great way to learn at your own pace. I am glad I had my on hands instructor for a year though.

 

So are you taking an online guitar lessons and If yes, then what was the charges of online guitar lesson or just buy a DVD of the there instruction.

[fortyearspickn]

So are you taking an online guitar lessons and If yes, then what was the charges of online guitar lesson or just buy a DVD of the there instruction.

 

This is a DVD course. Very good, price around $150, available at Guitar Center, Amazon, etc. Different people learn differently. Sometimes depending on the subject matter. http://www.learnandmaster.com/guitar/

 

NOTE CORRECTION - PRICE IS $250 NOT $150. To quote Brian Williams - "I mis-remembered..."

[Frances50]

So are you taking an online guitar lessons and If yes, then what was the charges of online guitar lesson or just buy a DVD of the there instruction.

 

 

I never did on-line guitar lessons. I started out taking guitar lessons at my local guitar store. My instructor was wonderful. We started off with chords and gradually went into learning the notes on the fretboard. I must admist at times I was very confused. Well, after a year, he left to go to a permanent job and I was forced to go elsewhere for instruction. I went to another guitar store and while the instructor was a great guitar player, I wasn't learning anything. After five months with him, I quit, bought the Learn and Master and I'm amazed at how everything I'd learned in the past year and a half just started coming together. I'm on Lesson Four after about 2 months and I'm learning first position notes and how to read music. It's very challenging. I try to spend about 20 minutes a day on the course and then I go back to "fun" stuff. I would recommend the course, especially for someone who had some training but still calls themselves a beginner.

[gary wilson]

I never did on-line guitar lessons. I started out taking guitar lessons at my local guitar store. My instructor was wonderful. We started off with chords and gradually went into learning the notes on the fretboard. I must admist at times I was very confused. Well, after a year, he left to go to a permanent job and I was forced to go elsewhere for instruction. I went to another guitar store and while the instructor was a great guitar player, I wasn't learning anything. After five months with him, I quit, bought the Learn and Master and I'm amazed at how everything I'd learned in the past year and a half just started coming together. I'm on Lesson Four after about 2 months and I'm learning first position notes and how to read music. It's very challenging. I try to spend about 20 minutes a day on the course and then I go back to "fun" stuff. I would recommend the course, especially for someone who had some training but still calls themselves a beginner.

 

I also search at some guitar institute, but that was too much costly and also some of my friends have told me to check about online guitar lessons that are cheaper than private teacher.

[gary wilson]

This is a DVD course. Very good, price around $150, available at Guitar Center, Amazon, etc. Different people learn differently. Sometimes, depending on the subject matter. http://www.learnandmaster.com/guitar/

 

But when you get some problem or If you want to know more about anything than where do you ask because there is no teacher who can help us.

[fortyearspickn]

But when you get some problem or If you want to know more about anything than where do you ask because there is no teacher who can help us.

 

 

From the first page of their website:

 

Student Support

Our student support forum is a vibrant learning community with over 15,000 active users, all helping each other along as they progress through the course. Once you purchase the course, you will also get access to our Student Support and Community websites. Steve Krenz, the author of Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar, is online regularly, answering questions and offering encouragement, as are other students. You can also build a student profile, post recordings of your songs, track your progress, and get feedback from Steve and other students.

 

 

AND I NOTICED THE PRICE IS $250! MORE THAN I REMEMBERED WHEN I BOUGHT IT FOR MY SON A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO.

[Wetdog]

For lessons, Truefire is the most wide ranging pay site I've seen. There are of course a zillion free sites and many good ones but most are limited. Exploration is needed.

 

Interesting input on how to learn or practice. Obviously some of you liken practice to "Monday morning physics class", while others seem to embrace "exercises" and include theory in your studies. And yes I agree that it is all about what you want and what your idea of fun is. Music is a great example of the more you put into it the more you get out of it.

 

I'm not afraid of music theory or exercises. I practice scales, arpeggios and modes because it helps me to have that in my fingers when I play certain styles. I don't consider it drudgery but as learning the tools that make me a better musician.

 

If you are satisfied learning and using only "farmer chords" and banging away on simple tunes, that can be very satisfying. But if you want more, I mean things like more complex music with more interesting chords, playing modally, which scales to play over which chords etc. then it helps to know what theory is behind it. Learn the language. Miles Davis went to Julliard but was still "hip." Segovia warmed up every day playing scales. I bet James Taylor knows the names of the notes he is playing. Jerry Garcia started as a jazz player, he really knew theory.

 

Some basics would include what the major and minor scales are, what notes are used to build simple chords and what the letter names are on the guitar neck. What are chord inversions, and extensions, what do they sound like and when do you use them? If anyone wishes to advance musically they should act like they are taking music classes at college. Educate yourself and don't be ashamed of it. Read everything you can. I don't get it when some folks seem to be proud of their ignorance. Learn the rudiments of the piano keyboard which is a wonderful way to get "visually" what music is doing. Your ear knows the difference between a major and a minor chord, but does your head? If you learn the "why" of things musically then that theory can be applied to any song in any key. If you practice scales, for instance the different blues scales, in different keys, (if that is your thing), then you will be a better blues player. Period.

 

Learn baby learn. B)

[milod]

I dunno on this.

 

About 15 years ago I spent almost every spare minute "on line" reading everything I could find on learning theory.

 

Bottom line is that a lot of folks are interested, everybody knows that folks tend to learn differently and that from different reasons and/or causes, and that it ain't nailed.

 

On top of that, the guitar is a strange instrument in that it might be approached as a single-note instrument such as a trumpet, as a strumming accompaniment instrument with chords, or infinite combinations of the above.

 

Most "guitar lesson" folks I've known have quit because it wasn't taking them to what they saw as their goal. Some have admitted they were learning "stuff," but that it simply wasn't seen as relevant to what they were doing with guitar. Too often that has meant they quit learning - sometimes while still playing a bit, sometimes dumping the instrument entirely.

 

The reason I really loved that "folksinger's guitar guide" wasn't even that I saw myself as a lifelong "folksinger," but rather that it made great sense in getting folks into the idea of chords, technique to get chords and individual notes as a soloist, etc. It never pushed the student into "you play this in three flats, so it's the key of X or the mode of Y or, if you cross the four chord with the one chord, you have Z happening."

 

No, it just was aimed more or less to competence in a solo or small group picking performance with basic guitar stuff, whether instrumental alone or more often, in support of vocals.

 

The strength of that approach is that doggone nearly everybody can "learn" to play guitar.

 

The weakness is that regardless how broad, it's essentially a chord accompaniment paradigm, regardless whether one wishes the "single note like a sax" paradigm instead, perhaps to "read music to play what X played in his jazz records." Or, perhaps to play classical guitar, or to better learn how to copy Clapton or...

 

 

I think much has to do with the teacher and student truly communicating. The cute young folks who wanna play four-chord stuff to impress their classmates and parents tend not to care about inversions, retrogrades, keys, complex chords... And that may be good, or bad.

 

So... no answers, except one - labor to keep alive in your spirit a desire to learn. Without it all the lessons and books are without any value at all.

 

m

[gary wilson]

Thanks Wetdog for the suggestion I will definitely try this sure and I also started the practicing of the guitars.

[milod]

Just one other point to consider that goes along with the earlier mention that one should consider doing that which one enjoys...

 

Because the guitar is such a versatile instrument, it's difficult for any given instructor to "fit" with what a student subconsciously sees as his/her goal with the instrument. Few of "us" really even know when we begin.

 

So... I think frankly that it's almost natural that unless one begins wanting to be a classical or flamenco guitarist or some other genre with a more or less standard repertoire, one will not always be happy with whatever sort of outside "instruction" one receives.

 

In the final analysis, I think we're gonna wanna play what we wanna play - and at a point, that's from within, not outside us. I'd even go so far as to suggest that some forms of instruction may actually harm a given aspiring player's search for the guitar within himself.

 

Yeah, I know. I'm a grouchy old man.

 

m

[MontanaJoe]

Excellent BlueGrass community with online one-on-one courses for beginners through advanced, plus a monthly cyber get-together and forums for viewing and critiquing performances can be found here

 

It's been a great resource and a lot of fun for me :)

[Wetdog]

Gary,

 

It's always been about the 'fire in the belly' for me. I just wanted to play. I'm not particularly talented but just kept, at it for about 50 years. Now I can play a few things. I started with folk as I liked the message in the songs. It was accessible in that to play a simple version of a tune I liked was pretty easy. I learned some chords and could play with my friends. I'm not afraid of a challenge and kept emulating the music I liked. I've taken lessons from teachers and professionals, taken on-line lessons, read a bunch, hung out with a lot of musicians, went to a bunch of live shows and WATCHED the players, and played a lot. Try to figure out what a player is doing by listening and experimenting. Often I'll not get it quite right but I'll discover things along the way.

 

Today the resources seem limitless. Want to hear a particular version of a song? Use YouTube. Want the chords to a song? Google it. Want to know how to make those chords? Google it. Want a free lesson on some particular style or song? Google it. Really different from the days of listening to a 45 (Round flat black plastic thingies with a hole in the middle) until the grooves are worn out. The important thing is to keep at it and follow your heart. If someone is not willing to put in the work it takes to play they don't really want it that bad.

 

I always love the Thomas Edison quote, "Genius 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Also, it has been said that in any endeavor whether it's fixing cars, becoming a doctor, or doing art, you haven't really paid your dues until you put in about 10,000 hours of practice. That is the equivalent of doing an 8 hr. a day job for about 2 1/2 years. If you are playing 4 hrs. a day that's 5 years. So what am I doing writing this stuff? I'd better get back to it! B)

[milod]

I think that some of us had the advantage of knowing something of music before we began playing guitar. Not necessarily "guitar-oriented" knowledge of music, but ... something.

 

But regardless, I am convinced that the best route to learning almost anything is to ensure "success" for the beginner. That's true whether it's learning a language, a sport or a musical instrument. Even if that "success" isn't directly an apparent part of a true "beginner" goal for playing. It's also different for younger children in general than for adult beginners - but feelings of "success" is always vital.

 

m

[gary wilson]

Gary,

 

It's always been about the 'fire in the belly' for me. I just wanted to play. I'm not particularly talented but just kept, at it for about 50 years. Now I can play a few things. I started with folk as I liked the message in the songs. It was accessible in that to play a simple version of a tune I liked was pretty easy. I learned some chords and could play with my friends. I'm not afraid of a challenge and kept emulating the music I liked. I've taken lessons from teachers and professionals, taken on-line lessons, read a bunch, hung out with a lot of musicians, went to a bunch of live shows and WATCHED the players, and played a lot. Try to figure out what a player is doing by listening and experimenting. Often I'll not get it quite right but I'll discover things along the way.

 

Today the resources seem limitless. Want to hear a particular version of a song? Use YouTube. Want the chords to a song? Google it. Want to know how to make those chords? Google it. Want a free lesson on some particular style or song? Google it. Really different from the days of listening to a 45 (Round flat black plastic thingies with a hole in the middle) until the grooves are worn out. The important thing is to keep at it and follow your heart. If someone is not willing to put in the work it takes to play they don't really want it that bad.

 

I always love the Thomas Edison quote, "Genius 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Also, it has been said that in any endeavor whether it's fixing cars, becoming a doctor, or doing art, you haven't really paid your dues until you put in about 10,000 hours of practice. That is the equivalent of doing an 8 hr. a day job for about 2 1/2 years. If you are playing 4 hrs. a day that's 5 years. So what am I doing writing this stuff? I'd better get back to it! B)

 

 

Thanks for the reply and now I am much more serious about guitar playing and daily playing guitar 2 to 3 hr. and I now I will increase time after some time.