Who needs a guitar teacher when I got You Tube!

The problem with You Tube

Some of my students in their teens and many adults have tried to learn guitar from You Tube, a video or a book and nearly all of them got a poor result. If you don’t know what it is you really have to know to learn the skills to play it will really give you some bad habits when comes to playing guitar since it’s all about muscle memory. You don’t want to train the wrong muscle memory.

How did all the great guitarists learn how o play?

All the great guitar players I’ve studied have never said they learned how to play guitar from You Tube or a book or video. Those materials can not interact with you and correct what needs correction, so the result is you just keep playing it the same way, getting the same poor result. You may not be getting better and not knowing why, so you think maybe guitar is just not for me.

For most people in the beginning getting good guidance on the how to hold the guitar, hand position, holding the pick and many other things are invaluable and will save you time and great frustration. I get a lot of new students and say how they tried to learn like this and gave up in frustration. I’ve been told many by students they felt like was their last resort and if they can’t learn from me then they’re just giving up. Fortunately, when I show them the systems, skills and how to practice a little each day they realize that it’s absolutely doable.

The way to success

The right lessons can be the difference between success and failure. Don’t spend time creating bad playing habits. Don’t spend time practicing mistakes to perform badly. Our time is precious and limited. Do you really want to keep working at something for a couple weeks or a couple months and it never gets to the point where you can play it well? You should be making progress week by week.

The difference with a good guitar teacher is that they will be able to see the big picture and all the steps along the way to get you there., Doing it on your own is many times no more than trial and error. Many times students don’t know what it is that they have to know to make something work. Many students who struggled told me they made more progress in a few lessons with me than in a couple years or more.

I’ve heard that Tiger Woods has a Driving coach and a Putting coach, Michael Jackson trained 2 hours a day with a Vocal coach during the making of Thriller. The great guitarist, Randy Rhoads used to seek out the best teacher in the towns he was playing in and book a 2 hour session with them.

There are benefits that you receive beyond learning to play better and faster with a great guitar teacher.

Give it time, you will be rewarded!

When you make a commitment to something to see it through is powerful in life. You will be rewarded over the time spent. Even if you can’t always have every lessons as good as you want, just remember, if you learn 50% of what you are working on, you’ve increased your skills and knowledge by 50%. That would be massive improvement in a year. Being consistent in practicing pays off. You don’t have to practice an hour a day in the beginning. 15 minutes is great with the right practice method.

Conclusion

I tried to learn on my own and did ok, but when you commit to lessons you are saying to yourself that you are serious about learning to play the guitar. Lessons overcomes slow progress,. Many students “feel” they can’t play but when they start lessons with with an encouraging, inspiring teacher can change everything. You join that elite club of guitar players who can play songs with good strumming or picking with good timing, you are a guitar player. It only gets better from there!