Guitar Lessons Online

Taking Guitar Lessons Online

If taking music lessons online seems like a strange idea, you may want to explore the benefits and disadvantages before investing in a program or spending time researching free sources of online guitar lessons.

Pros

Taking guitar lessons online offers some advantages over in-person lessons.

• Save Gas Money: With the rising cost of gas prices, the cost of a music lesson from a local music store or private tutor runs more than just the cost of the lesson itself. If you have to drive any distance to go to the lesson, you will likely spend at least $3.00 to $6.00 in fuel. By taking the lesson at home, you'll not only save time and gas money, but you'll also save wear and tear on your car.

• Less Expensive: A typical music lesson runs around $20.00 for 30 minutes. Although this can vary by area and demand for instructors, $20.00 is a solid, ball-park figure. Most instructors want students to make a commitment to take at least one lesson per week. This makes the cost of guitar lessons through your typical music store around $80.00 per month. That amount of money can quickly add up and be a real budget drain for anyone on a tight income. Overall, online lessons tend to run less.

• Work at Your Own Pace: If one area is quickly mastered, the student can easily move on to the next lesson without having to wait a week for an in-person tutor to meet with him or her. Also, if the student forgets an important element or has not yet mastered that element, the student can easily slow the lessons down or go back and review an earlier lesson and practice until that skill is mastered.

Cons

Although there are some advantages to taking online lessons, there are also a few disadvantages to consider.

• Questions: If you have questions, there is not an instructor handy to answer them. If you can't find the answer in the tutorials or user forums (only available at some sites), you may find yourself stuck on that subject for a long period of time until you can figure it out. When taking lessons from a live tutor, you always have the opportunity to ask specific questions at the next lesson.

• Demonstrations: No matter how great the video, there is nothing like having a live person there to show you exactly how to hold the guitar and how to strum the chords. In addition, a live instructor can take your hands and place them on the guitar in the proper form or play the specific song you are trying to learn so you can hear it.

Other Considerations

Some other things to consider are that most online lessons can be used for multiple guitar players in your family. For example, if mom and daughter are both trying to learn guitar, both can work through the online lessons. Instead of paying out $80.00 per month twice ($160 a month), you only pay for the lessons once. This is a huge advantage for big families where several family members may be taking the same type of music lessons.

Places to Take Online Guitar Lessons

There are tons of resources for online guitar lessons for beginners, advanced, acoustic and electric. Here are just a few to check out:

• Guitar Tricks
• Free Guitar Videos
• Free Online Guitar Lessons
• Chris Sandring
• CyberFret.com
• Guitar Hour
• Learn Guitar at Home
• YouTube Videos on How to Play the Guitar

Although taking these lessons online offers many benefits, it might still be a good idea to take a lesson or two in person to learn the basics of how to hold a guitar and how to strum. A tutor can correct any issues before you develop bad habits. Once you learn these basics, you can easily switch to the online lessons to save some money.

Later, you may want to visit with the real tutor from time-to-time to make sure you are not developing new bad habits and to get some insider tricks. The key will be to find a tutor who will work with you and help you occasionally and allow you to work on your own the rest of the time. This may be a challenge, but with persistence, you should be able to find an instructor who will work with you in this way..