How to Play Guitar for Beginners
The internet is a truly magnificent and wonderful learning resource. Young people today don’t all appreciate how lucky they are to have the worlds knowledge and skills at their fingertips via the internet.
I started playing over thirty years ago with Bert Weedon’s famous ‘Play in a Day’ book, back in the 1970s. In those days I couldn’t afford guitar lessons so I would watch guitarists very closely at every opportunity.
Modern technology has revolutionised the way that people learn to play the guitar. There are so many excellent guitar tuition DVDs that can be played over and over again, unlike a face to face guitar lesson. And the internet is the most ideal way to distribute and deliver some fantastic guitar tutorials.
There are an abundance of guitar teaching websites but my favourite place for guitar tutorials is Youtube. You can find instructional videos on everything from choosing guitars to making your own electric guitar. There are plenty of videos that will help those who are just starting out with the guitar and lots more that are ideal for people like me, who’ve been playing for a while but want to learn more techniques and tunes.
Learning some new techniques, tunes and licks has become my favourite hobby. If the weather is bad then you will generally find me learning a new tune or two from Youtube. I think that my guitar playing skills have improved more in the past five years, thanks to Youtube, than it did in the prior twenty years.
Another useful feature is that the system is interactive. If I find a video of someone playing a piece that I like I can easily make it one of my favourites and maybe leave a comment for the performer to see. Also, I like to ask the odd question and invariably the person who created the video will respond with an answer. Its a bit like having any number of great guitarists as personal guitar playing consultants.
These days I can’t help but feel a little jealous of the young people who are just starting to play guitar. I like to think that if I had been born at a time when the internet was available, providing this wealth of incredibly valuable instruction and guidance, who knows, I might have become the next Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan.
