Basic Guitar Lesson: What You Should Look For

Traditional Tutors Or Teachers

These types of lessons are obviously the most expensive, and if all you want is a basic guitar lesson to see if the instrument is right for you or if you have what it takes to go further, perhaps another avenue is best at first.

The Internet

Free lessons can be found online, but unless you know a good value you may be learning other peoples bad habits, and those are hard to correct once ingrained.

Instructional DVD Format

This avenue of finding a basic guitar lesson is very economical and also offers you the freedom to choose your own schedule, and in the privacy of your own home. Be sure this course is well organized. It should include these list of instructional materials:

Proper maintenance

It should teach you how to care for and tune your guitar properly. A well tuned guitar makes all of the difference when learning chords and notes. Imagine playing a C chord that sounds like a flat D.

Chord structure

You should be learning basic chords and proper fingering, as well as some basic music theory, and learning how to read notes on paper. If you have no idea what the pentatonic scale is, you are off to a bad start. The blues twelve is another. Both are used consistently in both rock and rhythm and blues music.

Strumming technique

You should learn how to hold the guitar and the proper strumming technique and learn what beats and rhythms are. All of these things are necessary with a basic guitar lesson.

Learn correctly from the beginning, and there will be no mistakes or bad habits to correct later on. Take your time, learn at your own pace. Limit your practice sessions to ten minutes or so at first to avoid fatigue as well as pain and blistering, which often occur.

Experiment with every style of music and you will discover which one is suited to you and your personal style of playing.

copyright by Liam Gibson