Question from a beginner...

Hi guys,

Can a guy build a solid foundation here and go from beginner to experienced player without a local instructor (aka actual lessons from a music shop)?

My situation is one where I travel a lot (airline pilot) and want to really learn to play. I have been on/off again for a while now with actual lessons from 2 different instructors over the years but have moved around and get sidetracked and next thing I know I wish I'd have kept at it. Another thing is my schedule changes and I cannot commit to a specific day of the week to take the lessons locally.

The site looks great and I think this may work perfectly for my situation, a lot of hotel rooms with free time. I have a traveler guitar.

I was wondering, can a beginner (I still believe I fit this) go thru the beginners course and get a thorough foundation to keep advancing? I read a lot on the net and many say you need actual lessons....but to be honest I think I get more out of your on-line videos than I did when I was taking lessons. I like that you can download, replay, and the tab is there.

The beginner's series, is it set-up to progressively move someone like me forward??? I don't want to skip anything, I want to build a solid foundation before moving to the next lesson. Seems like when I took lessons at a guitar shop we would kind of jump around a lot, he would teach me part of a song, I would practice the chords/notes, but I never felt like I had any building blocks. Seems like I was just memorizing this stuff. He had me learning Jimi Hendrix intros in my first 3 months...talk about frustrating...that was waaay beyond me!!! I just want to learn in a progressive way...seems like doing geometry before you learn simple math.

Anyway, thinking of jumping in and wanted to know how thorough the beginner's series is, how many videos, is there a clear way to move through the lessons, and will I truly get a good foundation.....I don't care how long it takes, I just want to be sure I build a good foundation before moving forward.

Hi Paul,

The short answer is...yes...I think a person can benefit from online instruction and make good progress. I think 95% of it is desire and determination...the other 5% is from where you get your material.

We of course live in a different day and age than the way it was in the 50's, 60's, 70's, etc. In those days...I'm dating myself a little bit here...CD's didn't exist...much less home computers, DVD's, online instruction, etc. It was much harder then...you had to "pick up the needle" and move it back on the record to re-play a lick until you got it down. Talk about a pain in the...ummm...oh well...you get the idea!

In my own case, I never had a guitar lesson in my life until only recently when I decided to check out material from players I thought were way ahead of me...there are lots of people way ahead of me, by the way. Different people will respond to different things and different teaching methods. For some people, learning online is the way to go. For others, learning with an instructor is the most beneficial for them with perhaps learning online as a good supplement. Perhaps in your case, you might be able to find a really good instructor in your area and perhaps quarterly or every other month or so sit down with him or her and have a half-day session so that he or she could monitor your progress and give suggestions. Of course, you would have to be able to think in a 2 or 3 month time frame...not a one week time frame.

It's kind of like anything...I don't know very much about piloting an airplane...in fact, pity the person(s) who would fly with me while I was behind the controls! But even though I don't know much about it, I know there are certain basic principles...certain basic rules that if you violate, you're going to be in some pretty deep yogurt pretty quickly.

The same principle applies to learning guitar...until you understand basic concepts and know your way around the guitar pretty well, you're just memorizing a bunch of things about which you don't see the congruity.

In my own case, I started learning licks and chords on the guitar and learning things about the guitar very quickly...the only thing was I didn't learn with congruity...it was like making a quilt that had nice pieces sewn into place here and there but there were big gaping holes in the overall quilt. Eventually, over time, I was able to fill in the holes but it took me a long time because I learned in a hodge-podge fashion.

Things that help tremendously are learning how major scales work, what they are for, learning your intervals, learning what intervals sound like, learning about the circle of fifths, learn the names of notes on the guitar neck (it's not as hard as people make it out to be)...these are the big things...there are other things to learn as well. You can learn about all these things on GT.

If you have the desire, if you practice almost every day, if you ask lots of questions (the instructors here at GT are a valuable resource for that) and if you give yourself some time and don't quit, you will make sure and steady progress.

Now, for no extra charge :-), here are my first three tips for you:

1. Don't try to practice while you are tired...it's a waste of time. Get some good rest, then practice while you have the energy to do so.

2. Make sure you have a guitar that you like and that is easy for you to play, most guitars that come off of the rack at the music stores are difficult to play, IMHO anyway.

3. Make some guitar playing friends in your area. I know that you are gone a lot but as much as you are able, try to put yourself in the company of other players whose playing you enjoy listening to. Don't pester them but show genuine interest and I'm sure most will be happy to answer your questions.

I hope this stuff helps. Let me know if it does.

Best wishes,

BH

P.S. Oh, I forgot one thing...one more point...if you can earn a college degree online...I think you can learn the guitar!

BH

Thanks, Bobby, I appreciate the time you took to write that.

As I sat here in my hotel room for the last few hours, I signed up. I have watched some of the stuff from the beginner's series and am really impressed. A lot of that stuff nobody really ever explained to me before, like how scales are created, intervals, etc. I am excited to go thru all the material. Thanks for the reply and I hope you all keep adding a lot more stuff for us newbies on here! I am going to keep at it!

Take care,
Paul

I pretty much started out form scratch here and I'm learning pretty quickly. They seem to make it easy to understand and I don't feel like it's over my head. Also, if you get bored or tired of learning scales and such, you can jump to something more fun for a few minutes to give your mind a break. Thsi website makes it easy for me to stay motivated with all of the options you have. It may be beneficial to sit down with an actual person now and then to make sure you don't start to develop any bad habits. But, either way you can't beat this site and the instructors here!!!!

Yeah, I am glad I signed up, I think this site is just what I needed with my schedule and all!

'BH'....
Your response to Paul struck every chord in me (yes of course pun intended!). As a beginner and a forum eavesdropper I found you addressed a large portion of my curiosities...plus you're a wiseacre and that's a religion I will always follow!

Have a fine '09 'BH'!

Tony
Framingham, MA

Originally Posted by: guitargeorge50Hi Paul,

The short answer is...yes...I think a person can benefit from online instruction and make good progress. I think 95% of it is desire and determination...the other 5% is from where you get your material.

We of course live in a different day and age than the way it was in the 50's, 60's, 70's, etc. In those days...I'm dating myself a little bit here...CD's didn't exist...much less home computers, DVD's, online instruction, etc. It was much harder then...you had to "pick up the needle" and move it back on the record to re-play a lick until you got it down. Talk about a pain in the...ummm...oh well...you get the idea!

In my own case, I never had a guitar lesson in my life until only recently when I decided to check out material from players I thought were way ahead of me...there are lots of people way ahead of me, by the way. Different people will respond to different things and different teaching methods. For some people, learning online is the way to go. For others, learning with an instructor is the most beneficial for them with perhaps learning online as a good supplement. Perhaps in your case, you might be able to find a really good instructor in your area and perhaps quarterly or every other month or so sit down with him or her and have a half-day session so that he or she could monitor your progress and give suggestions. Of course, you would have to be able to think in a 2 or 3 month time frame...not a one week time frame.

It's kind of like anything...I don't know very much about piloting an airplane...in fact, pity the person(s) who would fly with me while I was behind the controls! But even though I don't know much about it, I know there are certain basic principles...certain basic rules that if you violate, you're going to be in some pretty deep yogurt pretty quickly.

The same principle applies to learning guitar...until you understand basic concepts and know your way around the guitar pretty well, you're just memorizing a bunch of things about which you don't see the congruity.

In my own case, I started learning licks and chords on the guitar and learning things about the guitar very quickly...the only thing was I didn't learn with congruity...it was like making a quilt that had nice pieces sewn into place here and there but there were big gaping holes in the overall quilt. Eventually, over time, I was able to fill in the holes but it took me a long time because I learned in a hodge-podge fashion.

Things that help tremendously are learning how major scales work, what they are for, learning your intervals, learning what intervals sound like, learning about the circle of fifths, learn the names of notes on the guitar neck (it's not as hard as people make it out to be)...these are the big things...there are other things to learn as well. You can learn about all these things on GT.

If you have the desire, if you practice almost every day, if you ask lots of questions (the instructors here at GT are a valuable resource for that) and if you give yourself some time and don't quit, you will make sure and steady progress.

Now, for no extra charge :-), here are my first three tips for you:

1. Don't try to practice while you are tired...it's a waste of time. Get some good rest, then practice while you have the energy to do so.

2. Make sure you have a guitar that you like and that is easy for you to play, most guitars that come off of the rack at the music stores are difficult to play, IMHO anyway.

3. Make some guitar playing friends in your area. I know that you are gone a lot but as much as you are able, try to put yourself in the company of other players whose playing you enjoy listening to. Don't pester them but show genuine interest and I'm sure most will be happy to answer your questions.

I hope this stuff helps. Let me know if it does.

Best wishes,

BH

P.S. Oh, I forgot one thing...one more point...if you can earn a college degree online...I think you can learn the guitar!

BH

Tony,

Thanks. By the way, my friends call me Bobby! YOU may call me Bobby! :-)

BH

Alias

Bobby

Alias

guitargeorge50

:-)

I agree with jwb72's point: It's a good idea to sit down every once and a while with an instructor or a musician friend and play for them - they may notice some bad habits you develop (this always happens to me!).

The wide variety of teachers and playing styles found on this site is perfect. The more teachers you have, the better, imho. Whatever you want to get out of guitar, I think this site will get you there.

Don't worry, Bobby - I remember records, too:)

I know the neck, the circles of fifths and so on, but need the deteremination to put the time in and just do it. I have begun going to jams and that does help. I am giving myself 4 months to become a stronger player and build the confidence I need to play solo gigs. I'll check in as much as possible. Thanks for your help. J~~~~~~~* ( thats my sig as a shootin star ) :cool:

Originally Posted by: trewepic'BH'....
Your response to Paul struck every chord in me (yes of course pun intended!). As a beginner and a forum eavesdropper I found you addressed a large portion of my curiosities...plus you're a wiseacre and that's a religion I will always follow!

Have a fine '09 'BH'!

Tony
Framingham, MA