This or guitar lesson?

Hi i am new to guitar and not had my guitar long. Is this a good way to start guitar or is it better to get a tutor?

This is less expensive than most guitar teachers, and you can learn at your own pace on here. Save gas money, and get unlimited lessons for less than the price of one with a teacher.

JD

Hi,
I am also a beginner and can offer my advice. I joined this site in late November, never having picked up a guitar in my life. I have followed the recomendations and went through the fundementals lessons first. I learned a great deal from those lessons. The teachers are great, especially the beginner's instructor Chris. And you can ask any instructor any type of questions in the forum and they get right back to you and don't act like you are an idiot for asking questions. I just started with a private teacher and that is working well since it is good to have someone who can see your handling of the guitar and your body movements and can correct bad habits. My suggestion would be to find a GOOD instructor but for the minimal price of this site I would also join Guitar Tricks. You can always stop your private instructions when you are ready but Guitar Tricks will be helpful to you from beginner to proficient stages. You get so much info and feedback for such a low cost.

To echo HDFatboy (Go Harley Davidson) and sixpicker, GT and a live teacher are working great for me. Especially regarding reading music. Great combination. You can't beat GT prices for full membership and ability to sit around the house at 11pm and work through videos! Your live teacher will be impressed with your progress if you augment his/her instruction with videos...

And my turn to echo the other guys.

I am a new full access subscriber here at Guitar Tricks but I had enough time to see what the site can offer (reference, courses, tutorials, tips, tricks, active forums, etc.)

I think that as long as you take it seriously each day using GT as the main resource to learn the guitar can be possible. Sure that using both the site and a private instructor is a great deal. But again I think if you are serious and dedicated to the guitar and to GT it's possible to progress very well here. If you have in your entourage a person who is an intermediate or an advanced player (like a friend or a family member), ask if he/she can watch you play live for anything wrong. This way it's a free complement and combined with GT low cost, you can't go wrong to learn the guitar!

That's my point of view.

See you guys

The best advice I can give to a beginner:

The two best ways to get better fast is to

1. Play with other people who are better than you

2. Record yourself playing, so you can hear how bad you are and how you can improve. Often when you are playing you can't notice mistakes and timing issues until you hear it played back.

Originally Posted by: Julian Vickers2. Record yourself playing, so you can hear how bad you are and how you can improve. Often when you are playing you can't notice mistakes and timing issues until you hear it played back.

Really good point here. I'll try to do it.

Originally Posted by: SimbadyHi i am new to guitar and not had my guitar long. Is this a good way to start guitar or is it better to get a tutor?

..and who's to say you can't do both if finances allow for it. Guitar Tricks is the bargain of the century for bang for the buck whether you are beginning or advanced. You have the pick of styles and difficulty levels. Also you don't have to work through what the teacher wants you to learn (which is why I decided to fore go lessons when I started..I had a teacher that wanted me to learn 'his style'. ugh). GT skips the personal opinion parts of an instructor. That said, if you get a really good instructor, they can diagnose issues you might have that you don't realize are occurring if you spend time only playing by yourself.

Both have value but it depends on you. I'd think GT for sure because it just has so much and it is a matter of how much 'diagnosing' you feel you need from the outset.

I've taken lessons again after many years of not playing. In my opinion I've learnt far more here over the last month than I did in the previous 3 months of lessons. The Fundamentals courses are invaluable. Nothing wrong with the instructor except the cost and I didn't feel I was getting anywhere. Even music theory is starting to make sense now.

Agree with other comments both have their merits, but this is fantastic value for money and a great starting point for the basics at least. You may, like me, decide to stick with it and not go back with lessons after.

Also if you get a tutor, make sure you enjoy the lessons or move on :)

Originally Posted by: Julian VickersThe best advice I can give to a beginner:

The two best ways to get better fast is to

1. Play with other people who are better than you

This isn't the best thing sometimes. People with low esteem would find this a little annoying. But I personally love playing with people who are amazing at guitar especially those who are patient enough to show you some of there tricks!

Personally, I started here at GuitarTricks....then I started with a guitar tutor later once I had a basis. Go either way man, or even do both, if you are looking for a less expensive way you've got what your looking for. Try it out for a month and then choose. Depends also how you learn, visually on a screen or with a teacher up close and personal once a week. In the end, it's up to you.
An even better idea which was mentioned above is find a friend you is you level and challenge each other. Low self-esteem shouldn't be a big issue, your just starting, everyone started sometime.

Keep playing man, never stop, it just keeps getting better and better.
Noah

I think this site is a great supplement, one of the best guitar sites out there. I think having an instructor is vital at certain points in development though.
Sometimes there are no substitutes for someone demonstrating, explaining, watching you play and point important observations and mistakes out to you, and to help you with your goals.

just my feelings!
I just signed up for the free lessons and they are not very good lessons at all, How can I get a good feeling for this if I don't really enjoy your how your going about this, there is a lot of free stuff on the internet. Justin Sandercoe and David Taub to name a few. I have learned a lot from these guys and would be happy giving them my money, it just felt like you offered free lessons that are not very good and it just seemed kinda shady, make your free lessons awesome and I would be hooked and want more, but you kinda went budget!
sorry guys I'll pass!!
LR Nelson

Yeah... I kinda agree. I've been under the impression lately that giving very "beginner" lessons was the way to go but I'm having second thoughts on that.
I've wanted to post some of the more advanced stuff, but we only have a limit of showing 2 free lessons so I don't want to post something that somebody can't finish.
We're also transitioning from lo-fi lessons to Hi-Def so we're reluctant to post the old lessons in case people think the whole site is like that.

I'd be interested in knowing what you'd like to see in free lessons.
We have the ability to change them. I've got over 400 to choose from of my own so if ya give us an idea, we can better accommodate you.

Hi, Even though I have been a member since 2005 this is my first time actually using the site and just giving my thoughts on what I think should be available for a beginner thinking of signing up for full member subscription. It would be nice to see an example video of what the Tutors are able to play like to give us a kind of "wow I would love to play like that" factor. A good example would be of what we could end up playing like at the end of the lessons.

Also beginner lessons are always the same whatever site you go on because we all need to kind of statrt in the same place. Learning how to hold a guitar and what the string names are etc. So it is hard to say what we would like instead, but you could teach us one song to get us going. Choose it carefully though. :)

I have been a member since the beginning of September 08 and I had never played guitar. While I can't say enough good things about this site if I could afford private lessons I would do them in addition to this. With that said I don't think I am having any trouble on my own here. The most important thing to me besides the money is the ability to stay focused and go slow. Don't rush through the fundamentals. I still visit fundamentals 2 quite often trying to master one of the lessons. So my advice is for 15 bucks a month how can you really go wrong??

Ed