Is it possible to learn guitar on your own? I mean, in the comfort of your home, without having to go out or get a physical guitar tutor? Yes, yes and yes!?
With the advent of technology today, learning the guitar has become very much easier and possible, where you do not have to spend so much or depend on a physical teacher to show you ‘A & B’. Its easy to learn the guitar online (availability of online guitar teachers and helpful materials/courses to guide you through), yet its still not easy to learn the guitar online (the step-by-step processes involved). Learning the guitar online would also cost you as much practice time and effort as you would apply when learning physically with a teacher.
There are so many sites and channels to dabble into and out of when it comes to learning the guitar online, but one must be very careful. You should follow a structured curriculum or teacher to successfully get anything out of the internet. Some online lessons are paid for, while some are absolutely free. Channel your efforts in looking for sites that are majorly known for delivering premium tutorial contents or better still find an interesting, relatable and knowledgeable instructor whose lessons are specially designed for beginners and are aimed at getting you the best guide to learning the guitar. Don’t jump from teacher to teacher or site to site, you might end up horribly confused and truncate or slow down your learning progress; follow one teacher, follow one course and see it through till the end.
For you to learn guitar online unhindered, the following steps are helpful to put you through.
– Get yourself a good acoustic guitar that is right for your body size, appropriate for you and is budget friendly too, having the perfect guitar to start your self-teaching journey goes a long way in determining your speed and progress along the way (acoustic guitars are known for being beginner-friendly). To help you choose the type of guitar that is right for you, see my article on What Are The Different Types of Acoustic Guitars.
– Get yourself a guitar stand. This is helpful for you as a beginner, putting your guitar within sight and arms reach all the time gives you more tendency to pick it up and play, locking it away in a case or bag just keeps it out of sight and out of mind until you remember it again, and remember you do not have a physical instructor to nudge you to bring it out.
– Get a stable internet connection. I know you must have assumed that learning guitar online would cost you absolutely NOTHING! That’s untrue in a way, because for you to successfully learn guitar online, you must pay for an unhindered supply of fast internet speed to help you stream videos and lessons.
– Be serious with your practice time. Since you do not have a physical instructor you go to or that comes to you everyday that would have tracked your progress, you need to build up self discipline on your own, set aside a particular time frame to practice daily, stick to it, and ensure that your practice time is highly maximized. Put away whatever will pose as a distraction or interference to your practice.
– Don’t be scared to try out songs on your own when you start learning chords. Even if your online tutor hasn’t given the go ahead or gotten to that part of the course where you’re allowed to play songs, just go ahead and do it! You may not even get it right at first, but just do it. You’re building up yourself and your muscle memory gradually and you’re getting a hang of what playing songs feel like. Try out your simple favourite songs first.
– Don’t avoid difficult stuff. Whenever you get to that part of the course where it looks like that’s the point where you should run away and find a simpler course online or an instructor that promises to turn you into a guitar wizard in one week. STOP!? Don’t go anywhere, remain there and finish up what you started, it doesn’t get easier than that on any other site or channel. Learning the guitar gets easier as you progress especially if you’re determined and put in your best.
– Be accountable. Make it a habit to record yourself when you practice and either show it to someone to access and criticize your performance or listen over by yourself and truthfully judge yourself, this would help you know what areas you’re good at, and what areas need more work and improvement.
– Don’t quit. You might have swollen calluses, aching backs and necks during and after each practice, and of course there’s no one to tell you “keep going, don’t stop now”, so you can easily drop the guitar and sleep off or do whatever pleases you. But don’t do it. If you’ve come this far in making up your mind and getting yourself a guitar, why not just accomplish the task set before you. Pain is truly discomforting, honestly I know this, but channel your pain into a driving force (my motivational speaking hat is on??). But seriously, don’t let some minor pains and bruises stop you, take pain meds if you must, take breaks in between if you must, but don’t stop!
The idea for learning online is not to learn all you want within a few days, it is to learn step-by-step with a structured and well-arranged curriculum or instructor and to acquire enough self discipline on your own to continue even when you’re offline/off the internet.
Sometime ago, I put out a beginners series on YouTube, a set of simple and precise lessons that has helped a lot of beginners and taught so many people the step by step processes involved in learning the guitar (from how to tune your guitar to music alphabets, strumming, chords, tabs, suspended chords, triads, power chords, how to read chord diagrams and every other thing between!). Up till date, it still helps lots of persons and I guarantee it would help you in no small way too, you can check it out here https://youtu.be/Km8T1dMFd48
Put in your best, even if it’s for 30 minutes a day, just be consistent; you’ll be amazed at the amount of progress you’ll achieve in a few months.
Start learning today. Goodluck!!!?
