So, you have decided to try to learn how to play the guitar. You may have dusted off an old guitar you tried to learn years ago, or you may have bought or been gifted a shiny new instrument that you’re itching to play. You’re picturing standing on a stage living out your rock star dream in front of a crowd of fans—but first you need to learn how to play the thing!
A lot of people can’t afford to pay for professional guitar tuition and (especially during the current pandemic) you may not even be able to access face to face tuition. Thankfully, there is an invaluable resource that you can use to learn a musical instrument.
Whether we use it for work or entertainment, most of us spend at least some time on the internet each day. Whether you’re doing serious research or simply checking out your favorite PA online casino, you probably log in at least once a day. Time spent browsing social media, gaming or shopping online can also be used to teach yourself a new skill such as the guitar! There is a wealth of free educational material online for you to choose from.
Online Guitar Tutorials
There are many different online guitar lessons available. Some are accessible through video sharing sites like YouTube while others are hosted on their own sites. While some lessons have a fee, there is a huge amount of free content that can teach you everything from the absolute basics of playing the guitar to advanced techniques like sweep picking and pinched harmonics!
Tabs, Chords, and Sheet Music
If you don’t need to learn techniques like building chords, alternate picking, etc and simply want to learn a few chords to strum along to your favorite songs and entertain your friends around the campfire, you will find plenty of sites where you can do this. Sites like Ultimate Guitar allow you to learn the chords or tablature (also known as guitar tabs – a visual numerical representation of the frets) to almost any song you can think of. If you want to learn more formal music theory, there are also plenty of places where you can find traditional
Forums
There are many different online messageboards available for guitarists to ask and answer questions and share tips and tricks about every aspect of playing the instrument. Forums like Reddit’s r/Guitar are very popular and you don’t even need to sign up for a Reddit account to view content! If you are a social media user, Facebook and Twitter also have a number of public and private guitar-related discussion groups that you can get involved with.
Overall, learning a musical instrument such as the guitar has never been easier. The internet provides an almost unlimited amount of educational content at your fingertips as long as you have a device and Wi-Fi connection! Even if you eventually intend to get formal lessons, using the internet to give you a head start on the basics can be a great idea and it can help you to refine your technique between lessons!
