Watch and Learn Guitar Lessons

In the past, learning how to play the guitar presented a significant challenge for beginners—there was the need for intimidating-looking hand diagrams for fingering chords, the need to memorize various scales using only a string of printed letters as a guide, and the need for a qualified guitarist as an instructor to help interpret everything else that was unclear in an instructional book.  Today’s digital age brings a new, highly-flexible way of learning the guitar to potential instrumentalists in the form of watch and learn guitar lessons that are offered online.

The nature of watch and learn guitar lessons basically combines everything that an instructor would be able to teach in person, with the convenience of watching a streaming video.  While there is no option (usually) to submit questions to the watch and learn lesson video providers, the new media lesson format presents a host of benefits to student guitarist.  The ability to pause, repeat, and otherwise control the playback of the instructional videos gives more freedom to the student that needs to go over how to read guitar tabs, for example.  Using close-up shots of hand positions why finger scales, chords, and while playing a song, students will get a just-as-good replacement for the pricey professional instructor who may/may not be willing to repeat themselves or as knowledgeable on subject matter as the average watch and learn instructor is.

Virtually all facets of learning a guitar translate well into a ‘watch and learn’ format for guitar students.  Learning how to tune a guitar is something that’s best seen (and heard) in order to understand, as opposed to simply reading how to adjust the tuners on the headstock.  Proper finger and thumb position while playing shows through quite well on a streaming video using close-up angles and instructional video-like prompts.  With the nature of watch and learn guitar lessons being tied to the internet, it’s quick and easy to surf the web for even more information on a particular aspect of guitars that wasn’t covered as much as one desired within the online video.

Many watch and learn guitar lesson providers couple a video-based curriculum with downloads to aid in instruction.  These downloads come in the form of printable sheet music for practice lessons, audio samples to accompany these lessons, and other genre-specific  techniques such as learning blues licks or emulating a famous guitar player by reading some of their transcribed music.  As an alternative to traditional instruction, watch and learn guitar lessons are easily just as effective and twice as convenient.  The fact that many of these lessons can be found online in various streaming websites (such as YouTube or MySpace) or on a dedicated guitar lessons webpage free of cost gives it an edge for a new guitar player without the funds to afford a pricey professional instructor when seeking guitar lessons.  Traditional instruction gains the advantage when a student guitarist seeks aid in learning the advanced techniques, however, as direct feedback and individual instruction is extremely helpful in honing skills.