Many people would say that you get what you pay for. If something is free don’t expect much out of it. Is this the case with free online guitar lessons? Based on what is put into the free guitar courses I would say that these lessons were never intended to teach you more than the basics.
The people who put them out usually agree not guitar teachers and these instructors are not claiming to be. Understand that free online guitar courses are meant to give you the basics of playing guitar and not make you a pro guitar player for free.
Online Guitar Lessons
There are two categories of online guitar courses: paid online guitar courses and free online guitar courses. If you’re wondering why I’ve even mentioned paid guitar lessons when their are free courses available, always remember you get what you pay for.
I don’t say that to discredit a person who puts out a free video to help someone through the kindness of their heart, but think of it this way: If you get something for free and it doesn’t work correctly, do you complain to the person who was nice enough to give it to you for nothing in the first place?
Most of us would take it with a grain of salt and move on realizing that we didn’t invest anything, therefore nothing was lost. This is dangerous thinking when it comes to learning the guitar.
FREE ONLINE GUITAR LESSONS
Unfortunately some of the people who put out the free online guitar lessons aren’t qualified to do so. They might be a great guitar player, but not such a great teacher. That’s why the lessons are free and there’s nothing wrong with that. What you need to realize is that these are just to give you a very brief sample of guitar playing.
By nature these courses aren’t meant to teach you all the ins and outs of guitar playing. If they did put all the work into making a great guitar course I’m sure they would charge a fair price for the work they put into the product. To clarify, these lessons are not intended to teach you everything about the guitar, just the very basics.
If you just want to learn some guitar basics and that’s it, by all means check out the free online courses. Some people just want to play around with a guitar for fun. Most free courses out there do offer a great deal of knowledge for beginners.
However, if you’d like to eventually be an advanced guitar player, some of the free lessons could hinder your progress as a musician. Even with the best free courses available, you will need better guitar lessons to get beyond the basics and really learn to play guitar.
Lets say you start out on any given free online guitar lessons today. You are likely complete the first four lessons before dusk.
Usually four or five lessons is the most offered for free and they are typically ten minutes or less. After these initial lessons you will either subscribe to pay for more lessons or simply move on to the next set of free lessons.
The next lessons will offer you almost the exact same information as your first lessons with the same end result. You subscribe to their paid lessons or move on to more free guitar lessons.
This is a vicious cycle that will surely have you spinning your wheels without actually moving forward. Going to a dozen different courses to learn the same amount of information is a waste of time and resources. The key to being a good guitar player is to constantly learn new techniques and implement them.
PAID ONLINE GUITAR LESSONS
Paid online courses cost anywhere from $40-$100+ depending on what you’re looking for. That’s typically a one time fee, but sometimes a recurring monthly bill. These range from courses that are strictly for beginners (a person with absolutely no guitar experience) all the way up to advanced and everywhere in between.
Depending on what style of guitar the course teaches you, electric, acoustic, classical,etc.., how long the course is and what end result your looking for (beginner,intermediate or advanced) all have an outcome on the price. Videos and bonuses are factored in as well.
When someone pays to put a product on the market to sell there’s a lot of research involved. A big part of the research of courses or study materials is being user friendly and a solid curriculum.
The problem I find with free sites is that the person doing the video has all the best intentions in the world, and probably is very good at playing the guitar, but most of them just aren’t very good teachers. But again, I don’t believe that their intention is to make you a rock superstar for free.
You can’t complain because after all, its free! however, someone who’s a beginner taking the free course in the hopes he’ll be the next guitar virtuoso doesn’t realize is that those courses may actually be damaging his ability to play.
Most free courses have gaps in the content that often leave you more confused than satisfied. Avoid added frustrations whenever possible.
Your online guitar goals should be considered to make a conscientious decision on whether to check out some free guitar courses or shop around and get a good paid course. If you’re not really serious about the guitar and just want to strum around in your free time I would say checking out the free courses wouldn’t hurt.
In fact if you just want to play for fun try learning tabs guitar. Tabs is a system for reading music that’s more intuitive and easy to understand. Any serious guitarist would be advised to learn music notation, but TABS will get you playing quickly. If you have any long term goals I would suggest getting a good paid course as not to damage what musical skill you have.
RSS FEED
