Acoustic Blues guitar lesson spice up that bluesy playing
The internet is a truly magnificent and wonderful learning resource. Young people today don’t all appreciate how lucky they are to have the worlds knowledge and skills at their fingertips via the internet.
I’ve been playing guitar for well over thirty years having started out with the classic Bert Weedon’s ‘Play in a Day’ book, way back in the 1970’s. I couldn’t afford guitar lessons so I would avidly watch the fingers of every guitarist I could, trying to pick up playing techniques, riffs and licks.
Modern technology has revolutionised the way that people learn to play the guitar. There are so many excellent guitar tuition DVDs that can be played over and over again, unlike a face to face guitar lesson. And the internet is the most ideal way to distribute and deliver some fantastic guitar tutorials.
There are an abundance of guitar teaching websites but my favourite place for guitar tutorials is Youtube. You can find instructional videos on everything from choosing guitars to making your own electric guitar. There are some excellent videos for all levels of learning, from complete novice through to extremely advanced.
Learning some new techniques, tunes and licks has become my favourite hobby. Often when its raining I’ll stay indoors and learn a new tune or two from Youtube. I think that my guitar playing skills have improved more in the past five years, thanks to Youtube, than it did in the prior twenty years.
Another thing to remember is that the system is interactive. If I find a video of someone playing a piece that I like I can easily make it one of my favourites and maybe leave a comment for the performer to see. I will often ask a question or two and the video maker will generally come back with a helpful answer. It’s a bit like having every online guitarist in the world available as a personal guitar playing consultant.
These days I find myself feeling a little bit envious of the young people learning guitar with all these great resources available to them. I like to think that if I’d been born later, at a time when all of these great learning resources were available, I’d have been playing better than Eric Clapton by now.