Why Take Private Guitar Lessons
Why bother with private guitar lessons when there are so many free resources available online? You can learn anything you want for free if you look hard enough - so why do people still take private guitar lessons?
I’ve been teaching private guitar lessons for most of the past 18 years now and I’ve had many students who tried to learn guitar from videos and eventually started private lessons. Here are six of the top reasons why they chose private guitar lessons over YouTube lessons, or in the case of my pre-youtube students, VHS lessons.
Reason #1. Guitar Lessons Create Accountability
Adult guitar students with a busy schedule already have a lot on their mind. Why spend the extra willpower and discipline to look up the ideal online schools, compare them, and then begin working regularly on guitar lessons? It’s so much work to get into the groove with practice and it’s so easy to just stop playing guitar when there is too much on your plate. Private lessons provide something to look forward to and practice for every week. Even if you have difficulty sitting down to practice as often as you would prefer, a weekly lesson gives you a clear deadline every week to push your guitar skills a little further. A teacher can also help you plan your guitar practice time efficiently so that you can get right to work instead of scrolling through videos until you find the right one.
Reason #2. A Guitar Teacher Can INTERACT WITH YOU
When you’re watching a YouTube lesson, it can be hard to see what the person is doing. Even if your technique is perfect, it’s so nice to have the ability to ask “am I doing this right?” and have a teacher give you specific feedback about what you’re doing. This enables a guitar student to move forward with confidence and specific reasons why they are doing whatever they’re doing. It’s especially helpful for beginning guitar students to have a teacher present who can help adjust your technique to prevent bad habits from dampening your guitar skills later on.
Reason #3. A GUITAR TEACHER CAN GIVE YOU PERSPECTIVE
There are so many lessons and books out there about chord shapes and music theory and technique and everything - but if you just read or watch a series from beginning to end it’s hard to get a sense of what to focus on. It’s hard to gauge the importance of a specific technique or concept without understanding how it fits into the bigger picture. A teacher can cater specifically to your guitar needs and say “If you first spend your energy on this technique or concept, the other parts will make a lot more sense and will be easier to learn.” It’s so valuable to have a teacher help you see the birds eye view when you’re frustrated about a specific technique or concept.
Reason #4. Guitar lessons are encouraging
We all benefit from a little encouragement. As I mentioned earlier, feedback is immensely helpful, but so is affirmation. It’s so much easier to practice guitar when someone is regularly telling you things like “this is a normal pace for what you’re learning” or “that technique is difficult but it gets easier after a week or two of practice.” Often guitar students have some past learning trauma where they feel they ought to get better at a faster pace. Encouragement and affirmation can help you feel comfortable about the journey and less worried about comparing yourself to others.
Reason #5. private Guitar lessons are personal
We all learn in different ways. One size does not fit all. A good teacher can help you reach the guitar goals you’re interested in and continually adapt to your specific learning styles. Online guitar lessons are generally focused on topics that appeal to a wide range of people. If you want to learn something specific, you really have to hunt for it. On top of that, a YouTube video doesn’t know how skilled you are. You might be spending a long time watching something that is already easy for you or maybe you’re struggling and struggling to learn something that would be a lot easier after you develop more foundational skills. A good teacher can assess where your technique is within a few minutes and help you find practice material that fits your interest AND develops your technique and muscle memory appropriately.
Reason #6. Guitar teachers can suggest related material
If you’re a beginning guitar student you probably have a good sense of the genre and style that you want to learn. A guitar teacher can help you reach those goals, but they can also help you find related songs and techniques that strengthen your foundations and give you a better sense of how to play your preferred styles. I like to help my students find the history attached to the music they are interested in. Most guitar styles have a lineage of similar styles that goes back for generations. It’s similar to meeting the family of a friend for the first time and instantly understanding your friend on a different level. A good guitar teacher can take the music you know and help you get to know its family.
Private guitar lessons are especially useful for beginning guitar students who want to make sure they get a good foundation of technique and understanding. Having the guidance of a private guitar teacher can make your learning experience more fun, more engaging, and more consistent.