Acoustic Blues guitar lesson spice up that bluesy playing
The internet is a truly wonderful 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 started playing over thirty years ago with Bert Weedon’s famous ‘Play in a Day’ book, back in the 1970s. In those days I couldn’t afford guitar lessons so I would watch guitarists very closely at every opportunity.
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 provides an ideal platform for the presentation of 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 plenty of videos that will help those who are just starting out with the guitar and lots more that are ideal for people like me, who’ve been playing for a while but want to learn more techniques and tunes.
Learning new licks, techniques and tunes from Youtube has become one of my favoured pass times. If the weather is bad then you will generally find me learning a new tune or two from Youtube. Its safe to say that my guitar playing has progressed more in the past five years, thanks to Youtube, than it did in the previous twenty years.
Another useful feature is that the system is interactive. When I find a video that I like I will always make it one of my favourites and often drop the performer a note to say thanks. Also, I will often ask the presenter a question or two and they always come back with a positive answer. Its a bit like having any number of great guitarists as personal guitar playing consultants.
These days I can’t help but feel a little jealous of the young people who are just starting to play guitar. 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.