Acoustic Guitar: Lessons vs. Self Taught?

I didn't take lessons, I taught myself, and learned from friends. Playing with others helped me more than anything.

I do advise folks just taking up guitar to take a couple of private lessons, just to learn the bare basics and avoid bad habits, tuning, basic chord structure, etc. But I'm sure you know all that from the group lessons.

That is lovely to hear Pink Ink. I think each form has it's own place, and helps in it's own way. I think at the end of the day it's about your enthusiasm and determination for keeping at something that you enjoy doing and if you find that teaching yourself is better all round for you, than keep at it. I have an acoustic guitar and rarely play it now. I don't have the spark for it as such anymore, but am sure one day I shall get back into it. I used to take lessons in high school, and later developed my own love for teaching myself, but with time I've lost that enthusiasm that I once had for it. Perhaps its the patience. I think if I was to take it up again, I would take some lessons to learn the basics, like the addster has said before setting off on my own.

Good luck, and do enjoy!

Let us know how you get on.

I learned to play guitar on my own. I have no doubt I would have learned faster and better if I had taken one-on-one lessons.

Here's a long-term online acquaintance - I've read her blog in recent years about teaching guitar and stuff. Click on 'guitar' and she's got a Youtube video of "your first guitar lesson:"
http://irenejackson.com/
Which reminds me, there are apparently a LOT of guitar-teaching videos on Youtube if you think you can follow those without the feedback from an in-person teacher. I heard about a ten-year-old or so son of an AW'er who was learning guitar from Youtube videos.

Playing with others helped me more than anything.

Click to expand...

This.

Just like with writing, not much beats the power of positive peer pressure.

I've never had a lesson in my life, and you can do it that way. But playing with others is much more fun.

Music was my love my whole life. Reading music was never a problem. I play many different instruments, when I bought my first acoustic guitar I taught myself. I remember walking in with it and my mom asked if I knew how to play one. I told her...not yet. lol I also taught myself how to play the piano, but that's another story.

I'm self-taught but that's more a result of being stubborn (and traumatized by piano recitals as a child). Group lessons can be a good way to get your feet wet and have some accountability. There are thousands of free lessons on YouTube, which I would have killed for when I was learning to play. It's important to develop good technical habits when you start (hand position, pick technique) but after that it's mostly a matter of hours spent practicing. If you hold a guitar in your hand 2 hours a day, you're going to steadily improve. Good luck and keep striving for that goal!

Stick with the pro teachers on the YouTube stuff. Some of the videos on there are a bit questionable. I'll use them if I'm trying to figure something out, but take it with a grain of salt.

I just started playing some slide guitar last spring and checked out some of the videos for how to play "Dust My Broom". While there are about a million ways to play that song, a few that I saw weren't even close.

Yeah, YouTube can be a bit like looking for a reputable pilot in Mos Eisley

I took lessons through the university. I tried to teach myself beforehand, but all the books always had something that made no sense--one of those "you already know this"--which, jeez, I didn't. The classes made me push and practice, something I needed. Plus I enjoyed talking with others about learning. That helped a lot.

Good luck!

I learned in a band. I joined as a singer, then started playing guitar to fill out the sound. Of course, none of us were any good so adding my discordant noise to the already raucous cacophany didn't help at all, but it was more fun than I'd ever had in my life. Over the years the main way I learned was by figuring out songs initially by myself in advance of rehearsals, then polishing them up with the band before adding them to the show. Nowadays I skulk the 'net when I run into something I can't get on my own and quite often do find someone who has figured it out. One of the best I've run across is Siggi Mertens. He doesn't nail every single note of every single song, but he invariably has the guts of it down and he's great at explaining what he's doing.

the addster said:

Stick with the pro teachers on the YouTube stuff. Some of the videos on there are a bit questionable. I'll use them if I'm trying to figure something out, but take it with a grain of salt.

I just started playing some slide guitar last spring and checked out some of the videos for how to play "Dust My Broom". While there are about a million ways to play that song, a few that I saw weren't even close.

Click to expand...

Dead on. It's amazing how many so-so musicians on youtube think they know how to play a tune/solo note for note (and think the rest of the world wants to hear them show off), but miss more than they hit.