Acoustic Beginner Online Guitar Lessons - The Upside And The Downside

If you are intending to take guitar lessons, either online or offline, there are a few things you need to get clear about whether you take acoustic guitar lessons before focusing on a particular genre. If you are taking guitar lessons a regular practice schedule is going to start the process of forming callouses on your finger tips and training your muscles to perform the actions involved in guitar playing.

The nylon string acoustic guitar offers some advantages to the novice guitar player. Steel strings tend to slice your fingers if they are not calloused and that is not a pleasant sensation. The slices in the fingers require you to stop playing until they heal. It is much less stressful to toughen your fingers up on nylon strings. Also the nylon string acoustic forces the guitar student to press the strings with enough pressure to make a clean sound. The electric guitar is a little more forgiving in this respect so it is best to train yourself as a guitar player using the acoustic guitar.

All this takes for granted that you are interested in careful, gradual progress as a guitarist. If you are interested in becoming a rock and roll guitar player as soon as possible you could get into it from the start but this will be at the expense of some of the solid training the acoustic gives.

Let's take a look at the kind of experience you are likely to go through if you decide to take online guitar lessons. Instead of observing how you approach the guitar and offering you personal advice on how to play, online guitar lessons will offer you written instructions, maybe supplemented by video, and if you are short on experience and confidence you might have some trouble picking up the basic practices of guitar playing using online acoustic guitar lessons.

Even though there are quite detailed video lessons on how to practice, the online guitar student is in danger of forming bad playing habits. This is why many guitarists recommend that you take at least a few lessons with a live guitar teacher so you will start off in the right way.

When you are deciding whether to take online or offline acoustic guitar lessons the question of a practice regime is going to come up. You have a guitar that you are just learning to tune, you have sore fingers and assorted muscular aches, now you have to start regular daily practice that isn't going to yield too much in the way of instant results. It is going to take some discipline to get through the initial stages of your acoustic guitar lessons, whether you decide on offline or online lessons, so you might need some guidance from a teacher to get you into the habit of regular practice.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

An acoustic guitar tuner

I've just found a video of a guy playing the open strings of an acoustic guitar. He repeats the notes a lot so we can use his guitar as a guide for tuning. It's at The Best Acoustic Guitar Tuner

The page also has info on various kinds of guitar tuners.

Practicing acoustic guitar

The best advice for people taking beginner acoustic guitar lesson is to try to get into the habit of practicing for half an hour a day. Or more if you can manage it. The more practice you do, the faster your guitar playing will progress. But it is not only the amount of time you spend that is important, it is the quality of your acoustic guitar practice. Don't try to fit a lot of material into one practice session. Start by working on one chord change and one scale at first. If you find that you are able to fit more work into your practice time, then, fine. When it comes to tuning your acoustic guitar you can locate tuners on the internet. There are tuners online that sound the notes of the guitar when you click on the pictures of the strings. If you are having trouble tuning by ear, then do a web search for a free guitar tuner that you can download to your computer. These usually have a visual guide that will help you get your acoustic guitar in tune much faster.

More acoustic guitar lessons

Acoustic Guitar Tuners

Learn To Play Guitar Fastt

All About Acoustic Guitar Tablature

Classical Guitar Music

How To Play Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic Guitar Tab

Beyond Basics - Acoustic Slide Guitar

Written by Keith Wyatt. Instructional book/CD package for guitar.
With guitar tablature, standard notation, instructional text, black & white photos, color photos and guitar tab glossary. Instructional, Blues and Folk. 9x12 inches.
Acoustic Slide Guitar teaches blues chord forms, stylistic licks and patterns, blues scales, turnarounds, solo country blues style guitar, melody ideas, and more. The book includes a full-color photo section showing all types of slides. Written in standard notation and tablature.
Contents:
Types of Slides
Left and Right Hand Techniques
Dropped D and Open G Tunings
Phrasing, Vibrato and Intonation
Playin' the Blues
The Capo
Open D Tuning
Standard Tuning
Putting It All Together
Beyond Basics - Acoustic Slide Guitar

Acoustic Guitar Bible

Guitar tablature songbook for guitar and voice. Series: Hal Leonard Guitar Recorded Versions. 240 pages.
With guitar tablature, standard notation, vocal melody, lyrics, chord names, guitar chord diagrams and guitar notation legend.
A wonderful collection of 35 acoustic classics in notes and tab, including: Angie * Best of My Love * Building a Mystery * Change the World * Crazy on You * Dust in the Wind * Here Comes the Sun * Hold My Hand * Iris * Landslide * Learning to Fly * Leaving on a Jet Plane * Loser * Maggie May * The Man Who Sold the World * Midnight Rider * Silent Lucidity * Southern Cross * Tears in Heaven * Time in a Bottle * Wild World * You Were Meant for Me * You've Got a Friend * and more. A great value!

Good for beginners & improv alike
"With such a variety of songs, this has something for every skill level. Precise transcriptions of the parts of the recording does leave holes in the song, though, when the bass/drum takes over. Players who want a "solo guitar arrangement" of their favorite tunes need to be prepared to improvise, or look to another arrangement."
-- Dave Sracic from Washington, DC, April 27, 2004


Acoustic Guitar Bible

Acoustic Masters Series: Craig Dobbins' Hymns for Fingerstyle Guitar

By Craig Dobbins. For Guitar. Guitar Method or Supplement. Acoustic Masters Series. 0. Acoustic; Fingerstyle. Book & CD. 52 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.
Craig Dobbins has tastefully arranged this beautiful collection of hymns to be easily playable and yet worthy of concert and solo recital performance. All the music is written in standard notation and tablature, and performed beautifully on the included CD. Selections include: Amazing Grace * In the Garden * O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing * The Old Rugged Cross * Sweet Hour of Prayer * There Is a Fountain and more.

"Excellent arrangements and enjoyed the CD, too."
-- RVS from Woodbridge, VA, April 01, 2008

"Great arrangement and good performance notes given prior to the score. Enjoyed it very much and had also ordered another book by Craig titled Accoustic Christmas. Highly recommended."
-- Ah Sang Lim from Singapore, June 12, 2007

"There are several songs that are intermediate-level, and some I thought were more advanced. I liked that the arrangements were in different styles, and the CD was very helpful. The songs in this book are certainly worth your while to learn."
-- Joanne from Bethlehem, PA, February 26, 2007

"The arrangements are playable but sophisticated. Bought this book and the "Complete Gospel Fingerstyle solo series" If it is one or the other for you - you want this one"
-- G. Nimmo from Cincinnati, Ohio, February 16, 2007


Acoustic Masters Series: Craig Dobbins' Hymns for Fingerstyle Guitar