Chapters
- 01. Take Your Private Guitar Lessons Anywhere You Go
- 02. Learn Guitar Online.
- 03. Forget About the Constant Trips Back and Forth: Organize Your Guitar Lessons at Your Leisure
- 04. Videos, Playbacks, Music Sheets: a Quick Exchange Via Webcam and Computer
- 05. A Less Rigid Method Than in Music School or a Conservatory
- 06. A Cheaper Method
You have probably been telling yourself, "I really should take guitar lessons...", for years. Yet, more often than not, yourself responds, 'oh but I don't have enough time'.
So be it. But what if a particular method of teaching allowed you to finally take private lessons while not wasting time? In which you could absorb all that knowledge of music theory and chord progressions, and develop those skills in rhythm guitar, fingerstyle, and ear training, without having to heave your instrument across town? That would be more practical, wouldn't it?
This method is private online guitar lessons via webcam. This might be a fairly underwhelming revelation - as some students may take for granted that this has been happening for years. And it has - this type of online lessons is developing more and more.
How is the webcam a good tool for learning how to play guitar? What are the direct benefits of online guitar lessons, compared to going to a music school, joining a guitar course, or having a private lesson at home?
And, why might they be a particularly good style of guitar lessons for beginners?
Let's study all of this together before taking a guitar class...
Take Your Private Guitar Lessons Anywhere You Go
When you go to a music school to learn how to play the guitar, you need to have the requirements in mind - namely, if you need a particular jazz guitar, rock guitar, or classical guitar qualification or level. And you'll need to know what your expecting from your guitar instructor.
Clearly, though, the pedagogical advantages are huge, as, usually, music schools guarantee a particular quality of guitar instruction - and those recognized professors will be able to work wonders on your improvisation, your arpeggio knowledge, and your fingerpicking guitar tricks.
However, the situation of the music school does include some constraints that shouldn't be overlooked when it's time to make your choice. Whilst you may be impressed by the quality of teaching, that is available in all styles of music - from blues guitar lessons to classical guitar lessons - you may overlook the practical issues that such a music school may pose.
In a fairly dramatic scenario, these may well tire you in the medium or long term. They may well, also, simply make you abandon guitar lessons altogether.
The Practical Difficulties...
We're referring particularly to the constraints of appointments at fixed times and days or the transport that these lessons require from you.
Because guitar lessons aren't all just about the pentatonic or major scale, the power chords and guitar solos, the knowledge of the fretboard and tablature.
At the end of the day, you do actually have to get to that lesson. And although these might be the best guitar lessons in the world, sometimes it is just more trouble than it is worth.
Learn Guitar Online.
All of this, of course, is completely unnecessary if you opt for individual guitar lessons via webcam.
Moving from the in-person lesson to distance, online private lessons can sometimes be a little off-putting. However they have many advantages. Like being able to take them wherever you want for example. Whether you're on a trip, at home or on a holiday...
All you need in the end comes down to this:
- A guitar, obviously.
- A computer with an integrated webcam or a webcam purchased separately.
- A tablet if you do not have a computer.
- A solid Wifi connection.
- A Skype account.
From there on end, all boundaries fall and you can start taking individual guitar lessons by webcam. Wherever you want!
Forget About the Constant Trips Back and Forth: Organize Your Guitar Lessons at Your Leisure
As we recalled above, trusting a music school and its teachers for your guitar lessons, you are subject to several constraints. Starting with the slots imposed by the school!
Are these schools compatible with your professional and personal obligations? Not always. When you leave the office around 6pm and you have a family life, that still leaves a bit of time to learn the guitar!
You are probably not alone in this case, which leaves few places also during these few niches.
The solution when one has a busy work life and an active personal life is therefore to take individual guitar lessons by webcam. The websites and professors who propose this method put forward an argument that seems indefeasible: "send us your schedule!"
Hard to get more practical than that! Simply send your schedule to the guitar teacher, who, sometimes even late, will organize on his side to meet your requirements. He can even send you chord charts regularly, outside your planned video lessons.
It's quite a good way of doing it - especially since it's easy to learn the guitar by webcam. The guitar is an instrument that fits into the field of the webcam and has a sound easily recorded by the microphone.
And, there is no need to transport your instrument around when you take webcam guitar lessons.
You may know this pain already - if you have been studying music for several years or if you're a musician at all, whatever the instrument. Yes you do, you know, the one that consists of carrying around your guitar, violin, bass, saxophone or trumpet everywhere.
In the bus, subway, tram or taxi for the lucky ones!
It's heavy, cumbersome, it bothers others and therefore you too. Often, you'll need to tune your guitar again, and you take the risk of damaging your instrument. Because to go to music school to learn to play an instrument is also a tedious ritual. And that's without counting of course on the performances and other contests you'll need to attend.
But once again, with the individual guitar lessons by webcam, you totally bypass this inconvenience. By taking these lessons from your home, you no longer need to lug your heavy and bulky guitar, and sometimes even your amps if you are doing electric guitar lessons, to every corner of the city.
Just think about it. Expert tuition to nail your blues licks, play songs that you love, and to understand guitar chords - from open chords to barre chords. But all from the comfort of your home.
Videos, Playbacks, Music Sheets: a Quick Exchange Via Webcam and Computer
When one decides to privilege guitar lessons by webcam, rather than going to school for a lesson given by a teacher in flesh and blood, one deprives oneself of a direct contact. This can be important. It's a fact.
This could hamper a number of people who were used to receiving lessons in person during their whole life. And whilst you can work on your fingerstyle guitar or your guitar songs all well and good, through video guitar lessons maybe you find that the personal connection is just lacking.
But, beyond the advantages that we have already described, we feel that taking individual guitar lessons online with interposed webcams can be a fantastic pedagogical tool!
Book your guitar lesson, find a teacher!
Music can indeed be enriched by this virtual contact. How?
The Case for Guitar Lessons Online.
See it like this. When one decides to trust a teacher from a distance to learn the guitar, one also decides to trust Skype. Everything goes through the video conference software.
Skype, the microphone and the webcam then become fantastic educational tools. If only for your teacher to send you links to the scores. You can find them all on the internet, for all types of instruments. So, instead of going to your music store every time, a simple copy-and-paste with your guitar teacher will be enough. The money and time gains are obvious.
Your teacher can easily show you how to read music sheets (or tabs, as you often find them) and even show you how the riff goes and the strumming pattern so as to guide in the first steps. All this instantly! You can then go back to the downloaded tablatures whenever you need to work on your chords or harmonics for that song.
Whether it's for learning with your teacher or for practicing, having your computer around will be helpful.
Moreover, it is also necessary to know that to work with a private guitar teacher is also to go towards a certain musical freedom. The latter will not impose you anything, it is you who will propose to him the style that you wish to develop.
From there on in, Skype, the microphone and the webcam take a great dimension, since teacher and students can then, in a few clicks, exchange many videos of songs. Would you like to own a cover of one of your favorite hits on the guitar? Send the video and performance you'd like to reproduce to your guitar teacher via Skype. The latter will show you the chords on the guitar.
Giving guitar lessons through webcam encourages interactions between the teacher and the student.
You may not be singing when you play the guitar. Not everyone can do it! This being said, you can completely entrust your teacher to find you playbacks in videos to play over. A simple exchange of links via Skype, and you're done!
A Less Rigid Method Than in Music School or a Conservatory
Let us not generalize without reason nor meaning. All music teachers and guitar teachers in music school are not rigid or stuck on a particular style. But this can unfortunately happen. Just like the fact of finding a private professor with little tastes in the modern styles.
On the other hand, if you want to learn the guitar via webcam, be aware that you will not only regularly deal with young professors but also with a method advocating freedom!
Indeed, the individual guitar lessons by webcam are accompanied nearly all the time with a desire to let the apprentice decide what he wants to learn. Whether acoustic guitar or electric guitar. Blues, rock or folk. From Elvis to Avril Lavigne...
Choosing to learn the guitar means adopting a methodology that is less rigid and more tailored to your own tastes.
Further follow-ups with your private guitar teacher will allow you to make the most of the guitar lessons and use them at best.
Another unstoppable argument in favor of individual guitar lessons by webcam: the follow-up. Set for yourself the goals of each guitar lesson you take.
But how does Skype allow the apprentice guitarist have better follow-ups as compared to his or her private teacher?
Simply because he can "annoy him" as much as he wants! As far as reason allows, obviously. But after your private guitar lessons, your teacher will give you tracks to work on your game until the next lesson. And whereas a teacher in music school is not available from one lesson to another, the private guitar teacher will be able to answer all your questions thanks to the webcam and Skype.
A forgotten chord. Another, newly found. A new song to work on...
A Cheaper Method
You've got it, the webcam is a good tool to take individual guitar lessons. The benefits are numerous (including the price of the guitar lesson), despite the distance.
Guitar lessons online are the most economical guitar lessons. You may already know this, but taking classes in music schools is a real investment. And then, the choice of teachers is wide. It's up to you to choose a good guitar teacher. And especially the one that suits you best.
Schools have expensive rents to pay, many instruments and charges. Guitar lessons are not always very affordable for everyone.
On the other hand, by avoiding the physical and material investment that a music school requires, using only your computers, microphones and webcams, the costs are much less obvious. That's why learning guitar by webcam can also represent a real gain of money!
If you want a more hands-on approach, consider a private tutor. Searching for guitar lessons London produces the most results on Superprof but there is a lot more choice if you're willing to learn online.
The platform that connects tutors and students
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