i have heard that guitar lessons are not necessary to learn how to play guitar well. Is that true?

Question

I did one lesson in person, and joined this online guitar lesson site, I am just wondering if it is necessary or if you can just learn chords and scales and arpeggios and go from there yourself.

Answer 1

It all depends on how bad you want to learn. I learned to play chords from a book. I've been playing since the 70s.

Answer 2

Hi thenorrist18. I am in a unique situation because i'm learning guitar and I have had lessons before (about 5 lessons total). Guitar teachers are amazing in that they will play a song and make it sound awesome, thus motivating you to want to play. They can also show you how to position your hands and fingers. They can tell you what exercises to do everyday or every time you pick up a guitar so your hands and mind get used to chord movements. I found my guitar teacher on craigslist. If you are a young person or girl I would go through a music shop just to be safe. A short list of pros and cons of having a teacher: Pros You will learn faster You will make time to practice before the lesson otherwise he/she will chew you out You will have a set routine, as far as learning and and getting better and practicing the same stuff over and over, plus some new stuff added in every time you have a lesson Its cheap, mine was $30 for an hour They will break any bad habits you have while playing before they become part of how you play They will show you concepts that would take a while to pick up on your own, such as strumming patterns or how to hold each hand. Cons They will be reluctant to have you learn anything cool for the first few months while you learn scales and chords If you don't practice, you will get the whip

Answer 3

I recommend getting lessons the first year of playing then teaching yourself. I've learned a lot from this book in the fact that if I had learned to play the way he recommends in the beginning, I'd be better off now.

The Essentials: Chord Charts, Scales and Lead Patterns for Guitar (Paperback)

Answer 4

it's not necessary but it helps alot if you need some direction on what to study and how to study. If you know some music theory then you could probably get pretty good at guitar without lessons if you know what to practice and how to practice correctly if not you could develope bad technique but thats okay unless you want to be like a pro. There's some great websites out there though i recommend this FREE website some dude has videos on there teaching you different techniques and exercises to get good at guitar he even has recommended pratice routines to increase your finger dexterity and proper technique developement and music theory so you can learn how to form chords and things.
take a look...

http://www.justinguitar.com/

Answer 5

How long it takes to learn guitar depends on how good you want to get and how much practice you put in. How good you can get with 1-2 hours a day for a few months depends on what methods you use to practice. There are effective practice methods that will help you make the best use of your time. This course is one of the best. https://bitly.im/aMDtd It's not just about how much you play but how effectively you play that will determine how good you will get.

Answer 6

No...it is not necessary to have formal lessons to play the guitar or any other instrument. But...there is valitiy to learning the basics because they are so hard to break and re-learn. Kind of like a habit you have to break. There is a method to the madness....a reason to need to know the basics....learn that....then you create something new.

Answer 7

i'm completely self-taught...not real good, but that's only due to lack of dedicated practice. there's plenty of info out there, though, and if you can keep yourself motivated, you'll be fine.

in my opinion, you may actually be better off learning yourself, as i've seen lots of people limited by the rules a teacher taught them, instead of just playing what sounds good.

on the other hand, having regular lessons is a good way to stay motivated and dedicated to practice, as you probably wouldn't want to show up at a lesson not having learned something the teacher assigned.

good luck!

Answer 8

Yes, there is a system called Tabs which you do not need to learn notes or anything like that. I'm not very familiar with it but there are many sites that have music written in Tabs. It's a simple system but you may find that alot of the music has some errors in it.

Answer 9

You can enjoy playing guitar without formal lessons, though a good teacher can bring so much appreciation to getting the most out of your potential.

Answer 10

Now the key word here is the word 'WELL' learning how to play a guitar can be done on our own...but if you want to go pro..it's best you get a teacher...and a skilled one at that.