American singer-songwriter and guitarist, Michelle Branch once said, “I think it's so cool that you can pick up the guitar and create something that didn't exist 5 minutes ago. You can write something that no ones ever heard before. You have music at your fingertips.”
Come to think about it, many of our favourite singer-songwriters like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift handle the guitar like a pro as they release hits after hits.
Are you thinking of strumming the chords of some of your favourites like Photograph and Tear Drops on My Guitar?
Perhaps, you can start looking for an experienced guitar tutor. However, we know not everyone has the means to regularly pay for private guitar tuition.
Why not turn to the Internet to help you learn how to play the guitar?
In this article, we will look at this comprehensive guide about various online guitar learning resources.
Can You Learn the Guitar on YouTube?
According to a recent survey, YouTube is the most-watched video service for Malaysians.
Whether it is short videos or long content videos, we Malaysians love exploring various YouTube channels as a form of work or recreation purpose.
This leads us smoothly to our next point.
There are plenty of guitar tutorials on YouTube and that said, learning to play guitar is much easier with videos because you can pause, replay and review them any time you want. Furthermore, you can even download them to watch offline too. Learning is all about flexibility these days, isn't it?
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When it comes to guitar tutorials, we’ve curated a list for you to check out
- GuitarJamz: This YouTube channel is definitely worthy of your attention if you're looking for guitar lessons for various learning levels. Whether you're looking for beginner guitar lessons or videos on becoming a better guitar player, you'll find them on Marty's channel.
- JustinGuitar: Justin Sandercoe's YouTube channel, just like his site and blog, is an incredible resource for guitar lessons and tutorials on how to play guitar.
- Jamplay: This YouTube channel includes guitar lessons on a variety of techniques including strumming, picking, and direct methods to improve your guitar playing. These online guitar lessons are definitely worth subscribing to on your YouTube account.
YouTube channels are a great online platform for self-paced learning, so you can absolutely pick up some guitar-playing skills through persistence and consistency.
Which Are the Best Apps for Learning How to Play the Guitar?
Let’s be honest. We have our smartphones with us at all times (yes, even in the bathroom ahem). Why don’t we make the best out of technology to learn how to play the guitar or more about music?
Trust us when we say that mobile apps are great learning tools to “fill in the gap.” Some guitar learners utilize various mobile apps as an additional bonus to reinforce certain guitar theories or techniques apart from taking private tutoring.
That’s because once the lesson’s over, you’re on your own.
Not only that, we don’t get to practice all the time because the guitar is rather a sizeable musical instrument. On the other hand, your smartphone is probably always in your pocket or within reach. You can explore guitar apps that can be used for practising even when you don’t have a guitar to hand, on public transport, or your lunch break, for example. Additionally, they can send you reminders when it’s time to practise your guitar playing.
That’s pretty good motivation, isn’t it?
It doesn’t matter what your favourite style of music is as it’s possible to find an app that works for you, can teach you the chords you need to know, how to play a riff, how to do barre chords, or how to play a certain scale.
Here are some of the best guitar apps on the market:
- Coach Guitar: A virtual guitar teacher who’s dedicated to absolute guitar novices. The video tutorials are fun and interactive.
- iReal Pro: There are 1,500 chord diagrams available on the app which allow you to work on different musical styles such as jazz, blues rock, or even bossa nova.
- Yousician: This app also gives you real-time feedback and suggests video lessons to you.
If you’re going to teach yourself how to play the guitar, it’s a good idea to surround yourself with other guitarists, even if you do this virtually. That’s how mobile apps like these come into the picture — they complete it.
It’s definitely possible to get better at playing the guitar, improve your fingerpicking, or familiarise yourself with the fretboard thanks to digital apps.
So are you ready to start learning how to play the guitar online now?
Interesting Websites for Becoming a Guitarist
In this age of modern-day Internet, one thing is for sure. Many roads lead to Rome. You can also learn how to play the guitar online from the comfort of your office chair in front of your computer.
Whether you’re tuning your guitar, learning a pentatonic scale, playing along to a metronome, or studying music theory, you can find a website to help you with teaching yourself how to play the guitar.
A music school won’t work for every budget. Additionally, if you’re not comfortable in group classes, a private tutor might be your only option. Thus, the Internet is a good alternative for those wanting to get started with playing the guitar.
If you’re motivated, nothing is stopping you from learning something new, such as playing the guitar, with the help of other guitarists online.
Here are some of the best guitar websites:
- Tabs4acoustic: from music theory to practical guitar techniques, tablature, the riff library, and backing tracks, this website pretty much has everything a budding guitarist could ever want.
- Ultimate-Guitar: If you can't read sheet music, this site needs to be put into your favourite bar now. Since guitar tabs are user-submitted, there are often several versions of each one.
- Jammit: This is a website and also an app for iOS, Mac, and PC. If there's a certain song you're trying to learn on the guitar, this is probably the place to go. You can find a song you like, slow it down, loop a tricky section, and jam along until your fingers are dancing on the strings just like your favourite artists.
After that, you can start working on becoming the next Brian May or Jim Hendrix!
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Best Guitar Blogs To Enrich Your Learning Experience
Guitar blogs are great resources when it comes to getting some recommendations on the latest guitar models, different playing styles, or direct playing techniques.
Here are some of the best guitar blogs around:
- Most of you might be familiar with the Guitar World magazine. If you're looking for a guitar lesson, information on how to play guitar, and articles on different techniques or guitar gear, you should definitely visit their website.
- Guitar Tricks: This website contains loads of content for beginners, there are also blogs that any musician can enjoy on playing the guitar, gear, different exercises and techniques, as well as articles on general guitar culture.
- Truefire is a website offering online guitar lessons. The website features over 33,000 guitar lessons for various styles and levels. It doesn't matter whether you're an absolute beginner or an experienced guitar player, play blues guitar or face-melting rock guitar solos, you're bound to find something on their website.
Where Can You Find A Reliable Tutoring Platform To Play The Guitar?
While we have reviewed the above online guitar learning platforms, some of you might still prefer to learn from an experienced tutor to have a more systematic learning experience, especially if you are learning from zero.
Having said that, there are many ways to look for a guitar tutor these days, be it from a direct recommendation, social media or a tutoring platform online.
For those of you who want an effortless and effective “tutor hunting” process, it’s best to find a guitar tutor from a reliable tutoring platform. Wondering where to start?
At Superprof, you can find good physical and online guitar lessons here. Superprof is a tutoring platform that offers one-to-one lessons for the following fields of study:
- Arts and hobbies
- Professional Development
- Computer Sciences
- Languages
- Music
- Health and well-being
- Academic tutoring
- Sports
As such, you don’t have to waste lots of time when you navigate the homepage because it ensures great convenience and easy accessibility. On the Superprof Malaysia homepage, just select what you want to learn and indicate your current location (for physical lessons) in the search box. If you prefer to take online lessons, you can select “online” as your current location and the system will direct you to a wide selection of online tutors’ profiles.
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There’s no need to go through endless filtering and messaging to know everything about the tutor because you can find the relevant information about the tutor through their profiles, For instance, you can find out the teaching experience of the guitar tutor (more than 3 years, as an example), their guitar specialisation (bass guitar, acoustic guitar), their hourly rates (RM50 an hour) and a few more important details.
Once you have made up your mind, you can proceed to connect with your desired tutor and book your first lesson. Also, there’s a great deal that you should know too! Most Superprof tutors offer their first lessons for free, so if you’re still on the fence about hiring a guitar tutor, this is certainly a sign for you to start!
We hope this article has given you a comprehensive view of the various online learning resources to play the guitar.
The next time you're strumming the melody of Teardrops on My Guitar, we hope you're smiling with pride!
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