learning to play it!

hey there, I'm also a fellow learner, I just started learning a few weeks ago. Well, I didn't get any teacher myself. Teachers and institutes here, just charge so much, it's outrageous, so I decided to learn on my own too. I guess it really depends on if you can self-motivate yourself, I guess I would prefer to have a teacher, but this is fine too. I found a really great site, that has helped me learn a lot about the guitar, it's a free site, and it is really helpful, I've posted it on my blog, that I started about playing guitar. I guess you can also use it for reference. There are also sites I discovered for guitar tabs, and those are there too. Here's my blog site, just go through it, the helpful site I mentioned will be around the end of the blog. It is in the post marked, "how it's going so far". Good luck with your playing! http://guitarlearningonmyown.blogspot.com/

If you already play another instrument, you'll probably find the beginning class to be too slow (at least, in group instruction). I took beginning as a summer session at college, so then it wasn't bad. I learned things the correct way and stayed more motivated by being in class. I went through intermediate and advanced as regular semesters, and then played in the ensemble group. Overall, I think it helped to learn in a group or I probably wouldn't have progressed as rapidly. Knowing myself, I would have put the guitar down after a few months, picked it up again later, learned a bit at a time, but never really had the time to bother getting good. Not that I got that great. And since I haven't had time for the ensemble, I really don't play much anymore. But the motivation of being in a class definitely helps if you can find the time.

That depends on a few things. Your motivation, what you want to learn as a guitarist and the teacher's teaching style. I learned without a teacher, but I've noticed that I would have been better off with one. I do well, and I now teach, but there were a lot of bad habits along the way that a good teacher would have helped me avoid. Also, if you want to get to where you are playing for people, having a teacher there from the start really helps you over that hump. Another benefit is, a good teacher can pull more out of you than you knew was there. When you teach yourself you are limited to your own perspective when it comes to playing. If you only want to play for yourself, by yourself then that's ok, but if you want to do much more than that then a different point of view, and wider variety of skills is a must. If it's just your current teacher you aren't happy with, shop around. Guitar teachers are a dime a dozen and usually the only difference between a "good" one and a "bad" one is how well you and they understand each other. Whether you go with a teacher or strike out on your own I hope the guitar becomes everything to you that you want it to be!