Making The Most Of An Online Guitar Learning Program
Don't fall into these traps when trying a home or online guitar course. The failure rate of these programs is astounding, but there are specific things you can do to be successful and learn how to play that dusty guitar you've been staring at.
With a little bit of careful planning and diligence, you can learn how to play guitar on your own with the right training course. And I'm talking about two kinds here. There are guitar training programs that take place completely online and others that come on DVD. They both work essentially the same.
What we're not dealing with here is trying to design your own course through blog posts and YouTube videos. Way less effective unless you're an advanced guitarist and are looking for specific techniques to master.
Something like 80% of home study courses never get opened let alone started. Yep, you've paid your money and it sits there doing nothing for your guitar skills because you haven't started it. And of the 20% that do start, only 2% will actually finish the course. Not because of any failing of the guitar course itself. There are some very effective ones out there. And they want you to use their product to its fullest potential.
So, how can you make sure you're in that 2% of successful people? Simple...
1. Set a start date. Open up the course when you get it and look through the materials, but don't sit down and start banging away at it immediately. It probably came in the middle of the day when you've got other things scheduled to do. Our goal here is to get you on a solid schedule of consistent guitar training. So look at your calendar and set a day and time to start. In the intervening time you won't have to be guilty about it sitting there unused because you know exactly when you're starting.
2. Plan and schedule your practice sessions. Many people make the mistake of trying to cram hours of practice into one day and neglecting the other six. You'll find that consistent practice for shorter periods works way better. Make a plan to work on your course for 5 days a week for 20-30 minutes. Depending on the guitar course, you may need more or less time to go through the material, but that's a good baseline.
Have your practices scheduled on your calendar just like you do doctor appointments and dates to pay bills. It's important because you want it to be. And stick to it. "I'm too tired" is the worst excuse in the world to avoid anything.
3. Use all the resources available through the program. A good guitar course doesn't just offer a bunch of lessons. They'll also offer some social support. That may be as simple as a bulletin board on their website where you can ask questions. Usually the instructors themselves are there to answer your questions. Some even offer a live chat with qualified instructors. You don't have to learn in a vacuum. Having other people to help you will help you learn and understand the guitar faster. Use it all.
4. Make yourself responsible to someone else. I do not recommend telling everyone you know that you have a goal of learning guitar. Scientific studies have shown that telling people about your goal stimulates the same parts of your brain that get going when you've already accomplished the goal.
But one of the biggest perks of having a live, in person guitar teacher is that you have to be responsible for getting the material learned each week before your next lesson. That constraint doesn't happen with a home study course. But you should pick one person that you're going to check in with each week. Ideally that's someone also doing course or learning guitar. That's where the programs bulletin board can come in handy again. Once you've made a friend on there, ask them if you can check in with them once a week on your progress. A regular friend or loved one can work too, but it's better to find someone going through the same stuff as you.
Learning how to play the guitar can be a wonderful, frustrating, stimulating, and aggravating experience. You will be faced with constant challenges. But if you follow the four steps I gave you, you'll be able to do the work and be the guitarist you want to be. Good luck!