Consider…

Suppose, just for the sake of discussion, that you’ve decided to take up playing guitar. Any instrument would do, really, but let’s go with guitar because we’re guitarists, after all!

Now suppose you’ve turned up for your first lesson with your teacher. You’ve got your guitar out and tuned and you’re holding it and ready to go. And your teacher sits down in front of you with his or her guitar, looks at you and says, “Do this” and then plays something.

You go “Like this?” and, more likely than not, don’t play anything like resembling what the teacher played.

He or she is patient, though, and says, “No, like this” and repeats what was played earlier. All this goes on for a half hour or so, however long the lesson lasts.

How much do you think you’re going to learn from a lesson, or even a series of lessons like this?

Before you answer that, think of how many people swear by learning through watching videos on YouTube or anywhere else on the Internet. Yes, there are some very good instructors (and some excellent lessons) out there, but unless you are at a point in your guitar studies where you are not concerned with things like finger position or rhythm or timing or anything that you might have find that you have ongoing questions about as you learn a particular bit of music or technique, how are you going to be able to learn simply from watching a video?

The answer, very simply, is that you’re not learning to play but rather to copy. Not that you’re not playing, but unless you already have a keen musical mind you’re not going to be able to readily apply your new knowledge in order to keep growing as a musician.

If you’re serious about learning to play, you want to use as many different sources as you can find. But you especially want to use sources that stress the aspects of music that you truly need to learn – rhythm and harmony (chords) in particular. And it’s also important that you don’t put yourself in a mindset where you find yourself believing in “magic answers,” meaning that there’s some single trick out there that you don’t know but if you did you’d be light years better than you are now.

This time of year people often set about making wish lists and goals for the upcoming year. If progress as a guitarist and musician happens to be on your list, then be sure to give yourself reasonable expectations. And expect to have to work to meet your goals.

And take in every bit of information you can find, especially if you have to read it in order to get the most out of it!

Peace