Do you really need to see a guitar tutor to learn?

There’s no simple answer to this question. The simplest answer I can come up with is: “It depends”.

Well, “what does it depend on?” you may ask. That’s a reasonable question, and it’s one that deserves an answer.

I have met many players who have learned via internet tutorials, particularly on youtube. This is a great way to get going with learning guitar, and I am in many ways happy that this is an option.

Some people are brilliant at managing their own learning, and develop very quickly using the online resources that are so readily available to them. Equally, I have met many people who have made some progress in this way, and then they “hit a wall” with their learning. Progress can sometimes hit a standstill, and this invariably leads to frustration.

The single biggest asset to learning from another human being, is the fact that there is an interaction between the student, and the tutor. An experienced tutor will guide the student upon seeing and hearing them play, and offer useful “tweaks to technique”, or offer alternative ways of doing something that will allow a greater flexibility to the learning process.

Learning on your own time, and at your own pace, in your own way is fine, but in my experience, this can be a very long and drawn out process. If a student has a natural aptitude for learning a musical instrument, then going to a tutor can accelerate the pace of learning.

I have met guitarists who have achieved a staggering amount of facility on the instrument in a very short space of time, just through finding the right teacher for them.

Going to a tutor will not necessarily make you a clone of that teacher. There is a concern expressed by some people that if they go to the same tutor for too long, they may end up sounding too much like their mentor. This is a concern that I fully understand, and appreciate. My main point to make here, is that even if a person were to teach themselves from youtube tutorials, the same thing may happen, and they get trapped into doing things a certain way, and end up sounding like their online mentors.

Equally, there is a danger that listening to, and aspiring to play as close to the style of your musical heroes as possible, may have the same effect.

The encouraging thing about this issue, is that the guitar is such a unique instrument, that no two people approach it in exactly the same way. So much of the indiviual player comes through the instrument, even if they are playing the same piece of music as the next guitarist, it usually can’t help but sound in some way different.

It’s certainly on my agenda to not only allow individualism, but to actively encourage it.

Each person is unique, and no two people’s handwriting is exactly the same, and this is certainly true of guitar playing.