Questions & Answers with Neil Hogan - #1.3

Q. Where are some places I should look for free guitar lessons?

A. As I’ve discussed in a few other places, free guitar lessons are a very interesting subject. One of the first sources to explore is a friend of yours who might be a better guitar player than you are. Many times people around are very willing to help out an eager guitar student, especially if it is a friend.

Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to try to learn something from a friend. An advantage is the price; some disadvantages might be their lack of willingness to dedicate their time to you, they might not be very good at explaining things, and they might not have the patience and understanding of a professional guitar teacher.

Obviously another source to check out is the web. There are thousands of lessons online at YouTube ranging from really good to really useless. Unfortunately, a beginning or even intermediate student can have a hard time recognizing the difference. Generally a pretty good clue would be whether or not you can even understand what the teacher is trying to say.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most lessons you can find online are just some guitar player’s version of how he thinks a particular song might go. You never know if they are presenting a simplified version, an extremely accurate version, or a just completely wrong version.

Overall, always take free advice with a few grains of salt.

Other sources and thoughts about free guitar lessons can be found here - guitar lessons.