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Does everyone who wants to learn to play guitar need guitar lessons? The answer may surprise you!

Having spent my life giving guitar lessons, you might suspect me of having a biased view of this subject! Let me assure you at the outset that I do not. Even though there may be a small part of me somewhere that does think that everyone should take guitar lessons, (whether they plan to actually play the guitar or not!), just to keep me in business, I always keep that part under control, and never let it sway my judgment!

So don't worry, you're in safe hands here. In fact, there have been times in my teaching career that I have actually told a student not to take lessons anymore, or to go to another teacher. So I don't make any blanket statements about taking guitar lessons. The way that lessons, or the process of educating yourself as a musician, fit into your life will be a decision you make based on your unique circumstances, and your unique goals.

One general statement I will make is that for beginners, lessons are ALWAYS a good idea. This doesn't mean that you should make no efforts to perhaps teach yourself, using books, videos and the Internet. But along with all of that, especially in the beginning, and especially if you have no previous experience with music, you should seek out a teacher.

If you are teaching yourself, and coming along well, then lessons will increase your progress, usually greatly increase your progress. I started by teaching myself for about three months. I was learning and could play lots of songs, and was teaching myself to read notes from a method book. But when I started lessons, I really started to make progress, simply because of the guidance of someone who knew the route to take a lot better then I did. Also, and most importantly, a great number of misunderstandings and wrong steps were corrected by someone who had two things I didn't have: knowledge and experience.