subject: Make Some Effort To Find The Best Blues Guitar Instruction [print this page] When starting out to search for those ideal guitar lessons, many people used to try the all-powerful 'G', and 'Google it'. More and more searches for everything imaginable are carried out on Youtube, in fact it's the second most popular search engine after Google itself. Like Google, the number of items shown for a keyword like 'blues guitar lessons' is impressive - how to determine the instruction that's best for you? Youtube guitar lessons feature all manner of styles and teaching levels, both paid and free of charge.
Some of the big boys in selling blues guitar lessons have developed a very slick marketing format that employ all kinds of psychological hooks to get you to buy. Barely a beginner? That's OK - you'll be playing like a professional in 3 days. Intermediate player? We'll raise your playing to the next level. Experienced player? Our instruction will transform you into a guitar God, and you get the picture. One of my favorites is the ubiquitous advert 'The Three Major Mistakes That Most Guitarists Make", or something of that style, which is pretty hard to resist, it must be admitted. In reality, playing good guitar takes practice, dedication and time. Of course, the whole thing can be made quicker with clear-cut teaching and accurate blues guitar tabs.
Guitar tablature is the fundamental characteristic of the best guitar lessons. It needn't be incredibly complex in the least, with just elementary notation indicating finger positions and chords. Some tablature just goes too far, trying to capture the feel and ambiance of genuine blues picking, which just isn't possible! This brings us to the second feature of the best blues guitar lessons - the instructor must be able to play the stuff very well (and the tablature should adequately indicate what he does.) Guitar tablature alone isn't enough to translate that subtle pause, or the bass that is a little off-beat when needed to emphasize the lyrics. Sure, the tablature system can indicate that a monotonic thumb strike should be damped with the hand's palm, but can't show that this damping effect itself is never continuous, but changes in quality as the pressure of the palm on the strings is continually being changed depending the style of the song.
Take your time when searching for any teachings, whatever kind you are looking for. The Chinese have a saying 'a year or two engaged in doing nothing but locating the right instructor is time well spent'. This is a good observation. You don't need to spend a year for your search, but choose carefully and side-step all the hype. Don't expect to improve in just a few short days weeks, relax, don't be hard on yourself and most importantly, savor the music and the journey.
