Just starting out playing guitar? Then don't do this:

[ssstewart]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

I would strongly recommend a good teacher who can show you not only the proper foundational skills but also give you a necessary plan and important feedback which any beginner will need if they want to avoid creating bad habits that will impede their progress and discourage frustration.

You need the feedback and just as importantly, the ability for the teacher to modify the approach depending on the student's progress. I must emphasize that the beginning guitarist simply cannot do this via YouTube or any canned courses, including mine. FYI, I only teach students that already have the proper fundamentals down. In other words, not beginning students. I have no horse in this race.

Once you’ve developed good habits and get the basics down there are numerous online courses to help you go in whatever direction you decide upon. Along with the good habits, the knowledge, fundamentals and skills you've developed in the beginning will truly help you on your journey. Enjoy. It's a wonderful road!!

i was classically trained at a young age...however i completely disagree with the above summation, just my opinion, as a generalization for the masses. some of the greatest gifts we have been given came from those virtuoso's who received absolutely no training and had no teacher and played what and how they wanted for their own enjoyment. deviating from the accepted rule, format can result in some of the greatest discoveries in music, and bad habits can become revelations and eureka moments that we can all benefit from. just my opinion

[reeve21]

I think getting some good basic instruction from the get go, including reading music, is a very good idea.

I never had a teacher until I had played for many years and decided I wanted to fingerpick. That revealed a whole lot of problems with my technique, and I quickly realized I would not progress without help.

I went on lessons.com and had several qualified responses. The teacher I picked has a degree, plays all styles, numerous string instruments, has released several albums and is also an engineer/producer, in addition to teaching and gigging.

It was nothing but scales and exercises and method books for a couple of years. Then we moved on to blues tunes. Then to pop tunes.

I never would have gotten to this point on my own. I think I'm a fairly disciplined person, and I like to play every day, but when you know you have to play something new every week for someone you are paying it really does increase the motivation. I would recommend it to anyone who feels like they spend too much time noodling.

I have noticed that a lot of finger style players had classical training when they were young. If I could turn back the clock I think that might have been a better choice (not that I was aware of it) than playing saxophone in school bands. Nothing wrong with that, but I enjoy the option to make music on my own, which is kind of tough on a horn.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Yes!
I learned to read music in school, before I was ever interested in music (it was just one more school subject that everyone did), let alone guitar. Then when I taught myself I found it invaluable. I could learn songs (melodies as well as chords) from songbooks, I could work out guitar parts from piano arrangements, and so on. And of course, I could write down my own first feeble attempts at composition!

I think it should be considered as important for music as learning to read and write is for spoken language. You can learn to play without it, but it's so easy to learn (much easier than learning to read words!) and the benefits are so enormous it's crazy not to.

Guitar, in fact, is the one instrument where it's common for beginners to not learn to read (partly because of tab, partly because so many beginners only play chords anyway, from box diagrams). The only other kind of musician who commonly gets away with being musically illiterate is singers!

I learned to read music in grade school too, fourth grade music class. We all learned to play the Tonette and it has stuck with me all my life. It seems to me that it is a point of pride for many to not read music, like somehow that makes them special in some way. I don't get it, but if that is what it takes. But seriously, reading music is a fourth grade level skill. Bragging that you can't read music, how hard is it? Not hard at all. It is probably the easiest thing to learn to do music wise.

[gfirob]

Well, then there is the bad teacher, who will teach you either bad habits or to hate music as presented by the bad teacher. In my life I have learned the most from hanging around with players who were better than me, and paying attention.