Some people falsely believe that to play guitar you need guitar lessons and that’s all. The truth is that learning to play guitar cannot be simply bought. There’s so much more to it than that, it has to be earned.

Let’s take a few moments to talk about how to take responsibility for your guitar lessons and how not to waste your time and money.

As the student you should take responsibility for your own improvement on guitar. That means taking a serious and responsible approach to practice. The routine of simply attending guitar lessons will do nothing for your playing unless it’s backed up by your attention to good quality practice.

It may seem obvious but it’s amazing how many students begin guitar lessons without having any real idea of the kinds of music or songs they’d like to be able to play. The point here is to think about what you want and communicate it clearly to your tutor.

You’ll end up with much more focused lessons from your tutor if you have put some thought in the type of music, songs and bands you would eventually like to sound like or play. This helps in two major ways. Firstly it means your lessons will be targeted to your personal tastes and secondly, you’ll be much more likely to continue guitar lessons over the long term since your level of interest will remain high.

If you can utilize a range of different mediums for learning guitar then it should help to enrich your experience. You could for example combine 1-1 guitar lessons with learning guitar online as well. There are a number of excellent websites offering quality guitar lessons now and this approach often proves to be a powerful combination.

You could also teach yourself from guitar books or DVDs although I would advise against this in the very early stages. Generally the ability to be able to teach yourself guitar is only acquired after first taking guitar lessons with a proper tutor. Through that process you’ll gain the confidence and knowledge necessary to be able to go it alone.

In closing remember that a large portion of the responsibility lies with you as the student. Take control and insist that your guitar lessons are delivering what you really need from them, don’t leave it all up to your guitar tutor!

The author is well known for his system of learning guitarcalled Guitar in a Nutshell. You can find manyfree acoustic guitar lessons to try on his popular website as well as many other useful resources for learning to play guitar. All instruction is video based for maximum clarity.

Rule No.1 is you can’t buy the ability to play guitar. Even if those lessons are from the best guitar teacher on the planet, they still won’t make you succeed in playing guitar. It’s just not that easy.

Let’s take a few moments to talk about how to take responsibility for your guitar lessons and how not to waste your time and money.

The vast majority of work in learning guitar is the students responsibility. A teacher is there to show you what to do but cannot do it for you. This is why your attitude to study and practice at home in-between lessons is so crucial to the end result. Just attending guitar lessons with nothing to back it up will do very little and your rate of improvement will be painfully slow.

Before you begin lessons it’s important to have thought about the types of music or songs and bands your aiming to be able to play. It can be quite surprising to know the number of students who have no opinion of what they’d actually like to be able to play!

Guitar teachers actually prefer students who come with a clear idea of what they’d like to learn and the direction they’d like the lessons to go in. You’ll find that your guitar lessons become much more personal and custom made especially for you, later on this is going to be important as it should help a lot in keeping you motivated to learn guitar.

My own suggestion would be to use a combination approach and utilize 2 or more methods to learn to play. The most accessible way would be to combine 1-1 lessons with online guitar lessons. Take out a membership to a quality guitar website and use video guitar lessons in tandem with one from a real tutor. This will almost certainly speed up your rate of improvement to its maximum.

You could also teach yourself from guitar books or DVDs although I would advise against this in the very early stages. Generally the ability to be able to teach yourself guitar is only acquired after first taking guitar lessons with a proper tutor. Through that process you’ll gain the confidence and knowledge necessary to be able to go it alone.

A lot of the responsibility for how effective your guitar lessons are is going to depend on you! Take the time to ensure your gaining the most for your money spent; don’t leave it all up to your tutor to decide. This way whatever guitar lessons you undertake will reward you handsomely.

The author is well known for his method of learning guitarcalled Guitar in a Nutshell. You can find lots of free guitar lessons to try on his popular site as well as many other valuable resources for learning to play acoustic guitar. All instruction is video based for maximum effectiveness.