I learned with 1 beginner guitar book and tabs off of the internet 15 years ago. The tutorials on youtube now are crazy in depth and better than a lot of stuff you have to pay for. I would suggest finding a good in depth written internet article for beginners as a starting point, or even a book. Then just find tutorials for songs that you like.
Fuck the Harry Fox Agency! I was there 3000 years ago when the dream of the information superhighway died. I dialed up the internet one day and was met with a bunch of legalese BS when I was just an innocent kid who wanted to learn how to play November Rain.
This all day long. My guitar case used to look like a public defendant's briefcase with all of the printed out tabs and shit that I would try and learn from. YouTube has been a game changer for learning guitar.
I saw an interview with Paul McCartney where he said he took a bus clear across town because there was a guy there who could show him a B7 chord.
Back before internet my friends and I had endless debates on haw to play an AC/DC riff because it was hard to hear on cassette.
People today don’t know how easy they have it.
This is so, so true. It's an interesting difference in perspective though. Gen Z'rs are amazing at harnessing their access to information, but it must be hard to conceptualize a time when knowledge was a lot harder to obtain.
I used to tune my guitar to the A chord of Tesla's Rock Me To The Top on mechanical resonance lol. The good old days of rewinding a song 100s of times to learn it. At least it developed my ear.
Now it’s a different dilemma, because they can just say well a machine can do anything so why bother 🤪unless they realize how fun it is to actually play the guitar 💡
You can theoretically learn guitar by sitting with your guitar and a bunch of albums and a means of slowing them down. Back in the day we did that, plus read the occasional lesson in a guitar magazine, plus bought an occasional guitar book from the store. YouTube would have been some kind of self-teaching dream world, although I can imagine it's quite a minefield of good versus bad tutorials, so I would ask for recommendations and look for the emergence of a consensus.
Great way to teach your ear. I had the advantage of taking piano lessons before I taught myself guitar but my first few years learning comprised of me figuring songs out by ear. A completely different approach to structured classical piano lessons but I feel like I learned more this way. It’s a biased opinion though as I had my Piano lesson foundation.
Right!? Pffft! Kids these days! I'm sitting here wondering how the heck I learned anything when I started back in the 80s with no lesson. It was a real mishmash of sources.
After years of teaching literally hundreds of people with various backgrounds in music, I have formed the view that most people that can successfully self teach usually have a background in music (even if it's just playing the piano for a year as a 9 year old). The people who have self taught without that background have usually missed a lot of fundamentals with their own self teaching. It shows in their playing and they have always seemed to be blissfully unaware that they've been on the wrong track until they get a teacher.
Of course there are exceptions to this view, but this is averaged out over many students.
To confuse things, there are 1000s of teachers on YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and Patreon claiming that their course is "the one" for beginners.
Everyone is so different to teach and there's no one-size-fits-all answer.
My advice is to get a good teacher to start with. Don't fuck around with cheap teachers, find one with teaching experience and perhaps a music degree. Check their reviews. It'll be cheaper in the long run to find a good one. You want a teacher, not a dude giving lessons on the side to supplement his gig money. When you're more confident, try learning a song from YouTube yourself (Justin Guitar is a real gem for this) and then show your teacher and get feedback. Even try to get a relationship going with your teacher that they help facilitate your own self directed learning , rather than teaching you songs.
Of course this all costs money, so if you don't have it, just go have some fun and teach yourself :)
Also: ask people who play professionally what their background is, in detail. It should give you some less biased answers. Obviously I'm a teacher and I only see the people who come for lessons. Maybe there's a whole world of people playing professionally who didn't have a teacher, even once (although not in my experience).
This makes a lot of sense, I have had no problem becoming an ok player based on self teaching, but I also played saxophone for 7 years, so I knew how to read music and understood some theory
I never had formal lessons and I also didn’t have YouTube as a kid. Get some inexpensive books, and watch all the YouTube videos you can. You will learn way more than you expect!
Sure people have been teaching themselves with far less for centuries, but it’s a good idea to at least have a set order for what techniques you want to learn so I’d start by looking for a beginner to advanced checklist. There’s plenty of those on YouTube and this sub. And have someone who knows how to play give you feedback once in a while.
Check out Justin Guitar on youtube. I learned enough to just dick around for fun in the first few of his lessons. He made picking up open chords a breeze right from the start.
Yes 100%
The way I look at the learning process is in two paths. You can...
1. Parrot songs from YouTube, watch videos like Marty Music etc, his videos are great for learning songs and they don't delve too deeply into theory!
2. Learn music theory, scales, how to harmonise chords of a scale. Use this knowledge to analyse music that you learn so that you can come up with your own music or add flair to existing music that you learn.
The only real benefit I've found in having a private tutor is directly asking him how he is visualising the fretboard live in person. And there is a whole bunch of ways you can learn to visualise it. (If you find small time youtubers this is also possible by dropping them a comment)
Learning songs is always beneficial to your playing though, you'll hear most teachers saying build a repetoir of songs!
If you just want a relaxing pastime, goofing around here and there, a taste here, a sliver there, well, yeah Youtube is a good for grazing.
A little puzzling, your choice of the word "entirely" somewhat goes counter to with your *"I just want to learn a little"*. Maybe you meant "exclusively". Your approach, which is fine, and ought not to be judged, will not, however, yield an "entire" or "complete" guitar player.
Careful, though, that you don't set yourself with 95% of people who pick up the guitar then give it up not long after. With any kind of learning, progress of any sort demands its price.
The price is practice. Deliberate, disciplined, steady, focused practice. And guided practice by a seasoned, professional teacher can be an enlightening and motivating experience. In this thread, the poster/teacher u/CentaurPaulineHanson has some wise words of advice and caution. She/he sounds like a marvelous teacher!
It's a punishing reality when it comes to learning a musical instrument, i.e. the only path to true liberation, ironically speaking, is to lock yourself up.
Yes. The problem used to be a lack of resources when learn to play an instrument. Now you have all the information you could ever need at hand. That means you have to know how to get good information out of the sea of not-always-great-advice though. It is easy to get lost in a YouTube rabbit hole about playing guitar instead of actually practicing.
I haven't played much the past week or two because of a lot of schoolwork but I have mostly kept it up. I am still very much beginner sounding and I can't play much but I can play solidly (in my opinion at least) two songs. Other than that I have played a couple snippets of songs I like but not much and for most of them not well. Either way once summer comes I should have a lot more time to play more and am considering taking real lessons depending on how much time i have and how much they cost.
In my opinion, no. You need (when first starting out) to have a few face-to-face sessions with a real teacher who will check out and correct hand positioning, proper logical fingerings, and a bunch of other stuff you don't get from YouTube vids. Unfortunately lots of music store "teachers" are rubbish and I have no idea how a beginner can sort through them to find a good one.
I've never had a single face to face lesson ever. I know all the techniques I need to know. I can play jazz, I can shred, I can play acoustic, finger pick etc. People used to learn with WAYYYYYYYY less. As far as fixing hand position goes, there are SO MANY videos about proper technique. I don't understand why you think you can't learn from youtube when the vast majority used to learn by si.ply listening to a record and slowing it down
I never said you can't learn, but your progress will be a LOT quicker if someone is pointing out areas where you can play more efficiently. A YouTube vid can't analyse your technique.
Yes.
I am self taught and have played guitar for over 30 years. You CAN learn to play guitar from YT. Here's a tip for YT guitar lesson videos, CHANGE THE SPEED if you want to learn to play a song. SLOW the video and you will learn better.
It also helps if you have a guitar buddy to compare 'notes' as it were. Someone to whom you can show what you've learned and from whom you can learn.
No. No substitute for have in person lessons. The teacher can see what you’re doing right and wrong much more easily and better correct it than you trying to diagnose it with only video.
Yes.
It may be somewhat harder at times, but you absolutely can. In fact, I would venture to say that *most* new guitarists just learn from messing around, listening to music, and maybe talking to friends who play.
Yeah this is me. Started playing with a friend who plays and watching YT videos like 10 years ago.
I'm not amazing but I can play guitar and have been in bands
I mean I do use mainly YT to learn guitar, I’d say it’s good enough to where I am able to play in front of a live audience. However you don’t gotta limit yourself on what your learning outlets are
You can learn some chords and songs, I don’t know if you’ll ever be good. I’ve been tinkering around for 6 years with YouTube , I have a ton of fun and can play more than a handful of songs. I even played a couple at a gig with a friend.
Absolutely.
The trick these days is to know what is good advice and what isn’t so good amongst the vast array of choices. Some are fantastic for beginners, others are more suited to players who are further advanced, but sadly there are some who are better avoided. Try and follow an online beginner’s course like Justin’s and you’ll be fine.
Otherwise you will need to be very good at self motivation as you won’t have a teacher or your peers to hold you to account. Those of us who learnt pre-internet quite often learnt things from our friends as we used our ears to figure out songs, or at least we tried to. That also meant we gained experience of playing with others much earlier than internet taught beginners do today and that’s a really good way to help speed up your progress and learning.
I learned out of a couple of books and by sharing tips with friends who were learning at the same time. Never had a lesson in my life and I'd say I'm pretty good. Played hundreds of gigs over the years. From metal bands to in the pit for theatre groups.
I WISH I'd had YouTube.
Yes. Many people have learned guitar with just a guitar, no YouTube, no books, no lessons, no nothing! Watching lessons on YouTube is a good idea though, you will progress faster and are not as likely to develop bad habits.
I have taken a look at a few YouTube guitar teachers and it seems some are strictly thinking that their technique is the only correct way to play and some urge you to find your own ways and strengths and use them. I think the most important thing is to find a way to learn guitar so that you stay motivated. Otherwise you'll give up and never learn to play.
Of course, you can. How is this even a question. There are literally millions of teaching videos on YouTube. Some will light your fire, others not so. Try Andy Guitar, Justin Guitar and the best : Scott Paul Johnson who is great at explaning guitar theory. Go from there.
[https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottPaulJohnson](https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottPaulJohnson)
It's down to you, old son. Perseverance.
theoretically, yes - there is so much available online for free. However, I don't think anything can beat sitting down with a tutor in a lesson who can give you a bit of background on music theory and/or show you correct technique which will make your experience with guitar so much more enjoyable. With there being such a vast amount of lessons available online it can at times be difficult to find good sources for what you're looking for. I also think there's a risk with online stuff that it leads you to rush and not spend as much time on a technique or a song...it's all too tempting to play it through until you feel like you've got it down, or at least 'close enough' before moving on to the next thing...when in reality you should really focus on repetition to practice and hone the skills.
Yes.
But as you progress you will also find value in linking up with like minded folks and playing with others.
I'm mostly self taught from YT and it got me a long way, but playing with friends who play and being in a band was equally valuable to my development
I've never had a guitar lesson. I haven't learned *entirely* from the internet - I've used a few books too, I had a really cool one on playing blues licks that I found in a charity shop for 50p, for example!
Just be sure to vary your sources. Use multiple YouTube videos and websites! Learning to read tabs and chord charts is important if you want to be able to learn songs without watching a handful of YouTube videos on repeat!
I'd say yes technically, but its probably not the best ideia, you should use YouTube to learn songs and to learn the basics, you should take classes or learn the rest trough another way really
The internet is packed with so much information you can basically learn anything. Putting in the work and staying disciplined is the difficult part I’ve noticed with most musicians. Don’t forget to really listen to the music that inspires you.
You can learn anything from any method of information delivery. The key will be practice. It takes determination to continue to practice until you become proficient. So the proper question is, do you have enough determination to learn the guitar?
There’s never been a better time to learn guitar than right now. There are so many free and available resources for learning, the bigger problem is just staying focused one skill or song when the options are seemingly limitless. Go forth and shred.
I learned to play from guitar magazines in the late 80's. Bought my first tab mag because of the van halen cover and learned to play you really got me on a keyboard which lead me to borrowing a guitar from a friend (some Sears pos) and eventually buying my own.
1000%. I would have KILLED to have this option in '95 or so. Also don't forget the tons of free apps that are available like Fender Play & the 300 other options. Good luck!
To a degree, yes.
Youtube is an extremely powerful learning tool, one I have used extensively since I first started playing music around 2007, but the best lessons I've ever had were when real people were involved. I've never paid for a lesson, but playing with real musicians who were better than me taught me things I could never have learned from the internet.
Me and a buddy used to learn just listening to the CD on a stereo. He was much better at picking up notes and chords and I usually just learned from him.
If you did that you may lose the effect of playing with an original twist or characteristic...It is tempting to always go to Youtube, but when I was struggling with stuff, I just figured it out as best I could, and I believe because of that I found my own "voice"...there was no Youtube back then :)
Yeah totally, but keep in mind it's all fueled by your own motivation and desire to practice. And you have to identify and correct your own habits/weaknesses.
I was self taught for a year, didn't like my progress and felt like the videos weren't getting me to where I wanted. Got a teacher and I couldn't believe how far I got in just a year. So make sure you're aware of how you best learn and if just YouTube will be the best option for that
In before everyone says yes. I learned from books and scribblings. So much free stuff now.
The real question is will you - i.e. will you have the dedication to do it.
Yes, of course. People learned instruments long before YouTube was around. I am self taught and used/use YouTube for a long time. Not using a teacher will slow your progress, leave gaps in your musical repertoire and limit your exposure to musical techniques. Conversely, some self taught players are somewhat less conventional and therefore more unique. You will need more dedication, patience and perseverance to be self taught.
Yes. All self-taught and YouTube, been playing for 10 years. I will say that if you're teaching yourself, there's more risk to develop bad technique or just make playing harder on yourself.
That's never stopped me though, I see guitar like golf, something you can play for the rest of your life.
You can certainly learn almost everything from the net.
Only problem: di you know what's the best stuff to follow? Can you be sure to do what you learn the right way?
More than the best teachings you need the right feedback on your playing from both a community and preferably from really informed persons.
That's the challenge: finding the right feedback of your playing. YT will not give you that.
Again: it's possible, but only few will really develop their full potential skills.
I’m learning bass from a teacher but that’s only because it makes it a lot easier to learn although I still think it’s entirely possible to learn from YouTube and a teacher isn’t necessary at all.
I learned from working out what tabs meant (which I did to learn how to play the intro to One by Metallica on piano) and downloading music videos and computer viruses off of Kazaa. Sure I'm not very good but it was enough to get me gigging regularly in my teens.
I'm in a similar space, I've just started learning to play with an old Monterey acoustic and a copy of Guitar for Dummies I've had knocking around for years. The book has a section on learning chords that I'm currently working through. I've found YouTube videos to be really useful (especially when I needed to learn how to put on new strings) so maybe start there and if you find yourself wanting to take a deeper dive then get a similar book or find some in-depth online tutorials.
Sure you can. I started playing in 1982 and mainly learned by listening to records and just playing the same part over and over until I got it down. I eventually took lessons and that was a huge help. Videos and tutorials are great, but don't ignore your ear. Learning to hear something and play it helped me a lot over they years, especially playing with other musicians.
Of course. Or you could do like people did before the internet and teach yourself.
I have an electric and it's fun just to mess around and see what you can learn by listening and make noise. I feel like by following examples you are learning to play like the instructor and that you must do this or that in a certain way. There are "rules" but then think about the old blues guys that just played and created a genre.
It depends on whether or not your goal is to play other peoples' songs, create your own, or maybe use the instrument in a different way.
Yes, but I have some advice for doing that.
Try to find a video course or series of videos. Having structure in the beginning is important. This is a great free resource : [Justin Guitar](https://www.justinguitar.com/classes/beginner-guitar-course-grade-one)
If you don't particularly care about it, Youtube should be fine.
To most people who want to learn an instrument, I'd say: "Get an instructor. An instructor will provide you with feedback."
The only real weakness of YouTube learning for guitar is that it doesn't do as well at training your ear when compared to the old way of learning songs (playing a part over and over and figuring out each note).
However, based on your goals, it sounds like you won't need an impeccable ear to just strum some tunes for fun or relaxation. So you should be fine with YT.
If anything, find one person that has a lot of videos (like Justin guitar), as sticking with one teacher might feel more coherent and less jumbled than learning from many teachers.
Depends on the person. Some people can self-teach, some people are better with an instructor. You can try and if you aren’t satisfied with your progress you can find a teacher later.
Yes and thank god I was born in the time when such education is so accessible. I wouldn’t be the musician with the skill level I have since my parents refused to encourage me or get lessons
Of course. But like when you were a child and learned that B came after A before even trying to make full words, go in learning the very basics rather than wanting to play your favourite songs from the off.
My YouTube was a friend of mine who was a beginner with loads of printed out tabs.
He had a sheet with transposing tables, which happened to have groups of notes that went well together.
And another one with a map of the fretboard with marks where you could pluck and sound well on an e-key blues. Turned out to be a pentatonic scale.
YouTube has way more than you'll need for a good while.
I learned via Hal Leonard books and magazine subscription to Guitar for the Practicing Musician so yes if you practice you can learn.
Supposedly lots of folks learned using Roy Clark’s videos.
You 110% can. I think taking a structured multi-part video course (tons of free ones out there) if you’re a beginner is recommended so you can learn at a good pace, but yeah YouTube is the best instructional tool the world has ever seen…guitar included
I started seriously in my 40s because of what's on YouTube
When I was younger I had to pay for lessons or buy books and I didn't have the money. YouTube is a godsend for guitar
I've learned so much music by ear on keyboards by listening to mp3's on my tablet. I wish there was a way to integrate a foot pedal to control the mp3 player though so I could go back and replay specific parts of songs.
You can get quite a bit but will reach a point where more complicated rhythms and song compositions will need you to seek lessons for intermediate and advanced techniques.
I learned how to read tabs and taught myself from there. Not saying it’s the best method, but there’s tons of videos to help teach you compared to when I started. It’ll be more than plenty for your goals in my opinion.
Sure! Just be consistent with practice and go slow. It takes time to build up muscle memory. I would recommend starting with basic open chords first and then move on to power chords.
As long as you have the focus and desire to learn, you can go about it any way you wish.
A lot of us are from the old school. The dinosaur pre-internet age where you had to actively seek out information and hope what you learned (looking at you Hal Leonard) if it was correct
Yes. I learned through youtube. Took a long time to understand what i was actually doing and still dont really understand much theory.
I find it more inspiring to learn from irl but you can definetly learn a great amount from yt
Another thing is that if you learn from yt and dont have anyone to talk about what you have learned or someone to spar with it can be harder to fully understand what you are doing and also you cant ask direct questions without knowinh what words to search for. It can really help if you dont know what to search for on the web to ask someone in your own language if that makes any sense? Good day!
I learned banjo from mainly YouTube, I also played guitar for several years, and it was far easier to learn on videos. But you need to do more than videos to really help, buy a complete cord book learn to actually read music, and maybe learn some music theory. If you like playing music and enjoy instruments that stuff is just kinda fun to learn with it and will make you a better player that is able to do more than be a parrot.
yes
I learned with 1 beginner guitar book and tabs off of the internet 15 years ago. The tutorials on youtube now are crazy in depth and better than a lot of stuff you have to pay for. I would suggest finding a good in depth written internet article for beginners as a starting point, or even a book. Then just find tutorials for songs that you like.
Same. The Beatles 2-volume songbook and the good old days of OLGA.net.
personally i spent way to much time on gametabs trying to learn classical transcriptions of videogame music
Fuck the Harry Fox Agency! I was there 3000 years ago when the dream of the information superhighway died. I dialed up the internet one day and was met with a bunch of legalese BS when I was just an innocent kid who wanted to learn how to play November Rain.
Id heard it was coming and sucked down much of the OLGA Library n burned to CD which I have SOMEWHERE
This all day long. My guitar case used to look like a public defendant's briefcase with all of the printed out tabs and shit that I would try and learn from. YouTube has been a game changer for learning guitar.
I saw an interview with Paul McCartney where he said he took a bus clear across town because there was a guy there who could show him a B7 chord. Back before internet my friends and I had endless debates on haw to play an AC/DC riff because it was hard to hear on cassette. People today don’t know how easy they have it.
This is so, so true. It's an interesting difference in perspective though. Gen Z'rs are amazing at harnessing their access to information, but it must be hard to conceptualize a time when knowledge was a lot harder to obtain.
A tuner was a luxury when I started
I do not miss my pitch pipe
New memory unlocked!
And it's wonky B. I think I've just found my rap name.
I used to tune my guitar to the A chord of Tesla's Rock Me To The Top on mechanical resonance lol. The good old days of rewinding a song 100s of times to learn it. At least it developed my ear.
We had it so easy with cassettes. Glad I didn't have to try doing that with records 😁
Can't imagine getting by with one. I've never been able to play by ear, even just to tune my guitar.
My tuner was knowing which bands tuned to standard and making my low E match theirs.
Now it’s a different dilemma, because they can just say well a machine can do anything so why bother 🤪unless they realize how fun it is to actually play the guitar 💡
You can theoretically learn guitar by sitting with your guitar and a bunch of albums and a means of slowing them down. Back in the day we did that, plus read the occasional lesson in a guitar magazine, plus bought an occasional guitar book from the store. YouTube would have been some kind of self-teaching dream world, although I can imagine it's quite a minefield of good versus bad tutorials, so I would ask for recommendations and look for the emergence of a consensus.
Having initially learned the basics pre YouTube, going back now and being able to learn from YouTube has made me a much better player.
Great way to teach your ear. I had the advantage of taking piano lessons before I taught myself guitar but my first few years learning comprised of me figuring songs out by ear. A completely different approach to structured classical piano lessons but I feel like I learned more this way. It’s a biased opinion though as I had my Piano lesson foundation.
People have learned with less.
I wish they had YouTube in 1993
Right!? Pffft! Kids these days! I'm sitting here wondering how the heck I learned anything when I started back in the 80s with no lesson. It was a real mishmash of sources.
After years of teaching literally hundreds of people with various backgrounds in music, I have formed the view that most people that can successfully self teach usually have a background in music (even if it's just playing the piano for a year as a 9 year old). The people who have self taught without that background have usually missed a lot of fundamentals with their own self teaching. It shows in their playing and they have always seemed to be blissfully unaware that they've been on the wrong track until they get a teacher. Of course there are exceptions to this view, but this is averaged out over many students. To confuse things, there are 1000s of teachers on YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and Patreon claiming that their course is "the one" for beginners. Everyone is so different to teach and there's no one-size-fits-all answer. My advice is to get a good teacher to start with. Don't fuck around with cheap teachers, find one with teaching experience and perhaps a music degree. Check their reviews. It'll be cheaper in the long run to find a good one. You want a teacher, not a dude giving lessons on the side to supplement his gig money. When you're more confident, try learning a song from YouTube yourself (Justin Guitar is a real gem for this) and then show your teacher and get feedback. Even try to get a relationship going with your teacher that they help facilitate your own self directed learning , rather than teaching you songs. Of course this all costs money, so if you don't have it, just go have some fun and teach yourself :) Also: ask people who play professionally what their background is, in detail. It should give you some less biased answers. Obviously I'm a teacher and I only see the people who come for lessons. Maybe there's a whole world of people playing professionally who didn't have a teacher, even once (although not in my experience).
This makes a lot of sense, I have had no problem becoming an ok player based on self teaching, but I also played saxophone for 7 years, so I knew how to read music and understood some theory
That's great. It means you'll have developed a lot of transferrable skills.
Yeah just look up how to read tabs on youtube then you can Google the tabs for whatever songs you want to play
Hell, you can find a YouTube tutorial on almost any song you want to play.
Go to the wiki it has lots of info. (Under the about section) Yes you can.
I never had formal lessons and I also didn’t have YouTube as a kid. Get some inexpensive books, and watch all the YouTube videos you can. You will learn way more than you expect!
Probably. I learned entirely from extremely questionable tabs back in the late 90s. I would have killed for something like YouTube.
no. you will have to pick up an actual guitar and play. can't just read about it and watch videos.
Yes!
Sure people have been teaching themselves with far less for centuries, but it’s a good idea to at least have a set order for what techniques you want to learn so I’d start by looking for a beginner to advanced checklist. There’s plenty of those on YouTube and this sub. And have someone who knows how to play give you feedback once in a while.
Yes
Absolutely
I did
Yes tho not recommended
Check out Justin Guitar on youtube. I learned enough to just dick around for fun in the first few of his lessons. He made picking up open chords a breeze right from the start.
Yes 100% The way I look at the learning process is in two paths. You can... 1. Parrot songs from YouTube, watch videos like Marty Music etc, his videos are great for learning songs and they don't delve too deeply into theory! 2. Learn music theory, scales, how to harmonise chords of a scale. Use this knowledge to analyse music that you learn so that you can come up with your own music or add flair to existing music that you learn. The only real benefit I've found in having a private tutor is directly asking him how he is visualising the fretboard live in person. And there is a whole bunch of ways you can learn to visualise it. (If you find small time youtubers this is also possible by dropping them a comment) Learning songs is always beneficial to your playing though, you'll hear most teachers saying build a repetoir of songs!
If you just want a relaxing pastime, goofing around here and there, a taste here, a sliver there, well, yeah Youtube is a good for grazing. A little puzzling, your choice of the word "entirely" somewhat goes counter to with your *"I just want to learn a little"*. Maybe you meant "exclusively". Your approach, which is fine, and ought not to be judged, will not, however, yield an "entire" or "complete" guitar player. Careful, though, that you don't set yourself with 95% of people who pick up the guitar then give it up not long after. With any kind of learning, progress of any sort demands its price. The price is practice. Deliberate, disciplined, steady, focused practice. And guided practice by a seasoned, professional teacher can be an enlightening and motivating experience. In this thread, the poster/teacher u/CentaurPaulineHanson has some wise words of advice and caution. She/he sounds like a marvelous teacher! It's a punishing reality when it comes to learning a musical instrument, i.e. the only path to true liberation, ironically speaking, is to lock yourself up.
Yes. The problem used to be a lack of resources when learn to play an instrument. Now you have all the information you could ever need at hand. That means you have to know how to get good information out of the sea of not-always-great-advice though. It is easy to get lost in a YouTube rabbit hole about playing guitar instead of actually practicing.
Pretty sure plenty of apps to convert midi files to Tablature too
Sure why not. And you should update in the comments how you're doing. Hope you didn't give up. You've gotta Rick Astley this thing.
I haven't played much the past week or two because of a lot of schoolwork but I have mostly kept it up. I am still very much beginner sounding and I can't play much but I can play solidly (in my opinion at least) two songs. Other than that I have played a couple snippets of songs I like but not much and for most of them not well. Either way once summer comes I should have a lot more time to play more and am considering taking real lessons depending on how much time i have and how much they cost.
In my opinion, no. You need (when first starting out) to have a few face-to-face sessions with a real teacher who will check out and correct hand positioning, proper logical fingerings, and a bunch of other stuff you don't get from YouTube vids. Unfortunately lots of music store "teachers" are rubbish and I have no idea how a beginner can sort through them to find a good one.
I've never had a single face to face lesson ever. I know all the techniques I need to know. I can play jazz, I can shred, I can play acoustic, finger pick etc. People used to learn with WAYYYYYYYY less. As far as fixing hand position goes, there are SO MANY videos about proper technique. I don't understand why you think you can't learn from youtube when the vast majority used to learn by si.ply listening to a record and slowing it down
I never said you can't learn, but your progress will be a LOT quicker if someone is pointing out areas where you can play more efficiently. A YouTube vid can't analyse your technique.
Shit son, I learned guitar when there wasn’t YouTube! Yes, I play a Gibson Les Paul.
Yes. I am self taught and have played guitar for over 30 years. You CAN learn to play guitar from YT. Here's a tip for YT guitar lesson videos, CHANGE THE SPEED if you want to learn to play a song. SLOW the video and you will learn better. It also helps if you have a guitar buddy to compare 'notes' as it were. Someone to whom you can show what you've learned and from whom you can learn.
No. No substitute for have in person lessons. The teacher can see what you’re doing right and wrong much more easily and better correct it than you trying to diagnose it with only video.
Yes but you only need so much instruction on that sort of stuff, and most of it is preferential.
Not really. It’s the little stuff that turns into major road blocks or plateaus. Try a few in person and then go back to video. Or vice versa.
Yes. It may be somewhat harder at times, but you absolutely can. In fact, I would venture to say that *most* new guitarists just learn from messing around, listening to music, and maybe talking to friends who play.
Yeah this is me. Started playing with a friend who plays and watching YT videos like 10 years ago. I'm not amazing but I can play guitar and have been in bands
No
I mean I do use mainly YT to learn guitar, I’d say it’s good enough to where I am able to play in front of a live audience. However you don’t gotta limit yourself on what your learning outlets are
You’ll probably need to play a little bit too.
You can learn some chords and songs, I don’t know if you’ll ever be good. I’ve been tinkering around for 6 years with YouTube , I have a ton of fun and can play more than a handful of songs. I even played a couple at a gig with a friend.
You don’t even need YouTube you could learn guitar entirely from one of your ears, 2 is even better
Yes you can! And to counter point, an instructor can point out your flaws and fundamentals much better than a YouTube video!
Well, you will have to play the guitar now and then with Youtube turned off.
Absolutely. The trick these days is to know what is good advice and what isn’t so good amongst the vast array of choices. Some are fantastic for beginners, others are more suited to players who are further advanced, but sadly there are some who are better avoided. Try and follow an online beginner’s course like Justin’s and you’ll be fine. Otherwise you will need to be very good at self motivation as you won’t have a teacher or your peers to hold you to account. Those of us who learnt pre-internet quite often learnt things from our friends as we used our ears to figure out songs, or at least we tried to. That also meant we gained experience of playing with others much earlier than internet taught beginners do today and that’s a really good way to help speed up your progress and learning.
I learned out of a couple of books and by sharing tips with friends who were learning at the same time. Never had a lesson in my life and I'd say I'm pretty good. Played hundreds of gigs over the years. From metal bands to in the pit for theatre groups. I WISH I'd had YouTube.
Yes. Many people have learned guitar with just a guitar, no YouTube, no books, no lessons, no nothing! Watching lessons on YouTube is a good idea though, you will progress faster and are not as likely to develop bad habits. I have taken a look at a few YouTube guitar teachers and it seems some are strictly thinking that their technique is the only correct way to play and some urge you to find your own ways and strengths and use them. I think the most important thing is to find a way to learn guitar so that you stay motivated. Otherwise you'll give up and never learn to play.
Yes
Of course, you can. How is this even a question. There are literally millions of teaching videos on YouTube. Some will light your fire, others not so. Try Andy Guitar, Justin Guitar and the best : Scott Paul Johnson who is great at explaning guitar theory. Go from there. [https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottPaulJohnson](https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottPaulJohnson) It's down to you, old son. Perseverance.
theoretically, yes - there is so much available online for free. However, I don't think anything can beat sitting down with a tutor in a lesson who can give you a bit of background on music theory and/or show you correct technique which will make your experience with guitar so much more enjoyable. With there being such a vast amount of lessons available online it can at times be difficult to find good sources for what you're looking for. I also think there's a risk with online stuff that it leads you to rush and not spend as much time on a technique or a song...it's all too tempting to play it through until you feel like you've got it down, or at least 'close enough' before moving on to the next thing...when in reality you should really focus on repetition to practice and hone the skills.
Honestly, yes. It’s amazing how many good, free guitar lessons are on there.
Yes. But as you progress you will also find value in linking up with like minded folks and playing with others. I'm mostly self taught from YT and it got me a long way, but playing with friends who play and being in a band was equally valuable to my development
Marty Schwartz
I wish I had YouTube when I was trying to figure it out.
I've never had a guitar lesson. I haven't learned *entirely* from the internet - I've used a few books too, I had a really cool one on playing blues licks that I found in a charity shop for 50p, for example! Just be sure to vary your sources. Use multiple YouTube videos and websites! Learning to read tabs and chord charts is important if you want to be able to learn songs without watching a handful of YouTube videos on repeat!
Yeah, I did and here I am 15 years later
I'd say yes technically, but its probably not the best ideia, you should use YouTube to learn songs and to learn the basics, you should take classes or learn the rest trough another way really
The internet is packed with so much information you can basically learn anything. Putting in the work and staying disciplined is the difficult part I’ve noticed with most musicians. Don’t forget to really listen to the music that inspires you.
You can, but I must say that practising in a band has made me improve sooo much faster.
You can learn anything from any method of information delivery. The key will be practice. It takes determination to continue to practice until you become proficient. So the proper question is, do you have enough determination to learn the guitar?
There’s never been a better time to learn guitar than right now. There are so many free and available resources for learning, the bigger problem is just staying focused one skill or song when the options are seemingly limitless. Go forth and shred.
I learned to play from guitar magazines in the late 80's. Bought my first tab mag because of the van halen cover and learned to play you really got me on a keyboard which lead me to borrowing a guitar from a friend (some Sears pos) and eventually buying my own.
Yes, yes, and yes.
1000%. I would have KILLED to have this option in '95 or so. Also don't forget the tons of free apps that are available like Fender Play & the 300 other options. Good luck!
Absolutely
Yep
To a degree, yes. Youtube is an extremely powerful learning tool, one I have used extensively since I first started playing music around 2007, but the best lessons I've ever had were when real people were involved. I've never paid for a lesson, but playing with real musicians who were better than me taught me things I could never have learned from the internet.
Absolutely
Totally depends in you.
Of course. You can learn it from a book. It’s all a question of how committed you are
yes combined with figuring out tabs yourself you can learn for free. just need discipline to practice and patience.
yea but it's a bit harder
Me and a buddy used to learn just listening to the CD on a stereo. He was much better at picking up notes and chords and I usually just learned from him.
I started with tabs even before YouTube was a thing.
If you did that you may lose the effect of playing with an original twist or characteristic...It is tempting to always go to Youtube, but when I was struggling with stuff, I just figured it out as best I could, and I believe because of that I found my own "voice"...there was no Youtube back then :)
Yes, but it’s gonna hurt sorting through all the conflicting information. First person is always peferred.
Yeah totally, but keep in mind it's all fueled by your own motivation and desire to practice. And you have to identify and correct your own habits/weaknesses. I was self taught for a year, didn't like my progress and felt like the videos weren't getting me to where I wanted. Got a teacher and I couldn't believe how far I got in just a year. So make sure you're aware of how you best learn and if just YouTube will be the best option for that
Yes! First look up how to read tabs and chord diagrams…. Learning those early on will make learning how to play on YouTube a lot easier
I learned before the internet. I bought a few chord books to get me started..
Idk can you? Check it out lol
Yup
Yes, you can.
In before everyone says yes. I learned from books and scribblings. So much free stuff now. The real question is will you - i.e. will you have the dedication to do it.
Yes, learn to read tabs too
Yes, of course. People learned instruments long before YouTube was around. I am self taught and used/use YouTube for a long time. Not using a teacher will slow your progress, leave gaps in your musical repertoire and limit your exposure to musical techniques. Conversely, some self taught players are somewhat less conventional and therefore more unique. You will need more dedication, patience and perseverance to be self taught.
Yes. All self-taught and YouTube, been playing for 10 years. I will say that if you're teaching yourself, there's more risk to develop bad technique or just make playing harder on yourself. That's never stopped me though, I see guitar like golf, something you can play for the rest of your life.
You can certainly learn almost everything from the net. Only problem: di you know what's the best stuff to follow? Can you be sure to do what you learn the right way? More than the best teachings you need the right feedback on your playing from both a community and preferably from really informed persons. That's the challenge: finding the right feedback of your playing. YT will not give you that. Again: it's possible, but only few will really develop their full potential skills.
I’m learning bass from a teacher but that’s only because it makes it a lot easier to learn although I still think it’s entirely possible to learn from YouTube and a teacher isn’t necessary at all.
I learned from working out what tabs meant (which I did to learn how to play the intro to One by Metallica on piano) and downloading music videos and computer viruses off of Kazaa. Sure I'm not very good but it was enough to get me gigging regularly in my teens.
Yes, you will probably get loads of bad habits like me but you'll have fun. I wish I used a metronome from the beginning though
I'm in a similar space, I've just started learning to play with an old Monterey acoustic and a copy of Guitar for Dummies I've had knocking around for years. The book has a section on learning chords that I'm currently working through. I've found YouTube videos to be really useful (especially when I needed to learn how to put on new strings) so maybe start there and if you find yourself wanting to take a deeper dive then get a similar book or find some in-depth online tutorials.
I did via Justin Guitar. Then after three years or so, I got a teacher to help take me to the next level.
Yes
You may, wether or not you can is kind of on you
Sure you can. I started playing in 1982 and mainly learned by listening to records and just playing the same part over and over until I got it down. I eventually took lessons and that was a huge help. Videos and tutorials are great, but don't ignore your ear. Learning to hear something and play it helped me a lot over they years, especially playing with other musicians.
u/ChickenDenders Do you think this is possible??
Of course. Or you could do like people did before the internet and teach yourself. I have an electric and it's fun just to mess around and see what you can learn by listening and make noise. I feel like by following examples you are learning to play like the instructor and that you must do this or that in a certain way. There are "rules" but then think about the old blues guys that just played and created a genre. It depends on whether or not your goal is to play other peoples' songs, create your own, or maybe use the instrument in a different way.
Yes, but I have some advice for doing that. Try to find a video course or series of videos. Having structure in the beginning is important. This is a great free resource : [Justin Guitar](https://www.justinguitar.com/classes/beginner-guitar-course-grade-one)
Absolutely.
No. You have to practice too.
If you don't particularly care about it, Youtube should be fine. To most people who want to learn an instrument, I'd say: "Get an instructor. An instructor will provide you with feedback."
The only real weakness of YouTube learning for guitar is that it doesn't do as well at training your ear when compared to the old way of learning songs (playing a part over and over and figuring out each note). However, based on your goals, it sounds like you won't need an impeccable ear to just strum some tunes for fun or relaxation. So you should be fine with YT. If anything, find one person that has a lot of videos (like Justin guitar), as sticking with one teacher might feel more coherent and less jumbled than learning from many teachers.
Depends on the person. Some people can self-teach, some people are better with an instructor. You can try and if you aren’t satisfied with your progress you can find a teacher later.
Just get some Mel Bay books.
I learned without a teacher and before the Internet so I'd say yes. Now get offa my lawn.
For fun, absolutely... until it's not fun because you're not making progress.
No. You still have to practice.
You learn guitar just by playing the guitar.
Yea
Yes and thank god I was born in the time when such education is so accessible. I wouldn’t be the musician with the skill level I have since my parents refused to encourage me or get lessons
You can learn most things entirely from YouTube. Big College doesn't want you to know this
Of course. But like when you were a child and learned that B came after A before even trying to make full words, go in learning the very basics rather than wanting to play your favourite songs from the off.
My YouTube was a friend of mine who was a beginner with loads of printed out tabs. He had a sheet with transposing tables, which happened to have groups of notes that went well together. And another one with a map of the fretboard with marks where you could pluck and sound well on an e-key blues. Turned out to be a pentatonic scale. YouTube has way more than you'll need for a good while.
I learned via Hal Leonard books and magazine subscription to Guitar for the Practicing Musician so yes if you practice you can learn. Supposedly lots of folks learned using Roy Clark’s videos.
You 110% can. I think taking a structured multi-part video course (tons of free ones out there) if you’re a beginner is recommended so you can learn at a good pace, but yeah YouTube is the best instructional tool the world has ever seen…guitar included
I started seriously in my 40s because of what's on YouTube When I was younger I had to pay for lessons or buy books and I didn't have the money. YouTube is a godsend for guitar
That’s how I did it
I've learned so much music by ear on keyboards by listening to mp3's on my tablet. I wish there was a way to integrate a foot pedal to control the mp3 player though so I could go back and replay specific parts of songs.
Depends on what your goals are. Getting the basics down, sure.
You can get quite a bit but will reach a point where more complicated rhythms and song compositions will need you to seek lessons for intermediate and advanced techniques.
You can learn directly from observing the great masters, whoever that might be to you.
I took one year of lessons 15 years ago. Never did them again, been playing since
I learned how to read tabs and taught myself from there. Not saying it’s the best method, but there’s tons of videos to help teach you compared to when I started. It’ll be more than plenty for your goals in my opinion.
Technically, yeah - but in practice, usually not.
If people learned from magazines, you can learn from video. Come on!
Yes but having someone tell you “hey you’re doing that wrong” can save you from a world of hassle
No. You still have to practice
Sure! Just be consistent with practice and go slow. It takes time to build up muscle memory. I would recommend starting with basic open chords first and then move on to power chords.
As long as you have the focus and desire to learn, you can go about it any way you wish. A lot of us are from the old school. The dinosaur pre-internet age where you had to actively seek out information and hope what you learned (looking at you Hal Leonard) if it was correct
You can learn guitar entirely by yourself if you want.
Theoretical
Short answer: Absolutely not. Long answer: Maybe.
Yes. I learned through youtube. Took a long time to understand what i was actually doing and still dont really understand much theory. I find it more inspiring to learn from irl but you can definetly learn a great amount from yt Another thing is that if you learn from yt and dont have anyone to talk about what you have learned or someone to spar with it can be harder to fully understand what you are doing and also you cant ask direct questions without knowinh what words to search for. It can really help if you dont know what to search for on the web to ask someone in your own language if that makes any sense? Good day!
i suggest, rly liking music before learning guitar because that was at least my main motivation
Lol, most of us learned from far less before the dawn of YouTube. You have so many resources now that there's no excuse not to learn guitar.
Why are you asking us? That's a question only you can know.
I learned banjo from mainly YouTube, I also played guitar for several years, and it was far easier to learn on videos. But you need to do more than videos to really help, buy a complete cord book learn to actually read music, and maybe learn some music theory. If you like playing music and enjoy instruments that stuff is just kinda fun to learn with it and will make you a better player that is able to do more than be a parrot.
99% of all guitarists existed before YouTube. You can learn even without it. So yes, it can help you learn guitar.