Straight off the bat, I tell you right away: The best way to learn to play guitar is with an actually REALLY qualified teacher.
The better the teacher is, the faster you will get results. Generally you want to make sure that your teacher has a PLAN.
If you prefer to be self taught
(some people are really “Medal Of Honor”-hell-bent on calling themselves that, I can’t relate personally, I just wanna play awesome stuff, but I also think most people are to cheap for getting a teacher and paying a good price)…
It’s still better to get a teacher. Half kidding, but not really. Because NOBODY is REALLY self taught.
As soon as you look up something on youtube or read a book, you ARE learning from somebody, in some way.
But let’s pretend, that counts as “self taught”.
You are still better off at least finding a group that keeps you motivated and on track and holds you accountable.
That can be your band.
Or just a community of guitar players (you can join one right here!)
Let’s go a bit into detail about both cases.
Best way to learn to play guitar self taught
You will need a LOT of persistence and strength of mind and most of all true deep desire to do what it takes and putting in the work, because you will hit a lot of walls and you have to figure out everything by yourself.
If you can do that and you want to put in at least 3h per day and be organised and goal orientated, you can certainly do it.
It’s just that most people don’t and they give up because they hit too many frustrating dead ends and get confused what to practice and have to do a lot of work to find what fits together or learn how to make something fit.
And most things just aren’t compatible (cough caged cough) with anything, or aren’t useful at all.
(Hint: read all other articles here, they will give you a good idea of congruent guitar playing systems)
If you insist on taking this path, at least have someone who knows what he’s doing that you can ask for directions sometimes.
If you want that to be me, you can find me here in my own community of Heretics
Just getting started and want to learn what are the first chords to learn on guitar?
Best way to learn to play guitar with a teacher
There are a lot of guitar teachers out there who don’t deserve that title but anyone out there can call himself a guitar teacher.
However there are ways to discern the good from the bad ones.
Check their track record
If they can show you that they produced great guitarists, that is probably the biggest indicator that you found someone who knows what he’s doing and he has an idea of what the best way to learn to play guitar is.
Results may vary from student to student, but if there is at LEAST ONE student who ascended into Advanced Ranks, you know that he HAS done it.
Looking for more guitar skills? Here you find the best!
Their plan
If you consistently walk into the lessons with your teacher and he asks you “ok what do you want to learn today?”…
Run.
YOU are the student, HE is the teacher. HE should know what you have to do next, what your next steps are, to get to where you want to be and play the way you want to play.
Sometimes asking that question is ok and it depends where it comes from. If he just wants to change gear a little bit and give you the chance to have a say in what to do, that’s fine.
But if you sense that he asks because he has got no clue what he should do with you… not good!
For me the life changing source of guitar wisdom was definitely when I started making real plans to practice consistently and found the right system to bring back the fun into my practice.
If a teacher has a good plan, you are way more likely to reach your guitar playing goals than with someone who is just winging it.
