There is a veritable barrage of online resources for guitarists: how to select an instrument, how to care for it, chord charts for songs and sheet music along with lessons for various guitar techniques and styles. Some of these websites have useful information; others are merely teases trying to sell the site visitor some sort of guitar-related product or service. There are a number of online “lesson” sites, including beginning guitar lessons.



Perhaps some of these web resources will be of value to the beginner. Certainly, you can learn a little about the instrument and its various components.

You can learn how to tune a guitar and a few of the basic chords, so that the fret board doesn't feel totally alien to you. If you are shopping for an instrument, you can learn enough about them to ask informed questions at the music shop.

Even for this purpose, it helps to seek consultation from a professional who is not in the guitar sales business. You may not be sure what sort of guitar you want to purchase: steel strings or gut strings.

For a beginning guitar lesson, the difference won't matter much. However, as you progress, the type of instrument you're playing will be very important to you. Guitar teachers are excellent, unbiased resources for information on instruments.

* There is no substitute for a real, live guitar teacher and weekly or biweekly lessons, especially for beginning guitar lessons. Getting started with proper form is critical. You need to learn how to use your hands from a professional, not from an MTV video.

* Professional guitar teachers will give you a beginning guitar lesson that you will understand because you will be able to ask questions. There are no stupid questions when you are first starting out, with any new skill. There are no questions at all with an online lesson format.

* A schedule of personal beginning guitar lessons will force you to PRACTICE. Practicing is the key to progressing with your skill and it is also the key to persevering. Everyone has days when they don't want to practice. If you have an upcoming lesson that you'll want to be ready for, you'll have an important reason to practice – to avoid embarrassment.

* Consider renting an instrument until you have had enough beginning guitar lessons to know what you want in an instrument's design. Some guitar necks may be too wide for your hands. Steel strings can be hard on your fingers when you're starting out; even gut strings are going to leave you with sore fingers.

* Measure your progress on a personal basis. If you've conquered a chord or a passage that seemed impossible two weeks ago, you win. You should take steady pleasure in steady progress and ignore what others are able to do. You'll get there soon enough.