Do I need lessons?

If you know many guitar players, you probably know most of them are at least partially self-taught, and the majority cannot read music. Guitar, and other plucked instruments like mandolin, dulcimer, banjo, etc. seems mostly to be handed down from player to player, from generation to generation. But if you don't have guitars in your ancestry, don't worry, I was the first guitarist in my family too, although I certainly wasn't the last!

So barring having Grandpa Walton or Andy Griffith around to teach you, what should you do? Do you really need a teacher? The answer depends largely on what you want to do with the guitar, and how far you are willing to take it. If you're hoping to pursue a career as a guitarist, studio work is a definite possibility, and being able to read music a necessity. If your desire is to be up on stage as a touring musician, reading music is handy but probably not necessary. As a songwriter or singer/songwriter, or as a member of a band sight-reading is next to useless, particularly if you can master the much easier guitar tablature.

My advice for the absolute beginner is to take lessons, at least for 4-6 weeks. Learn the 5 or 6 basic chords that make up 80% of all recorded music, maybe a few of the "walking down" chord forms you often hear between certain chords, and learn a couple of songs you really want to learn to play (not "Old Macdonald"!). If you've learned the chords and a few songs and don't know where to go from there, lessons that teach you to replicate a few classics note for note may be just what you need to restart your creative engine.

For anyone sure the guitar is their instrument, lessons are superfluous except insofar as they teach sight reading, a skill you may never use. And since private lessons are expensive, perhaps you should opt for an online course, of which there are myriad examples. These provide the advantage of being able to see the fingerings and chord grips in extreme closeup in addition to being able to ask questions like you would during a lesson in person. Big advantages are no travel time and the cost is a fraction of private lessons. You can afford a top notch professional lesson via skype for about what you'd pay the senior in high school down the block who gives lessons part time.

Or you could do what generations of guitarists have done: watch what the guitar player is doing whenever you see live music, then grab a guitar and try to duplicate it! Here is where the Net and youtube are invaluable. Say you want to know how to play "That's the way (it ought to be)" by Led Zeppelin. No problem: there are two dozen lessons on youtube ranging from stumbling beginner to absolute master. And if none of those fit your bill, there are several videos of Jimmy Page himself playing in clear closeup. And any parts that are not clear on video can usually be cleared up by referring to tablature, of which there are several hundred thousand examples available free online.

Of course watching will not make you a guitarist. Only practice can do that, lots of practice, although that will be limited at first by pain. Yes, playing the guitar is painful, at least until you develop some serious callouses on your fingers, but that doesn't take long if you're practicing 2-3 hours a week. As you gradually build those callouses you can extend your practice sessions, but remember to keep it fun - making music, even if it's your job, should never be drudgery.