Learn Guitar your way with a TakeLessons expert

Playing an instrument offers a lifetime of fun and learning! Children benefit greatly from musical education in both cognition and reasoning. These benefits carry over to school and achieving greater success in all areas, especially math. However, sometimes with children, getting them to do what is best for them is difficult. Here we'll offer some advice on the best approach to practicing guitar with your child to reduce potential stress and keep your child motivated. Start With the Basics

Are you curious about whether you have songwriters block - and what to do about it? Chances are, if you’re any kind of creative professional - be it a songwriter or a novelist - you’re going to struggle with writer’s block at some point in your career or another. Fortunately, songwriting writer’s block is something you can conquer - and once you know how to deal with it, you’ll be able to continue writing creative, inspiring songs many years into your career.  In this post,

Whether you're just learning how to play guitar chords or you're on your way to being a virtuoso, every guitar player needs to practice. Take these tips from guitar teacher Dee F. to create your perfect practice plan... Now that you have decided to learn how to play guitar, you wonder…how can I get the most out of my lessons? The answer is…practice, practice, practice! Practice What You Are Assigned If your teacher asks you to practice a certain warm-up exercise three times at each pra

One of the most frustrating concepts to new guitarists are bar chords, also known as barré chords in classical guitar terminology. These tricky chords have been annoying guitarists for generations, and many players are tempted to avoid all music that includes them. However, bar chords are extremely useful and they offer a beautiful sound to your guitar. The knowledge of these chords can also help you find any major and minor chord on the guitar! So, what is a bar chord, how do we play these cho

Chords are the foundation of all of those guitar riffs you love so much. Here, guitar teacher Kirk R. walks you through the basics of guitar chords and the importance of knowing how they're constructed... Guitar is an amazing instrument, not only because of all that it can do, but also because of how great it can sound when not doing much at all. One of the ways that guitar is most often heard is by strumming the standard chords that beginner guitarists learn. However, I often inter

Got the gig? Great! Now… what should you bring? Read on to learn about the electric guitar accessories that Charleston, SC teacher Christopher A. recommends stowing in your gig bag… As you get into playing guitar, opportunities may arise to showcase your talents in a live setting. Regardless of the performance location, be it a bar, coffeehouse, or your high school gymnasium, there are a few essentials you should carry with you in your gig bag or guitar case. Making a list of items you ne

With so much equipment available for guitar players, how do you know what's worth your hard-earned money? In this guest post, North Wales, PA teacher Nathan D. shares what you need to know about finding the best guitar effects pedals and more...   In the never-ending quest for the guitar tone of their dreams, guitarists will spend countless hours experimenting with pickups, cables, amps, speakers, and much more. And at some point if you have an electric guitar, you'll get the uncontr

  Have you ever heard a guitar lick that sounded crazy complicated? Guitar teacher Christopher S.  explains how some of the hardest sounding techniques can actually be easy once you try them... We've all seen those guitarists on YouTube who make seemingly impossible-looking moves look easy.  But are they really as simple as they seem?  In this blog post, we'll take a look at five of the most commonly misconstrued guitar moves and break them down into easy steps that anyone ca

The most popular guitar technique is the art of strumming chords. Every style of guitar utilizes various strumming patterns which can determine the sound of a particular style. A genre that uses a lot of unique strums are country and bluegrass styles. In this article, we will discuss the basics of strumming an acoustic guitar, and I will provide you with 5 country strumming patterns beginners can start using right away! Holding a Pick To get started, I recommend learning how to use a pick.

What is the goal of music? This may be a question up to interpretation, but I think most people will agree that one possible goal is to play beautifully and tell a story to your audience. If you are like me and you prefer to play classical, fingerstyle, or instrumental styles of guitar, the concept of playing beautifully is incredibly important since we are not singing anything. So, how can we take standard notes and chords from music and play them to convey a message or story to our audienc