How to Become a Better Guitarist with Free Lessons!

I've been playing the guitar for longer than I want to admit. I've always played rhythm guitar, mostly acoustic. I've always wanted to learn to play better, lead guitar, scales, jazz guitar, but I never seemed to practice enough, and when I did practice, I just seemed to go through the same stuff.

I've learned through the years that there are two surefire ways to become a better musician. You must practice, and you must play with good musicians.

I should admit here that this isn't an article so much about playing as lessons. But here's the truth, how can you become better without practice? You can't. You must play what you want to learn, and you must play it a lot! How do you know what you want to learn? Well, you can learn it from records, a form of lessons, but ultimately you've got to learn from some one better than you. An old musician friend told me that you become better by playing with better musicians. But music lessons are expensive you say. Not always.

Recently I discovered that my community college has a great music program. I went to a concert and listened to a fantastic jazz guitarist by the name of Peter Curtis. I asked how I could take lessons from him, and he suggested that I sign up for private lessons at the college.

As I thought about it, I realized that yes, this is how I learned in the first place. When I was about 10 years old, my older sister was taking a beginning guitar class at our local community college. When she came home, she'd teach me the new chords and songs she had learned. So why shouldn't this be true today?

So, I signed up for the private lessons. I should tell you here that you've got to have some guitar knowledge and you must go through a little audition. At least that's how it works at Riverside Community College. So you might have to start in a class before you can take lessons, but this works too.

I was assigned to another great guitarist by the name of Jody Fisher. And I have grown as a guitarist. I have learned new ways to understand the complex guitar neck. I am a better guitarist today than when I started about four months ago.

The moral of the story? If you want to become a better guitarist, play with people who play better than you do. Practice a lot, and take lessons. Check out your local community college for an inexpensive beginning or intermediate guitar class, and ask if they offer private lessons. You might even qualify for financial aid and the class or the lessons will be FREE!