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Acoustic Blues guitar lesson spice up that bluesy playing

The internet is a wonderful and magnificent thing. It is often said, but still very true, that young people today don’t know how lucky they are to have easy access to the worlds knowledge on the internet.

I started playing in the 1970s with the famous Bert Weedon’s ‘Play in a Day’ book. I could never afford guitar lessons so I would take every opportunity to obsessively study the playing techniques and styles of every guitarist I managed to see.

Todays technology has transformed the way that people can learn to play guitar. There are so many excellent guitar tuition DVDs that can be played over and over again, unlike a face to face guitar lesson. And the internet provides an ideal medium for the delivery of some great guitar tutorials.

There are loads of guitar playing teaching websites but by far the best for me is Youtube. You can find instructional videos on everything from choosing guitars to making your own electric guitar. There are some excellent videos for all levels of learning, from complete novice through to extremely advanced.

Learning some new techniques, tunes and licks has become my favourite hobby. Often when its raining I’ll stay indoors and learn a new tune or two from Youtube. I can safely say that I have learned more from the internet over the past five years than I learned from books and from watching other guitarists in the preceding twenty years.

What’s more, its interactive. If I find a video of someone playing a piece that I like I can easily make it one of my favourites and maybe leave a comment for the performer to see. Also, I like to ask the odd question and invariably the person who created the video will respond with an answer. Its a bit like having any number of great guitarists as personal guitar playing consultants.

I can’t help but feel a little envious of the young people who are just starting to learn today. I like to fantasise that if I had been learning to play using all of these excellent resources who knows, I might have become the next Eric Clapton.