7 Tips for Success in Online Guitar Courses

Want to get your full money’s worth from any online guitar course?

Here are 7 tips to get the most from your course, and make it worth your time, energy, and money.

These tips apply to online guitar lessons and courses of all sorts. Helpful for online courses on classical guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar; country guitar, jazz guitar, blues guitar, rock guitar, or any other playing style.

No. 1: Define the Best Case Scenario

No single classical guitar book, course, or program will, on its own, be complete. We also have to bring our own time, focus, and attention to it. No matter how good the course materials, we still have to learn them.

Knowing this, what is the best-case scenario for an online course as a way to learn guitar? Here are three ways a course can be a success. There are others, but this is one way to make sure that you begin to have the best online guitar course experience possible.

Success! Have fun

We play the guitar for fun. So if we take online guitar lessons, they should be fun.

The same can be said for any endeavor. Whether you want to learn saxophone, study woodworking, or learn a new language.

What makes something fun? Novelty, challenge, and new perspectives.

Success! Learn something new

If we learn something new, it’s a success. This is, after all, why we take the course in the first place.

Just like reading a book or taking an in-person guitar lesson, one good take-away can make it all a success.

Each course (maybe a new skill, or Spanish guitar music) is not an end unto itself. Instead, it’s one small step in a life of learning to play guitar. Each piece of music we want to learn can build our guitar skills. And we can ideally take these new guitar skills into future pieces.

When we keep this long-term view in mind, we can relax and focus.

Success! Get skills that transfer to other pieces of music

We ideally find some skill, practice method, or guitar technique that we can use going forward as we are learning to improve our guitar playing.

We may get a new way to shift from one position to another. Or a way to solve a certain kind of problem.

To learn guitar is to learn to practice guitar. And this means we collect an arsenal of movements, strategies, processes, and formulas. We use these as we learn to play new pieces and polish current pieces.

If we can add one more “tools to the chest”, it’s a smashing success. (More on this below.)

No. 2: Set Realistic Expectations

When we first start nearly any project, we begin with zeal and optimism. We’re excited to dive in. And we may expect that elation to last.

But often, time and circumstances intervene. And things turn out different than we imagined.

So it’s good to set realistic expectations up front. Or, be willing to change our expectations at any point, to avoid frustration. (We can think of this as renegotiating with ourselves.)

How much time do I have?

Even if we only have a few minutes each day to begin with, we can still take online guitar lessons and courses.

But if our practice time is limited, it may take several weeks or months to get through the course. And this is fine. (More on this below)

How do I define my personal success right now?

Also, depending on our current abilities and situations, we will have a unique definition of success.

For example, Mr. Smith has a medical issue. Just enjoying the practice time and discovery could be full success for him.

However, for an advanced guitar player in perfect health, the goals may be different.

We can explore our personal versions of success, and go forward with them in mind.

Examples of common goals are:

• Complete focus (getting one’s mind off of other things)
• Clocking time (fulfilling a personal agreement)
• Playing the piece of music (for love or money)
• New understanding (broadening one’s horizons)

No. 3: Practice One Lesson Before Moving to the Next

In any self-paced course, we run the risk of moving on before learning the lesson.

To get the most from an online guitar lesson and improve our guitar playing, we ideally go slow enough to get the value at each step.

It can be tempting to watch many videos at once. But we may come away not knowing exactly what to practice, or how to practice it.

It’s more useful, and we get more value from the course, if we practice each lesson before moving on. Take your own pace. Slow enough, where everything is easy to follow.

But this doesn’t mean we have to master it just yet….

Overlap is fine – mastery not necessary

We may not fully master one guitar lesson (or practice section of a piece) before moving on to the next. This is fine.

The important part is that we know what and how to practice that section. Then, in our daily practice, we can continue with the work of one guitar lesson, while also working on others.

Our online guitar lessons can (and will) overlap.

So long as we can keep track of it all, there’s no limit. However…

Pause when needed

It’s also perfectly legal to pause in a course. If we have plenty to work on, it’s better to focus on mastering those skills.

We can return to the course when we’re ready. It will always be there, like a book on a shelf.

The danger of pausing is that we may lose momentum. We can counter this by reviewing previous online guitar lessons. This keeps us engaged with the course, and getting great value, while taking the time we need to practice.

No. 4: Take Notes: Write Down “A-ha!’s”

Often in a good course, we’ll get at least one “A-HA!” moment. These are fun and rewarding experiences when learning guitar.

So we should capture them. Write them down.

When we take the time to write down our discovery, we clarify it in our mind. To put it into words helps us to understand it. We assimilate it more deeply.

Even if we never look at our notes again, we’ll learn the new material better. We’ll remember it more readily.

And this means we’re more likely to make use of the lesson in the future, and in other pieces. Which leads us to…

No.5: “Where Else Will This Work?” – Look for Similar Applications

Perhaps the best value in online guitar courses come from transferable skills. These were mentioned earlier. These are methods or strategies that we can use for other pieces, as well as the current one.

One of the best ways to lock in the learning is to (after writing it down) find another place to use it. We can mine our current and previous pieces (repertoire) for other musical examples.

For instance, we may learn a new guitar technique for scale passages (melodies). We can find similar scale passages (melodies) in another piece we already know. Then we can apply the new guitar technique to it.

The more we transfer practice methods and guitar techniques, the easier we’ll play new pieces. The new skill will pay dividends months and years to come.

The best tool is one you know how and where to use.

We can make loads of headway with relatively few “tools”, if we know how to use them.

For example, say we become comfortable using the 7-step process to start learning how to play new pieces. When we do, we have a useful skill we can apply to any piece going forward. We now have a clear strategy to tackle any new project.

Whenever we find anything that works, we can look for other places to use it. With practice, we’ll remember this tool when we need it. And we’ll have enough experience with it to enjoy consistent results.

One useful skill, well-learned is worth the price of admission

Playing classical guitar, there are a finite number of issues and challenges we see in music.

These issues may come in different forms. The context and notes will be different. But each will belong to a relatively small family of issues.

Over time, we’ll know how to solve rhythm problems, stretches, speed issues, memory obstacles, and several others.

The good news is this: Once we find a tool (method, skill, technique) that works for a particular type of problem, we have it forever.

And if a course gives us just one new tool, or a new use for one we already have, it’s well worth the time, money and effort.

No.6: Go Back and Review

When we complete a course, we have a new opportunity. We can now go back through the course a second time.

As odd as this may sound, there are virtually always new lessons to be found on the second go-round.

We are different guitar players after the course. We have successfully gotten the notes, and worked through the course materials.

Now, having this knowledge, we often hear things in new ways. We get lessons that we were not ready for the first time.

For instance, assume our main focus, to begin with, was getting the notes in rhythm. Now that we’ve gotten this far, we can now explore phrasing and dynamics. We’re better able to learn the lessons on making the piece more beautiful.

No. 7: Important – It’s Fine to Not Finish

We talked above about success. It’s important to note: We don’t have to finish the course. We may find massive value and enjoyment without finishing the course. This is fine.

We don’t have to eat the full box of chocolates to get full value. And we can also stop before we finish a course, while still getting all the benefits.

We may get ideas on how to practice, learn some music theory, or methods to change our tone. And we may be absolutely satisfied and excited about these.

A guitar course may also motivate us to practice. Or renew our commitment to guitar. There are many ways it can help.

It’s more important what we DO get from the course, than checking all the boxes to complete the lessons.

Even more, there may be little value in completing online guitar lessons, if we don’t stop and practice enough to gain new skills from them.

Guitar is a long road, taken one step at a time. If an online guitar course can help us take one small step forward, it’s a glorious success and worthwhile project!

Dive In Now: Online Classical Guitar Courses

Whether you’re just about to get started as a beginner guitar player, or have been playing guitar for decades, you can get massive value from guitar courses and online guitar lessons.

Browse the CGS courses here:

• Beginner Level Guitar Courses
• Early Intermediate Level Guitar Courses
• Intermediate and Advanced Level Guitar Courses

Or consider a membership in The Woodshed Program, and get all the CGS courses, plus the full program. The Program gives you access to step by step tutorials, helpful for the complete beginner as well as for intermediate and advanced players.

Have fun!

Free Online Guitar Resources

On the Classical Guitar Shed website, you’ll find a repository of useful resources that will help you along your guitar journey. Whether you want to learn how to play guitar chords, popular songs, or the art of classical guitar, you’ll find free online guitar lessons and resources here that will help.

Click here to access our free sheet music library.

Click here to download free books on classical guitar.

Click here to access our library of useful learning tools.

Click here to access free song lessons and tutorials on pieces.

Click here to learn about reading music notation on the guitar.

Click here to learn how to read chord and scale charts.