MyTrinityChurch.org

Worship through Music Lessons and Appreciation

Learning Guitar: Start with Acoustic

acoustic guitarFor many students, the desire to start playing guitar comes from hearing their favorite bands playing.

Depending on the style of music in question, that usually means a suite of electric guitars in a heavy rock band. While learning how to play electric guitar is a valid aim, it isn’t necessarily the best place to start.

Here are a few reasons you should start learning guitar by playing acoustic and not electric guitar.

It’s Cheaper

For starters, there’s the price tag. A good beginning acoustic guitar can cost as little as $100-200. There are even some available for less, which are targeted primarily towards children and not teens or adults. Find a good guitar from Guitar Center.

Electric guitars, by contrast, are far more expensive. Cheap electric guitars are often $400 or more, and that’s just for the guitar. Keep in mind that with electric guitars, you also need a host of other accessories in order to really play it, including, amps, speakers, connection cables, and often a foot pedal.

Acoustic guitars have few, if any accessories.

Fingering is Easier

Not only is it cheaper, but the acoustic guitar is actually easier to play. Because of the design of most beginning guitars, fingerings on the acoustic come more naturally, and require less pressure and tension than their electric cousins.

When you’re just starting out, you will, among other things, need to build finger strength, and starting with a guitar that’s hard to get your fingers around doesn’t help.

Find beginning guitar fingerings at http://acousticguitarchords.org.

It’s Easier On Your Neighbors

Finally, it’s important to remember that beginning guitarists aren’t always fun to listen to. Have some consideration for your family, roommates, or neighbors, and go with the softer acoustic side.

Everyone will thank you, trust me.

I hope these three simple tips help you to consider your options when you’re first starting out with guitar. Like I mentioned above, even if your ultimate aim is to learn to master the electric guitar and become a rock star, it still pays to start out with the acoustic.

Should You Be Taking Music Lessons

Our commitment to music and arts education lies at the heart of our music center and lesson programs.

One question we consistently get from students is whether or not they should invest in taking private music lessons, or opt for a group class in order to improve their skills. In this post we’ll talk about a few of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

When To Choose Private Lessons

music lessonsFor many students, private lessons are the natural choice. They are by far the best way to get individual, one on one instruction from a teacher. As long as the teacher is an expert in the instrument and style of music you want to learn, working one on one can give you deeper insights more quickly than taking group classes.

The downside is that private lessons are generally 4-5 times the cost of group lessons. Many group classes might be $20 per class, for example, whereas a private lesson can easily cost $80-100 per hour.

In general, private lessons are a good choice if you already have a basic understanding of the instrument, and are trying to take your practice to the next level. You be prepared to really commit to the lessons, and understand that most teachers expect anywhere from 3 to 10 hours of individual practice between lessons.

For more information on private lessons, check out this page on singing lessons in richmond bc, or see information on Music Lessons in Richmond BC.

When To Choose Group Classes

Group classes, on the other hand, tend to be the best choice for those just starting out.

The classes are less of a financial commitment, making them accessible for people at all levels who can’t commit to a more rigorous course of study.

There are other distinct advantages to group classes as well. Students can learn a tremendous amount by following a core curriculum along with other students, and will be listening, evaluating, and playing along with the other students in the course. That develops many fundamental aspects of musicianship that can be applied to a wide range of ensemble performance settings.

To learn more and help you decide, there’s a great continuation of the pros and cons of group or private lessons in this video by Yamaha Music.

 

Best Resources for Learning Guitar Online

learn guitarPart of our music ministry here at My Trinity Church is to help spread the love and passion of music to our members.

We not only offer comprehensive lesson programs that our church members can take advantage of, but we also want to make sure that everyone has access to the best resources in the broader community.

When it comes to learning guitar, there’s no better way to get started than through the combination of a dedicated guitar teacher, who you see weekly in either private or group lessons, and a strong online platform.

Working with a video lesson program online is a great way to supplement your weekly in-person lessons at the church, and can be a great way to improve your skills quickly by accessing a large amount of information, and then bringing specific questions in to your teacher every week.

If you let your teacher know about which online platform you’re working with, you’ll also be able to design a better private lesson program that incorporates some of the materials you can find online.

So what are the best programs?

Beginners Guitar Studio

A relative newcomer to the online guitar lesson space, Beginners Guitar Studio is doing a lot to make learning guitar accessible to everyone.

The focus of the site is on providing top quality information for free, without needing to log in or sign up for any membership option (like many of the other platforms).

You can learn scales, chords, or songs, or browse for additional lessons. This is a great go-to resource for our students who aren’t looking to buy another program, but may want some refresher on how to finger that E major chord when they’re practicing during the week!

Guitar Tricks

Another great resource is Guitar Tricks, which takes a step by step, play-a-long approach to learning.

This is a great platform because the primary focus is on learning songs, and they have over 600 tutorials for specific songs that you can learn to play, regardless of whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player!

For more information, see this Guitar Tricks review.

Ultimate-Guitar

Finally, there’s Ultimate-Guitar, which is an undisputed leader when it comes to providing tab and chord information for thousands of popular songs. They claim to boast nearly a million songs in their collection, over 800,000!

You can find the lyrics and chords to just about any song you can imagine, and it’s all 100% free for you to get access! It doesn’t get any better than that!

If you’re interested in learning guitar and want to learn more, check out our lessons page for more information on how we can help structure a class or lesson program that’s right for you!

What To Know About Learning Sacred Guitar Music

Want To Learn Sacred Acoustic Guitar?

guitar class at trinityHere at mytrinitychurch.org, one of the services and lesson programs we provide centers around the performance of sacred guitar music for beginning and intermediate guitarists.

We think that it’s important not only to keep the art of playing church music alive in the community, but also to inspire budding guitarists of any age to find the beauty and music that is such a strong part of the history of all religions, and connect to a higher spiritual force through their offerings.

So, not only are we commited to providing a number of different lesson programs and resources, but we also want to encourage you to share your talents with the rest of the Trinity community, whether that’s through a recital or accompanying a Sunday service.

Here’s a quick overview of the options we have for learning sacred guitar.

Our Lesson Programs

Finally, we are proud to offer several different options for sacred guitar lessons and classes here at Trinity Church.

We offer the following programs:
Beginners’ Basics: This is a 12 week course that meets once a week on Tuesday evenings from September through November, January through march, and May through August. The course covers the basics of how to hold and play acoustic guitar, and what considerations you need to have in order to begin to learn how to play basic hymns.

Intermediate Sacred Guitar: This course is for those who have gone through the Beginners’ Basics course and/or have enough experience to skip through that course. In this class, we focus on the application of guitar techniques to sacred music, and cover topics such as how to embellish and improvise over common sacred patterns and hymns, and how to create a background atmosphere ad lib for a church service, such as the passing of communion plates or other transitional period of the service.

Click here to learn more.

Where to learn guitar online:

If you’re interested in learning the guitar, there are some really great online resources you might want to consider. Here are a few of our favorites”

There’s also a really great lesson for beginning guitarists put up in this video on youtube, so if you’re just starting out you might consider watching a few of these and learning the basics on your own, before taking it to the next level and getting lessons at the church!

History of Sacred Music: Miserere by Allegri

How To Play Hymns on Piano

Great video resource for all of our piano students out there!