Don’t Believe Everything You See on the Internet

The internet is a great place to find information on all sorts of topics, but BEWARE as a lot of that information out there is wrong or even worse, fraud.

The internet has made it easy for many amateur advisers to contact thousands of unsuspecting people via email, and visitors to their sites tend to believe what they see as well. Many sites that use fancy graphics can give the appearance of success, wealth, and many other things.

Musical and guitar related sites are not exempt. Some sites are very good and have a lot of useful information whereas some are just plain bad all round.

Here are some areas to watch out for

Guitarists who are only just beginning their music education and with a sudden rush of enthusiasm to share their new learnt craft are running their own websites with guitar lessons and advice. There is nothing wrong with that. It is just that inexperience passed on to others is not good advice.

A common mistake with these sites is that songs these people post on their sites have the wrong chords or lead lines. This is because they have not yet developed their ear to a sufficient stage to work songs out accurately.

Bulletin Boards are places where many learners meet to share problems and help each other get ahead. It is a great way to share experiences no doubt. However, there is always some person who comes across as an expert who has bad advice or other motives. Even some of the shared experiences by participants are bad advice.

It would be a good idea to participate in bulletin boards where an expert in their field is also answering the queries. For example on the discussionboard on my site many people respond to the queries that get posted, but I also put in my bit if they are wondering off the track. I monitor it daily, as I only want good advice on my site. To take a look at our discussionboard click here

Email spams advertising “Learn How to Play Guitar In Just 7 Days” “How to Play Faster in 3 Days” and the like are all rubbish. There is no way you can learn properly within that space of time. My advice is to go to a good teacher as they have all the best knowledge, and have done it all before, therefore they can steer you in the right direction. There are many of these types of promotion on the internet. Don’t waste your money.

Many great teachers do have internet sites and have good content to share. These are no substitute for proper lessons though, as they are not in any sort of graduated order most of the time.

What can you do to minimise the risk of taking in bad information?

The best thing is to check out the person’s credentials who are giving the advice or writing the article or lesson. You can do this by asking other people who play guitar if they have heard of this person or teacher before. You can even post an article on their site asking others of their experience with that person, or ask on other discussionboards about the person you want to check out. Check the testimonials the person has or read the profile page. Check the CDs they have played on, the books they have written, or videos they have produced.

The reason why this is so important is that bad advice can have a large cost attached to it. Like it could take you one, two, three, maybe even ten years before you realise that you are heading down the wrong track. Many people by this time have given up thinking they haven’t got what it takes to succeed. Many don’t realise it was just the bad advice they received somewhere some time ago.

What is my advice (check my profile first) if you are trying to learn the guitar for free on the internet you are wasting your time. You will learn a little bit, but it is not interactive, that is a teacher is not giving you feedback on what you are doing right or wrong. You are much better to go to a few sites that you like and can trust and spend the rest of the time going to a good teacher and practising on a regular basis.

Happy Practising
Kevin Downing.


© Kevin Downing 2002

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Kevin Downing is a professional guitarist, teacher, and author.
You can contact him by clicking here

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