Are You Going to Listen to Your Teacher or Your Friends?

Beware of your well meaning friends

Once a beginner starts learning to play guitar, there are all kinds of advice being given by well meaning friends. They have your best interests in mind, but most of them don't teach and therefore the advice you get may not be all good. A good guitar teacher will steer you in the right direction, make sure you don't pick songs that are beyond your skill level and help you make steady progress. Your friends will suggest what they learned, try to help you, but not remember how hard it was in the beginning. I've had students who got conflicting advice, ideas that would do harm than good, and shown songs, riffs and licks that were way beyond their current abilities.

Pick a teacher that's right for you

There are lots of guitar teachers available, many of them quite good, some not so good, and some good but not for you. The best advice is to ask questions, make sure your teacher has experience with beginning guitar students, and can play and teach the music you like. It doesn't have to be the only style he or she is interested in, but at the minimum a basic understanding is needed. For example, I've had students that wanted to learn classical guitar, flamenco guitar, slack key guitar and other types of music that I'm not comfortable teaching, so I helped them find a teacher that would be more helpful. A good teacher will be up front with you and tell you if you should find someone else.