Learning to play the guitar can be a fun and rewarding pursuit. Whether it’s your dream to become the next guitar legend or you simply want to play campfire songs, it’s important to start out right. This means learning the guitar, its chords and so on. Taking shortcuts while learning might net you a song or two you can play, but it won’t give you a foundation to build on. Here’s where video guitar lessons can come in handy for students of all levels.It might seem a little odd to take lessons from a filmed person online or on a VHS tape or DVD, but the truth is this type of learning works very well for a lot of students. Video guitar lessons offer a lot of perks regular classes don’t. Let’s look at them:* Step by step instructions. A good video guitar lesson will begin with the basics and work all the way up to more expert techniques. This means there’s no short cutting around the important things, such as guitar parts, care and so on. These instructions will be offered in a natural order and can really benefit the beginner and even a novice by teaching the fundamentals first.* On demand. This is perhaps one of the biggest draws to video guitar lessons. Rather than having to wait for an appointed hour each week to take lessons, those who choose to go the video route can learn on their schedules when they want and as much as they want. The “teacher” is always available.* Repeat performances. Since video guitar lessons don’t involve a person whose time needs to be booked, lessons that need repeating can be repeated at no additional cost. If a particular lesson is tricky, a video student can replay it over and over again until the repetition pays off. And, since repetition and patience are the key virtues in learning an instrument, this is a real bonus.* Visual aids. Some people can learn guitar simply by hearing and then trying it themselves. For the rest of us, however, it’s nice to be able to see where fingers need to go, how the instrument is held and so on. Video lessons, just like live ones, offer these visual cues to help people along the way to guitar mastery.* Variety. Video guitar lessons are offered by all kinds of teachers. This means the style of play can be varied greatly, which is great for students who want to learn more than one way to do things or more than one style of play.* Cost effectiveness. In person lessons can be very costly over time. And while video guitar lessons require an initial investment, once they’re paid for, they’re paid for. This means no matter how many times a lesson needs to be repeated for comfort level, there’s no extra charge.* Overcoming “stage fright.” Some people simply are afraid to take lessons in person because they “sound bad.” By having a video teacher, this fear is eliminated. There’s no one to offer up opinions.While it’s true that nothing can replace face-to-face lessons when feedback is needed, video guitar lessons can really help anyone learn the basics and beyond. The visual cues they offer, combined with the other perks make them a great way to learn a guitar. Remember, however, that a guitar is a pretty complicated instrument and it will take time and practice to truly master its playing.

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How Guitars Work

Many people, guitarists included, have probably wondered how exactly guitars work. However, they probably also are confused by all of the terms used to describe how a guitar produces the sound we hear. There is quite a bit of physics involved in it, and those who haven?t taken a day of physics in their life probably wouldn?t understand it. This is where this article comes in handy. In this article, we will describe how both Acoustic and Electric guitars work in terms that everyone will understand.

How the Acoustic Works:

To start with, when a string vibrates (when you play it), it produces vibration at a certain frequency. The frequency at which a string vibrates is determined by the weight, length, and tension of the string.

The body of the guitar takes in the vibration of the strings and then puts the sound out into the air. This is the sound that is heard when the guitar string is played.

On an Acoustic guitar, there is a soundhole. This soundhole serves to amplify the sound of the vibration produced by the strings. Without the soundhole, the sound would be practically inaudible, which is the case with a solid body Electric guitar.

To alter the length (and therefore change the sound that is heard) of the string, you?ll alter the tension of the string. You do this by pressing down on the string on any of the frets and then playing that string. Doing so changes the frequency of the vibration, which, in turn, alters the sound that is heard.

How the Electric guitar Works:

Electric guitars really aren?t that much different from Acoustic guitars. In fact, the main difference between the two is that one is made of solid wood (with no holes), while the other has a hollow-body (with a soundhole). How Electric guitars work is a bit different than how Acoustic guitars do.

Just like with the Acoustic guitar, when a string is played, it vibrates. That vibration produces the sound that we hear. The frequency of the vibration is, again, determined by the weight, length and tension of the string.

With no soundhole, the Electric guitar is unable to self-amplify the sound produced by the vibration of the strings. Thus, the sound heard from an un-amplified Electric guitar is minimal. This is why guitar pickups and amplifiers are necessary to produce the sound loud enough for people to hear.

Pickups basically take the vibration of the strings and convert it into a useable electrical current. This current is then fed into the amplifier by way of a cable which is then interpreted by the amplifier. The sound that results comes out of the amplifier speaker.

Amplifiers that have pre-built distortion (and practically all of them do now) can distort the electrical current (vibration) by clipping it. The sound that results from this clipping is what is called distortion.

Other types of guitar effects found on amps and pedals do pretty much the same thing?they alter the electrical current which is fed to them by the pickups of the guitar.

And there you have it. That is, in a nutshell, exactly how guitars work. No physics necessary.

About the Author:

Gray Rollins is a featured writer for GuitarsLand.com. If you’re interested in learning in more detail how a guitar works or the parts of a guitar, then please visit us.