Cameron from The Singer’s Corner has put together a list of The 6 Best Social Media Platforms for Learning Guitar. If you’re new to guitar, holding the instrument while listening to your favorite musician is often intimidating. Trying to replicate their performance right out of the gate is next to impossible. While some are naturally gifted with the ability to play by ear, the vast majority of people need visual instructions. Thankfully, there are some great options online for you to use. While you may want to experiment with the different instructors and service options, you’ll quickly find the right fit for your learning needs. Here are the best social media platforms for learning guitar.
YouTube
Above all else, YouTube stands as the very best social media platform for learning guitar. It’s also the world’s second largest search engine as well.
If you’re just starting off with the guitar, it’s best not to just hop right onto a particular song. Yes, you can most likely find an instructor who will point out different chords. However, that’s like learning to run before learning how to crawl. You need a solid foundation to continue on. As you learn, you’ll begin to pick up new tips and tricks, which will make eventually learning songs that much easier.
So instead of looking for songs, look for guitar teachers who break it down, string by string, chord by chord. It’s helpful to find an instructor who also uses some sheet music as this way you know what you’re reading as you learn. Sheet music will prove especially beneficial later on because then you’ll be able to download sheets of music from your favorite musicians. It might feel like you’re going at a snail’s pace, but even Jimmy Hendrix had to start somewhere.
Pinterest is great for a few reasons. First, it’s awesome for finding sheet music. So if you want music to certain songs, check out Pinterest. Second, it’s awesome because there are guitar instructors who provide screenshots of certain chords. This way, you can replicate the finger position on your frets as you learn. While there is no audio, which is always helpful, Pinterest provides enough visual education to help supplement what you’re learning on YouTube.
Perhaps you’re not able to catch what a particular instructor on YouTube is doing with his or her fingers. You can turn to Pinterest and see the exact finger placements with these visuals.
Instagram combines some of the features you find on YouTube and Pinterest together. You won’t find the longer instructional videos on Instagram as there is a time limit for videos. However, for learning guitar chords, Instagram is great. Plus, many instructors on Instagram will provide both short tutorial videos as well as snaps of sheet music and finger placement. The visual quality isn’t as good as Pinterest (due to the squared off requirement of the Instagram app), but it provides enough insight to make it worth checking out.
Facebook is further down on this list as it is a bit trickier to find the right instructors. With YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram you can search a particular term (like “learn guitar”) and you’ll instantly see the attributes of instructors with accounts. On Facebook, you really need to know who you’re looking for. So you may be better off searching for guitar instructors through Google or one of the other social media platforms before turning to Facebook.
Once you know who to check out on Facebook, head over to their profile. Those with an active Facebook account may provide Facebook videos, just like on their YouTube page. They can also provide pictures from their Instagram accounts. In some ways, Facebook combines both Instagram and YouTube in a desirable way, so you won’t need to bounce around between accounts. It just depends on the instructor and their preferred social media platform of choice.
SnapChat
SnapChat is good and yet it isn’t. SnapChat can give you quick snippets of content, the same as Instagram. However, much of what is posted on SnapChat goes away eventually. So feel free to follow your favorite instructors. You might receive some extra nuggets of information related to learning guitar, but just use it to supplement your other social media platforms.
Twitter isn’t all that great for learning guitar. Due to the character requirements and all the other stipulations placed on a user, this isn’t the social media platform you should turn to. However, it is helpful as you’ll often receive updates and notifications through Twitter when your favorite guitar instructors post on the other social media platforms. So use Twitter to stay up to date with what your instructor is doing.
YouTube by far is the best platform to learn guitar. There are plenty of instructors on YouTube who create instructional videos. Some offer chord instructions for specific songs while others break it down even further to help with learning chords and how to read sheet music. Other platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are nice as you go and progress. It’s always beneficial to supplement your learning with different instructors and different ways to stimulate your music education. Whichever way you decide to go, make sure to check out these best social media platforms for learning guitar.
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Guest post by Cameron of The Singer’s Corner, a great place to learn, refresh, and delve into the music world. Whether you want to learn a new approach to singing, give you tips to make you better, and teach you ways to be the best of the best. See Cameron’s 8 Essential Practice Exercises for Acoustic Guitar for more tips on learning guitar.