When starting out to search for those ideal guitar lessons, most of us would try the all-powerful ‘G’, and ‘Google it’. Nowadays more searches for all kinds of things are made on Youtube, in fact it’s the second most popular search engine after Google itself. Like Google, the number of items shown for a phrase like ‘blues guitar lessons’ is huge – what is the best way to choose the lessons right for you? Youtube guitar lessons include all kinds of styles and instruction levels, both paid and for free.

Many of the big boys in selling guitar lessons have developed a very slick marketing format that use all kinds of psychological hooks to induce you to purchase. Just a beginner? No problem – you’ll be performing like a pro in 3 weeks. Intermediate player? We’ll take your playing to the next level. You play very well? This instruction will turn you into Eric Clapton, and you get the picture. Amongst my favorites is the ubiquitous advert ‘The Three Major Mistakes That 90% Of Guitarists Make”, or something like that, which is pretty hard to resist, it must be admitted. In reality, playing great guitar takes practice, commitment and time. Naturally, the whole process could be made easier with clear teaching and faithful blues guitar tabs.

Guitar tablature is the fundamental characteristic of excellent guitar lessons. It doesn’t have to be extremely complex at all, with just elementary notation showing finger movements and chords. Some tab just goes into too much detail, attempting to convey the feel and style of genuine blues playing, which it can’t possible do! This leads us to the second feature of the best blues guitar lessons – the instructor must be able to play the stuff to a high level (and that tab should adequately indicate what he is playing.)

Guitar tablature alone isn’t enough to translate that delicate pause, or the thumb strike that is a little off-beat when needed to accentuate the singing. Of course, the tab can show that a single thumb stroke should be muted or damped with the hand’s palm, but doesn’t show that this damping movement itself is never constant, but varies in intensity as the pressure of the palm on the strings is continuously being changed depending the flow of the song.

Take your time when searching for any instruction, whatever kind you are looking for. The Chinese say ‘a year spent doing nothing but finding the right instructor is time well spent’. This is a good observation. You might not need to take a year in your quest, but choose with care and side-step all the hype. Don’t think that you’ll improve in two weeks, take it easy, don’t be hard on yourself and above all, savor the music and the journey.

Learn more about blues guitar lessons. Stop by Jim Bruce’s site where you can find out all about blues guitar lessons.