I would say that 95% of people who start learning to play an instrument do so because they wanna learn to play their favorite songs. In fact, most of the time, music theory and technique does not exist in the beginner’s mind, they only want to learn to play songs, that’s it!
On the other hand, learning to play songs does break the routine of learning theory and practicing exercises. Learning to play songs you like is motivating and fun, although it could also be very frustrating if you choose a song that involves lots of techniques or difficult chords that you’re yet to learn.
So the question here is how can you find songs to learn?
First, you need to decide what type of music are you looking for. This is a huge task as there are many music styles available for us and finding TAB or music sheets from artists you don’t even know can be a bit expensive and of course time consuming.
So ask yourself: What artists or music styles do I like? Am I wanting to pay money to learn to play the songs? Am I ready to jump in and start learning to play songs? If you have these answers then let’s make the next move.
Where to go to find the song lessons? Getting a private tutor to teach them to you? No way, that will be too expensive… besides that, a tutor would be great to teach you technique and tricks, not song lessons. The INTERNET is the answer!
Have you searched for guitar tab websites? There are heaps of great options out there. One site that has been around for ages and keep their library always on top of things is Ultimate Guitar – It is excellent as it has a very comprehensive database of all major bands and music styles. This site contains enough TABs to keep you playing your guitar for your entire life.
Another good site is Songsterr.com which also has a very big song library divided by music genre, artists, songs, etc.
Both of these sites have a FREE and paid option, so there is something for everybody!
If you are looking for a more modern option, one-on-one video song lessons could be the way to go. If this sounds like you, pop on over and check out our friends at Songpond.com – they have around 60 video song lessons available + around 70 technique lessons with great audio and video quality.
And of course, the king of video on the web, Youtube, where quality and accuracy are never guaranteed, if you’re willing to take the time to search there are definitely some really high quality players and tutorials to be found.
Let us know what style of music you like more. What songs you would like to learn. We would love to know more about you.
Good luck with your lessons!
Learn more about Luis Tovar on his Google profile.
