These days the internet has made the world a smaller place. We can converse with people thousands of miles away, keep up to date with our friends via social media and have documents sent across the globe within seconds. You can now get internet guitar lessons from a professional teacher half a world away.

These technological advances have meant that we are no longer limited to learning from those within our immediate area. We don’t need to purchase tutorial DVDs and resources. We can access thousands of free online resources and videos via YouTube, and can learn from our idols.

However we can also seek out sources that give us feedback. In these days of widespread internet coverage we can learn face to (virtual) face and take internet guitar lessons with a teacher of our choosing. Indeed, I currently teach students in three countries across both hemispheres of the globe every week.

Here are a few things to take into account when considering internet guitar lessons.

1. Technological Requirements

You will need:

• a fast and stable broadband internet connection,
• a computer stable and powerful enough to be able to run the internet chat program of your choice without glitches,
• a microphone and speakers at the very least, but headphones are preferred as they will isolate the sound of your speakers from your microphone,
• a printer to print out resources sent to you by your teacher. This can be a toner printer, but for dyslexic or more visually oriented learners a colour printer is preferred.
• and a webcam so that your teacher can see and isolate and technical difficulties you may have, but also to facilitate non-verbal communication.

2. Latency

This is the delay between you saying something and your speech being reproduced at the other end of the connection. It is unavoidable and will be worse over longer distances. Therefore playing together during internet guitar lessons in a jamming scenario with your student will be impossible.

3. Backing Tracks

Latency eliminates the possibility of playing with someone in real time, so you can use backing tracks as a highly flexible solution. You can seek out many that are freely available in all styles on YouTube and via music magazines. However, should you need to communicate a specific musical idea it may be necessary to compose your own.

4. Platform

Whilst Skype is synonymous with online chatting (and is my own preferred solution), you can use other freely available platforms such as:

• Google Hangouts
• Facetime
• WhatsApp

Which one you choose depends on the system requirements of your computer or internet device.

5. Environment

Keep your learning environment quiet and free from distractions. Schedule some time free both before and after the lessons for consolidation of the lesson if needed.

6. Psychological Considerations

Nowadays there are more and more articles detailing the effect of screens on the brains wakefulness and how working with screens can disturb sleep. You can schedule your lessons to a time when sleep isn’t imminent.

Next, a screen will provide a ‘window’ to the other persons room. By it’s very nature this will limit the extent of body language communication. You can miss subconscious cues such as the nervous twitching of a foot. As a result, language becomes more important and your speech should be concise, exact, and easy to understand.

Thirdly, it’s easy for people to talk across each other without knowing due to latency. To combat this pauses before replies are a very good method of making sure miscommunication doesn’t happen.

7. Payment Structure

Whoever you choose to be your online lessons provider, make sure that your payment method is secure and that the terms and conditions of the lessons are known in advance. For my part, I use PayPal as an intermediary service as it’s secure both for the teacher and student alike. I don’t need to know card numbers or security details.

Also make sure that you detail power outages/missed lessons in your terms and conditions because your use of the internet as a communication tool brings more things that could go awry. It’s always better to detail the implications of these in advance.

Conclusion

Hopefully after reading this article you have a better idea of whether internet lessons are something worth considering. While these considerations aren’t exhaustive or minutely detailed, they should serve to enlighten you as to what to expect.

Thank you for reading! Happy learning! 🙂