Most of us have, at one point or another, thought about learning to play the guitar while we watched our favorite artists do so. While you may never quite reach the level of a Clapton or Mustaine, you can definitely get a good start on exploring what your natural talents may have to offer by checking out Instinct. Instinct is a new web site that will teach you step by step how to play the guitar, starting with the absolute basics and eventually moving into the more advanced realms of riffs and full songs. Best of all, it doesn’t cost a dime.
Instinct is one of the better programs for online education that I have seen and used. It allows you, first of all, to use any guitar you happen to have laying around. You don’t need a special MIDI compatible one or anything super sophisticated, just a simple acoustic or electric is all that is required, along with a microphone and speakers on your computer. Even better, if you don’t happen to have a guitar yet, you can use the ‘virtual guitar’ built into the program to check it out and see what it has to offer (requires a mouse). Most laptops and desktop systems will handle the program with ease, assuming you have internet access. While there’s no mobile app at the time of this post, they do have plans in the works for tablet and smartphone apps for the future so watch for those.
Getting started is super simple, just like the entire process. Simply sit in front of the computer with your mic and speakers turned on and your guitar in your lap and away you go! The program is more geared toward beginners, so if you’re of the more advanced persuasion you will find yourself getting through the lessons quickly but take heart in knowing that more advanced lessons will be forthcoming as the program and community continue to grow. In addition to the planned lessons that take you from tuning to playing frets and full songs, there are also community created riffs you can pick up and learn for fun and education as well. There are also leaderboards and tons of other ways to keep up with other students, including the Year In Rock system that is worth looking at as well.
The combination of pros teaching and community connections that Instinct offers is the winning one that has made the internet and online education the wonderful thing it is today. I would recommend this one for anyone who has even the slightest interest in learning to play or just learning more about how guitar playing works. It’s in its infancy so far but is already a robust and complete teaching system that actually could be used as a virtual replacement for a human teacher, since it is based on actual lessons created by actual human teachers and it is broken down into the steps they would teach you in person. This is a rare and beautiful program that I, for one, am very impressed by. Until next time, my friends!
Check out Instinct here.
Original article here