More Basic Materials of Music

Lots of people seem to have read my previous post, even though no-one left a comment, so I'm going to do a followup. I'm not going to give an online course in reading music, music theory or playing guitar. There are lots of those available already. What I can do is point you to the ones that seem the most useful. I just looked at some of what's out there and most of them are not very good. They are either clumsily written, excessively trippy or dull. But if you want a good, thorough approach you might have to put up with a bit of dull! Here is a pretty good place to start:

http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Music

Teoria is a more serious site that has various tutorials. Here is the one on reading music:

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/reading/index.php

They also have sound examples, which is a big help. Though their metronome doesn't seem to have a very good rhythmic sense! Or maybe it is just my internet connection.

Here is an online course that includes both reading and music theory:

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons

Here is a blog on music theory:

http://musictheoryblog.blogspot.mx/

I'm not making guarantees about these sites as I just took a brief tour of them, but all of these look pretty good.

I'm wondering if perhaps we might be on the verge of a new era in teaching music. Services like Skype might allow students to learn from teachers that are geographically remote. But in the meantime, I have to recommend that you find a real, live teacher. There are free online courses, but most of them put me to sleep!

http://www.classic-guitar.com/lesson1.html

That is way too 'talky'. I think it is best to just start playing, put the fingers on the guitar, adjust the position. After a bit, show how notes look like written down, etc, etc. But don't load the student down with a bunch of philosophy and precepts that can have no real traction for them yet.

Here are a couple of pretty good teachers in action:

Despite the guitar's Spanish heritage, English is the international language of guitar masterclasses--even in Spain!