I know some people don’t even believe that the Internet or World Wide Web exists. They think that it is an abstract concept and that if asked to show it to someone they would fail miserably. Well, whether or not it exists I think that the collective consciousness of humanity is evolving everyday because of the sharing of ideas on the strange boxes called computers and the electronic network that connects them.

Every time I go on the Internet these days I am surprised by some new function that it has for our lives. My most recent discovery has been on-line tutorials. Tutorials are websites that have been created to help novices and amateurs alike learn more in their areas of specific interest. Just about any aspect of life seems to have tutorial sites dedicated to it that will teach you want you want to know. Of course some knowledge can cost you money but you’d be pleasantly surprised to see how much information you can get for free.

For example, I am interested in learning about how to play the guitar. You should see how many sites are out there, just look up guitar+tutorials on your search engine (E.g.: Google). There’s all sorts of great help from how to change your strings, hold a plectrum properly, and tuning, to learning complex chord scale systems and finger tapping on your electric guitar.

There are often diagrams, photographs, and intensive explanations relating to everything you ever wanted to know. Some sites have video and audio to help drive the lessons home. Life really has changed. In the past you had to get lessons from a teacher, drive to and from their house or music school, pay high tuition fees, and buy books on chords and songs. Everything is downloadable these days, and a lot of it is free.

Web designers could also probably learn a few things from these guitar tutorial sites. The ways the guitar teachings are expressed are often quite extensive but done so in a very simplistic manner. It’s a real one, two, three approach starting with verbal explanations of exercises, followed by diagrams, and then finally with audio and visual representations. It is an extremely thorough way of teaching without ever having to meet anyone in person.

However, a strange phenomenon is the fact that if the site is good, the visitor does feel a connection to the personality of the creator. Making the site individual is a major factor in both achieving success and touching a personal chord (no pun intended) with people. Many of the sites have means in which you can get direct contact with the site owner thus creating an opportunity for real personal interaction and tuition. Check out some of these sites:

www.alanhorvath.com/tutorials
www.ezfolk.com/guitar/Tutorials/tutorials.html
www.learnthat.com/courses/fun/guitar/
www.8j.net/~lwind/guitar.html
www.tutorgig.com/t/Guitar

Get connected to the teachers of the future. Find a tutorial that helps you to follow your dreams.

Somer is a writer and guitarist learning about how to learn more through the Internet.