Learning guitar for beginners. Are lessons really all that important?

Having played guitar for over 20 years, and more recently having started teaching students myself, it has become increasingly obvious to me that the initial few weeks of the learning process are the most crucial. On average I'd say my students are 25% beginners, the rest either intermediate or advanced players of upwards of 10 years or more.

The strange thing I've begun to notice, is that the students with only six months experience, and maybe only two songs under their belt generally have the most honed in, accurate technique when it comes to the most basic aspects of playing guitar. After ten years of bashing out rock songs and trying to play as wildly as possible, the guitarist of ten years has picked up all kinds of bad habits and sloppy ways to get around their imperfect technique. This isn't altogether a bad thing, that is until they cause themselves a repetitive strain injury, or even worse pass on their bad technique to an unsuspecting newcomer!

The greatest weapon today's guitarist have in the fight for awesome technique and the best head start as a beginner is online lessons, and heaps of great, easy online resources that make the seemingly daunting first steps towards learning guitar oh that much more easier. I know I wish they were available back in my day!