Learn Guitar Online In 2023
In this article we’re going to be discussing how to learn guitar online from anywhere in the world.
Whether you’re a busy person or stuck in a global pandemic, learning the guitar is something that you may well want to do but haven’t got round to doing so. The guitar is a very rewarding instrument to learn and opens the path to musical adventures or a very rewarding past time.
In the past, people have attempted to learn the guitar by traditional methods such as hiring a personal tutor or learning by ear. These methods can be difficult for reasons we explain and have meant that most people who attempt to learn the guitar inevitably give up.
However, the internet has opened the doors to a new way of learning guitar online through virtual guitar lessons. This is a real game changer in the way to you can go about learning to play the guitar without needing one on one lessons with a tutor or even worse, attempting to learn without and guidance at all.
In this guide on how to learn guitar online, we will point you in the right direction to getting the best online lessons available, allowing you to save time and money whilst learning at you’re own pace.
Is It Possible To Learn The Guitar Online?
For almost all skills, hobbies and careers you can think of, the internet has opened the door to educating from the click of a mouse. Learning the guitar is no exception. There is a tonne of free and paid content available that aims to teach beginners how to play fundamentals of the guitar.
Whilst some online resources are better than others, it’s important to understand that your own mentality towards learning guitar is going to be crucial for your success. Online guitar lessons are meant to guide you on your journey and do not guarantee you becoming a good guitarist.
Online Guitar Lessons On YouTube
When searching for online guitar lessons, many people will gravitate to Youtube for videos that teach the beginnings of the process. In fact, beginner lessons on Youtube gain millions of views which shows the amount of people who want to learn. There are many good online instructors available on Youtube, check out Marty Schwartz or Andy Guitar. These creators provide free online content thats teaches guitar theory and often show you how to play popular songs from famous artists.
Of course content on YouTube is free to consume which does raise a few problems. Firstly, Youtube lessons are rarely in depth enough for absolute beginners to understand what is being taught. This can lead to frustration or simply one learning the wrong approach to the guitar.
Secondly, most of the good guitar tutors on Youtube are a business so accessing their more in depth content will need to be paid for. Still YouTube is a good platform for searching for specific lessons you’re looking for and getting a tonne of free video content.
Where Can I Learn Guitar Online For Free?
It is possible to learn how to play the guitar from free online resources. Many websites have been created by professional guitar players laying out the steps you need to follow. Ultimately your success in learning a skill will come down to your commitment and time spent practising. One aspect of the guitar that online reading can particularly help with is theory.
This is an important part of being a good guitar player and the more theory you have, the more adventurous you can be in your playing. Here are some online resources which have free content:
A good example of a resource to help with you theory and overall guitar playing is Fender. Fender have a lot of free content teaching you how to play chords within their blog. They also have an extensive learning program called Fender play which is a subscription based program.
Your Guitaracademy is another website that is specifically based around free guitar learning content which is aimed at beginners to help them on their way. They have a series of free online courses which will walk you through the process of learning the guitar.
Best books for learning to play the guitar
If you’re the sort of person who prefers to read physical books to gain knowledge, we have some suggestions that will be of use to you. Before online lessons become popular, books were a great way to learn guitar theory and can even illustrate practical skills like chord shapes. Here are the best books for learning to play the guitar, available on Amazon:
- Guitar fretboard, guitar head
- Guitar exercises for beginners, guitar head
- Guitar book for adult beginners, Damon Ferrante
- Guitar for dummies, Mark Philips
What Is The Best Way To Learn Guitar Online?
So let’s talk about the information you most likely wanted to find from this article, the best online guitar lessons for you to learn guitar. There are several courses that cover the full process of learning guitar from beginner to intermediate and advanced level. In our opinion, the best in Guitar Tricks.
Guitar Tricks is a dedicated step-by-step learning system that is designed to make learning the guitar easy. It’s considered to be the most beginner friendly online course available with a staggering 11,000 video lessons within it’s subscription package.
This huge bank of learning material is the reason that Guitar Tricks boast teaching over three million people how to play guitar, you could be next.
Another great addition to the content is specific song lessons, Guitar Tricks have over 800 song lessons covering classic artist such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Eagles just to name a few.
This bank of song lessons is constantly updated by the creators as new guitar classics emerge. GuitarTricks have been around since 1998 so you can ensure that they have developed the best way to teach people how to play the guitar.
Check out this example of a Guitar Tricks video lesson teaching cool rock style riffs:
What Are The Key Features Inside GuitarTricks?
Now that you know the basics of GuitarTricks and how they came about, let’s took a look inside the course itself and what you can expect to find. They use a core learning system which is designed to simultaneously teach multiple styles of guitar such as blues, country and rock.
Before you begin on a musical journey with these styles of play, you will be taught the fundamentals of the guitar, everything from strings, notes, chords and scales.
As you can see from the core learning system, each style of guitar playing is split into two levels. Level 1 will teach the basics of each playing style. Once you have completed this section, you will advance onto level two where more advanced/intermediate lessons will be taught to you.
All video lessons are easy to follow and of course can be paused at any time. GuitarTricks is specifically designed for beginners to learn guitar online so you don’t need to worry about the lessons being too advanced or fast paced.
GuitarTricks has a series of professional guitar tutors who feature in the video lessons. In fact, GuitarTricks have spent the past 20 years introducing more and more instructors to the the platform. They now have 32 instructors teaching you how to play the guitar.
Many of the instructors have been professional guitar players for the worlds largest artists, so you can ensure that the the information is coming from the right people. Take Anders Mouridsen for example, he has played guitar for major artists such as John Fogerty, Taylor Swift, Faith Evans, and Pink.
A recently introduced feature to GuitarTricks was the one-on-one coaching which consists of either 30 or 60 minute personal tuition from expert guitar teachers. Whilst this isn’t required for you to learn how to play, it’s great to have the extra support there in case you need it.
Every person who’s learning an instrument has their own unique challenges and sticking points. Having a personal one-on-one lessons can help target the specific issue and get you back on track.
As previously mentioned, GuitarTricks has over 800 lessons for classic guitar songs with full video lessons for each song. Having so many songs to choose from could make it difficult to choose which song to learn first.
GuitarTricks have made this easy by the lesson database within the course. You can easily find out the song name, artist, style, difficulty and instructor (see image below).
How Much Does GuitarTricks Cost?
Of course Guitar Tricks is a subscription based service which you can purchase on a monthly basis for just $19.99, this is a very affordable way of learning the guitar and accessing all the resources available. Guitar Tricks is also available to purchase on an annual basis, which saves $60. Additionally you can Use our promo code link to get 20% discount on your membership at GuitarTricks.
Here’s the best part of the offer from Guitar Tricks, they have a 14-day free trial which you can access to try out the course yourself for free. This is an amazing offer as it gives you the chance to try out the learning system to see if its the right fit for you without having to spend a penny.
Once you enrol with GuitarTricks and eventually become a full access user, you can still get a full 60-day money back guarantee if you are not happy with the service. However we strongly believe that you won’t be dissatisfied with service that they offer.
What Other Online Guitar Lessons Are There?
Whilst we have GuitarTricks as our number one way to learn the guitar online, there are a few other similar courses which you can use to learn. Perhaps the second most popular course is JamPlay. They have 7,500 lessons for you to get stuck into with video lessons from over 120 artists. JamPlay is another online resource which is designed to teach guitar players of all playing ability and help them progress effectively. Check out the plans below.
The final online guitar course that we will mention is Fender Play. Now you will most likely be aware of Fender, they are the company responsible for some of the best guitars ever made. In fact you may well be learning how to play the guitar on a Fender Strat, tele or acoustic.
Similar to GuitarTricks and Jamplay, Fender Play offers bite sized lessons, songs from many great artists all fully explained to you and the ability for you to track your process as a guitar player. Perhaps a unique feature for Fender Play is that it’s designed to work really well on all devices including smart phone, so you can now learn how to play the guitar any time and anywhere.
Check this video below of a typical song lesson from Fender Play:
Can I Learn The Guitar On My Own?
Learning to play the guitar without any tuition is a difficult task, however it’s not impossible. Think about the pre internet age, how did people learn to play?.. They had to play by ear or be fortunate enough to have a tutor available. If you’re looking for a guitar tutor in your area then a simple google search can point you in the right direction.
Simply google ‘guitar tutoring in…’ and insert your own city or area. Having a good personal tutor can be a really good way to learn the guitar and of course the one on one aspect of it means you can receive tailored tutoring to your own sticking points.
The hardest approach of learning is playing by ear and isn’t an approach that we would recommend you reply on. Time is important and you don’t want to prolong the journey and end up frustrated by making very little progress. Our recommendation would be for you to check out the options within this guide and focus on an online resource to works best for you.
So there you have it, you now know where to go to learn the guitar online. If you have any questions about the topics in this article, feel free to leave a comment below.
Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. However any products or courses that we promote on this website are ones we believe are fully worth the time and investment in your journey to learning the guitar.