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What are some good online guitar lessons?

Landon Bailey

If I spent as much time practicing guitar as I do editing and creating Youtube videos, I would be as good as a person that spent a lot of time practicing guitar. How do you like that doublespeak? Now that being said, I’ve really been trying to get better at guitar recently. I’ve taken time to try to find some online guitar lesson websites.

SET Your GOALS

So before you begin looking for online guitar lessons, first decide what your main goals will be. Are you brand new to playing guitar? Did you play guitar years ago but took a long break and you are now looking to pick up up where you left off? Are you a professional guitarist looking to learn a new genre of music? There are so many possibilities in terms of goals and achievements. Think about your personal goals, set them, and then go from there.

Playing a live show with my band Permanent Daylight in 2006

My main focus has been to become better at playing lead guitar. Over the years I’ve played rhythm guitar, written my own songs and sang vocals. I’ve also performed live on stage with a band at various venues around my city. I would not consider myself a professional by any means, but I’m very comfortable singing and playing guitar. However since I now do a lot of guitar related demos on Youtube, I want my focus to be on lead playing. Some people might want to learn to play super fast and rip up and down the guitar neck. That’s fine if that’s what you are looking to achieve. What I really love is hearing a lead guitar player that can turn the instrument into a melodic voice. It doesn’t have to be fast, and it doesn’t have to be slow. For me it just has to sound good. That it what I want to be able to do. That is my number one goal.

Before I get talking about the online guitar lesson sites that I have tried, I will say from experience, one of the best ways to learn guitar is to play with other musicians. When I started learning guitar I quickly joined a band and that forced me to learn a lot faster. One motivation was that I wanted to be able to perform with the other band members, while at the same time they were giving me feedback and advice which helped me learn a lot quicker. With that said, let’s check out the online guitar lesson sites that I have tried recently.

ONLINE Guitar lesson webSITES

In no particular order, here are 4 online guitar lesson websites that I have used recently. For each website, I will describe what they offer, their pricing, and I’ll give a summary of my personal pros and cons. Full disclosure, I have an affiliate link for Guitartricks.com. If you use my link to sign up for their program, I receive a commission. That being said, let’s check out each online guitar learning website.

If you’ve visited Fender.com lately or seen a new fender musical instrument, chances are you’ve seen Fender Play advertised to you. New guitars have a big red sticker on the pickguard that says ‘FENDER - Free Online Lessons’. These are ads for a trial to their Fender Play online learning portal. I can only comment on my experience with the website version, but they also offer app versions in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store. I signed up for the 7 day trial, and then continued to use Fender Play for a couple more weeks. The website is well laid out and intuitive. There is a large selection of lessons and genres that you can follow. They also had a progress tracker, so you can keep track of where you left off during your last session. I believe this program is more suited towards beginners overall, but there is always something new a player can learn. I like humour when I watch videos, so I did find the scripted lessons very dry. I’m sure the instructors are great people outside of their scripts, but I found it dry and lacking personality. That would be my biggest complaint about the system. However that’s just a personal thing, and I understand people are there to teach and learn, and not to be funny :) Overall the experience was very positive.

Features:

  • Lessons for Guitar, Bass, Ukulele

  • Large song lesson selection

  • Multiple musical genres

Formats:

Pricing:

  • 7 Day Free Trial - no credit card required

  • Monthly Plan is $9.99 USD (Canada $12.99; UK £9.99) per month

  • Annual Plan is $89.99 USD (Canada $121.99; UK £89.99) per year.

Pros: Nice web interface

Cons: Dry personalities (I personally like some humour with instructors)

Next up is another website called JustinGuitar.com. I had seen his Youtube channel for many years but I hadn’t realizes he actually had online learning website which links to many of his videos. Essentially his website is a platform that connects his Youtube video lessons with a website front end. There is also an Apple and an Android app, although I have not tried them myself. Now this may sound hard to believe, but his site it completely free. You can sign up and register and it costs you nothing. There’s no catch. If you really enjoy the content, you have the ability to donate to help keep the site free. I mentioned that the Fender Play program had dry personalities. Justin is the complete opposite. His personality is very pleasant and inviting. You will want to hang out with him to learn guitar. I really feel that’s a huge factor in having success while learning guitar. His teaching style is fun and inviting. I continue to use Justin’s website to this day, and I plan to check out his apps in the near future.

Features:

  • Guitar skills lessons

  • Songs, Play along songs using the app version

Formats:

Pricing: Free (you can donate to support the site)

Pros: Great content. No cost to sign up. Great personality.

Cons: None

The next program I will mention is Guitartricks.com. They have been around since 1998! I have only used them for the past year, so I can’t say how the program and site has advanced over the years. If you’ve ever been to my personal Youtube channel, I pride myself in being honest and fully transparent. That being said, I already mentioned that I am an affiliate member of Guitartricks.com. Last year they reached out to me and asked if I was interested in promoting their program. So I tried the program, I liked it, and I became a member. What that means is if you sign up for any of their programs by using my links, I receive a paid commission. So you would think it would be in my best financial interest to only recommend Guitartricks. However that’s not how I work. I recommend them because I tried their program and I liked it and I have learned a lot of basic lead skills. Take a look at the pros and cons I’ve listed below. These are my honest opinions and feedback about their website. Once again, I have not tried the Apple app nor the Android App version of their program. I tend to like using a desktop computer browser to access online learning. Does that age me a bit? Good!! Check out all their features below

Features:

  • Lessons for beginner to experienced players

  • Structure progression

  • Huge selection of songs. Large variety of guitar genres

  • Large Variety of instructors

Formats:

Pricing: Free 14 day trial. $19.95 USD/month (60 day money back guarantee)

Pros: Large song collection. Simple web interface. Great skills lessons

Cons: More expensive than other online sites. Occasional website slowness when clicking through the pages.

The final online learning tool I will recommend is the teachable.com programs available from Robert Baker. Robert’s program differs from the others in that it has a strong focus on learning rock and roll guitar playing. However a lot of the skills and lessons you learn can be applied to other genres. The absolute highlight of Robert’s program is his personality and amazing guitar playing skills. I’ll say it again, he is an amazing player. You watch him play and he makes it looks so easy. I am a huge fan of his Youtube channel and that is how I found out about his online guitar training. He has mentioned on many occasions that Eddie Van Halen is his guitar hero and inspiration for getting into guitar. If this sounds like a good fit for your guitar playing goals, check him out now!. Robert’s videos lessons are available through the teachable.com web portal. However there are currently no Apple or Android apps at the present time.

Features:

  • Lessons for those who want to rock!

  • Video lessons and downloadable course materials

Formats:

Pricing: Variable. Packages run for different prices.

Pros: Robert’s personality, playing, skills and love for guitar are inspiring.

Cons: Limited to rock playing. May not be for those trying to learn other genres. No app versions

MY THOUGHTS

Which one do I recommend the most? I don’t have one that I recommend the most. They are all different and each have their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously I could say go sign up for Guitartricks because that would give me the most financial benefit, but I won’t say that. Did I just say that without saying it? Reverse psychology never works anyways. So that wasn’t very helpful was it? My best advice is to first decide what your guitar learning goals are, then evaluate each program to see if it meets your needs. Have a look at each program, try the free trials, then decide what works best for you. You can also watch my Youtube in which I discuss these 4 online guitar learning sites. Which one is your favourite? Are there any others that you can recommend?

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