7 Best Online Guitar Lessons (our 2023 top picks)

Guitar Chalk focuses on helping people find the best guitar lessons and websites for learning guitar. A huge part of what we do is centered around highlighting online content that teaches you the guitar with broad and thorough explanation. We do this by buying, testing, and rating these programs, guitar-in-hand, so that we can give you a first hand account of their value.

Best Ways to Learn Guitar Online (Comparison Table)

In this section, you can use the compare buttons to look at the lessons we've rated side by side in a table. You can compare up to four at a time.

1. Guitar Tricks Lessons (best for beginners and songs)

Guitar Tricks got started way back in 1998 and they're still the absolute best value in the business when it comes to video-based online guitar lessons and courses. They have a ton of high-quality content and are particularly strong when it comes to providing topically-organized guitar lessons and learning structures.

Particularly if you're in the market for beginner lesson material, Guitar Tricks is going to be your best option.

HOW MUCH DOES GUITAR TRICKS COST?

• Price: $19.95 per month or $179 per year
• Free trial: Yes, 14 days

GUITAR TRICKS STATS AND REFUND POLICY

• Members: 3 million+
• Lessons: 11,000+
• Song Tutorials: 1,000+
• Refund Period: Yes, 60 days guaranteed

WHAT'S NEW FOR GUITAR TRICKS IN 2023?

• Auto-scroll notation added to both Guitar Fundamentals 1 & Guitar Fundamentals 2
• New "Riffs" section where you can learn popular riffs from top songs
• Over 1000 songs
• New POP song section
• Revamped iOS app so you can access more features that the site has like the Progress System, Collections, Acoustic Course

WHAT SKILL LEVEL IS GUITAR TRICKS BEST FOR?

While Guitar Tricks has a really wide scope, they're best-known for their beginner content and their song lessons. Personally, I've used them for years, and have found them effective for all skill levels, though their organization of fundamental guitar content is definitely a strong point.

Guitar Tricks is one of our top scorers in terms of pure quality of education.

HOW ARE GUITAR TRICKS LESSONS CATEGORIZED?

Their lessons are categorized into primarily four sections.

• Beginner Lessons
• Experienced Lessons
• Learn to Play Songs
• Learn Styles of Guitar (has been moved under the Experienced Lessons section)

I've covered the full membership in my Guitar Tricks review going into as much detail as possible about the courses, topics covered and the other tools offered to full access members. Within each section there are a variety of courses and lessons to choose from, totaling over 11,000 videos not counting the song tutorials.

2. JamPlay Lessons and Courses (best for intermediate)

JamPlay is the second-largest online guitar school, with over 5000 on-demand lessons and additional song tutorials. We did a full JamPlay review here if you want to go through a more thorough detailing of the program. The song tutorials section is similar to what Guitar Tricks offers, though JamPlay has the added benefit of certain songs being taught by the musicians and artists that wrote the songs.

HOW MUCH DOES JAMPLAY COST?

JamPlay's pricing system is fairly basic, structured in a similar manner to Guitar Tricks with a monthly and yearly option.

However, they also produce downloadable courses that are available for a one-time price.

• Price: $14.96/month
• Promo code? Yes, 1BA1E2 for 25% off first month or 33C6CE for 10% off all memberships
• Free trial: Yes, 7 days

JAMPLAY QUICK STATS AND REFUND POLICY

• Members: 465k+
• Lessons: 5100+
• Song Tutorials: 500+
• Refund period: 7 days after initial purchase

What's New for JamPlay in 2023

• New exclusive courses from Tommy Emanuel, Stu Hamm, Dweezil Zappa, and much more.
• Lesson content now recorded and published in 4k
• Up to 383 total song lessons

WHAT SKILL LEVEL IS JAMPLAY BEST FOR?

Similar to Guitar Tricks, content and lessons can be sorted by skill level, technique or genre.

JAMPLAY LESSON STRUCTURE

1. Skill level
2. Technique
3. Style or musical genre

JamPlay has an additional section for all their artist-taught online courses, as well as live lessons. Other features include a section for bass players (which is actually a separate membership), a ton of jam tracks (available depending on what kind of membership you buy) and a reporting system that helps you track your progress. Between the two, we typically opt for Guitar Tricks because of their reputation and organization. However, both options are solid.

3. TrueFire Guitar Lessons (best for courses)

Not only does TrueFire have a massive amount of content but, they stand out from Guitar Tricks (and JamPlay to a certain extent) in terms of how they price it. While the expected monthly and yearly membership options are available (allowing you to stream all the content) you can actually buy single courses and download them as standalone products.

This is not possible with the other two sites we've looked at.

Membership essentially gives you unfettered access to all the material, though it's nice that you have the option to avoid a monthly cost if you want to.

Read the full review: TrueFire

In terms of overall content quality and volume, TrueFire is our highest-scoring option.

Moreover, the TrueFire content is so thorough that you might be better off taking it one course at a time. It's most ideal for advanced guitar players as it gives you an extremely wide range of topics and styles to choose from, along with plenty of depth and detail inside each course. Take the Steve Vai course referenced in the above photo. It includes all of the following material:

STEVE VAI'S TRUEFIRE COURSE INFO

• 21 PDF Charts
• 11 MP3 Jam Tracks
• 21 Guitar Tabs (Guitar Pro files)
• 4 hours and 59 minutes of video
• Total download size of 3.5 GB

This is a lot of material to get through and absolutely worth the $34 asking price. For those needing assistance in a specific area, TrueFire can probably get it to you for a one-time fee and still keep you busy for awhile. If you look at just the rock category, there are several pages of courses similar to the Vai offering we highlighted.

Learning paths and a robust sorting system are provided to add some organization to all the material. However, each course is, in and of itself, its own learning path that can be followed in a linear line before moving onto the next course. Account creation is free and comes with a 30-day free trial with access to all the website's resources, namely the following:

TRUEFIRE FREE TRIAL INFO AND QUICK STATS

• 33,000+ lessons
• 11,000+ tabs ∓ notation
• 7000+ jam tracks
• Free trial: Yes, 30 days

It's plenty of good-quality material to keep you busy for a long time, so give the free trial a shot and explore some of the courses.

4. Guitargate Lessons (best for music theory)

Guitargate's creator, Michael Palmisano, is a friend of Guitar Chalk and someone that we can vouch for, both professionally and personally. His courses are all hosted on Guitargate, which he continuously updates with new content and course material. His classes are some of the most comprehensive and complete solutions available. We consistently recommend them, especially for those looking to get a little more theory and technical instruction.

Read the full review: Guitargate

With a strong educational emphasis, solid instruction, and clear presentation of music theory, Guitargate gets our highest educational quality rating, though is comparable to sites like Guitar Tricks and JamPlay.

WHY GUITARGATE IS A GREAT Guitar Lesson PROGRAM

Michael, a formally educated guitarist who has taught/worked with over 70,000 guitar students, has intentionally focused on practical fretboard navigation and music theory. He teaches guitar in a way that doesn't just show you mechanical movement, but also gives you a truly foundational understanding of the instrument.

In short, Michael will teach you all the placement and structural issues (chords, scales, modes, inversions, etc.) but also, and more importantly, how to apply those topics in a practical way. His primary Guitargate course is a 136 lecture package which includes the following:

• 7.5 hours on-demand HD video
• 2 hours on-demand audio
• Access on mobile, TV and other devices

THE POPULARITY OF MICHAEL'S COURSE

As mentioned, we know Michael personally and have used his courses first hand, which is why we're comfortable recommending it. However, we should also cite the tremendous success and popularity it has had, as it was previously hosted on Udemy. For example, he was the second course that came up when you searched for "guitar." His online courses also had a ton of enrollment and received almost exclusively "glowing" reviews from students who have taken his class.

Michael's ability to teach is as remarkable as his skill on the guitar. To create good online lessons and help guitar students succeed, you've got to have both. You can actually browse through the entire curriculum for the course before you take it, that way you can get a feel for the exact topics that are covered. The cost for the course is only $9.99 per month, which gives you access to all the content as well as instructor feedback from Michael.

5. Justinguitar (best free guitar lessons)

Justinguitar is easily the top free online guitar school because of its thorough, organized curriculum, large song section, and the overall quality of Justin Sandercoe's teaching style. In addition, Sandercoe's platform is also one of the longest-running guitar lesson sites, having gotten started back in 2003.

STRENGTHS OF JUSTINGUITAR

Sandercoe's program scores high for topical order, navigation, and cost/value (of course), largely because of a recent re-design of the site, which catalogs every lesson into modules and courses. They also added a progress tracking system.

Read the full review: Justinguitar

Justinguitar's topical ordering is really strong, and one of the best scores we've recorded, second only to Guitar Tricks.

This score is based on Sandercoe's strong, methodical teaching method that covers all the basics, and gives you plenty of application along the way. He's a patient instructor that doesn't push simply for "fun" material at the expense of important concepts.

Generally, his online learning program is most ideal for beginners or those interested in blues and jazz. Sandercoe also has a ton of material that focuses on classic rock. Beyond that scope, it gets a little more thin.

WEAKNESSES

For intermediate and advanced content, the Justinguitar program isn't your best option because it's limited to the scope of its loan instructor. Sandercoe's playing ability is broad and he can teach a lot of styles, but if you want to go in depth with a topic he's not as familiar with, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Though still quite good, Justinguitar's education quality rating lags behind some of the bigger names because of a smaller scope and less material adapted for higher skill levels.

In a lot of cases, we recommend complete beginners start with free courses like Justinguitar, then - as they progress - branch out into some of the paid guitar lessons. Though it's also fair to say that Sandercoe has material that can help at all skill levels.

6. Active Melody (best for blues)

The best guitar lessons on YouTube would have to be Brian Sherrill's program, Active Melody. It's setup with a massive percentage of the content available for free on YouTube, while there's also a paid side hosted on a private Vimeo account. Sherrill's teaching style is similar to Sandercoe in that he's patient, methodical, and extremely detailed in how he approaches content.

You'll learn a lot about improvising and dissecting scales as Sherrill takes you through soloing processes step-by-step. There's also a big emphasis on music theory and plenty of structure if you go through content on the Active Melody website, as opposed to the YouTube channel itself.

Read the full review: Active Melody

Though content is limited to Sherrill's style, interests, and expertise, the content quality of Active Melody is great for a YouTube platform and able to compete with much larger sites.

WEAKNESSES OF ACTIVE MELODY

Like Justinguitar, Active Melody has a similarly difficult time expanding into other styles and more advanced content. Again, this is an issue that seems to arise when you have just one instructor. There's also some organizational limitations that come with browsing the content only on YouTube.

Active Melody content, particularly if browsing only via YouTube, is a little harder to navigate and sort through than other programs, though still scores a respectable 72 out of 100.

However, these detractions are not enough to make Active Melody a bad choice, even if you decide to add the paid content in addition to what you can get on YouTube.

MOST IDEAL USER

Sherrill's laser focus on blues and soloing patterns make his material ideal for lead guitar players that are interested in learning those styles or beginners that want to learn more about the general discipline of improvisation. Active Melody content will help you understand structures as opposed to just memorizing patterns. Beginners, blues fans, and lead guitar enthusiasts will all be well-served.

A Beginners Guide to Beginner Guitar Lessons

How Guitar Lessons Work

Most guitar lessons are quite simple: A teacher, presumably someone who has been playing guitar for a long time, shows a student - or a "beginner" guitar player - how to play the instrument by walking them through, demonstrating, and explaining different aspects of it.

A basic guitar lesson will look something like this:

1. Select a teacher: A teacher, either in someone's local community or a friend who is able to teach guitar, gets connected with a prospective student.
2. Schedule a time to meet: That teacher and student find a common time and location to meet for a "guitar lesson"
3. The student is taught: During the guitar lesson the teacher shows the student different aspects of the guitar and how to play certain things, depending on their skill level.
4. The teacher is paid: Once the lesson is complete - usually after 30 minutes to an hour - the student pays the teacher for their time and the next lesson is scheduled.

How Guitar Learning Websites Work

Online guitar lessons are essentially the same principle, but where the lessons take place via one of two methods:

• Pre-recorded video or streaming: Students watch lessons in a Netflix-style streaming setup (most common).
• Via video conferencing: With something like Skype, a student learns from a teacher in real-time, but remotely over a computer.

By far, the most common and recommended of these two is the video streaming or "pre-recorded" setup. This setup itself, can take several different forms which we will cover in the following section.

Tracking Your Progress

Some programs like Guitar Tricks and Justinguitar offer tracking systems that help you track your progress as you go and easily find where you've left off with their videos.

Getting Feedback or Help

Other programs like ArtistWorks and Guitargate will actually work in elements of instructor interaction and feedback, even with pre-recorded video courses.

Different Types of Guitar Lesson Sites

While there's almost always an element of video and streaming, there are different types of programs, particularly relating to how people pay for their content. There are also different mediums and methods of delivery that might impact which solution is most ideal for you.

Here are the major types of guitar lesson programs:

Membership Sites

A membership site is the most common type of guitar learning program. These websites have all their courses pre-recorded and streamable from a membership account. 

The process looks like this:

1. Student purchases an account for a monthly (or yearly) membership fee
2. Logs into their account
3. Watches guitar lesson videos at their own pace
4. Logs out when finished

Single Course or Video Downloads

Other sites make their courses or videos available to non-members as single fee downloads, where users pay a set (one-time) cost and download the material. In this case, that material belongs to the student forever and they do no have to pay a monthly fee or purchase it again.

• Select the desired course or video
• Pay a one-time fee
• Download the material
• Watch the material at your own pace

Choosing your Lessons

Once you decide which delivery format is right for you, there are a myriad of different considerations that could impact which program(s) you choose. In this section we'll look at the variables involved.

Comparing guitar lesson features

The easiest way to do this is to compare features like the amount of content, the target skill level, musical styles covered, and other similar variables.

Amount of Content

One of the simpler considerations would be the amount of material available on a particular site. For example, Guitar Tricks has over 11,000 video lessons while Guitargate has a little over 400. If pure volume of content is important to you, this is a good place to start.

TypeS of COntent

The type of content speaks to how information is delivered. As I mentioned, this is usually at least video, but there can also be additional forms of content like tabs, written lessons, and audio samples.

Course and Topic Organization

The way courses and topics are organized is really important, because it's often what sets apart the paid guitar lesson sites from the free ones. For example, JamPlay and Guitar Tricks are put together with a linear learning path, while YouTube channels that teach guitar can't really match that structure.

Skill Level Focus

Getting to a more practical, guitar-focused matter, choosing guitar lessons should also take into consideration skill level and which program handles and challenges your abilities most effectively.

• Beginner guitar lessons: Focused on the bare basics, chords, chord changes, simple melodies, and easy songs. See our best guitar lessons for beginners.
• Intermediate guitar lessons: Targets more niche topics with greater depth and more technical complexity. Helps to develop interest as well as teach patterns. See our best intermediate guitar lessons.
• Advanced guitar lessons: A wide range of topics with a ton of nuance and narrow focuses in particular areas. Should be both physically and mentally challenging. See our best advanced guitar lessons.

Musical Style Focus

Another way to choose your program is to consider your own musical interests and see which websites cover them most thoroughly. For example, you might be really into blues guitar. Thus, it stands to reason that great blues guitar courses would be more entertaining for you and more motivating to work though.

Here are some of the most common musical styles covered in online guitar classes:

1. Blues guitar lessons: Being a foundational genre of music, blues is an extremely common context people use to study guitar. These courses are more lead guitar focused, but can also cover a lot of foundational rhythm concepts. See our best blues guitar lesson recommendations.
2. Metal guitar lessons: While metal is a bit harder to define, a lot of younger, more modern guitar players are interested in learning it. The study of tone, heavy chord progressions and melodic speed are common parts of this genre. See our best online metal guitar lessons.
3. Classical guitar lessons: In terms of a formalized study of the guitar, classical is one of the most formal around. It focuses a lot on posture, fingerpicking technique, and scale-based theory. Those with an interest in the more academic side of music are often drawn to it, especially for performance purposes. See our best classical guitar lesson roundup.
4. Jazz guitar lessons: Like blues, jazz is such a foundational musical discipline that many guitar players, regardless of stylistic interest, choose to learn it. Rhythm and lead technique as well as a heavy dose of music theory are all present in this particular area of study. See our best jazz guitar lesson picks.

What's the best lesson program for beginners?

While almost every program has some kind of beginner course, we've found Guitar Tricks to be the best option for beginners because of the way it covers early material. It's a tightly-organized program (particularly the Guitar Fundamentals I and II courses) that's easy to follow along with. It's our top pick for those just getting started.

What's the most affordable way to take guitar lessons online?

In terms of affordability, Justinguitar is completely free, so we often direct people there first, especially if they're not totally sure about learning the guitar yet. For other options, you have essentially two pricing tiers:

• $10 per month
• $20 per month

Most programs hover around or between these two numbers. In rare cases, we've seen sites charge more than $20, but that usually includes some form of coaching. Here's a more thorough article we've put together on guitar lesson cost and pricing.

Guitar Lesson Sites and Companies

Big Brands and Membership Websites

If you're looking for the best online guitar lessons for your situation, familiarizing yourself with the companies that offer them will be helpful as you sort through the pile.

Delivery Format

Not all guitar lesson companies deliver content in the same format. For example, TakeLessons sub-contracts with teachers who then teach in person or via Skype. If we move out of online-only guitar lessons, bigger companies like Guitar Center and School of Rock offer their lessons in person or in a class format.

Creators

In other cases, the creators might be freelancers hired by the publishers. TrueFire, for example, has paid for courses developed by Steve Vai and Tommy Emmanuel, though neither of those guys are technically employed by TrueFire. They're the creators while TrueFire is the publisher.

Instructors

More rarely, the instructors, creators, and publishers will all be separate entities. Though most of the time we recommend guitar lessons that are written and presented on camera by the same person.

You can get a feel for how this breaks down by looking at some popular guitar lesson companies in the following chart:

What's the best online guitar lesson website?

There is no one-size-fits-all guitar lesson solution out there, whether online or offline. People learn differently, which means different minds will benefit from a variety of websites and programs. We would advise you to take all the factors we've covered here and apply them your situation.

Do you like the idea of a monthly membership? Are you into blues, jazz, or metal? What kind of material do you want to learn? How much guitar do you know already?

These are some of the questions you need to think about.

Now, if you simply want to know the best overall, we'd still say Guitar Tricks. Their organization and strong, licensed song section is just far better than anything else out there. It's usually our top pick.

Benefits of Learning Guitar Online

I would argue that online guitar tuition websites are far more functional and more accessible than the traditional tutoring model. They're an especially effective way to extend knowledge to a greater number of people and to make it more widely available. This is partly due to the nature of the internet (spreading information is its sole purpose), but also to how these programs are structured. Here are four tangible benefits of online lessons that help to make learning guitar accessible to more people:

Lower Cost

In comparison to hiring a tutor or an in-person guitar teacher, online lessons are significantly cheaper, running $20 per month on the high end, with promos and annual subscriptions often cutting that number down. This material is then available 24/7, wherever you have internet access. Paying $30 for a 30-minute lesson can't compete.

Ideal for Self-Starters and the Self-Motivated

Your learning style also plays a significant role in terms of how much you enjoy and learn from online lessons. Typically, those who are self-motivated, who like to work alone and are able to self-start will do really well with the structure of internet education. It allows you to move at your own pace, take lessons whenever you want, and review as needed.

Conducive to a Tight Schedule

A similar benefit is how online lessons are able to bend around your schedule. Those with less free time, perhaps adults or working professionals, who want to learn guitar can take lessons anytime, and stream content the same way you would stream a show or movie.

Provides Structure and Topical Order

Again, this is why free websites like YouTube often fall short. The best guitar courses are always really good at ordering their content. Topics are addressed based on skill level and/or style, in a way that each idea covered builds on the idea that preceded it. This is sometimes even better than an in-person teacher, just because the structure and organization is predetermined and professionally established.

Cost and Value Considerations

Since we've given all these programs a rating, we can now plot that rating with the monthly cost of each program to get a rough value estimate. This will give us a graph where the cost and quality of each program is clearly visible. We'll do one for both the monthly and yearly cost of each program. Monthly price value first:

Lower and further to the right is better. You can see that Active Melody, Guitargate, JamPlay, and Guitar Tricks come out as the best compromises of price and quality if you're looking at the monthly cost.

And now the same graph for the yearly price of each program:

The graph is a little more varied when you look at yearly pricing, which is often discounted. Though the same few programs come out in the right, lower corner of the graph, basically everything from Guitar Tricks down to Active Melody. TrueFire performs much better in this graph.

Promotional pricing (usually for yearly signups) knocks the monthly and yearly averages down even further. Seeing nine dollars per month is not unusual, so it pays to check in with these programs about promotional pricing and deals.

Do these sites really work?

Yes. Learning guitar online absolutely works, just the same - if not better - than what you would see with a private tutor. The benefits I mentioned earlier all come into play here. Total availability, the ability to review easily, and having access to multiple instructors and musical styles helps you learn quicker and gets you playing where you actually understand the fretboard.

These sites do a great job of teaching you guitar, otherwise I wouldn't recommend them.

Not all guitar lesson sites are great, but the ones that are work well. If you use them consistently, you'll see significant improvement in your playing ability and overall musical creativity.

Best online tuition for Adults?

For adults who don't have a lot of guitar or music experience, I'd recommend starting with Justinguitar or Guitar Tricks. If you're more of an experienced player, JamPlay and/or TrueFire are better fits for honing more specific skill sets and playing styles. Checkout our guitar lessons for adults list for more info.

Which program is best for kids?

For kids I like the early Guitar Tricks courses and even some of the TrueFire single-purchase courses. Yousician is also a good resource for kids, taking a unique, video game-style approach to teaching the guitar.

Additional Resources

Reviews

• Fender Play
• Yousician
• Guitareo

Comparisons

• Guitar Tricks VS JamPlay
• JamPlay VS TrueFire
• Guitar Tricks VS Fender Play

Conclusion & Questions

We've built and will continue to maintain this as our primary directive and reference for the best online guitar lessons we've tested, reviewed, and recommend.

If you have or know of a resource that deserves inclusion in this list, in that it would be helpful to those seeking to learn guitar, please feel free to get in touch and share it with us.

Or, if you'd prefer, leave it in the comments section below.

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