Guitar Lessons Online: An Essential Guide

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Looking for guitar lessons online? This essential guide will show you some of THE best online resources on the web!

In this free guide you will find:

• 5 of our best guitar lessons online. (Covering chords, strumming & musicality and lead guitar!)
• 5 of the best websites for guitar lessons online.
• The no1 secret to learning guitar quickly and effectively.
• 7 top tips for getting the best of online guitar lessons.

On the National Guitar Academy website there are hundreds of free guitar lessons online available for guitarists of all skill levels.

We’re going to show you 5 of our best guitar lessons online.

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1) Guitar Lessons Online – 14 Easy Guitar Chords For Beginners

Learning guitar chords is essential for any beginner.

Guitar chords form the foundation of all music. You must learn them if you want to become an epic guitarist.

This article is perfect for beginners because:

• Every chord is SUPER easy, even complete newbies will get something from this article.
• You will learn chords which crop up every day life.
• This article will enhace your musicality.

By the time you’ve finished with this article, you’ll be able to tackle ANY song that you want to learn.

Check it out here: 14 Easy Guitar Chords For Beginners

2) Guitar Lessons Online – How To Strum A Guitar

Learning how to strum is a great way of enhancing your phrasing and musicality.

It’s great fun playing chords, but your playing really comes alive when learn how to strum.

This article takes you through the basics of strumming, as well as showing you some essential tips for keeping the groove.

Learn how to strum here: How To Strum A Guitar

3) Guitar Lessons Online – Learn Guitar Scales In 8 Easy Steps

Learning guitar scales is an essential part of playing guitar. Scales will enhance your solos, melodies and techniques.

Scales are essential to know if you want to sound amazing.

If you’re completely new to scales or already know a few, we guarantee that you will gain something from this free lesson.

Check it out here:Learn Guitar Scales In 8 Easy Steps

4) Guitar Lessons Online – How To Learn Guitar: An 11 Step Programme For Beginners

If you’re a complete beginner, this online guitar lesson is PERFECT.

In this free lesson, Mike and Andy take you through 11 simple-steps that will you get you started on your guitar journey.

This lesson is SO useful, if you’re a beginner guitarist.

Check it out here: How To Learn Guitar: An 11-Step Programme For Beginners

5) Guitar Lessons Online – 10 Easy Songs On Guitar

Learning songs on guitar is the quickest and funnest way to learn guitar. Learning music enhances your chords, rhythm and musicality.

In this lesson you will learn 10 easy songs, from pop hits to blues classics. There’s something for everyone in this epic lesson.

Learn easy songs here: 10 Easy Songs On Guitar

Now we’ve looked at some of the best lessons on this website, let’s check out what else is out there on the world wide web.

Other Guitar Lessons Online – Justinguitar

Justin Sandercoe, otherwise known as ‘justinguitar’ has a great website which has a wide range of content for all guitarists.

Justin’s content is well organised and has a great logical flow.

Justin covers pretty much EVERYTHING to do with guitar on his website. The best part, is that it is absolutely free!

You can check it out here: justinguitar.com

Other Guitar Lessons Online – Yousician

Yousician is a great way of learning the guitar. Yousician is an app based guitar learning program which constantly gives you feedback on your playing.

You can learn whatever you want to on the app. Each subject matter has a specific level, once you’ve completed a level, you can move on to the next one.

One of the best things about yousician is that the app is interactive. It works to your skill level, this is a great feature as it helps accelerate your progress.

To learn more about Yousician click here.

Other Guitar Lessons Online – Truefire

Truefire features guitar lessons from some big names in the industry. Through Truefire, you can get lessons from guitarists such as Robben Ford, Steve Vai and and Jennifer Batten. (Michael Jackson.)

It’s pretty amazing that you can get a guitar lesson from your guitar hero.

Check out this awesome country lesson from chicken pickin’ whizz, Johnny Hiland:

Their tuition content ranges from styles such as acoustic, blues, rock country and jazz. There are tons of lessons here for you to check out.

To find out more about truefire, go here.

Other Guitar Lessons Online – Jamplay

Jamplay focuses on video content. They have a wide range of teachers who cover loads of different subjects.

As they have a variety of teachers, it’s quite easy to find a subject that you’re particularly interested in.

For example, say you wanted to develop your country playing. There are a whole series of lessons from country aces such as Brent Mason and Guthrie Trapp.

There’s something for everyone on this website, from beginner level lessons to advanced.

Here’s a cool lesson from Jamplay which shows you how to play ‘Iris’ by the Goo Goo Dolls:

Check out their website here.

Other Guitar Lessons Online – YouTube

There are hundreds, if not thousands of guitarists on YouTube who have recently taken the plunge into making guitar videos.

This is fantastic for the guitar community, we’ve never had a point where guitar playing has been as easily accessible as it is today.

However, this isn’t always as great as it sounds. There are thousands of guitarists out there, but not a lot of them are guitar teachers.

These are two VERY different things!

Here are a few things to watch out for when watching teaching videos on YouTube:

• Is the video well explained? Does the teacher explain clearly what they’re trying to teach you?
• Is it easy to follow? Can you understand each concept?
• Is the video good quality? How does it look? What does it sound like?

Be careful on YouTube, there are LOADS of bad guitar tutors.

However, there are some good resources on YouTube. You can check out our YouTube site here: National Guitar Academy YouTube Channel

Skype Guitar Lessons

A lot of guitar tutors are now offering guitar lessons through Skype.

Skype is a video call based program, through skype you can communicate with anyone around the world!

This is a relatively new concept which has been introduced over the last few years. Almost everything these days is moving to a online platform, including guitar lessons.

Here are a couple of pros and cons to Skype guitar lessons.

Pros

• Gives you access to teachers from all over the globe.
• You can arrange lessons to your own schedule.
• You have a wide choice of tutors. (You could learn ANY genre you want.)
• You can have the lesson in the comfort of your own home, or anywhere with an internet connection.

Cons

• Can be difficult to develop a personal relationship with your tutor.
• Skype lessons can be more concept based than practical based.
• You can’t jam with your teacher.
• You need good quality internet.

Skype lessons have good and bad sides. If you don’t want to take skype lessons, you could look into lessons with a local guitar teacher.

Let’s take a look at the difference between real world guitar lessons and guitar lessons online.

Real World Guitar Lessons – Pros

• You can develop a relationship with your tutor.

Developing a relationship with your guitar tutor is important, you need to find someone who works with you. If you can find that, guitar lessons will be a breeze.

• You have complete clarity on the lesson content.

If your guitar teacher is good, lessons won’t be complicated and your tutor will go at a pace that works for you.

• You can jam with your tutor.

Jamming is one of the BEST things you can do in a guitar lessons.

• Real world lessons are interactive.

If you’re ever stuck on something, you can just ask your guitar tutor straight away.

• You have their complete support.

Sometimes lessons don’t go to plan, learning an instrument can be hard. Having a guitar tutor makes this easier, if you ever have any problems, they can help you.

Real World Guitar Lessons – Cons

• You may not like the tutor.

Not every guitar tutor is perfect, sometimes certain guitar tutors won’t be right for you.

• Lessons can be expensive.

Guitar lessons can be expensive, especially if you’re having them on a weekly basis.

• You may have to travel to lessons.

Sometimes, you may have to travel to your tutor’s house. This can be a real pain if you have no transport. As well, you may not feel comfortable in a different place.

• You must practice each week.

Practicing each week for your guitar tutor can be a huge pressure, this can sometimes put you off guitar playing.

Guitar Lessons Online – Pros

• Lessons are mostly free.

There is nothing better than a free guitar lesson!

• No pressure from a tutor. You can practice whenever you want.

If you take online guitar lessons, you are in total control of when you want to practice and can take things at your own pace.

• There’s a wide range of topics out there for you to learn.

If there’s something very specific that you want to learn, it all it takes is a google search.

• Lessons are easy to access.
  

Since the birth of the internet, guitar lessons have become SO easy to access.

Guitar Lessons Online – Cons

• You must motivate yourself to practice.

This can be difficult, it’s hard enough to try and learn something on the guitar, never mind practicing. If you don’t have any motivation, trying to learn the guitar can be difficult.

• No tutor support.

If you ever have any questions about the guitar, it can be difficult to ask an online guitar tutor. However, some online tutors do have a good reputation with their online fan base.

• No real relationship with tutors.

You can’t have a special relationship with someone from watching one of their videos!

• Online guitar lessons can be hard to follow.

Online guitar lessons can be too quick, teachers often rush through concepts before you’ve had chance to play it!

 

Online guitar lessons and real world guitar lessons both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Personally, we recommend that you get a private tutor if you are a new guitarist. This is the quickest way to get good at guitar.

Online lessons are fun, but nothing beats a lesson with a really great guitar teacher.