Online Guitar Lessons for Beginners

Online guitar lessons for beginners are an easy way for people who are new to the guitar, but a little nervous about heading into lessons in person, to get their feet wet and pick up the basics. The number of these programs has exploded in recent years, so finding a lesson plan that suits you should be a snap.

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Learning to play the guitar online has its ups and downs, each of which you should consider carefully before deciding if online music lessons are right for you. Furthermore, beginners in particular have unique needs that you’ll need to weigh up before springing for Internet based lessons.

• Taking guitar lessons online means you don’t have to face a teacher or learn in a classroom with strangers. If you’re jittery about flexing your musical chops in public, Internet based lessons allow you to learn in private.

• You can learn around your schedule instead of having to stick to a set weekly time for your lessons. If you have to stay late at work one day, you don’t have to worry about cancelling your class. Flexibility is a key asset.

• You can learn at your own pace. You don’t have to deal with a teacher rushing you through their set lesson plans week in and week out. You can move faster when you have a handle on a particular, and slow down when you need some extra time to master a lesson.

• Particularly as a beginner, it can be easy to develop bad habits that will impact your playing later down the line. For instance, without a teacher keeping an eye on the way you hold your guitar or place your fingers for a certain chord, you might find yourself way down the wrong path before you realize you’re doing something wrong. Bad habits are more difficult to correct the longer they are ingrained.

• Another special concern for beginners is learning to tune your guitar. You can read about how to do this, but if you’re new to music, there is no substitute for having someone teaching you proper tuning in person, where you can get an ear for the way your guitar should sound.

• While it may be convenient to take your lessons whenever you like, having a set time for a lesson with a teacher may force you to practice more and make your lessons a priority. If there's no one there to prod you forward, you could become lax and lose interest altogether.

• If your nerves keep you from playing your guitar in public, taking online lessons means you aren’t forced to confront that fear and develop the confidence to play in front of other people.

When you’re looking for online guitar lessons, try to find a website that explains the background of the person preparing the lessons. An experienced guitar teacher will be the best at breaking things down for a beginner. Also, make sure the lessons start at the very beginning – such as holding your guitar, changing strings, holding a pick – so you get the foundations right before you jump in. The lessons listed below are some of our favorites. If you see on that catches your eye, click the link and you’ll go right to that website:

• Guitar for Beginners: This website has more than 100 guitar lessons, so you’ll have plenty of fodder for future classes. This site also has sound files to help guide you through. Reading and understanding a lesson is one thing, but listening to an example of how something should sound is an invaluable learning tool.

• Guitar Made Simple: The courses here are designed to give you a foundation to advance to jazz guitar playing, but there are enough basics here for everyone. There is a free course and a fee based course. We suggest you get your feet wet with the free course, and then decide if this method works for you before shelling out the dough.

• Guitar Noise: This free online beginner level guitar course is simple and straightforward, and there is plenty of material here to move past the beginning stages when you’re ready to move up to more difficult songs. Taking on bigger challenges keeps the lessons interesting; this will hopefully give you the desire to progress and become of full-fledged guitar player.

Want to learn some basic chords you can play right away? Visit LTK's Easy Guitar Chords slideshow!

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