Online Acoustic Guitar Lessons | Learn Guitar Online

If you're reading this, chances are you've already decided that you want to learn to play acoustic guitar with the help of online lessons. But if you're still undecided about the best way to learn, online guitar lessons are something that you should seriously consider. Why? In a nutshell, the best online guitar lessons offer the following advantages:

• They're cost effective - tuition can cost around $30 / £20 an hour or much more, depending on the teacher and the area where you live. In contrast, the best complete online guitar courses can be purchased for not much more than this, and there's some great free material available too.
  
  
• They're available 24/7 - you don't have to re-arrange your life to fit in with a teacher's schedule
  
  
• They're often available in multimedia format, with materials including video, text and audio - this makes the learning process more interesting, and also suits a variety of different learning styles
  
  
• They often contain jam tracks that you can play along to - this is one of the best ways to learn
  
  
• Some provide personal support - learning online doesn't mean you can't get feedback or answers to your questions. Some online courses offer personal contact, or discussion forums where you can get advice and support
  
  
• They're often updated regularly - unlike a standalone tuition book or DVD, the best online guitar lessons are in continual development, with new material being added as time goes on
  

In the initial months of learning the guitar, it's very important to learn the right ways to do things. If you form bad habits now, they will be difficult to undo later! And if you're learning at home without in-person instruction from a teacher, it's doubly important to ensure that you're receiving good advice from the source you choose. So when deciding which online acoustic guitar lessons to devote your time and attention to, here are some pointers to bear in mind:

• Who is the instructor(s)? The person delivering the lessons should be both a good guitarist and a good teacher (the two don't always go together!). While formal musical education isn't essential, they should have a strong musical background and ideally a proven track record both as a performer and a teacher.
  
  
• What's the website like? While not all musicians/teachers will be great web designers, your learning experience will be more pleasant (and you'll be more likely to stick with it) if the site you're using has an attractive layout, easy navigation and - most importantly - it is fast, stable and reliable.
  
  
• Does it provide a good general education in the basics, or is it highly specialised? Beginner guitarists might have already decided that they want to learn to play a particular style, but it's important to begin with a good grounding in the general techniques that form the basis of all styles. And getting early experience across a range of styles will help you to develop into a more competent and well-rounded musician.
  
  
• Does it cater to the styles you're interested in? This might sound like a contradiction of the above point, but once you've got the basics under your belt, you may want to focus more narrowly on a particular genre. If that's the case, you'll obviously want to go with a program that teaches that. If you're using free resources, and the first site you learn from doesn't cater to your chosen style, you can just find another that does, but if you decide to opt for a paid program, you'll obviously want to know in advance that it will cover the areas you're interested in.
  
  
• How is the tuition delivered? Most use a mix of written lessons, video and audio recordings, but the proportions vary. Everyone has their own learning styles, so if you're someone who learns best by watching, for example, look for lessons that are heavily video-based.
  
  
• Does it adequately cover theory (preferably including music notation as well as TAB) and technical exercises? Yes, many people find this aspect of learning guitar to be dull, but while it may not be as fun as practising that cool riff, if you want to be a great (or even just a good) guitarist, you need a good theoretical and technical grounding - end of story. So don't go with any site that skimps on these areas.
  
  
• Is there any personal support on offer? One disadvantage of learning guitar online is that you don't get real time feedback on your progress from a teacher. But the best online tuition sites overcome this limitation to some extent by providing support and answers to your questions by email or other methods (needless to say, you generally have to pay for this kind of service, and probably won't find it on the free sites). Look for a discussion forum too - you can gain a lot of support from peers who are going through the same learning process.
  
  
• Does it offer tracks to play along to? The best sites provide recordings of complete pieces of music which you can jam along with. Learning to play along with others is an important skill to develop, and playing with a professionally recorded backing track is the 'next best thing' to playing with a live band (or maybe even a better option if your band isn't very good!). Of course you can (and should) practice playing along with your favourite CDs/MP3s too, but tracks that are specially recorded for learning purposes often give you the option of muting the guitar part, so you can be the soloist, which is a lot of fun!
  

One big decision that you'll face when deciding which online acoustic guitar lessons to choose is whether to go with some of the many free lessons that are available, or to sign up for a paid membership site. If money is a real issue, then learn what you can from the free sites - certainly don't go into debt to learn! But there are excellent paid courses available for very reasonable prices (like $40 or less!), so if you've got a little extra cash, they're well worth considering.

Free lessons - advantages

• They're free! (barring your PC and internet costs of course)
  
  
• Some of them are very good, with well-presented lessons from top class musicians
  
  
• If you don't like the first site you try, you can move on to another without being out of pocket
  
  
• If you're not yet totally committed to learning the guitar, they can be a good way to get your feet wet and find out if it's really for you or not
  

Free lessons - disadvantages

• You have to sort the wheat from the chaff - and there's a lot of dross out there (which, if you're a beginner, you might not realise is dross, until it's too late). It can take a lot of time and effort to find a free site with teaching materials that you want to work with
  
  
• Many free sites are badly designed, difficult to navigate, slow to load and generally frustrating to use
  
  
• The quality of the videos and audio might be very amateurish. And even if the teaching is solid, this makes for a poor user experience that doesn't help when it comes to motivation. If you're going through a period of frustration with some aspect of your guitar playing - and you will - having to learn from shoddily produced materials might just be enough to put you off continuing, which would be a huge shame
  
  
• You're unlikely to be offered any personal support or advice, although some sites do have discussion forums
  
  
• Many are very narrowly focused around the creator's personal interests or strengths, and miss out a lot of the general musical education that a beginner needs
  
  
• Some free sites are run by guitarists who don't really have the pro-level skills that a good teacher should have
  

Paid lessons - advantages

• The quality is generally good (at worst) to great (at best). Providers of paid online lessons are more accountable for quality control, and have a greater incentive to make their teaching materials as good as they can
  
  
• The sites are more likely to be professionally designed and user-friendly
  
  
• The quality of the materials is likely to be better, with professionally recorded video and audio, and well-written text
  
  
• Most will provide a good general grounding in theory, technique and a variety of musical genres
  
  
• Many offer some form of one-to-one support, so you'll be able to get answers to the questions that inevitably arise as you learn
  
  
• The best guitar lesson sites also offer some form of community interaction, such as a discussion forum, which can be a good source of moral support when you're learning alone
  
  
• Paid courses are usually designed and operated by highly skilled professionals who know what they're talking about
  
  
• The costs are very low in comparison to what you'd pay for equivalent levels of personal tuition from a teacher
  
  
• They are more likely than free sites to be updated and developed as time goes on - and most charge a one-off joining fee, so you can effectively take advantage of the new material for free
  
  
• Paid lessons often come with extra bonuses, such as guitar-related software, e-books etc, which complement the lessons themselves and help you learn more quickly
  
  
• Most have a money-back guarantee for a fixed period, so you can easily get a refund if you don't like the site or its materials after joining up - making it risk-free to try
  

Paid lessons - disadvantages

• You have to pay to join (although membership costs of guitar lesson sites are usually relatively low, certainly in comparison to seeing a teacher in person)
  
  
• In addition, the disadvantages of free sites discussed above can apply to paid sites too, although you're probably less likely to have these problems with paid lessons. To be on the safe side, you should research any paid guitar lesson site thoroughly, and see what others are saying about it before signing up (in particular, check out the refunds policy). There is a small handful of sites that are very well-known and reputable - if you go with one of these, you can feel confident that you'll get access to great quality teaching materials and efficient service - and if problems do arise, they should be sorted out quickly.
  
  In my opinion, Jamorama is a great source of paid online acoustic guitar lessons, and is well worth checking out if you want to learn from quality materials.
  

Jamorama is a course of online guitar lessons that was developed by Ben Edwards, an experienced and respected teacher who used to be the lead guitarist with pro New Zealand band DegreesK. There are actually three different Jamorama courses available: the original Jamorama, which covers acoustic and electric guitar playing from the ground up, Jamorama Acoustic, which, as the name suggests, is aimed at those who want to focus on acoustic guitar only, and Jamorama Lead Guitar, which is a more advanced course aimed at intermediate level players who wish to develop their lead guitar playing skills.

Each course contains a wide array of professionally produced materials, including written books with step by step lesson plans (in digital form), videos, jam tracks, exercises and more (see below for a list). The Jamorama program has sold worldwide to thousands of satisfied customers, and has gained much critical praise.

Which Jamorama guitar lessons would be best for you? If you are looking for online acoustic guitar lessons, either the original Jamorama course or the Jamorama Acoustic course could fit the bill perfectly.

The Jamorama guitar lessons and bonuses include:

• 148 video lessons covering a wide range of chords, songs and playing techniques - you'll start playing well-known songs in less than a week
  
• 26 jam tracks (recorded by professional live musicians - not MIDI tracks) with the option to turn the guitar track on and off
  
• Instructions for playing a wide variety of popular songs
  
• Theory lessons
  
• Instruction in both TAB and musical notation (the latter made easy and fun with a unique bonus software game)
  
• Finger drills to increase strength and dexterity
  
• Ear training bonus software, so you can learn to play any song that you hear without music or TAB
  
• How to transcribe music
  
• Guitar tuner software
  
• Metronome software
  

The program also comes with a 60 day money back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free.

And if you'd like a taste of the quality offered by the Jamorama people without laying out any cash, you can sign up for the free 6-part guitar e-course with no obligation.

Format:
Jamorama is a digital course (the content is delivered in the form of downloads from the member's area), but there's also an option to purchase the course as physical books and DVDs (but this obviously costs a lot more!)

Jamorama Acoustic contains similar material to the full Jamorama course, but the lessons are tailored specifically to the acoustic guitar. You get:

• 2 lesson books, covering theory, playing techniques, popular songs etc
  
• 153 video lessons
  
• 26 acoustic jam tracks to play along with
  
• TAB instruction
  
• The same software for learning music notation and ear training as Jamorama, as well as the metronome and tuner
  
  There is also a free 6-part acoustic guitar e-course that you can sign up for, to get an idea of what the teaching style is like.
  
  The Jamorama Acoustic course also naturally carries the same 60 day guarantee as the main course.
  

Can't decide which to go for? I recommend the Jamorama Acoustic course if you are sure you want to focus just on the acoustic guitar. On the other hand, if you want to (or think you eventually might want to) play electric guitar as well, go for the general Jamorama course, since this covers both acoustic and electric techniques.

Both courses are designed for complete beginners and require no previous knowledge of guitar or music theory. They're also suitable for adults and children alike. However, the material is so extensive, and the jam tracks and bonus software in particular are so useful that people who already have a bit of know-how and experience will also find much of value in these lessons, so they're not not only for newbies.