Many people take up guitar lessons and leave it within the first few weeks. The main reason behind them quitting guitar is that they are not following a structured class. Following unstructured guitar classes may lead to frustration when the student doesn’t see any tangible progress. That’s why taking a professional guitar course is always preferable to just winging it. But high prices and time commitment may discourage you from taking up a guitar class. That’s where online guitar courses can help you. Not only they are cheap but they also allow you flexibility. You can learn at your pace and see lectures when you have time. So whether you are thinking of taking guitar professionally or just as a creative hobby, these online guitar courses can help you learn your favorite musical instrument.
Best Online Guitar Courses in 2020
In this article, I have mentioned several types of guitar classes. Some take a very formal approach to guitar lessons while others are funky and filled with fun. Some are meant to take you towards a professional level while others are meant just for nurturing your passion and hobby for learning guitar. So, choose the course that meets your criteria. With that said, let’s get into our list, shall we?
1. Complete Guitar System – Beginner to Advanced
If you have never touched a guitar before and want to start from scratch then this is the online guitar course for you. The course brings logical step-by-step methods to help you master guitar so you can not only play songs but also learn guitar theory. It is a vast course with 34.5 hours of video content and 158 downloadable resources. This guitar course will guide you throughout your learning journey. The course is taught by Erich Andreas who has been teaching people guitar professionally for the last 30 years. His YouTube videos have amassed more than 50 million views.
The course that we are featuring here has been taken by more than 100,000 students and has an overall rating of 4.5 stars. The best part about this course is that you don’t need any prior knowledge of guitar or music theory. The course starts at the first steps so its gold for beginners. Finally, since this course is on Udemy, you don’t have to subscribe to it. You just pay a onetime fee and have lifetime access to it. If you are a beginner and looking for a guitar course, do not miss out on this one.
Course Rating: 4.5 (Rated by 16,636 students)
Difficulty level: Beginner
Buy Course on Udemy: Starting at $10.99
2. The Professional Guitar Masterclass
Another great guitar course online is the “The Professional Guitar Masterclass” on Udemy. While beginners can take this course, I think it’s best suited for guitar players who have a basic understating of the instrument. What I love about this course is that it aims to take students from imitation to creation. In any kind of art form, we first start by imitating our favorite creators and it takes time before we find our own voice. The aim of this course is to cut down that time and help you find your voice sooner. The course does that by teaching you to move away from memorizing chords and tunes and playing the guitar by understanding the underlying music theory.
As I mentioned before, this course is not for beginners. It’s for guitarists who feel that their improvement has plateaued. It’s for players who want to learn music theory, who want to plug the holes in their craft, who want to learn everything about the guitar’s neck, who want to be able to play any kind of song, and most importantly, it is for players who want to find their own voice. If that sounds like something you want, you should check it out right now.
Course Rating: 4.4 (Rated by 4,172 students)
Difficulty level: Intermediate
Buy Course on Udemy: Starting at $10.99
3. Ultimate Beginner Guitar Masterclass (2020)
Guitar enthusiasts and hobbyists pay attention because this online masterclass on guitar is for you guys. If you have never touched a guitar before and want to learn to play your favorite songs, check this course out. The course covers the basics of guitar playing and teaches you the essentials of chords and music theory which will allow you to play hundreds of songs. It will start by teaching you how you can select the right guitar. Once you have that part figured out you can move onto learning the important stuffs including strumming patterns, epic guitar riffs, electric guitar techniques, guitar tuning, caring for your guitar, and more. This is the perfect guitar course for hobbyist guitarists who just want to play their favorite songs for themselves and their friends and family.
The course won’t take you through the hard theoretical stuff which usually turns casual players off. Instead, this is a crisp and small course which teaches you those important pieces of guitar techniques that provide the most improvements. The course is only 12 hours long so you don’t need to spend months finishing this one. Of course, if you want to become better you have to practice more, but you can get the basics down in no time. However, that also means that if you want to take the guitar professionally, you should keep clear of this course and focus on other courses mentioned on this list.
Course Rating: 4.6 (Rated by 2,329 students)
Difficulty level: Beginner
Buy Course on Udemy: Starting at $10.99
4. Fender Play
Another great online guitar course for new guitar players is from Fender Play. Just like the course mentioned above, the Fender Play course focuses on helping you learn guitar using popular songs that you love. However, the course offers much more than the one mentioned above. The main difference here is that Fender Play also gives you access to advanced guitar training courses. The course is structured well and you have complete control over what you want to learn. Apart from teaching you electric and acoustic guitars, Fender Play also has classes for bass guitar and ukulele. So, the learning opportunity is much more diverse here. I also love the fact that there are multiple instructors making sure that you are always learning from the best.
There’s also a community of new guitar players just like you so you can always feel motivated and ask questions if you ever get confused. That being said, all these extra features come at a price. Fender Play is not cheap as it charges a subscription-based pricing system. The company charges $9.99/month or $89.99/year. They do offer discounts from time to time and have a generous trial period so you can check them out before buying the subscription. Fender Play is one of the best places to learn guitar online so you should check it out.
Course Rating: NA
Difficulty level: Beginner to Advanced
Subscribe to Fender Play: $9.99/month or $89.99/year
5. Guitar Tricks
Just like “Fender Play”, Guitar Tricks is a kind of an online academy for learning guitar. It is, by the way, one of the most popular guitar courses that you can find online. The company has been offering guitar lessons since 1998 and has to date taught 3 million people to play guitar. Guitar Tricks offers a very gentle climb in your guitar learning journey so you never feel frustrated. Its lessons are interconnected and organized to get slightly harder as you progress. So you end up mastering hard techniques overtime which you might have never believed you could. Just like Fender Play, you will also find multiple instructors here. They also provide one-on-one private lessons for people who need it.
But that will cost extra. That brings me to one of the biggest drawbacks of Guitar Tricks, which is its pricing. Not only the service charges a subscription pricing, but they also price it a bit high at $19.99/month. Do I think it’s worth it? Well, if you can afford to pay and are serious about your guitar, sure it is. However, for most people, the one-time buy courses are more than enough. And if you want extra Fender Play is still half as expensive as Guitar Tricks. You have a free trial, so you can check out the service before paying so there’s no harm in checking it out, is there?
Course Rating: NA
Difficulty level: Beginner to Advanced
Subscribe to Guitar Tricks: $19.95/month or $179.99/year
6. JamPlay
Joining the roster of online guitar academy is “JamPlay” which is yet another good guitar lesson provider online. Just like Fender Play and Guitar Tricks, JamPlay is an online subscription service that gets you access to quality content taught by world-class guitar teachers and players. JamPlay offers new guitar players a structured path to start their guitar learning journey. Whether you have never held a guitar before or you are a good guitar player, JamPlay can improve your current guitar skills. There are more than 450 courses on JamPlay with 6500 lessons. They cover 128 different styles so you can learn country, metal, blues, or anything else that interests you. They keep updating their lessons with popular songs so you can not only find lessons on old classics but also new breakthrough titles. Like the above two, JamPlay offers a free trial so you should check it out before deciding on which service you want to subscribe to.
Course Rating: NA
Difficulty level: Beginner to Advanced
Subscribe to JamPlay: $19.95/month or $159.95/year
7. ArtistWorks
ArtistWorks is the one-stop solution for all your guitar learning needs. Whether you want to learn Rock Guitar, Bluegrass Guitar, Jazz Guitar, Classical Guitar or any other genre of guitar music, you can find exceptional classes on that here. Apart from acoustic and electric guitar, ArtistWorks also hosts courses on banjo, bass guitar, piano, ukulele, mandolin, violin, and a myriad of other instruments. So, if you want to enhance your music abilities and learn multiple instruments, you can do that here. All the courses are taught by industry-leading professionals and you get a complete knowledge of the instrument of your choice. This is not meant for beginners but for people who are looking to make a professional career in the field of music.
As such, the courses are quite comprehensive and require a ton of effort from your part. Also, the service is quite costly as you get access to all the courses for a single subscription pricing. Most people won’t be able to justify that kind of money on guitar lessons. But if money is no concern for you and you want an in-depth technical knowledge of the instrument that you are learning, this is the place to be.
Course Rating: NA
Difficulty level: Beginner to Advanced
Subscribe to ArtistWorks: $35.00/month (3 month plan) or $279/year
8. Ultimate Beginner Electric Guitar Masterclass (2020)
Another great online guitar course for beginners is the “Ultimate Beginner Electric Guitar Masterclass (2020)”. This course is meant for hobbyists and guitar enthusiasts who want to learn guitar for their pleasure and are not necessarily looking to make a professional career in the field. You will learn to play iconic and fun riffs and songs, understand the basics of music theory, read music tabs with ease, understand and implement new playing techniques, master the guitar fret-board and power chords, among other things. This is a fun course with 12 hours of video content and 65 downloadable resources. You don’t need any experience to take this course. All you need is a guitar and a passion to learn it. This is one of the best guitar courses online for beginners.
Course Rating: 4.6 (Rated by 636 students)
Difficulty level: Beginner
Buy Course on Udemy: Starting at $10.99
9. Spice-Up Your Guitar Cover Songs: Develop Your Unique Style
If subscription pricing is not your jam and you want a clean and simple course to help elevate your status from a boring to an interesting guitar player, then this is the course for you. Once you take this course, you will become a much more interesting guitar player. Songs that you’ve played before in a certain, plain way, will now open up to your many new creative choices. Note that this course is not for beginners rather for those guitar players who already have master the basics and now looking to bring a funk in their playing style. You will learn various guitar playing techniques including special chords, unique right-hand groove, adding riffs between chords, string slaps, mutes, and many many more. After taking this course, you will be able to develop your own unique style on the guitar, and play your favorite songs in your unique way.
Course Rating: 4.6 (Rated by 49 students)
Difficulty level: Intermediate
Buy Course on Udemy: Starting at $10.99
10. Learn Guitar on YouTube
If you cannot afford to pay anything and still want to take guitar lessons online, worry not, as there are several good YouTube channels that teach guitar for free. Of course, their lessons will not be as well structured and vigorous as the paid ones but it’s a great place to start if you don’t want to spend any money. If you are a hobbyist, there’s a high chance you won’t need any paid course and can learn guitar from watching lessons on YouTube itself. While searching for guitar lessons, keep in mind to keep away from channels that promise spectacular results in a week or month. Always stick to reliable resources and do a little bit of research before settling on a channel. We have linked a few good YouTube channels on guitar lessons below and they could be a good place to start your search.
Course Rating: NA
Difficulty level: Depends on the Class
Learn on YouTube for Free: Andy Guitar, Marty Music, JustinGuitar, rockongoodpeople, Texas Blues Alley, JamPlay, GuitarJamz, Ben Eller, and more
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Learn Guitar Online Using Paid or Free Courses
That ends our article on the best guitar courses that you can take online. We have mentioned many different types of courses targeting different users. So, whether you are a beginner or somewhat further along in your guitar journey, you can find courses here. We have also mentioned separate courses for guitar enthusiast and players who want to make it as a professional. Finally, there are free, paid, and cheap options so you can take a guitar lesson without worrying about your finances. With that said, let’s close this already long article. Let us know your thoughts on these classes by writing in the comments below.
