Choosing the Best Place to Take Guitar Lessons for YOU: Essential Considerations to Account For

1. Know Your Learning Style

For many people, learning to play guitar is best done with a teacher. An instructor could explain things effectively and give you a solid understanding of the concepts at a faster rate. Plus, he or she can help point out the flaws in the way you play the guitar and show you the right way to do it. But, this method is not feasible and/or effective for everyone.

Learning through the internet is another option although this means that you would be basically doing the work on your own. Although you could also have access to instructors for one-on-one lessons, they can’t put your hand on the right fret and show you how things are done using physical contact.

Given these choices, you need to assess whether you require intensive lessons or you're more of an independent learner who can use some face time once in a while.

2. Consider the site’s practice tools

The best way to learn guitar is by practicing (and practicing some more!).

This is why you need to look into the kind of practice tools that are offered in the site where you are planning to learn how to play the guitar (like the Jamplay video below). This is also the reason why learning through an online portal is way better than just reading a how-to book.

There are many interactive tools that you would have access to when learning online. The site should have full song demonstrations as well as video instructions and accurate tabs to help you improve your guitar skills.

3. Look into the coverage of the lessons

As a beginner, there are many things that you need to know about playing guitar.

The lesson that is right for your current skill set should tackle different types of guitars and touch a bit on electric guitars and/or acoustic guitars.

Introduction to various accessories such as a capo and a pick and how to use them is also a must. You should also know the basics of stringing, setting up your guitar and tuning.

Knowledge on posture, hand positioning, playing chords and reading tabs is also necessary. A video on these things as well as illustrative examples would be more helpful.

Aside from that, you also need to look into the advanced lessons that you can move on to when you've mastered the basics. These intermediate lessons should, at a minimum, include hammer on and hammer off, improvisation and the scales.

4. Availability and Skill of Instructors

As we have previously stated, the perfect way to learn is with one-on-one instruction from someone who's already mastered the art of playing the guitar.

Sure, you can call some friend to show you the right way to do it, but it is better to have someone who is privy to what you are studying teach you. Many guitar learning sites offer this service and it's actually quite handy if you want lessons on how to play guitar for beginners.

Moreover, you should check on the availability of instructors and how many people on the roster. Choose one whom you feel is most qualified to teach you. Assuming you go for a paid service, you deserve to get your money’s worth!

Review & Features of the Top Guitar Learning Websites

We have prepared a more detailed snapshot of what each of these sites have to offer to allow you to choose the best place to learning to play the guitar.

1. Jamplay

Website: http://www.jamplay.com/

Guitar Lesson Delivery: Lessons are delivered through HD video tutorials, live interaction with guitar tutors and there are monthly updates on the guitar lessons

Support: Phone, chat, email, forums

Guarantee: 100% Money back for 7 days

With more than 5,200 HD guitar lessons available to members, including guitar lessons for beginners, Jamplay provides comprehensive instruction in learning to play the guitar.

A guitar player with any skill level will love this learning portal since there is a wide array of support materials including guitar songs for beginners.

There are courses taught by pro artists and members can chat with an instructor any time to clarify a lesson.

Since Jamplay have several tutors, you can choose the one you like best!

Whether you are more into ambient music or something louder such as rock or metal, there are materials in this site that will suit your preferred genre.

Best of all, you can keep track of where you are in your guitar lessons with your own personal tracker.

2. Guitar Tricks

Website: https://www.guitartricks.com/

Guitar Lesson Delivery: Lessons are delivered online through videos and online instructors

Support: Phone, helpdesk, contact form, forums and apps

Guarantee: 60-Day Full Money-Back Guarantee.

This site has been around since 1998 and is considered to be one of the pioneers in providing guitar lessons.

Maybe because of its age, the site boasts of over 11,000 tutorials!

What makes this learning portal stand out is their teaching method, known as the Core Learning System.

This is a highly structured and focused way of learning guitar skills. For beginners, it's an ideal setup because all of the essential skills in handling the guitar are discussed.

Lessons including guitar tabs for beginners can be accessed by members 24/7 and the site is updated daily for new lessons.

If you can’t find a particular tutorial, you can also request for it.

Almost everything that you need to learn in any song genre can be found here and bonus features such as the Toolbox which can help guitar players improve their songs writing skills.

3. Jamorama

Website: http://jamorama.com/

Guitar Lesson Delivery: Video tutorials and round the clock access to site, one on one tutorial through Skype is also available

Support: Forums and support tickets

Guarantee: 60-Day Full Money-Back Guarantee.

Beginners looking for guitar lessons online would love this site since it focuses on providing one-on-one tutorial.

This is a cheaper option compared to other online learning portals making it ideal for those who are on a budget.

Jamorama is different from other guitar learning sites since it is a digital course which covers all of the essential lessons making it a good option for beginners.

This guitar learning tool used to be just a DVD and downloadable site but the lessons have been expanded and it includes online tutorials to make it a better learning tool for students.

4. Justin Guitar

Website: http://www.justinguitar.com/

Guitar Lesson Delivery: YouTube videos are used to deliver the lesson

Support: Forum for lessons, for paid products email and phone

Guarantee: N/A

For a free guitar learning resource, this is an admirable site that has gained its fair share of subscribers and followers.

The best thing about these guitar lessons is the fact that they are free!

Just like other free learning sites, the lessons are not too structured although the resources are categorized accordingly.

There’s a special section dedicated to beginners, intermediates and guitar players of all levels. There are also reference materials that discuss techniques, essential skills, arpeggios, and beginner guitar scales.

There is a forum dedicated to the site and there are also premium products available, and apps to assist beginners - although you need to pay for these.

Overall, this is a good place to start honing your guitar skills. Given the fact that it’s free, this is pretty much a risk-free choice.

5. Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar

Website: https://www.learnandmaster.com/guitar/

Guitar Lesson Delivery: DVD, CDO, book

Support: online student support site, live chat, phone support

Guarantee: 60-Day Full Money-Back Guarantee.

Considered to be the gold standard for providing guitar lessons without a private instructor, this fits right into our best choices for guitar learning portals.

The lessons are comprehensive and cover everything that a player, irrespective of skill level, would love to have access to.

There are also live weekly lessons from the instructor. Beginners could capitalize on this since many things are covered including guitar chords for beginners. Plus, there is no need to have internet connection to have access to the DVD lessons.

Learning the guitar can be done even if you are in the middle of nowhere!

There are tracks that you can jam along to practice your guitar skills, and if you have queries, you have access to the student support forum where you can compare notes with other students and request for feedback from members who are intermediate guitar players or the instructor himself.

Guitar Learning Site FAQs

1. How much time should you spend learning guitar?

This would depend on your availability as well as your comfort. All beginners will feel that their hands hurt when practicing the guitar, this is totally normal. The rule is to practice as much as you can possibly do.

If you have much free time, stop when your hands are hurting. Spending ten minutes on the guitar and stopping for a break and picking up the instrument again is perfectly alright.

Needless to say, it would be ideal to set a time for practicing each day. After gauging how much you can take in one session, schedule your time around it. This would be a good set up especially when you are a busy person since you can plan the day ahead.

2. How long will it take to master playing the guitar?

This will depend on your dedication to practicing the guitar. You can play the guitar for years and still be considered as a beginner. You should keep in mind that mastering the guitar takes time. But, you can start creating personal milestones, like those in Jamplay, which you use to track your progress in learning how to play the guitar.

3. Should I focus on chords or learning an entire song?

A guitarists’ inability to produce the best sound from each chord brings a lot of frustration, hence it is good to start learning chords first.

Those who are still learning feel more confident about moving to a new lesson when they have mastered a chord or two. However, the learning process would differ from person to person. Remember that when playing a guitar, people will request that you play a song or at least part of a song on the instrument not just a chord.

Take Your Pick – Which Guitar Learning Tool Meets All Your Needs?

Given the amount of information that you already have on your best options when you want to learn to play guitar, it’s time to make up your mind and choose one.

Learning styles will always be different from one person to another, so the decision is all yours. Keep in mind that lessons are mostly online, so you should also have access to hi-speed internet connection.

Beginners should ideally start with an acoustic guitar. Try to buy an acoustic guitar for beginners before you move on to using electronic guitar. Electronic guitars tend to be harder on your fingers. So, it’s better to get used to acoustic guitar strings before you try to learn how to play electronic guitar.

One final thing, most beginners fail to learn because of impatience. Mastering this instrument will take time and there is no perfect lesson or teacher, in the end it boils down to your patience and persistence.