Learning Guitar Online

Are online lessons any good? Reviews of your choices (last updated 6/28/06)

There are several ways you can learn how to play guitar. Which are the best? It depends on what you're willing to spend on both time and money. Your choices:

• You can do traditional lessons. These will cost $20 or more per lesson. You'll take a lesson about once a week, and it's a regular expense, but you get hands-on tips and corrections when you need them. You'll have a regular schedule. As everyone knows, you can't always make appointments, so sometimes you have to reschedule or miss lessons. It's a great way to learn, but on average, you'll be spending $100 or more each month.
• You can buy instruction books. You can get these at bookstores or through Amazon. These generally contain very specific areas of guitar instruction. To learn fully through these, it takes a long time, and you WILL have to get more than one book. Prices start around $10.
• You can learn online. There's scattered lessons all over the Internet, but to find online lessons that are packed into one "Buy Everything" package are rare. Some are more popular than others, including Jamorama. One big benefit is that you can buy online lessons anywhere in the world.

But how are the online lessons? Are they any good? Can they really teach you how to play guitar? My name's Alan, and I've played guitar for over ten years. I love playing, and I was interested in finding out if these online programs were any good, if they'd be something I could recommend to my friends who wanted to learn how to play guitar.

I'll tell you now, you can find a lot of random stuff online that "teach" guitar. There are some quality lessons out there, but they can be hard to find. The products reviewed here have all the necessary information you need to learn to play guitar. A lot of people have used them to learn how to play quite quickly. And play well! Read on to find out why I think Jamorama is the best choice to learn guitar fast, effectively, and in a fun way. I've even included video from the product in my full review:

Jamorama Rank: #1 Cost: $39.95 Description: Jamorama is currently the top guitar lesson package downloadable online. Most people have learned guitar through this program very quickly. It comes with 84 lessons, over 400 sound files, and over 100 video lesson clips. Also included for free are several bonus items. The lessons included are comprehensive enough to teach anyone, from someone just getting started, up to someone fine tuning their skills to reach a high level of proficiency. They recently finished adding much more to the product, including several more videos for both Windows and Mac in small, medium, and large sizes. Also included are several bonuses, including various programs, documents, and articles. Why'd I rank it #1? To see my full review (with screenshots), check here.

Full review on Jamorama (Click here to go to Jamorama web site)

The Beginner's Guide to Unlocking the Guitar Rank: #2 Cost: $29.95 Description: The Guide to Unlocking the Guitar has some similarities to Jamorama, but uses a different approach. The author focuses more on teaching hand formation and muscle memory. This helps beginners to learn chords faster. It's an 8 step program which works (especially for beginners), but Jamorama contains a much fuller program. Why do I think so? Check my full review here to find out.

Full review on The Beginner's Guide to Unlocking the Guitar (Click here to go to The Beginner's Guide to Unlocking the Guitar web site)

Guitar Made Easy Rank: #3 Cost: $17.00 Description: Guitar Made Easy is a full starter package for the new guitar player. It has more focus on playing with music and learning to pick up songs, and includes a guide to reading guitar tablature. It has good information, but is very cut and dried, and doesn't add as much fun to learning as the other programs do. For details on why I think that, check my full review here.

Full review on Guitar Made Easy (Click here to go to Guitar Made Easy web site)

If you have the right kind of instruction, learning to play the guitar can be fun. There's nothing quite like the excitement you have when you FINALLY nail playing that B minor chord. And once you know how to play? I've found it can be a great emotional release, pouring yourself into your guitar. Plus it's portable, so you can share your new skills with your friends, or just take it outside to play on a beautiful day! After reviewing, the choice I'd recommend for any of my friends is Jamorama, without question. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

If you need more equipment or tools to help you learn the guitar (or even want to buy a new guitar), you can most likely find it at Musician's Friend, and for a cheaper price online than you will locally.