How to find guitar lessons for beginners on the internet

There’s no shortage of guitar lessons online, but where do you find the ones that are right for you?

If there’s one question we’re asked, perhaps more than any other it’s: where can a find good guitar lessons for beginners on the internet? The answer is always the same: YouTube. Why? Simple, it’s where all the really good, switched on guitar teachers put sample lessons to promote their business. If an online guitar course or teacher isn’t on YouTube, they might as well not exist.

The next question, of course, is ‘yes, but YouTube is a big place, how do I find good guitar lessons for beginners?’ At this point, I, a little bit cheekily, point out to them that the best place to start is the Guitar Hive channel. But it’s not just a self-promoting glib answer. The channel has tons of great lessons from some of the best teachers on YouTube. We’ve put together lots of lists where you can see related videos, and we’ll be adding lots more.

Other than that, try searching for well known online guitar lessons’ courses, like Guitar Tricks or JamPlay. Both those companies have lots of sample lessons on YouTube, and they’re great for getting started. You could just go straight to either of those guys and subscribe to their lesson plans. They’re both great, but if you’re a beginner, you don’t want to be spending money on lessons until you’re ready.

The one exception to our YouTube rule is if you learn best using a structured course. YouTube is too ad hoc for that. If you need structure, an online course or offline teacher is best. But we like the randomness of YouTube. Once you’ve learned to play five or six chords, you can play hundreds of different songs. All you need to to is bang the name of the song into YouTube’s search bar and you’ll find someone teaching you how to play it. Don’t just pick the first one you see, though. Read the comments underneath, and check the ratings. You don’t want to spend hours learning and practising, only to find out the guy on YouTube got it wrong. That’s another reason for sticking with well-known lesson providers or teachers at first – you know they’ve got it right.

To my mind, there’s no better way to get started as a guitar player than learning a couple of songs. Sure you should practice chord sequences and changes, and even scales, but that’s no reason not to dive in and learn some songs. And there’s no better place to do that than on YouTube – our favourite place to find guitar lessons for beginners online.