Tips & How-to's

Best online guitar teachers (2019)

September 23, 2019

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(Last Updated On: September 23, 2019)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Now it’s time to pay tribute to the online guitar teachers who helped me in my guitar learning quest. I’ve started at the age of 40, after many years thinking I was good at playing drums… but these will work for any age.

Learning guitar online is a bit tricky. One might think that just going to YouTube and finding lessons is enough. The path that paid off for me was finding an online method with some structure, and sticking with it. Some of the methods I will mention here do have YouTube channels – and quite successful ones – but they are backed up by a proper structure and method for you to follow.

Justin Sandercoe of Justin Guitar

One of the most successful online guitar teachers, Justin has a remarkable way of teaching. If feels intimate and personal even if you never meet him in person. His roll of recommendations include Mark Knopfler and Steve Vai. The approach is very didactic but still entertaining. Justin’s courses have a clear sequential structure and there is a whole environment built around him: apps, videos, online lessons and such.

His strengths for me are the clear structure, the sequential methods, his patience and empathy. On the other hand he doesn’t have a lot of lessons on heavier rock or heavy metal.

Find his website here, and the YouTube channel here.

Marty Schwartz of Marty Music

Another extremely successful online teacher, I found Marty later on my journey. Super cool dude, his lessons sort of dumb down – in a good way – the theory to focus on the practical elements of music and how to apply what you’ve learned. It totally feels like you’re playing with a friend, and he clearly wants you to succeed.

I for one have never tried his theory lessons, but rather used his material to learn countless pop and rock songs. That aspect to me is where his strengths lie, but it doesn’t mean the lessons are not great – perhaps you should check them out too. He gets a bit more into the heavier suff than Justin, but still not a metal teacher per se. He is heavily influenced by Hendrix and blues, so that is the avenue you’ll explore if you go beyond the songs.

Find his website here, and his YouTube channel here.

Desi Serna of Guitar Music Theory

Until I found him, I had been learning a bit of theory and a lot of songs but didn’t really understand all the modes and how it all connects together. Then I found his Fretboard Theory books and they completely changed my life as a musician and as a guitar player.

These books are paired up with a podcast. They will teach you in a very clear way how all the modes of the major scale work. They go over chord substitutions, modulation, alterations and other types of modes.

To top it all, each lesson has examples of popular songs you can actually play. This is the best way to memorise it all up: actually playing songs which use the theory he explains.

There is a mix of metal on his stuff as well, and to be fair I have never compared his videos with Marty or Justin to see what they stack up. The books and podcast were enough for me to become a fan for life…

Find his website here, and his YouTube channel here.

Other teachers

These three have been the main ones for me over the years. There are of course honourable mentions to quite a few others below, which I use from time to time.