One of the most challenging things about learning guitar for beginners is finding a good teacher. The good news is that a lot of instructional guitar material is available for free on YouTube. But with so many channels and videos, it’s hard to know where to get started and who has the best information.
That’s why I wanted to do a helpful article on the 10 Best YouTube Channels for Beginner Guitar Lessons. Not only are these channels incredibly helpful – most of their best content is available absolutely for free, and available to watch at any time.
If you start learning from these Beginner Guitar Lesson channels you’ll be advancing on the guitar in no time. Let’s jump right in.
1. Marty Music / Marty Schwartz / GuitarJamz
Marty Schwartz probably has the most famous guitar channel on YouTube, and for good reason. Marty’s laidback and fun style makes him a pleasure to learn from, and he also just has so much awesome material available on his channel for free.
Here’s Marty teaching one of my favorite acoustic songs ever – Ripple by The Grateful Dead:
This list is focused on acoustic guitar channels, but Marty also has a bunch of awesome electric guitar lessons. His channel is awesome if you’re new to the guitar, want to learn new chords, or are just beginning to start soloing and looking for some neat licks.
2. JustinGuitar
JustinGuitar has been teaching on YouTube for many years, and has built up a huge following. He has a fun, easy-going style that just makes learning the guitar that much more pleasurable.
Here’s Justin teaching the classic America song Horse with No Name:
Justin also has a bunch of video lessons and courses available on his website, but like many of the channels on this list, the bulk of his information is given out for free on his channel, which is pretty awesome.
3. Truefire
Truefire is actually a digital guitar school or collection of online courses, but their YouTube channel has some of the best free guitar lessons on the internet. The great thing about companies like TrueFire is that they bring in some of the best guitarists ever and get them to teach what they’re passionate about playing.
This means their channel is full of hundreds of different professional guitarists, teaching the music that they specialize in, for free. It’s pretty amazing. For example, here’s an hour-long acoustic guitar course they uploaded absolutely for free:
TrueFire also has a membership site, which gives you access to all their lessons and a bunch of awesome bonus features. You can typically grab a free trial by checking out their site here. They feature both acoustic and electric lessons, and even other instruments besides guitar, like the banjo, which is a nice bonus.
4. Jamplay
JamPlay is another awesome digital guitar lesson hub. They feature lessons from hundreds of different guitarists, in all different styles and experience levels. They currently have over 650 guitar lessons for beginners alone on their website!
One of my favorite free lessons on their YouTube channel is a bluegrass webinar that’s over an hour long! You can check it out below. It’s an introductory course, so perfect for beginners.
JamPlay’s membership site gives you access to all their lessons and a bunch of awesome bonus features. You can typically grab a free trial by checking out their site. They feature both acoustic and electric lessons and have some of the best teachers and guitarists on the internet.
5. ArtistWorks
ArtistWorks is an awesome provider of online music lessons. They actually offer online video lessons for over 40 instruments and genres including guitar. Many of their lessons are available for free on YouTube however, and some of their best ones are on the acoustic guitar.
My favorite lesson from ArtistWorks features master flatpicker Bryan Sutton. Here’s Bryan teaching you the classic Bluegrass G Run lick:
Bryan is also passionate about teaching his craft to other guitarists. With Bryan Suttons’ ArtistWorks bluegrass guitar course you get access to one of the very best bluegrass guitarists ever, as he walks you through his playing step by step.
This is my #1 recommendation if you really want to cut your learning curve and become great at playing bluegrass guitar.
You can read more about Bryan’s excellent course here.
6. Guitar Lessons 365
Carl Brown over at Guitar Lessons 365 has puts out a ton of great guitar lessons over the years. Everything from classic acoustic songs to old school metal – he seems to teach it all. And this means his lessons range in difficulty from beginner to advanced.
But there’s plenty of well done beginner lessons on Carl’s YouTube channel. For example, here’s a beginner’s guide to fingerpicking:
If you’re looking for detailed walk-throughs of specific songs, Guitar Lessons 365 is a must-have YouTube channel.
7. David Wallimann
I actually started learning guitar from David Wallimann in his JamPlay course many years ago, but now David has his own YouTube channel. Some of what he teaches is more advanced, but a lot of it is great for beginners who are just starting to transition into lead guitar playing.
For example, here’s one of David’s videos where he teaches fast but easy licks in the pentatonic scale. The video is aimed at beginner guitarists:
David’s channel is neat because it’s centered around fusion guitar, so he covers a lot of different styles and helpful music theory.
8. Brandon Johnson
Brandon Johnson has some of the best acoustic lessons on youtube, particularly for learning bluegrass guitar. His lessons range from beginner friendly to quite advanced. I first found Brandon when trying to learn Shady Grove, which has been played by everyone from Jerry Garcia to Doc Watson.
It’s still one of my favorite lessons from him, and you can check it out here:
Brandon also has a membership site, but a lot of his material is available for free on YouTube. It’s an awesome resource for learning bluegrass acoustic guitar for free.
9. GuitarLessons
As the name implies, the GuitarLessons channel provides helpful guitar lessons for all levels of players. But they have a lot of really helpful beginner material in particular. For example, this great video on essential strumming patterns is sure to help you out:
Tips like these may seem overly simple, but many beginners overlook them only to regret it later. Do yourself a favor and get back to the basics to tighten up your strumming once and for alL!
10. YourGuitarSage
YourGuitarSage is the channel of Erich Andreas – a guitarist who’s been teaching hundreds of students for nearly 30 years. You can tell Erich has a lot of teaching experience, as his videos are extremely helpful and to the point.
In this one, he covers how to seamlessly transition between different chords on the guitar:
Erich does offer some instructional material on his website, but a lot of his great content is available for free on the YourGuitarSage YouTube channel
Who’s Your Favorite?
Well there you have it folks – my 10 favorite beginner guitar lesson channels for free on YouTube. Did you see anyone you didn’t expect? Who’s your favorite out of this list? And do you think I missed anyone?
To recap, the 10 best YouTube channels for free acoustic guitar lessons are:
- Marty Music/GuitarJamz
- JustinGuitar
- TrueFire
- JamPlay
- ArtistWorks
- Guitar Lessons 365
- David Wallimann
- Brandon Johnson
- GuitarLessons
- YourGuitarSage
Check out some of those awesome YouTube channels and let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading, and as always, happy picking!
Ready to Get Better at Guitar, Faster?
Whenever you’re ready to take your guitar playing to the next level, check out a few of my favorite resources below:
The Best Acoustic Guitar Strings – A unique polymer coating makes these guitar strings last for months or even years at a time, making for an exceptional value. They provide the perfect mix of boom, range, twang, and brightness that acoustic music is known for. — CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
The Best Acoustic Guitar – Beloved by everyone from Paul Simon to Gordon Lightfoot, the Martin D-18 is one of Martin’s most legendary guitars ever… It’s an excellent, premier quality acoustic guitar for bluegrass, country, folk, rock and more. This is also what I play myself — CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
Chords, Tabs & Video Lessons for 100 Epic Songs – This free guide that I created for fellow guitarists gives you chords, tabs, and video lessons for the 100 best songs to learn on guitar… I spent many hours putting this guide together to help you get better at guitar, faster. — CLICK HERE TO GET IT FREE
Fingerpicking vs Flatpicking Guitar – Learn which picking style is right for YOU by exploring examples, history, and popular players of each style. Discover essential techniques and pros and cons of each approach. — CLICK HERE TO GET IT FREE
