Song Lessons Comparison

After you have learned the basics of playing guitar, you're going to want to learn how to play some songs. Whether you're playing for friends, family, the ladies or out in public, everyone loves a guitarist that knows popular songs.

Not many guitar courses teach you how to play full songs, but we have found, tested and reviewed the best courses that offer song lessons. Compare them all side-by-side in the table below:

Guitar Lessons	JamPlay	Guitar Tricks
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Rating Our custom rating considers all of the guitar lessons' features, tools, quality, support, and personal & user reviews to save you time!	Rating: 98.2%	Rating: 95.8%
Lesson Format Since guitar lessons are offered in many different formats, we classify each one we review to distinguish between them quickly (online lessons are our favorite).	Online Videos & Community	Online Videos & Community
Video Quality If these lessons offer video instruction (and we hope they do), this gives an idea of how well-filmed the videos are.	Extremely High	Very High
Total Lessons The number of lessons offered by this community/instructor (and the total lesson time if available).	3,106 Lessons 880 Hours	5,000+ Lessons
Teachers One benefit of Online and DVD lessons is the ability to learn from multiple instructors with different backgrounds, genres and skills.	48 Teachers	45 Teachers
Full Review This table compares the top 5 guitar lessons. Click Read Review to learn more about one option.	Read Review	Read Review
Beginner Does this product/service offer beginner guitar lessons? This is the most common level, crucial for getting started at any age.
Intermediate Do they also have lessons beyond the beginner level? Once you've mastered the basics, you'll want intermediate lessons.
Advanced Some teachers even have lessons designed for advanced players that have moved through beginner and intermediate lessons.
Song Lessons Want to learn popular songs on the guitar? Some instructors work hard to get license deals to teach you specific songs step-by-step.
Live Lessons The most efficient way to learn guitar is in-person live lessons. Some premium services offer live lessons through webcam & chat.
Tuner Will buying these lessons give you access to a free guitar tuner?
Chord Library Chords are the building blocks of all guitar playing. Having a chord library where you can easily look up specific chords is essential.
Scale Library Scales are great exercises and can expand your soloing horizons. Scale libraries organize them by key and style to save you time.
Forum Forums are a great resource to get answers to your questions from instructors and other students quickly and easily.
Private Q&A Though getting public answers on a forum can be really helpful, sometimes asking a question privately is more helpful.
Delivery Delivery refers to how you will receive your guitar lessons and how long it will take to get access and start learning guitar.	Instant (Online)	Instant (Online)
Price The current price of guitar lessons (not including any coupon codes, trials or discounts we find for you.)	$19.95/month	$14.95/month
Cost/Lesson Price divided by total lessons. Note: We assume 12 full months of membership for online lessons.	4.8¢ per lesson	4¢ per lesson
Best Deal To help you save money, we find deals and coupon codes for each of the guitar lessons we review.	Get 25% OFF your 1st month!	14-Day Free Trial
Guarantee The guarantee tells you how long you can try these guitar lessons and get a full refund of your money if it doesn't work out.	7-Day, 100% Money Back	60-Day, 100% Money Back
Visit Site This button takes you to the official website to check out their guitar lessons and get started.

Song Guitar Lessons

Let’s face it, people don’t learn the guitar to hear all day about correct posture, picking techniques, proper way to fret strings, basic chords, scales and other beginner fundamentals. After awhile we all want to start seeing our hard work pay off. Song guitar lessons are where all the fun begins!

Song guitar lessons teach you how to play popular music, something that all musicians enjoy doing. The method in which you acquire this information, as well as the accuracy of the content, differs based on where you reference and how much you pay.

Types of Song Guitar Lessons

Song guitar lessons are readily available on the Internet, many of them free, with the primary concern being the accuracy of the information. For example, a quick search of “song guitar lessons” on YouTube yields more than a million results with some of the videos being more resourceful than others. A more specific search, like “U2 songs on guitar” narrows the results down to 1,000+.

Guitar tab websites are also common for learning popular music, though an extremely detailed song lesson is rare. Guitar tabs will, however, provide you with information on how to play certain riffs or chords to a song. Just like YouTube, anyone can submit content, which sometimes makes the legitimacy of each song guitar lesson questionable. Fortunately, a lot of guitar tab sites at least allow members to rate the accuracy of the tab, which will quickly give future visitors a reference as to whether or not the tab is legitimate.

Song guitar lessons are also featured on websites 100% dedicated to teaching the guitar. Lessons on these types of websites are often considered a little more reputable because the sites are usually ran by professional musicians/music instructors/guitarists with years of experience.

Lastly, song guitar lessons are available in books, DVDs, CDs and online videos via publications that provide guitar information, such as a guide for beginner guitarists.

Ingredients of a Song

Every great song has three primary elements: rhythm, harmony, and melody. In your traditional band, the rhythm is produced by the drummer and bassist, while the harmony and melody usually comes from the guitar(s) and vocals.

In order to learn a song on guitar, it is important you understand the primary ingredients of a song, and how they impact music as a whole. Listening to music will only help satisfy your palette of music knowledge as will a basic understanding of music theory.

The Role of the Guitarist

The great thing about music is that traditions are designed to be broken. However, with that being said there are a lot of unspoken rules and structure to what makes a great song, including the role of each instrument in popular music.

As previously mentioned, the guitar’s main function is to help support the rhythm, harmony, and/or melody of the tune. Lead guitar usually produces the song’s melody (and harmony), while rhythm guitar keeps the beat, a part of the rhythm in place.

Your role may change from song to song, so don’t be afraid to explore different genres of music as well as rhythm and lead guitar.

Best Song Guitar Lessons

If you purchase a learning guide to playing guitar the book, CD, and/or DVD kit will likely interject song lessons as you progress throughout the guide. The great thing about investing in one of these types of guides is that you are not going to get too far ahead of yourself. For example, a lesson about fingerpicking might be proceeded by a lesson about playing “No Woman No Cry” by Bob Marley, a song that heavily utilizes the fingerpicking style.

If you are looking for song guitar lessons online, it is important to find lessons that are as detailed as possible produced by knowledgeable musicians. Ultimate-Guitar.com, one of the top rated guitar tab websites on the Internet, for example, has 31 different results for learning to play “Livin on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, seven of which are rated 5 stars. Eight of those lessons, meanwhile, have a 3 star or lower rating.

The wise thing is to have a number of different resources, some that you may invest money into and other, like lessons on the Web, that are available for free. You can never have enough resources.