Recommended Online Resources and Tools for Guitar Players

On this page you find online resources and tools for guitar players. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but a place for me to share my personal recommendations. This page is a work in progress, which I'll update as I discover other worthwhile resources in the future.

Learning to Play Guitar Online

JustinGuitar

Justin Sandercoe has extensive experience in one-on-one and online teaching. He started his website JustinGuitar in 2003 and his YouTube channel in 2006. Since then Justin has created over 1,300 free video guitar lessons and helped millions of students on their journey of learning the guitar.

Whether you are a complete beginner, intermediate or advanced player, Justin's website is a goldmine of fantastic lessons. Not only does he seem to be a genuinely nice and awesome guy, he clearly puts a lot of effort into making high quality and very accurate lessons. The latter distinguishes him from many other teachers you find online. If I had to pick just one resource for learning the guitar online, it would definitely be JustinGuitar.

Ben Eller

I've only discovered Ben Eller's YouTube channel in 2018 because he was mentioned in another video. After watching one of his videos I immediately subscribed and binge-watched his very entertaining FAQ and This is Why You Suck at Guitar videos. Ben is a really fun teacher with a great sense of humor and I'd probably subscribe to his channel, even if I didn't play the guitar.

What I wrote about Justin with regards to accuracy is true for Ben as well. Check out his Weekend Wankshops to see what I mean. He has a focus on heavy metal, but even if you are not into this style of music, Ben has a lot of interesting insights to offer when it comes to playing the guitar. And he may well give you a good laugh here and there.

Guitar Players

Ben Woods

Ben Woods combines Flamenco guitar with Heavy Metal and other rock genres in a very captivating manner. Not only is he an excellent Flamenco guitarist, but his unique arrangements shed a new light on many songs you love if you are into rock music. Ben has released several albums with his band Flametal and has a YouTube channel where you can spend countless hours watching and listening to him in awe.

Igor Presnyakov

I forget how I found Igor Presnyakov's YouTube channel, but I was immediately hooked by his fantastic abilities and unique performances. He mostly covers well-know songs from different genres including Pop, Rock and Roll, R&B, Country-western and Heavy Metal in his own fingerstyle arrangements, adding percussive elements and sometimes singing. I can watch and listen to Igor for hours.

Tommy Emmanuel

I've heard about Tommy Emmanuel but somehow ignored him until I watched his TED Talk and was blown away. I guess I don't need to say anything about his abilities as a guitar player, but I will say that the energy and joy he spreads are truly inspiring and I hope he'll continue to do so for a long time.

Online Tools and Apps

Autochords

The Autochords Chord Progression Generator is an easy to use online tool for learning chord progressions. You can show progressions for all major and minor keys starting with the main progression and several alternatives. Additionally you can set the feel to values such as Cliché, Rebellious or the venerable Twelve Bar Blues to get different progressions to practice and inspire your own compositions.

Interactive Fretboard

The Interactive Fretboard is a tool I created to help with learning the notes on the fretboard as well as chords and scales. I learned some music theory in school but afterwards shied away from it for a long time. I wish I didn't. Knowing where the notes are and a basic understanding of music theory open up so many ways of discovering new things while playing, figuring out other people's music and writing your own. Building this tool in itself helped me on my own journey, but I also use it frequently and hope it is helpful for others as well.

Online Guitar Tuner

You find online tuners for acoustic, electric, bass guitar and ukulele on the Fender website. For each instrument you can select different tuning options. For the acoustic and electric guitar these include Standard, Drop D, DADGAD, E flat, and several open tunings. A nice side effect of using these tuners is that you tune your instrument by ear and get some ear traning practice along the way.

Online Metronome

A metronome is an essential practice tool for learning to keep time. There is a plethora of free online metronomes and mobile apps. I use this one on Flute Tunes. Apart from setting the tempo, you can change the beats per minute and whether to stress the first beat or not. The app I'm using is called Pro Metronome. The free version covers all you basic needs including stressing several beats. The pro version offers some interesting features such as polyrhythms and saving your preferred settings.