I picked up my first guitar during my freshman year of high school, which occurred around the same time that many American homes were first experiencing the Internet age. Clueless as to what to do with my new six-string, I started taking lessons in a smoky room at the back of a local guitar shop. Like any good American teenager, I quickly discovered lessons to be a drag (I'd later change my mind), and found scouring the newborn World Wide Web for guitar tabs—inaccurate though they often were—was by far the quicker path to nirvana. Or at least, Nirvana riffs.

By the mid-'90s, the Internet had already altered the landscape of guitar education. Up until this era, enterprising guitarists had fewer options available—most of them related to private instruction or self-teaching from books and magazines. That anyone with an ax and a dial-up connection could now learn to play popular songs was just the ticket for people who, like me, lacked the capital and patience for a more structured education.

As copyright holders began cracking down on tab-hosting websites like the On-Line Guitar Archive (formerly olga.net), it became clear that Web-enabled guitar education still had some growing to do. Today, advances in available technology (particularly broadband Internet and streaming video) are starting to provide the extra headroom necessary to move away from the "songbook" format of free (and poorly transcribed) tabs, and toward more well-rounded explorations of guitar technique. Still, with the influx of resources, most of the available options function on subscription-based or pay-as-you-go models, and it can be difficult for would-be guitarists to figure out where to invest their hard-earned dollars. In this article, I'll explore the various services available on the market and discuss some of the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Simulate a Private Lesson

It's true—when it comes to learning music, there may be no substitute for a real, flesh-and-blood teacher. As recently as a decade ago, the only way to arrange this was also the most obvious: do some research, find an instructor, set up a meeting at the teacher's home or studio, and take some lessons. But with each passing year, as streaming video technology becomes more widely accessible, Web-based guitar lessons with experienced instructors are becoming more of a possibility. Innovators are still working out some of the bugs, but today, the Internet is doing for guitar lessons what it once did for shopping: you can now learn to play the guitar in your underwear.

Most of the sites using streaming video attempt to simulate the private lesson environment. By hosting hours' worth of video on their sites and giving users the ability to pick and choose their favorite instructors, music styles, and specific techniques, they provide an engaging and interactive (if slightly less-than-personal) learning experience. As the pool of sites offering this kind of service expands, the unique benefits available have begun to vary widely.

For example, on the subscription-based site Break Down Way ($29.99/month), students have the opportunity to take private lessons with some noteworthy teachers—including Jefferson Airplane alum and Hot Tuna founder Jorma Kaukonen. The site's video content is posted in both Quicktime and Real Player formats, so students who want full access to the site will need to download and install both (free) programs. Many videos also feature a helpful "chalkboard" area near the edge of the video window where chord diagrams, lyrics, and other items pertinent to the lesson are shown. Kaukonen's on-camera presence feels genuine and patient, and the site will definitely satisfy guitarists hoping to get inside the fingerpicked acoustic-blues style that characterizes much of his work. Break Down Way members can also view lessons posted by guitarist Woody Mann, Airplane/Tuna alum Jack Casady (teaching bass), and several others. While there are also a few beginner lessons taught by site creator David Wolff, Break Down Way works best for students interested in learning complete acoustic blues songs.

Another popular subscription-based site, WorkshopLive (starts at $19.95/month) is less specialized, offering guitar instruction in various playing styles. With more than 2,200 lessons, tutorials available for some popular songs (including a few acoustic favorites like John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues"), and a wide variety of guitar teachers, there is a lot of material here to choose from! However, it can be time-consuming to navigate the site's database of lessons, and it's sometimes unclear in what order a student might want to watch the videos on a given topic. There's also a tangible difference between Kaukonen's seamless, master-class wisdom and the more scripted approach that is the norm among the WorkshopLive teachers. The site's real strength rests in its broad approach to music education, with guitar lessons in virtually any style as well as some more general lessons for keyboard, bass, and drums. Be prepared to spend a little time getting things running, as up-to-date versions of Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, and WorkshopLive's own special software are needed (all of which are free but need to be properly configured).

Players may also want to take a crack at JamPlay (starts at $19.95/month), another site that, in addition to featuring a wide array of music styles and teachers, also promotes a sense of community among its subscribers with a real-time chat room and the JamPlay Forums, where students can discuss courses, communicate with JamPlay's teachers, and even request lessons dedicated to teaching specific songs. The site breaks its material down into easy-to-navigate courses and features a great deal of instruction on popular songs in various styles (everything from Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" to Metallica's "Master of Puppets"). There's a lot of material here to learn, the quality of which varies from teacher to teacher. Much of the coaching seems un-scripted, which gives a slightly more personal experience but also occasionally leaves students at the mercy of teachers stumbling through information. The video quality is also very high, but it can take a while for each clip to load sufficiently to play seamlessly.

Regardless of their unique benefits and drawbacks, all of these Web-lesson subscription sites function a little like gym memberships—they yield benefits as long as a student logs in, which could mean wasted dollars for subscribers who are not able to stay consistent on their own. For guitarists who want to try out online lessons without making a commitment of ongoing time or money, there's the ubiquitous frontier world of the user-generated-content movement, YouTube. Whether students want to brush up on basic chord shapes, learn a popular fingerstyle arrangement, or unlock the mysteries of sweep picking, there's probably some guitarist out there with a webcam (and a glut of free time) who has anticipated the need and is now only a few carefully selected search terms away. The video quality may be grainy and may not feature multiple camera angles and celebrity instructors like many of the pay sites, but it's tough to beat "free."

It's important to remember that posting video to YouTube is possible for anyone with a camera and an Internet connection, so users should be prepared to sift through some potentially questionable instruction—but for those willing to dig for it, there is still plenty of great material there to be had. Homespun Tapes, for example, has a dedicated channel where it has posted material from its popular video lesson series, including clips that feature heavyweights like Laurence Juber, Tony Rice, and Keb' Mo.

Smile for the [Web] Camera!

While just about any player could learn a thing or two from one-way video instruction, it is ultimately subject to many of the same obstacles as learning from books and DVDs. In particular, the student must be the master of his or her own progress, and prerecorded instructors aren't able to answer any of the questions that music students inevitably bump into along their journey. Also, the unique challenges that face beginners (like the always-important issues of hand position and finger placement) are difficult to convey (and even tougher to correct) without the helping hand of an experienced instructor nearby. Thanks to some creative new video-conferencing software programs (such as Skype), enterprising guitar instructors are beginning to catch on to the possibility of long-distance lessons.

French-Canadian fingerstylist Antoine Dufour is one instructor who counts himself among the early-adopter crowd. For a regular hourly fee, Skype users around the globe can take guitar lessons with Dufour from the comfort of their own homes.

"I have students in New York and California," says Dufour, who teaches from his studio in Mascouche, Quebec. "The farthest was a guy in the Czech Republic—he had a translator with him!"

While the Skype software can be used to make calls to actual phone numbers on a pay-by-the-minute basis, video conferencing with other Skype users is currently a free service. Just like in a sci-fi movie, a Skype call opens a two-way video window—the student sees the instructor, and vice-versa. The interface also includes a smaller video pane where each user sees the image being broadcast by his or her own camera, which helps prevent confusion on both ends about what each webcam is (or isn't) picking up.

Of course, the convenience of taking webcam lessons from home comes with a few clear trade-offs. For one thing, the size of the video window and scope of the camera on the other end make it a bit more difficult to see exactly what an instructor is doing than in face-to-face lessons. More importantly, even on a good connection, the slight "lag" between when one person speaks and the other hears it means that students and teachers cannot quite play together. A poor connection can exacerbate lag problems, and even cause distorted picture and sound quality.

"It's not exactly like being there, for sure," says Dufour, "but it's really easy to speak about concepts. To explain how I compose music or use open tunings, I don't need to be there. It's a bit like watching a DVD, but you can also ask questions."

The good news is that distance is no longer an absolute deal breaker when selecting a specific guitar teacher. Students can take long-distance private lessons with the proper equipment, whether the instructor is a well-regarded guitarist in a faraway place or a familiar former teacher who moved to another town. Even if one finds a particularly helpful instructor on YouTube (in which case they'll probably have access to a webcam), scheduling your first private session could be as easy as sending an e-mail. While there are certainly sites out there where students can pair themselves off with guitar teachers (a simple Web search for "Skype Guitar Lessons" will yield some quick results), it's probably better to find the right teacher and ask whether they give remote lessons than it is to find someone who definitely gives webcam lessons but might not be a good fit for the student.

Go the Academic Route

While private lessons are great, there's still a common gripe among serious musicians: "I wish I could have gone to music school." Berkleemusic, the online extension school of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, thinks it has the solution. The site won't guarantee anyone a single-occupancy dorm room, but it does offer students the chance to work on their guitar chops with professional instructors from the comfort of their own home computers.

"When I first started teaching online I had many doubts as to its effectiveness, but after three years I've seen some amazing results," says jazz guitarist Bruce Saunders, one of Berkleemusic's instructors and a champion of online guitar education. "As the technology expands the results could be [even more] amazing."

Compared to most of the other educational sites available on the Web, Berkleemusic unquestionably falls on the pricier side (tuition for guitar courses during its Summer 2008 semester started at $895), but the school has put a lot of work into delivering the goods. Guitar students may choose between seven different topics, including courses in blues, jazz, and classic rock guitar, scale and chord primers, and more. The school is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), and students may elect to take their courses for credit, which can be applied toward online certificate programs or (in some cases) transferred to another college or university.

Berkleemusic online courses are divided into sections with a limited number of students, all of whom can communicate with one another via forum-style posts and (optional) chat sessions with the course instructor. New lesson content is released once a week for the duration of each 12-week class, and students are expected to post weekly recorded assignments for instructor feedback. These assignments can be recorded directly into the computer—students can use their own digital recording rigs or download a free copy of SourceForge's open-source audio-editing program Audacity.

"One good aspect of the online experience is the backing tracks and the students' ability to manipulate them," says Saunders. "In my jazz guitar class, I provide backing tracks recorded by a New York rhythm section… While this is only a semblance of an actual playing experience, at least it's a start."

Students still need to budget and manage their practice time effectively, although the presence of fellow students and a real instructor help to mitigate the slow and solitary nature of private study. As each member of a section posts his or her weekly assignment, students are encouraged to listen to each other's unique take on the week's lesson, which can be as advanced or basic as the skills of each individual permit.

But while the virtual classroom can help carry a student far, this brand of online education has some limitations that may still be best addressed by study with a teacher.

"Helping a student find his or her musical personality takes one-on-one interaction and careful attention to that particular student's strengths and weaknesses," says Saunders. "At this point in online learning, great progress can be made in a short time, but what happens after that remains to be seen."

Is the Net Your Best Bet?

With all these choices at a guitarist's fingertips, it's easy to get overwhelmed and miss the otherwise obvious question, "Is online guitar education right for me?" As with any method of learning, students should ask themselves the following:

• "Is there a particular service available that offers in-depth insight into the specific repertoire I'm looking for?"
• "Will a Web-based learning environment provide a clear and stimulating path toward increasing my overall skill as a guitarist?"
• "Will online services work best for me as a stand-alone resource or as a supplement to some other form of education?"

As experienced teachers have said for decades, the bottom line is this: every student learns differently. For as long as there have been music students, some have made their biggest strides when working with private instructors, while others have made fantastic progress solely through self-teaching. Carefully investigating where one fits on that spectrum can help inform whether and/or how Web-based education should be pursued.

But whether you're a beginner learning your first chords or a serious student looking to pick up some new skills, taking advantage of these online resources can be a lot of fun—and as new technology continues to surface, things can only get better! In the meantime, pick out a service that speaks to your own personal interests and skill level, and test the waters with a sample lesson or trial subscription.