Dave points out directions at free guitar lessons online...

Not only is free guitar lessons online jam packed with information on how to play a guitar, it's absolutely free…no strings! Except the ones on your guitar ;-)

The guitar lessons here have been developed by myself in my over 15 years of earning a full time living with my own guitar practice in Toronto. I've observed keenly both in my own development and that of my students what works and what doesn't.

Are you a beginner?

If you're a complete beginner, you'll find the solid kind of information you can trust will get you started on the right track. You can use that information to supplement what you do with your own teacher, or you can use it to teach yourself! Learn all the basic guitar chords you need to get started playing songs right away. Get some clear instruction on how to switch between the chords. There's even a detailed lesson explaining how to read guitar tablature so you can start figuring out your favourite songs.

Been playing a while?

What if you've been playing for a while and know lots of songs and want to take your playing to the next level? There are loads of great lessons for you here at free guitar lessons online. Stuff I would've been absolutely overjoyed to have been exposed to when I was at the intermediate to early advanced level! Finally get a handle on guitar music theory and learn your way around the fretboard. Find out what the modes actually are and how to use them. Break out of the same old tired licks and cliches that you've been playing for years!

Are there gaps in your knowledge?

What if there's a gap in your knowledge that could prevent you from fully understanding the guitar lesson you're interested in? I make recommendations to other free guitar lessons with easy to spot links that support the topic of your interest. I'm very proud of the material here at free guitar lessons online and how topics that are usually kind of complicated are made clear and easy to understand.

High Quality Well Organized Free Guitar Lessons

The guitar lessons here are of the highest quality and are extremely well organized. I don't hold back! Sometimes I think this must be the craziest thing I've ever done…to try to put such a massive amount of information with such a huge subject matter like guitar playing into one place! Oh...by the way, I'm Dave. I'm the resident guide here for your journey into guitar land.

So what motivated me to to take on such a suicide mission? What made me concoct such a hair brained scheme? What's in it for me? Good question…

Reason #1 why I created free guitar lessons online for you… I remember what it was like for me when I was in the thick of the very steep learning curve of how to play a guitar. Even though that goes back many years, I can recall how frustrating it was to wonder if the information I was getting was really going to work for me or not. Is it possible for me to really learn guitar? And that turned into could I get really good at it? Nowadays with all the information on how to play a guitar that's available on the internet it's even worse. Talk about overwhelming!

Then I put up my first lesson on YouTube. It was the intro for a classic song that many of my private students had requested over the years. It went viral and received pages upon pages of positive comments. I also received requests for another video showing the rest of the song. So I created a 2nd guitar lesson video. Same result! It went viral receiving hundreds of thousands of views in a short time. I thought to myself, "this is fun!"

With both these videos, I hadn't even lifted a finger to try to make people aware of them! I was a complete "newbie" to YouTube. Feelings of frustration and discouragement were soon to come knocking, however...

Once I started building this website I figured I'd better learn more about copyright policies online. I consulted with various organizations as well as a music lawyer on copyright issues. Unfortunately when it comes to the Interenet, the licensing ( synchronization licensing ) is beyond the budget of ordinary mortals. YouTube still contacts me with offers to apply for their Partnership program…but of course I must refuse because I don't own the copyright. No go! It'll be interesting to see over the next several years how the issues of copyright change...but I'm in this business for the long haul, so I'm not taking any unnecessary risks right now.

So then I thought maybe I could do something where the lessons were highly organized and all fit together somehow. The kind of guitar skills that everyone who plays a guitar definitely needs to spend some time "wood shedding." The guitar knowledge that I myself had spent thousands of dollars and many years developing! If you're a beginner, these skills will help you play the songs with more confidence. If you're more advanced, the ideas contained in some of these free guitar lessons online will take your musical expression and creativity to a much higher level. If you practice them!

If you spend anytime here at free guitar lessons online you'll see that all the lessons are integrated and support each other. It's very easy to navigate around the site and find what you need.

If I just put video lessons up on YouTube, there would be no way I could design the lessons to flow together. Not only that, but the written part of the lessons on the pages are chock full of information that the guitar lessons videos can't cover…not to mention the free printable guitar lesson material to help you learn.

Most of the videos here at free guitar lessons online are downloadable guitar lessons in mp4 format you can take to your computer and put in your i-pod :-) Cool! The name free guitar lessons online was a no brainer!

Reason #2 why I created free guitar lessons online for you… This world's a huge place with lots of noise…and I'm only one guy. Even though I've been told time and time again over the years by many different people how excellent I am at what I do, chances are good that you haven't even heard of me. I figured the best way for you to get to know who I am and how I can help you with how to play a guitar was to provide you with the best quality information possible…and tons of it!

A wonderful side benefit of this is that I've always thought it would be great to be in a position where I could help people out with free music lessons -- since not everyone can afford them. The internet gave me such an opportunity. So please, take advantage of everything offered here at free guitar lessons online!

Of course I also want to make money! Being a musician is, after all, my job. The amount of money I've spent on training, experience and tools over the years could probably equal or surpass that of a brain surgeon! Of course, I'm not doing anything as important as saving lives…but I am a "keeper of the torch" and inspiring people to tap into their creativity. Isn't being creative one of the things that make life worth living?

As the webmaster at free guitar lessons online, I'm in the same position many of you are as guitar players :-) I'm in the thick of climbing the learning curve! I have some good ideas for creating income from this website eventually. I won't know for sure what will work and what won't until I'm further along up the road -- but it will be in a way that benefits everyone. And the tons of free lessons and guitar videos online will ALWAYS stay free :-) There are many more coming!

I will also probably create the little books and mini courses that I've been designing in my mind for over 15 years now. That will be for the people who already know they love my teaching and can benefit from it. People also usually tend to place more value on things that they pay for. But anyone who has enough drive and passion will be able to get all the information they ever need to help them learn how to play a guitar…right here! And all it will cost them is their own grit and determination.

Where to start? I highly recommend subscribing to this site if you're interested in the material. A subscription is free! You don't even need to give your e-mail address. Just click on the "Question Mark" above the orange RSS feed button. It'll open a little window with simple directions to get your own free Reader. You'll be able to use it to subscribe to other interesting websites also. It's all free, and it's kind of like scanning the headlines in a newspaper. In my opinion, it's much easier than bookmarking everything.

Oh yeah... how about Tuning your guitar? Click on the Resources tab and it'll take you to a page where there's an online tuner if you need one.

if you're a complete beginner, start at the Beginners tab and work your way through the lessons. Definitely one of the most frustrating parts of the guitar learning curve is getting past the hump of the intermediate stage. The Theory section is probably a great place to start for those of you in that position.

sidenote to intermediate players: Today is June 19/2010. I've got a lot more lesson pages to build! More advanced guitar lessons to help you bust through those frustrating plateaus are on the way!

I'm always around... if you have any questions about guitar playing or the website, please contact me. Are there any lessons in particular you'd like to see? I'd love to hear from you!

Oh yeah…and if you're dying to know what that 1st "classic" guitar video lesson I created on YouTube is... the one that inspired me to start my quest here at free guitar lessons online? E-mail me and I'll send you the link.

Thanks for "tuning up" to free guitar lessons online :-)

Best in guitar and Life,

Dave