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201 Best + Free Guitar Courses & Certificates [2026]

201 courses compared 22 over 10 hours long Updated October 19, 2026

Ranked by Michael Kuhlman, CourseDuck's founder, from student reviews across every provider. How we rank

Our guide: The Best Music Courses on Udemy in 2026: Piano, Guitar, Music Theory, Singing, Production and DJing

Our top picks

  • Complete Guitar Lessons System - Beginner to Advanced [Udemy]Most Popular
  • Ultimate Beginner Guitar Masterclass [Udemy]Best Paid Course
  • The Professional Guitar Masterclass [Udemy]
  • Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar Lessons: Getting Started [Udemy]
  • The Total Beginner's Guitar Course [Udemy]
  • The Professional Bass Masterclass - Bass 1, Bass 2, Bass 3 [Udemy]
  • Learn Guitar in 21 Days [Udemy]
  • Ultimate Beginner Electric Guitar Masterclass [Udemy]
  • Learn Guitar: Zero to Guitar Fingerpicking in 30 days [Udemy]
  • Classical Guitar Essentials - The Basics Part 1 [Udemy]

About the best Guitar courses

Learn guitar with this comprehensive list of the web's best guitar courses, ranked by 1,000+ student reviews.

Frequently asked questions

The most-reviewed Guitar course in this category is Complete Guitar Lessons System - Beginner to Advanced by Erich Andreas, with about 46,700 reviews at 4.5 as of October 2026.

Average
$57,275 a year
Middle half earn
$38,500 to $74,000 25th to 75th percentile
Full range
$19,500 to $96,500

Share of US job postings in each pay band; the dark bar holds the average, the striped bars the 25th and 75th percentiles. Source: ZipRecruiter salary data collected in 2020-21, when this FAQ was first written; pay has moved since, so treat it as a rough guide.

Paid Udemy video courses include a certificate of completion when you finish; free courses and practice-test-only courses do not. It shows you did the work, but it is not an accredited qualification. Coursera usually charges for a certificate, issued with the university or company that made the course.

Related topics

Music 272Music Production 244Piano 48Singing 34 All Music topics
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201 Filtered Courses
The Professional Guitar Masterclass
provider

3

The Professional Guitar Masterclass (2017)

4.6
(6,046 reviews)
byMichael Palmisano

A GIT-style fretboard and theory course from Guitargate's founder that teaches CAGED, chord function and improvising to players who are past the beginner stage.

Best for: Players with six months or more under their belt who know chords but not why they work, and want to improvise without hunting for notes.

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Pros
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Cons
    • Reviewers say it ties together theory they had gathered piecemeal from books, other courses and even Berklee Online
    • Covers CAGED, chord function and non-diatonic changes in a step-by-step order that students call complete and watertight
    • Palmisano's energy keeps dry theory watchable, and long-time players keep returning to it as a reference
    • About 59 percent of 6,045 reviews are five stars, with fewer than 200 at one or two stars
    • Last updated in 2017 with video first published in 2015, so presentation and camera work look dated
    • A two-star reviewer says shapes go by fast with no close-ups and questions went unanswered
    • Exercises are mostly film yourself applying the theory, with no example songs, which one reviewer found monotonous
$199.99 Certificate Length: 9.3h
Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar Lessons: Getting Started
provider

4

Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar Lessons: Getting Started (2022)

4.7
(3,951 reviews)
byErich Andreas

A four-hour starter from YouTube guitar teacher Erich Andreas covering fretting, strumming, fingerpicking and nine core chords, rated 4.7 by nearly 4,000 students.

Best for: Nervous first-week beginners who want an encouraging teacher and a short course they can actually finish.

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Pros
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Cons
    • Reviewers repeatedly call the teaching encouraging, with accuracy stressed over speed.
    • Short enough to finish in a weekend: about four hours across 28 lectures in four modules.
    • PDF handouts attached to most lectures, plus a bonus section on thumb muting and strumming.
    • Works as a taster of Erich's much longer full course; one reviewer went on to buy it.
    • Last updated in June 2022, and the course page still describes itself as free when it's a paid listing.
    • One reviewer finds the opening lectures slow, and another questions the string muting technique.
    • No full practice song to tie the chords together, and one reviewer hit blank PDF pages in Mac Preview.
$79.99 Certificate Length: 3.9h
The Total Beginner's Guitar Course
provider

5

The Total Beginner's Guitar Course (2017)

4.4
(1,995 reviews)
byMichael Palmisano

A free 85 minute primer from Guitargate founder Michael Palmisano that walks a first-time player from buying a guitar to open chords, power chords and a first progression.

Best for: Complete beginners, or people who own no guitar yet, who want a free hour to test the water before paying for lessons.

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Pros
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Cons
    • Free, and short enough to finish in one evening: 16 lectures, about 85 minutes.
    • Clear, joke-friendly teaching that reviewers call easy to follow and straight to the point.
    • Starts before the first chord: how to buy a guitar, name its parts and use a tuner.
    • Goes past open chords into power chords, palm muting and distortion.
    • Very basic and stops short of a full song; one reviewer calls it an advert for the full courses on the Guitargate site.
    • Last updated in 2017, with a single section and no certificate.
    • Leans electric; one reviewer wanted more for classical guitar.
Free Certificate Length: 1.4h
The Professional Bass Masterclass - Bass 1, Bass 2, Bass 3
provider

6

The Professional Bass Masterclass - Bass 1, Bass 2, Bass 3 (2024)

4.7
(3,750 reviews)
byRajiv Narang

A ten hour bass course from a Musicians Institute graduate that teaches theory, fretboard and technique from scratch, with practice modules and a riff trainer instead of song tutorials.

Best for: Beginners or returning players who want to understand theory and the fretboard, not just copy bass lines.

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Pros
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Cons
    • Rajiv explains theory in plain terms; one reviewer says it clicked faster than books did
    • Practice modules and a riff trainer sit between the four parts so theory gets applied
    • Covers reading standard notation alongside playing, a bonus one reviewer singled out
    • Updated July 2024 and holds a 4.7 from about 3,750 reviews
    • Music is shown in standard notation, not bass clef, which annoys some players
    • Camera is sometimes too far from the fretting hand to see finger placement
    • Theory-heavy; a few low-star reviews want more hand exercises and chord diagrams
$139.99 Certificate Length: 10h
Learn Guitar in 21 Days
provider

7

Learn Guitar in 21 Days (2012)

4.6
(3,390 reviews)
byTrueFire Guitar Lessons
Learn how to play thousands of your favorite songs on guitar in just 3 weeks!

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • By the end of this 21 day course, you will be able to play thousands of songs on the guitar.
  • In this course, you will learn how to play guitar chords, how to play guitar chord progressions, how to play songs on the guitar, and much, much more.
$64.99 Certificate Length: 2.4h
Ultimate Beginner Electric Guitar Masterclass
provider

8

Ultimate Beginner Electric Guitar Masterclass (2022)

4.9
(2,813 reviews)
byHenry Olsen
Learn step-by-step, proven electric guitar method that will teach you to play electric guitar for beginners in a month

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • Play Really Fun Riffs Everyone Loves
  • Understand And Implement Flawless Technique
  • Read Tabs With Ease
  • Master The Guitar Fret-board
  • Understand And Implement Basic Music Theory
  • Learn To Play To Backing Tracks
  • Learn To Improvise
  • Understand And Implement The "Penatonic Scale"
  • Friends And Family Will Be Amazed
  • Exercises That Will Sharpen Your Chord Transitioning, Strumming, Fretting, Picking, and More
  • You will take a quantum leap by getting feedback from a teacher
  • You will finally get out of that playing RUT and feel excited again
  • Youll move from imitation to knowledge and realization
  • You will enjoy a fresh feeling of discovery
  • Youll learn new songs that will get your listeners attention
  • Your playing will get people to tap their feet
  • Your technique will feel EASY as if it is gliding you right through the songs
  • Your satisfaction wil
$119.99 Certificate Length: 12.3h
Learn Guitar: Zero to Guitar Fingerpicking in 30 days
provider

9

Learn Guitar: Zero to Guitar Fingerpicking in 30 days (2022)

4.1
(2,432 reviews)
byPatrick O'Malley
Learn guitar for beginners: guitar fingerpicking in 30 days

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • Play the most common guitar chords in a fingerpicking style
  • Be able to play a bassline with your thumb at the same time as playing a melody with your fingers
  • Understand how to break down fingerpicking patterns into the bass/thumb and the melody/fingers and how to practice building up the component parts
  • Read tablature and play along to a metronome
  • Have a formula for composing your own fingerpicking patterns
  • Play in alternate bass, travis picking and clawhammer styles
  • Fingerpick
$199.99 Certificate Length: 2.8h
Classical Guitar Essentials - The Basics Part 1
provider

10

Classical Guitar Essentials - The Basics Part 1 (2024)

4.8
(2,021 reviews)
byHani Gamal
Build a strong foundation on Classic Guitar with a proven method

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • Know the basics of Classical Guitar techniques
  • Play well known tunes
  • Read standard music notation
  • On your way to be a finger style guitarist
$89.99 Certificate Length: 4.6h
SONGWRITING SIMPLIFIED: Music Theory, Melody & Creativity
provider

11

SONGWRITING SIMPLIFIED: Music Theory, Melody & Creativity (2019)

4.8
(1,721 reviews)
bySteve Glazer
Songwriting for PIANO and GUITAR. Chord Progressions, Scales, Melodies, and Lyrics... with no Music Reading!

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • Fundamentals of music theory, to Chord Progressions, Melody Writing, and Lyric Writing
  • You WILL write a complete song by the end of this course following 5 simple steps!
  • You'll learn the same Chord Progressions used by hit songwriters. (Pop, Country, and Rock)
  • You'll be able to Transpose your song into any Key, to make it comfortable for you to sing - no matter what your vocal range is.
$69.99 Certificate Length: 4.6h

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