What does it take to teach guitar online? Can anyone do it?
Whether you’re a professional musician or guitar instructor looking for new ways to make a living doing what you love, online courses can help you get there.
Not only can teaching online help you earn more income right from your home, it frees up more time in your life to pursue your passion for playing guitar or creating new music.
That’s the dream after all, isn’t it?
Maybe you’re on your way to becoming the next Jimi Hendrix, but want to earn an extra income by teaching your craft. Or maybe you’re a seasoned guitar instructor with a full student schedule, but need a way to serve more students and expand your teaching business.
Either way, this guide will walk through the advantages of teaching guitar online, what an online guitar school looks like in action, and how to get started.
Why you should teach guitar online
Teaching guitar online gives you the flexibility to teach where, when and how you choose. On top of that, the number of students you can serve is unlimited – as long as you’ve got an internet connection!
Can you imagine waking up and teaching students all over the world from the comfort of your own home? Or having online lessons delivered to hundreds of students on autopilot, freeing up time for you to develop new teaching materials, hone your craft, or spend time with family?
This is the reality for many guitarists who are using Thinkific to teach online.
“Thinkific allows me to share what I would teach in a one-on-one lesson to a thousand people. I‘m on a mission to help everyone who doesn’t believe in themselves get the skills they need to improve.”
– James Testani, Founder of online guitar school GoodGuitarist
Having this type of leverage can make the difference between merely surviving, and thriving as a full-time musician.
Because while activities like selling backing tracks, hunting for the next gig, and cramming your schedule with music lessons can help make ends meet, they don’t necessarily translate into a scalable business.
On the other hand, online courses open up a whole new world of possibilities to make a living doing what you love.
Both seasoned guitar teachers and those starting out can leverage the online marketplace to build a career at a scale that’s not possible offline.
– Jay West, Guitar teacher and founder of GigHustlers
Here are just a few of the advantages of teaching guitar online:
- Time freedom. Many online guitar instructors create lessons that are self-serve. Meaning, students navigate through the material on their own. Whether you choose to add a live teaching component is up to you. By recording trainings that allow students to learn without you there, you’ll have much more time to do other things.
- Location freedom. Teaching online lets you work from anywhere. If you like working from home, you can. If you prefer to be in a studio, that works too. Want to try living abroad for a year? It’s possible! The key is that you have the option to choose.
- Saves money. With online courses, you don’t need to share your earnings with a music school, or rent a space for your classes. If you choose to work from home, you can save money on transportation to and from multiple classes. Apart from investing in an online course platform to deliver your content, you can dramatically cut your expenses from full-time in-person teaching.
- Increased impact. Think about the amount of time it takes you to prep and deliver a one-on-one lesson. With courses, you can invest the same amount of time and energy creating your classes, and serve hundreds of students around the world.
- Unlimited revenue potential. Wondering how much money you can make teaching guitar online? With courses, there is no ceiling on your earning potential, other than the number of students who enrol in your online program. Your ability to serve students is no longer tethered to the time you have available per week.
Want an interactive guide to help you choose your course topic, and position it to a specific target audience? Download this free resource for Choosing Your Online Course Topic & Positioning below!
Many guitarists have experienced all of these benefits using Thinkific to deliver their courses. Take Dan Cosley for example, who started an online school on Thinkific teaching guitar improvisation and harmony.
Not only have online courses enabled him to move from the United States to Japan, they’ve helped free up more time both raise his daughter, and advance his own guitar skills:
“Teaching online has allowed me to focus more on composition, performance, and research/book writing. It has helped to smooth the transition from Portland, Oregon to Kyoto, Japan, a move I made two years ago. Online teaching has also afforded greater flexibility in my work hours, which has been a great help with raising my two-year-old daughter.”
– Dan Cosley, founder of Way of The Guitar
Now, before we jump into the ‘how’ of teaching guitar online, there’s one more thing we should address. It’s a common question that plagues many people who are considering online courses for the first time…
Why would someone buy my online course when there’s already so much free content out there?
Does the world really need another guitar tutorial?
And the question makes sense. Between YouTube, ebooks and learning from people you know, there are many ways to learn guitar for free. There’s no doubt you can become a proficient guitarist by relying on these free resources.
So why would someone buy your course?
Addressing the skeptics: The value of your online course
With abundant free resources available, it’s natural to question the need for another paid guitar course. However, the value of your course lies in three key areas.
1. Quality content
Yes, there is a lot of free content out there. But a lot of that free content is garbage. In fact, it’s probably doing more harm to your practice than good. People who are serious about mastering their craft don’t want to waste time on tutorials that will either develop bad habits or take them nowhere fast. They’re looking to learn from an expert who knows their stuff.
2. Clear learning path to a desired outcome
Contrary to the myriad of free content floating around, an online course provides students with a clear and cohesive path to a desired outcome. Yes, it’s possible to string together the right combination of free YouTube videos and create a home-spun path to guitar greatness. But many students would rather invest in a learning experience that will fast-track them towards their goal, and give them the confidence they are on the right path.
3. Structure and discipline
Some people like to learn on their own, while others need the structure, motivation and community to keep going. It comes down to personal preference. In teaching online, you can create a unique learning experience that serves the latter.
Now let’s jump into the how-to of teaching guitar online!
How to teach guitar online
There are five key areas this article cover to get you started teaching guitar online:
Step 1: Choose your guitar course topic and positioning
Step 2: Decide your course format and teaching method
Step 3: Get your tools and equipment for teaching online
Step 4: Create your first online guitar course
Step 5: Market your online guitar course
Step 1: Choose your guitar course topic and positioning
The first thing you need to do is decide exactly who and what you will teach. This clarity not only enhances the quality of your content but also sharpens your marketing messages, making them resonate more effectively with your target audience.
Consider whether you aim to teach beginners, intermediate players, or advanced musicians. Reflect on your existing in-person teaching experience, and think about specializing in a specific group online.
In the same vein, consider if there are any specific genres or techniques you could focus on that will set you apart from the rest. For example, do you love teaching classic guitar, blues, or jazz? Or maybe you have a panache for teaching specific techniques like finger-picking, improvisation or harmony.
Davide Pannozzo is a guitarist and music producer who uses Thinkific to deliver his online guitar lessons. As a lover of blues guitar, he focused on creating an online school for all things blues:
Source: GuitarLab
Davide urges aspiring course creators to pinpoint an area that sets you apart as a guitar teacher (your secret sauce) and focus on sharing that with the world:
Find what your peculiarity is and what you love, and focus on spreading that knowledge to the world.
– DAVIDE PANNOZZO, FOUNDER OF THE ONLINE GUITAR SCHOOL, GUITARLAB
Not sure what your unique angle is? A good place to start is by asking your network for feedback, and doing a bit of research to identify gaps in the market.
Here are a few questions to ask to help you determine your course positioning:
- What does your ideal student look like? Where do they live, what do they do for fun, what musicians do they follow?
- What level of guitar skill do you ideally want to teach online?
- What areas of expertise and skills set you apart from other guitar teachers?
If you are already teaching, make sure to ask your students what they enjoy most about your teaching style, or what challenges in their playing you’ve helped them overcome.
If you’re new to teaching guitar, do a quick search on Google for terms like ‘learn guitar online’. You’re bound to see a ton of questions on what people want to learn. Note what online guitar schools are already out there, what people are searching, and where you could fill a gap.
Step 2: Decide your course format and teaching method
There are several options when it comes to setting up guitar lessons online.
Maybe you want to have a more hands-off approach and develop all self-serve virtual lessons.
Or maybe you enjoy face time with students but want more leverage in your time by offering some supplemental online resources.
Let’s look at a couple of different ways you can use courses to teach guitar online:
Option 1: Self-serve online guitar lessons
This approach is to create lessons that enable students to work through the material at their own pace with no extra coaching required from you.
The benefit of this is once you create and upload your course, you can teach an unlimited amount of students with no extra demands on your time.
James Testani set up his online academy GoodGuitarist to be a self-serve virtual school for beginners. His lessons systematically build foundational skills for new guitar players. “This method allows you to impact many more students while fostering a sense of community,” explains Testani.
Source: GoodGuitarist
With online courses, you can help tons of people with the same topic. And even though you’re teaching digitally, you can still make a strong connection with your students by building community into your business.
– JAMES TESTANI, FOUNDER OF GOODGUITARIST
Option 2: A combination of online courses and live coaching
A popular model among online guitar teachers is blending self-paced courses with live coaching sessions. This method maintains a personal touch and helps students overcome challenges in real time.
James Shipway is a good example of this method. He runs Total Guitar Lab on Thinkific and offers several self-serve guitar courses as well as live coaching opportunities.
For example, students can purchase individual courses to master a specific guitar technique as well as sign up for live workshops and coaching for help working through the material:
I’ve taught over 30,000 hours of one-on-one lessons, but the problem with this is that it’s simply not scalable, and it’s limited by locality. Teaching online means I can reach players all around the world and share what I’ve learned from all my teaching and performing experiences.
– JAMES SHIPWAY, FOUNDER OF TOTAL GUITAR LAB
Souce: Total Guitar Lab
Option 3: Online guitar membership
A membership model provides ongoing value through a subscription-based service. Students gain access to a library of resources, including exclusive lessons and a community for peer support. Thinkific offers a monthly billed community feature to make this type of membership easy for students. This way students can support each other and connect over their shared guitar learning, and you gain reoccurring revenue.
Source: Thinkific
If you’re leaning towards this option, you can easily create a membership site on Thinkific.
Step 3: Get your tools and equipment for teaching online
To bring your guitar teaching online, you’ll need the right set of tools and equipment. In this section, we’ll review some common tools guitar teachers use.
Online course platform
Many online guitar teachers use Thinkific to build their very own virtual guitar studio. Here are just a few of the reasons guitarists love using the platform:
- Autopilot lessons: Upload your lessons, and Thinkific does the rest, presenting your materials to students in the sequence you’ve set. This automation ensures students have consistent access to your content, whether it’s videos, worksheets, or any other educational materials.
- Easy content updates: The platform’s intuitive design makes it simple to keep your course content fresh and relevant. You can effortlessly update videos, audio clips, or worksheets, ensuring your lessons evolve alongside your teaching methods.
- Customization and control: With Thinkific, you’re in the driver’s seat. Customize course pricing, appearance, and student interactions to reflect your brand and teaching philosophy. Plus, you retain full access to vital student data, such as email addresses and course progress.
- Streamlined payments: Revenue flows directly to you. Thinkific’s integrations with leading payment processors like PayPal ensure hassle-free transactions and simplify tax calculations for international students.
James Testani runs his online school, GoodGuitarist, using Thinkific. He loves having the flexibility to update his course content at any time, to reflect evolutions in his teaching style:
With Thinkific, I can change things and improve my course as I learn more. It allows me to reach people with the most up-to-date information, in the best way I can teach it. I may teach something a certain way today, but five years from now I will probably have a better way of teaching it.
– JAMES TESTANI, FOUNDER OF GOODGUITARIST
Source: Total Guitar Lab
Music recording software
Consider starting with free tools like Audacity or GarageBand for crafting audio samples or full lessons. They offer a solid foundation for recording high-quality sound. Advanced features and more intricate compositions might necessitate paid software like ProTools or Ableton, but these are generally not required to begin teaching online.
Music notation software
Incorporating music notation into your lessons? Software options like ScoreCloud, Sibelius, Guitar Pro, and Finale offer a range of functionalities to suit different needs, from simple song notation to complex compositions.
Microphone
Audio clarity is crucial. Investing in a quality microphone, like the Samson Meteor, Blue Yeti, or Audio-Technica, can significantly enhance your lessons’ sound quality. While many instructors use their phone or laptop cameras, an external webcam, such as the Logitech Pro HD, can provide a sharper video quality, making your lessons more visually appealing.
Video chat software and internet connection
For live sessions, reliable video chat software and a stable internet connection are non-negotiable. Thinkific’s Zoom integration facilitates live interactions, while ensuring your connection is robust enough to support HD video calls is vital for maintaining lesson quality and student engagement.
Related article: Want more details on recommended tools for teaching music online? Check out this guide to the best equipment and software for creating your online course.
Step 4: Create your first online guitar course
Where do you start mapping out your course content? Follow these next steps, and you’ll be on the right path!
Create your course sales page
A good first step is to create a sales page for your course on Thinkific. Your course sales page is where potential students get their first impression of what you offer. It’s essential to communicate the value of your course clearly and compellingly. Include key information like what students will learn, the benefits of your course, social proof through testimonials, and a strong call to action.
Here’s an example of a good sales page. This is for James Testani’s course on learning guitar once and for all.
Source: Good Guitarist Courses
The page has a clear value proposition about what you’ll learn through the course, and includes social proof from past students. It has pricing options available, and, most importantly, a clear call to action encouraging visitors to ‘buy now’.
If you had to fill in all these elements for your own course right now (before creating any of your content), can you see how it would help focus what you put in your course?
Create your course outline
Let’s say you want to create a course on fingerstyle guitar. To create your outline, you’ll want to identify the following:
- What stage your student is at before enrolling your course (Point A)
- What the student’s desired abilities and expectations are for taking your course (Point B)
- The key steps, topics, and skills they’d need to move from their current state (Point A) to their desired state (Point B)
Once you have this rough outline down, it will be much easier to decide whether you need to film a video, develop a worksheet, or write specific lead sheets to develop finger-picking strength.
Since mapping out a course outline can be tricky, we’ve put together a helpful guide and interactive to walk you through the process. You can download it below!
Why reinvent the wheel? Grab our templates and start outlining your course today, plus an interactive guide to walk you through.
Next, we’ll walk through some common elements that successful guitar instructors include in their courses for great online learning experiences!
Elements of a great online guitar course
Successful guitar courses on Thinkific share several elements:
- Interactive video tutorials with tablature and chord overlays
- Play-along audio tracks
- Assignments for skill assessment
- Certifications to motivate students
- Supplementary resources like chord charts and practice schedules
- Coaching and feedback opportunities
- Community building features to engage and connect students
Interactive video tutorials
The top guitar schools include detailed video tutorials in each lesson. These often include on-screen tablature, chord, and strumming overlays to keep them interactive. Also, personalize your content whenever you can, by creating a warm welcome video to your course, and letting your personality show on camera.
Play along audio tracks
Many guitar instructors also include play-along songs, allowing students to follow along slowly and apply the techniques demonstrated in the tutorial videos.
Student assignments
Asking students to record a sample of their playing, and upload it to Thinkific is a great way for you to review their progress. Creating an assignment for each module of your course helps keep the file-sharing process streamlined and organized.
Certifications
For each course your students complete, you can award them with certificates right from your Thinkific site. Certificates are a great way to increase completion rates, as they act as a motivator for some students.
Resources like chord charts, lead sheets
Add helpful resources like chord cheat sheets, lead sheets, or even a downloadable practice schedule to help your students keep on track. Upload your PDFs and worksheets right into Thinkific. You can have students can access them in a specific order to go along with their progress or provide a bundle of helpful resources up front.
Guitarist Dave Tran offers an ebook on his GuitarZero2Hero course site.
Coaching and feedback
Create a Live Lesson within the course builder to add a live coaching component to your course. Schedule your sessions ahead of time and set up notifications for your students.
Community
Many guitar course sites include access to an exclusive community. Cultivating a sense of community is important to keep your students engaged and connect with other students worldwide. This is especially important if you’re interested in creating a membership site. With the Thinkific Community feature, you can create a private place for your students to connect, right on your course site.
Be there for your students. Most other instructors aren’t, and I’ve had loads of surprised customers email me back saying that they couldn’t believe I actually replied to their question!
– JAMES SHIPWAY, FOUNDER OF TOTAL GUITAR LAB
Trying to keep all of these things in mind can seem overwhelming. But remember – you don’t need to have all of this built to launch your first online course.
On the contrary, focus on building out one really great course that delivers the transformation your students are looking for. Get feedback from your students, improve your content, and then consider adding more pieces over time.
James Shipway speaks from experience when he says that his best advice for guitarists is just to get started!
Don’t wait ‘until you’re ready’. If you can teach well, go for it. So much online guitar tuition is just garbage and confuses people more than it helps them. Work out what you teach really well and notice where most players fall short on this topic. Then figure out what you’ve got that will help them and how to present it in a way they can actually use. Don’t overwhelm them with thousands of bits and pieces… just give them what they need to get some results and see some progress.
– JAMES SHIPWAY, FOUNDER OF TOTAL GUITAR LAB
James Shipway speaks from experience when he says that his best advice for guitarists is just to get started!
Step 5: Market your online guitar course
Last but not least, you need a plan to get students into you course.
Your marketing goal is to improve the ‘know, like and trust’ factor you have with your audience. In other words, you need to create a visibility among your target community, build your authority, and foster goodwill by providing actionable value.
There are an infinite number of ways to market your online course. But we’ve seen a few common ones work especially well for guitarists teaching online.
Build your presence on YouTube
YouTube is a great platform to invest in building your profile as a guitarist, and instructor. It’s often the first place people turn to online to improve their guitar skills. Having a presence on YouTube will help you capture organic search traffic from people looking for guitar tutorials. From your channel, you can drive that interest to your course site.
Guitarist James Shipway has seen this strategy drive tons of traffic to his courses:
“I love the fact that my YouTube content is evergreen. I’ve got videos that I made 3 years ago which still get views and help me get my name out there. I don’t always heavily promote my courses and membership in my YouTube lessons… but I do have certain ‘series’ of videos that promote any relevant products I have to offer,” he says.
Have a social media strategy
Decide what your goals are with social media before jumping onto each and every platform out there. Which platforms can you leverage the most to develop your community? How can you use each channel to drive traffic back to your site?
Also, keep in mind where your target audience spends the most time online. If you’re targeting an older demographic to teach them beginner guitar, Facebook and YouTube might be your best bet.
Take your time to research your target demographics on social media, then start putting content out there to test your engagement!
I’ve been using Facebook ads since the beginning of launching my online course. It’s the best way I’ve found to reach new people every day.
– DAVIDE PANNOZZO, FOUNDER OF GUITARLAB
Use lead magnets to grow your email list
Since teaching online means you’re running a digital business, you must start to build your email list if you haven’t already.
Even if you have tons of traffic to your social media or course site, only a small portion of that traffic will actually transpire into paying customers.
A good strategy to build your list is to create a lead magnet – a free resource – for download. This could be a free ebook, or PDF of musical samples you demonstrate on your YouTube channel. When people download your free resources, you’ll get their email in return. You can use then nurture these emails towards your paid programs by sending them information about all the helpful training you have available.
Write an ebook
Ebooks serve multiple purposes; they can be an additional revenue stream, a marketing tool, or a lead magnet. By sharing your unique insights and techniques, you position yourself as an authority in your field.
Take Dan Cosley for example, who’s found success building his audience and driving sales with ebooks:
Unlike many music instructors, I haven’t focused much on YouTube or social media, but have instead relied on book writing and traditional publishing to generate interest in my video courses. I have cultivated a synergy between Amazon book sales and Thinkific course enrollments to create revenue.
– DAN COSLEY, FOUNDER OF WAY OF THE GUITAR
Get ready to strum your way to success
That’s everything you need to kickstart your journey into online guitar teaching with Thinkific. From honing in on your unique teaching proposition to drawing in students who resonate with your passion for music, you’re set up for success. Whether you’re all about the electric guitar style, prefer to strum the acoustic guitar styles, or just love the mix of songwriting and chord progressions, teaching guitar online could be the perfect creative outlet for your skills.
Remember, your journey is about more than just teaching music theory and strumming patterns — it’s about connecting with and inspiring your students. With Thinkific by your side, you’re well-equipped to make a meaningful impact.
So, dive in with confidence. Your next eager student is just around the corner, and a world of musical journeys is waiting to begin.
What do you think about teaching guitar online, is it something you’d try?
If you have experience teaching music online, we’d love to know how it’s worked for you and lessons you’ve learned along the way!
Ready to start creating your guitar course? Sign up for a free account on Thinkific, and download this helpful free guide to creating your first online course:
This blog was originally published in November 2021, it’s since been updated with the newest information in July 2024.
