The future of learning how to play the guitar may be now. Learning to play the guitar using hi-tech interactive learning tools has many of the same advantages as buying a guitar online. Obviously, one advantage is that you don't have to leave your home. Another advantage is your teacher is always there for you.

Some of the methods of teaching online are so thoroughly designed and technically accurate that in my opinion a guitar player can find exactly what type of lessons that can be purchased to suit your exact needs. I'm talking from first time players with no experience to experienced guitarists that need a little extra time spent on their chops, technical issues and advanced techniques.

My top rated sites are fun to get involved with and use many famous guitar players as teachers. Most of them offer free trial periods. The evidence I have collected suggests that most of the artists that teach have been educated at some of the best musical schools in the world. What they have to share would take years and years of musical training.

I also appreciate being able to focus on the style of music I prefer. Therefore removing some of the aggravation of going to see a guitar teacher and having to stick with one set in stone curriculum.

What I mean to say is that not all teachers are at the top if their game. Not all teachers will teach you the vibe you want to learn without going through a bunch of B.S. first. Some teachers just want to string you on and make more money. Another benefit of quality online lessons, they cost less and you have the lesson and a teacher at your fingertips all the time, in case you forget some of your lesson.

Note: I have known people that started taking lessons. Wanting to play a particular style like the Blues, Rock or Jazz. These requests were discussed with their teachers the day of their first meeting. They did not want to learn a bunch of other styles. The students learned what was asked of them in terms of scales. etc., and got good at it. However, learning the particular style requested did not happen, very frustrating. Taking lessons on the internet gives you total control of what vibe you learn.

Ideally online lessons can be a terrific learning aid combined with a good teacher(If you can find one).

The top sites to examine online guitar and music lessons in my opinion are Guitar Pro, JamCenter, JamTrax/Ultimateguitar, Jacorama, instrumentnetwork and a site by Andy Aledort. A search in search engines will turn up any of the sites mentioned.

Describing the resources and tools available at these sites would take more time than necessary, visiting these tutorial sites is more interesting anyway. All of them have a ton of learning materials available. Describing how they invent these tools is even more baffling!

I am an intermediate level player and I'm working on timing issues related to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Andy Aledort is probably the guitar player and teacher most familiar with Hendrix or SRV. I have been using his lessons for a few years now. He is a mind blower! I use the lessons combined with my living guitar teachers lessons together.

For I instance, I bought the Jimi Hendrix Experience DVD and Tab Book from Musicians Friend. The DVD has every song on the album. Each song is broken down into the intro and main verses. The actual free time playing where Jimi loses his mind is not included. I will explain about free time later. Andy breaks each lick into 3 parts.

1. He plays the lick at full speed using a backup track with drums and bass with perfect timing.

2. He breaks down each lick into understandable terms. The key it is in, the scales and chords Jimi uses and how to finger or thumb the lick.

3. He plays the lick nice and slow, so we can see and assimilate what he just played in perfect timing.

You notice immediately while watching this DVD how knowledgeable Andy Aledort is and what a great guitar player he is also. DVD's are great because you can play any part over and over until you get it right. I definitely recommend the tab book so you have the tablature and music in front of you. In case it is not included with the DVD. In this case it comes as a package.

Free time by Jimi Hendrix would be the time he spent in between verses. Playing lead guitar using every weapon at his disposal and every bit of inner soul he had to make his wild and unorthodox notes say something. Free time often lasted up to 45 minutes in some live performances. (I'm old enough to have had the honor of seeing Jimi perform when I was a kid, I'll never get over it!) Especially on song like Voodoochild. Free time was a signature/trademark of Jimi Hendrix. Download Voodoochild off iTunes and listen to it about 10 times and then you will understand. Let me know what you think of free time?

Back to more online guitar lessons and some brief ramblings on each method. I absolutely recommend visiting each one of these sites and touring the whole site. Most of the tools they develop are really innovative and useful. There are so many ingenious and fun ways to teach that my opinion is to the take time to find all the tools on each site and make a decision that is in your best interests. Not every one learns the same way and you may find a method that suits you better. It's also tons of fun trying out these sites. As I mentioned earlier most of the products are free to test, therefore hopefully you will have the evaluation time to get what is best for you.

I use GuitarPro. It goes well with all of the other learning tools I use, including jamming (a great way to learn to play with other people) with my buddy Steve. It is the complete learning system. It uses multi-track tab editor tools for guitar, banjo and bass. Besides writing scores, Guitar Pro is a useful tool for guitar players from the beginner to more experienced levels of skill , you can even compose with Guitar Pro, or simply accompany yourself. There is a large variety of tablature or songs available to use on Guitar Pro. GP has a built in Tablature Editor, cool Scales Tools, Audio Playback, Digital Tuner, MIDI & ASCII hookups, Import/Export features, a Metronome, Chords Diagrams, Speed Trainer and a Guitar Fretboard on the screen in front of you. Check it out for free.

JamCenter is a really cool website with the most useful scale generator available, in my opinion. The interactive jam player is where guitarists can practice their theory, chords and lead!

The jams in this machine are in any key you choose and the rhythm backing tracks include rock, jazz, major, cool and blues. Click on a rhythm and plug in your guitar! I use this one all the time. It's free and a highly effective fun way to play with the scales and background music that turns you on.

The Instrumentalnetwork is a musicians community directly related to JamCenter. Don't take my word for it, check it out, I know I'm not the only person impressed with the mighty duo of JamCenter and Instrumentalnetwork and making good use of it, for free!