How much do guitar lessons cost

How Much Do Guitar Lessons Cost: Average Price Of Guitar Lessons

If  you’re looking to start learning guitar, you’ll want to know how much do guitar lessons cost. The price of guitar lessons can vary, but is typically $25-$60 for an hour, and usually about 60% of the hourly rate for 30 minute lessons.

The cost and price of your lesson will depend on things such as your skill level, the experience and skill level of your teacher, and curriculum you are hoping to learn.

These days you have a lot of options for guitar lessons. You can get in-person lessons, live online lessons, or pre-recorded online lessons similar to what you might find on Youtube.

Let’s break down some of the things you’ll want to consider, so you know how much you should be paying for guitar lessons.

How much do guitar lessons cost per hour?

Hour long lessons are the standard. I really don’t recommend half hour lessons, except for children, as they usually cannot pay attention for an hour straight.

For an hour long lesson. Expect to pay between $25-$60 for the average lesson.

How Much for 30 minute guitar lessons?

30 minute or half hour lessons usually cost about 60% of the hourly rate. So if the instructor is offering hour long lessons at $30 an hour. expect to pay about $20 for a 30 minute lesson, usually rounding up to the nearest 5/10 dollar amount. 

Again, I’d recommend against 30 minute lessons for adults, as by the time you get warmed up and playing through basics, you don’t have much time to work on skills. If cost is a concern, go with hour long lessons every other week as opposed to 30 minute session every week. It’s a better bang for your buck.

The cost of guitar lessons varies by location

Your location impacts the cost of guitar lessons in your area. If you live in an area where the cost of living is typically higher, expect to pay more for music lessons. The musicians teaching typically charge more, but large urban cities might also have more teachers available, driving the price down.

I taught guitar lessons in a small town and our prices were about the same as in the closest city, simply because there were only a few guitarists teaching in the entire town.

It really depends on the local scene of musicians. You might want to stick to reputable shops, or find a local guitarist in the classifieds. Both can have great instructors.

Online and Digital Guitar Lessons Price

Digital guitar lessons are nothing new. Even since the days of VHS and DVD you could purchase pre-recorded guitar lessons, walking you through the basics. Today is no different, except you have a much wider range of lessons to choose from.

The price of digital lessons hasn’t changed much, and ranges wilding from cheap basic courses, to highly specific skills and advanced lessons.

Live online lessons are where the industry has really changed. You can now do video call lessons from the comfort of your own home, with an instructor walking you through the lesson, in real time.

You can usually get a 2 week trial on most online or digital lessons, if they have a subscription package.

These are a great option, but they aren’t quite as good as in-person lessons. With online lessons, you don’t get the teacher being right there, being able to show you exactly where you’re going wrong.

In-person the teacher can literally point at your fingers and show you where it needs to go, online is a different story.

Nonetheless, online lessons are still a great option if you can’t get out of the house, but I do recommend in-person lessons.

Cost of Guitar Lessons Depending on Skill Level

Beginner guitarists don’t need to worry about this too much. Pretty much anyone that’s been playing a while can teach the basics. Experienced guitarists charge more, so it might be a good idea to switch teachers every now and then.

No need to have a highly skilled guitarist, charging you big bucks to teach you how to hold your guitar and strum basic chords. They’ll still charge the market rate for their advanced skills. When you’re just starting out, it isn’t worth it.

So, if you’re a beginner to intermediate skill level, I recommend going with a teacher that charges a lower standard rate. You’ll save money every lesson per week, and it adds up quickly, lessons are not cheap!

Once you’ve been playing a couple years, you might have developed the skills you need to learn on your own. You’ve mastered the fundamentals and now you want to spread you wings and fly.

That’s great, I’ve done the same, nobody takes weekly guitar lessons forever. What you may want to consider is taking sets of 6-12 lessons with a really advanced and skill guitar instructor that will help you with a specific skill you want to work on.

Maybe shredding, maybe music theory, advanced lessons cost more, but can really help you improve, even if you’re already a seasoned guitarist.

High Cost of Genre Specific Guitar Lessons

Here’s where the price of lessons can quickly cost a lot of money. Want to learn a specific genre? It’s going to cost you more! I still recommend going with a cheaper teach to learn the basics, but once you have been playing for a while you’ll want to branch out.

Even if you only want to shred metal all day, taking blues lessons will up your game, massively

Want to learn Spanish guitar? A decent teacher will be able to point you in the right direction, but they probably won’t regularly play Spanish style regularly.

Spanish guitar teachers are far more rare than average teachers, so they charge far more! I’m just using Spanish guitar as an example but this stays true for all other genres or advanced techniques too.

Bluegrass, slide guitar, classical, metal are all their own bird and you might be better off paying more for a teacher that lives and breaths the genre you’re interested in.

Leave a Comment