How Much Are Guitar Lessons? Cost of Private & Online Lessons

Author: Dedrich Schafer | Updated: | This post may contain affiliate links.

In today’s world, there are many options available to people who want to start learning how to play guitar, as well as long-time guitarists looking to sharpen up their skills.

We are no longer limited to one-on-one lessons. We now also have a wide range of online services that provide a more convenient way of learning. But how much do guitar lessons cost these days?

Let us take a look at both in-person and online guitar lessons, and see how much we can expect to pay for each.

Cost of In-Person Guitar Lessons

In-person lessons are usually split into sessions of different lengths. Private tutors will either give lessons in 30, 45, or 60-minute blocks. Some tutors will offer you a choice between the three, but usually, their lessons are set at a certain length.

A shorter lesson time will be cheaper, however. In other words, a lesson of 30 minutes is going to cost less than a 45-minute lesson, and a 45-minute lesson is going to cost less than a 60-minute one.

The price is going to vary depending on a few factors, but there is an average range you can expect to pay for in-person guitar lessons. When it comes to offline guitar lessons, a 30-minute lesson will usually cost between $20 – $30, 45-minute lessons are around $30 – $60, and 60-minute lessons can be anywhere between $60 – $100.

You’ll notice that the longer a lesson is, the more expensive it becomes. This is because of the time investment on the tutor’s part. The longer they spend with each student, the fewer students they can fit into a day.

So, they make up for this with higher rates. But this also means that you have more time per lesson, allowing you to learn more.

Cost of Online Guitar Lessons

Online lessons are a lot cheaper than in-person lessons. Because of the way that online lessons work, they can’t really be split into individual lessons and charged that way.

So, instead of charging you $20 for a 30-minute lesson, online lessons are sold as monthly and yearly subscriptions.

That means that you pay a flat rate every month or year. There are many online subscription services for lessons like Guitar Tricks and JamPlay, both of which are currently around $20 a month or between $100 – $150 per year.

Between them, I personally recommend Guitar Tricks.

You also have the option of trying these services out for free before committing to a subscription. Trial periods will differ slightly from site to site, but are normally around 7 to 14 days.

I’m adding the direct links to the free trials of these platforms:

Why Are Online Guitar Lessons Cheaper?

The reason why online lessons are so much cheaper than in-person lessons basically comes down to logistics.

Instead of a tutor doing individual lessons with each student, they simply record a series of instructional videos. These videos are then shared among a much larger number of students at the same time.

You can think of it like the tutor teaching 7 students a day in person, but with videos they can now teach 100 students a day. This means that they are generating much more revenue overall, which means they can charge less per student.

The tutors might also just be paid upfront to record the videos. This allows the company behind the service to keep all of the money from the subscriptions. This, in turn, means that they can charge less while still being profitable.

What Affects the Cost of In-Person Guitar Lessons?

The amount someone charges for in-person lessons is going to be determined by a few different factors. I already mentioned how the length of a lesson can affect the cost.

The longer a lesson is, the more the tutor will charge. This is due to the time they have to dedicate to each student. The longer their lessons are, the fewer students they can have in a day. To compensate for this, they charge more per lesson.

There are two other major factors that determine how much someone will charge for their lessons: their location and their skill level.

Skill Level

Someone who is just starting out as a guitar instructor is going to charge much less than someone who has been doing it for years. This is mainly because they haven’t built a reputation yet.

Being more affordable will allow a beginner instructor to attract more students and quickly build up a solid base of regular students.

Someone who has been teaching for many years, on the other hand, will be able to much more easily charge a premium price for lessons. They will likely have built up a reputation as a good instructor. This will lead to more people recommending them and justifying the higher price because you are getting a high-quality experience.

Location

The location an instructor is in will also affect their lesson prices. Of course, if someone is giving guitar lessons, they are likely doing it as a source of income, if not as their profession. That means that they want to make a profit to be able to pay rent, buy food, etc.

If the area they live in has a high cost of living, they are going to charge more per lesson. If their area is more affordable, then their lessons will also be more affordable.

Generally speaking, cities have much higher costs of living than suburban and rural areas. So, if you live in a city like Los Angeles or Chicago, you are going to pay more for guitar lessons than someone who lives in smalltown Minnesota.

How Much Should You Charge for Guitar Lessons?

If you’ve been playing guitar for a while, you might be at a point where you want to start making a bit of money from your talent. Many guitarists start playing shows, but many others take up teaching, either as a side job or as their full-time profession.

Regardless of why you start giving guitar lessons, the first question everyone faces is how much should they be charging?

If you take all of these factors into consideration, you should be able to come up with a fair price for your guitar lessons. If you are starting out, $25 for a 45-minute lesson should be a fair amount to charge.

This will give students a decent lesson length and allow you to fit in plenty of students per day. This is also a fairly competitive price without being too low for you to be able to make a profit.

What Affects How Much You Can Charge?

To know how much you can charge for lessons, it’s important to understand the things that affect your asking rate.

Level of Skill

The most obvious thing that will affect how much you can charge is your own skill level in guitar.

If you’re a beginner, you’re likely not going to be giving lessons, but if you are, you won’t be able to charge much. But when you’re starting from the intermediate level, you can make a list of everything you could confidently teach someone else.

If you can only really teach chords, chord variations, progressions, and other basic techniques, you’re going to have to charge less than someone who can teach arpeggios, music theory, reading music, and other advanced techniques.

The more you can reliably and comfortably teach, the more you can charge.

Type of Lesson and Traveling

If you’re giving private lessons, you’ll be able to charge more because you’re obviously giving more attention to each student and also teaching fewer students per day.

Group lessons will be less per student since you’ll be able to teach more students per day and are likely to earn more.

You should also consider the traveling involved with your lessons. If you have no traveling involved, or in other words, you’re giving lessons from home, then there will likely be a set rate for each student.

If you’re traveling to a school or to a student’s house, take into consideration the distance you have to travel to the student and any rent you might have to pay.

Increase your rates to make sure you can cover the cost of travel and rent.

Look at What Others are Asking

To get a good idea of how much you should probably be charging, look at other guitar teachers in your area.

Take all the teachers that have a similar skill level and teaching setup, and you should be able to establish an average rate per lesson.

Remember that these teachers are, after all, your competition. You want to set your rates to be competitive, but also realistic.

This means that you don’t want to set it too high or too low. Too high and people will consider you to be too expensive. Too low and you might come across as being cheap and not very good.

Setting Your Rate

Once you’ve taken all these things into consideration, you should be able to set your rates per lesson quite easily.

Depending on where you live, you might find that the ideal asking rate is between $20-$40 per guitar lesson.

You can then slowly increase how much you charge as your skill improves and living costs increases, etc.

Final Tips

To make your prices more appealing, you can give discounts for upfront payments. For example, charging less for lessons in batches of ten, only charging per semester, etc.

Also, make sure to protect yourself by setting up a strict penalty policy for late or unpaid fees.

Final Thoughts

If you were wondering, “how much are guitar lessons?”, good news for you! Guitar lessons are not only more affordable than ever but also easier and more convenient.

Whether you prefer having a one-on-one experience or the more introvert-friendly online method, rest assured there is a guitar lesson plan out there to suit your needs.

If you’re struggling to find a tutor offline, there are guitar lessons available at big-name Guitar stores like Guitar Center and Sam Ash. If you’ve decided on the offline learning route, you can just get started with those if you’re struggling to find a private tutor.

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About Dedrich Schafer

Dedrich is a guitar player, songwriter and sound engineer with extensive music production and studio experience. He mostly listens to classic rock and punk bands, but sometimes also likes listening to rap and acoustic songs.

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