There are many websites offering online jazz guitar lessons, but before choosing it is important that you are ready to play jazz guitar. Many budding jazz guitarists specialize too early and find themselves lacking in technique when they come to the more complex aspects of playing jazz.

If you have not had proper formal training in guitar before, it is important that you register for a course that first takes you through the basics, even if you believe yourself to be a good guitarist. You must be well versed in the basic chords, keys, scales and perhaps even be able to play harmonics - both natural an artificial. What you need to know will be determined by the scope of the jazz guitar course.

It is probably better for you if your online jazz guitar lessons were part of a fundamentally more extensive course in playing guitar, that takes you from the basics of your instrument right through the progression of strumming, chords, scales, fingerstyle and so on in way that trains you in a holistic manner to be able to play any genre you choose, and so that jazz is simply an extension of your course.

By learning guitar that way each technique will be mastered before you progress, and no assumptions are made. The problem with a one-off jazz guitar course is that it will not be suitable for all skill levels. Some will lack basic techniques needed to follow the course, while others will already have inbuilt bad habits. Yet others might find a particular course too elementary, so it is important that you are able to adjust the course to suit your personal needs.

As a very minimum a jazz guitarist should understand chords, keys and their relationship with each other. A knowledge of tempo and time signatures is essential, as is knowing how to play harmonics that are widely used in playing jazz. Once you are accomplished in these techniques you will be ready to learn jazz, with its many voicings and jazz rhythms. You will learn about the circle of fifths which geometrically represents the relationship between the twelve pitch classes of the chromatic scale in pitch class space: if this is gobbledygook to you then you need a good jazz guitar course that takes you from the basics through the intermediate stages to real jazz guitar theory and practice.

There's no good learning how to play if you don't understand the theory, since only then will you be able to be innovative. Even players that learned by ear eventually had to learn some theory, and scales and pitch are extremely important components of practically all music, let along jazz guitar. So what is the best way to learn jazz guitar, and where do you find the best courses?

Online is best, and you have a choice between one-off courses supplied on DVD or a membership site where you pay monthly for ongoing lessons. What are the benefits of each? Without a doubt, the DVD is the cheaper option because you only have one payment to make. In the same way, a single football ticket is cheaper than a season ticket, but which is best value? A DVD gives you one course of lessons and that is it, whereas a good membership provides you with a series of lessons, not only in your chosen genre, but any style of play you want to try.

A good membership site will offer you a choice of guitar teachers, and will update their course from time to time. They can also offer pages of chord diagrams, scales, songs to play to and backing tracks to play along with. You don't usually get this with a DVD. Not only that, but if you feel like trying some of the classical techniques while learning jazz, you are not just restricted to online jazz guitar lessons, but can try out some of the other lessons as well.

You can try some of the classical guitar techniques, have a look at what heavy metal are teaching and might want to introduce some blues into your jazz. You can do all that with a good membership site, but not with a DVD. It's a no-brainer really, and you can start at the very beginning, get rid of your bad habits, and progress through the stages until you are an accomplished jazz guitarist. Many people choose to do that - to start all over again with the right techniques.

So if you are looking for online jazz guitar lessons be honest with yourself regarding your current ability, and if you need a few beginner or intermediate guitar lessons first, then an online membership site will likely be your best option.