Let’s face it, most free guitar courses are aimed at absolute beginners or those in their first year of playing. If you’re reading this blog (thank you), you’re probably not a beginner because I don’t do a lot of beginner stuff –the internet has that pretty much covered—and you’re looking to advance your playing, get past the intermediate plateau or perhaps get out of a rut. The following courses could be just what you need to make some much-needed progress. You can find these courses, and a ton of others, on the Udemy platform, which works great on any device and saves you trawling YouTube in the hopes of finding something halfway decent and probably getting distracted in the process.

Go Country

First up is a course entitled, ‘Hybrid Technique for Modern Guitar’, which is basically a very in-depth free introduction to that kind of shred country guitar playing that Greg Koch et al do so well, not to mention how impressive it sounds and looks. On this course, you’ll learn country guitar theory and scales, which reinforces your knowledge of the fretboard, as well as hybrid picking, country bends, double stops, banjo rolls and of course, chickin’ pickin’. This course has a really nice balance between theory and technique, goes at a good pace and is great for anyone stuck in a soloing rut or wanting to delve into country guitar. Check it out here.

Jazz Things Up (no longer free)

Next Up is Tyler Larson of Music is Win fame with a free jazz course entitled, ‘Jazz Guitar Tips, Tricks and Licks’, which is surprisingly good. If you like your jazz simple and easy-to-follow, you’ll enjoy this course as Tyler takes the basic components of jazz such as chords, harmony and soloing and breaks them down into easy-to-digest chunks. He also takes a look at the playing of Wes Montgomery and even goes into different styles of jazz such as bossa nova, jazz fusion and hip hop?! Check it out here, you might like it.

Get Your Picking into Shape

I have to admit, I was never a fan of alternate picking (opting for economy picking instead) but over the last few years I’ve been working on incorporating it into my playing, just for the sake of being more versatile. On the ‘Alternate Picking Speed and Accuracy’ course, you’ll learn the components of alternate picking such as right and left hand isolation practice, moving between adjacent strings, inside and outside picking, crossing the neck, as well as various etudes to practice putting it all together. All in all, a great little course on alternate picking. Check it out here.

Anyone for Bluegrass?

Even if you don’t like bluegrass guitar, it provides an amazing workout for your picking hand as well as some pretty amazing-sounding tunes to learn. As the name of this course suggests, ‘Red Haired Boy on Guitar – Learn the Bluegrass Fiddle Tune’, you’ll be learning the aforementioned bluegrass fiddle tune for guitar in a step-by-step fashion with bluegrass guitarist Sandi Millar. This is great value as the techniques you learn for one bluegrass tune can be applied to many others, as well as getting you into the art of crosspicking as we looked at in this article. Check out the course here.

Blues Licks and Beyond

Last but by no means least is, ‘15 Essential Blues Guitar Licks’, which you might think is just a bunch of licks you could learn anywhere on the internet, but is actually a great stand-alone blues course that gives intermediate to advanced players insight into the nuances of blues soloing through various licks played over a 12-bar blues. What makes this a great course for intermediate and up players is the focus on licks that really highlight the chord changes, which is the very thing that will take your blues soloing to the next level. Check the course out here.

Most of the above courses are completely free to take (no BS), all you need do is follow the links, create an account with your email address and sign up for the free course!