To sign up, please click on the “Sign Up” button at the top section of this website, and fill out the signup form. Once you have completed the signup process, your login information will be emailed to you at the email address you have provided.

Your payments are handled by Paypal though a 256-bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. Your private information is never recorded or stored. We never share your personal information with any third party.

Yes, the website and the video content are platform independent. You can sign up for our Free Trial program to make sure the program will work on your computer, before you sign up for a paid membership.

In the first couple of lessons you may be able to work on basic left and right hand techniques on a steel string guitar. Eventually, however, you will need to move up to a true classical or Flamenco guitar.

You can easily upgrade your Free Trial account to a paid membership by logging in to your student homepage, clicking ‘Add/Renew subscription’ and following the instructions.

Yes. All LAGA programs have been designed by professional guitarists and dedicated music educators. The curriculum for each program is based conventional guitar pedagogy and enhanced by breakthrough concepts in music education. Therefore the overall content and general skill sequencing will be similar to reputable private instruction with the LAGA Faculty. LAGA programs are complete course offerings. While they are wonderful for those interested in independent home study, they are also a great way to supplement your private guitar lessons and have fun while practicing. All LAGA programs can be supplemented by live, one on one coaching in our virtual classroom through LAGA Live.

We offer both on-demand and live webcam lessons. The webcam lessons, of course, would help you progress much faster since they are given live and in person by one of our LAGA faculty members.

The webcam lessons are taught in a one-on-one, private format. They are very similar to studying in-person with our instructors in our studios, only on Skype. If you want to pursue that option, the best way to get started is by filling out the pre-registration form on our studio website. We will then match you with a private teacher that will be the best fit for your background and goals, as well as a time slot that will work for both you. Many students have studied the guitar successfully using this format.

Our on-demand lessons are pre-recorded streaming videos. They are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and are also taught by the Los Angeles Guitar Academy faculty. With this program, we also offer free feedback from our instructors once a month. Each month, you may send a video clip of yourself playing one of your pieces. One of our LAGA instructors will review it carefully, and send you a detailed email with their evaluation, giving you advice on how you can improve your playing skills, as well as encouraging you in areas of strength. For both options, students pay for one month’s lessons in advance. Students are placed on automatic billing thereafter until they cancel.

We are not a tips and tricks school. We ground our students in sound guitar technique, technique that will last for a lifetime, provide a solid foundation for upper-level study in any playing style, and prevent tension and injuries. That said, your progress and/or completion of the program(s) is solely dependent upon your diligence.

There are seven levels in LAGA’s online classical guitar course. By spending only three to four months at each level, you can complete the entire course in only twenty-one to twenty-eight months. You can see noticeable results in the first month, if you practice diligently. Our classical guitar curriculum is focused on teaching you to play the guitar–and play it well–in less time for less money than any other program of its caliber.

There are no prerequisites for beginning the course–no formal admission program. You can start our online guitar course as a complete beginner, an advanced guitarist, or anywhere in between. Your progress will depend on many factors, including your current playing level, your previous musical background, including your grasp of rhythm, your ear for music, your hand/eye/ear coordination, the time you have to devote to practice, and your ability to read music. As you progress, you will develop a fine technique on the guitar, as well as improving your sight-reading skills, ear training, rhythm, and coordination.

The curriculum is designed such that, if you follow the system, you will experience considerable progress in your very first month.

Contrast our online classical guitar lessons with a course of guitar study at a typical university. After a rigorous admission process which weeds out all but the most advanced students, plan to spend four years and a fortune to earn your Bachelor of Music degree on the guitar. For a master’s degree, a performance degree, or an artist diploma, expect a more costly and time-consuming program–at least two years’ study. For a doctorate, you must spend four or more years in study.

In comparison, our online classical guitar lessons offer the same quality instruction one would find in a university program. Our online classical guitar program, however, is focused, to-the-point, and low in cost. Online guitar lessons from Los Angeles Guitar Academy will have you learning more about the guitar in only a few short months than many students do in many years of study. Most importantly, you will develop a lifelong thirst to learn even more about the guitar. For more information, please see our page on goals, expectations and course time frames.

After you complete this course, we would encourage you to keep learning with either live webcam guitar lessons or private lessons in our Los Angeles studios.

Our program builds our students’ technique in a systematic, step-by step manner, with each new skill dependent upon the student’s mastery of the previous steps. We generally recommend, however, that even advanced students review the lower levels for at least a few weeks, so they can make sure that they have mastered the techniques that will lead to long-term success as a highly-advanced player. You can find more information on levels on our “Goals and Expectations” webpage.

Beginners, even those who have played before, should start with the first lessons, since our method is dependent upon mastery of the skills previously learned. If you find that you have mastered that portion of the material, feel free to move on to the next.

For those who have studied the guitar previously, start at a point at which you have already mastered all of the skills and pieces before that. As a LAGA classical guitar student, you have the right to post a video of yourself playing one of the pieces from your repertoire once per month on our “Guitar Audio and Video” forum board.

If you want real-time, personalized private lessons, we do have live webcam guitar lessons available. More information on various scheduling options please see our “Prices and Policies” webpage.

We provide an excellent program in contemporary jazz, blues, rock, and more through private live webcam lessons, taught on Skype. We can customize these lessons to help you achieve your exact goals. You can learn more about this program on live webcam guitar lessons information page.

We are pleased to have added Mark Goldenberg to our faculty as a guest instructor. He has had many years of experience teaching in those styles, and performing with world-renowned jazz, blues, and rock artists. To see his credentials, please take a look at his biography.

When you have finished looking over the information, the next step is for you to fill our our pre-registration form, also available on the left-hand sidebar of our website, http://laguitar.com. After seeing your musical background, goals, and available times, we can provide you an instructor and program that will suit your specifications.

In contrast with our program, studying the guitar at a university or a music school can be costly, time-consuming, and requires a rigorous admission process that excludes many students who have not reached advanced levels. Such programs are not laser-focused exclusively on instrumental studies. A guitarist can take four or more years to complete a Bachelor of Music degree at a university. To earn a master of music degree, a performance degree, or an artist diploma, a student must spend two years more in their study of the guitar. To earn a doctorate, a guitar student can spend four or more years. With Los Angeles Guitar Academy’s classical guitar program, however, you can expect to learn more in less time through our focused, on-point online guitar curriculum. Please see the Goals and Expectations page to find out more about suggested times of study based on your level and background.

It is a common misconception that going to Spain is the best way to study the Flamenco guitar properly. Students often spend an outrageous amount of time and money. The costs of a round-trip flight to Spain, lengthy stays, finding a fine teacher and paying them can really add up in a hurry. To find a great teacher in one’s own country can be a difficult, costly trial-and-error process. Without connections, one is often without viable options.

Even if you do make the proper connections in Spain or elsewhere, instruction can be at best spotty–a few weeks here, a few weeks there–unless one has the good fortune to remain in Spain or near a well-trained Flamenco guitarist for years. Without a well-trained teacher, your lessons can be unsystematic, without the step-by step building blocks that characterize traditional Flamenco instruction.

In contrast to the above scenario, we have a set of well-crafted online lessons from our Flamenco faculty. Our lessons, organized meticulously by our traditionally-trained teachers,  teach you in the time-tested, step-by-step training that you would receive if you were to travel to Spain for Flamenco lessons. At only $47.00 per month you can learn to play the Flamenco guitar with some of the best instruction in the world. Sign up today for a new world of adventure–learn to play the Flamenco guitar with us.

There are no music schools or conservatories that offer flamenco guitar as a major area of study. There are only handful of universities that offer flamenco guitar as a minor program. Our faculty members are a graduate of one of these universities (USC). However, in contrast with LAGA’s online course, studying the guitar at a university can be costly, time-consuming, and require a rigorous admission process that excludes many students who have not reached advanced levels. Because university programs are not laser-focused exclusively on teaching students to play the guitar, a guitarist can take four or more years to complete a Bachelor of Music degree at a university. To earn a master of music degree, a performance degree, or an artist diploma, a student must spend two years more in their study of the guitar. To earn a doctorate, a guitar student can spend four or more years. With Los Angeles Guitar Academy’s flamenco guitar program, however, you can expect to learn more in less time through our focused, on-point online guitar curriculum.

Our live webcam lessons (LAGA Live) are just like a video chat you would normally have with your friends and family. Our teachers have HD webcams and high-speed internet connections, so the video and audio quality will be superb.

Our on-demand programs (LAGA Classical and LAGA Flamenco) are accessed through your student homepage after enrollment. To view the platform and for a short demonstration, see video below:

No, you have unlimited access to the lessons at your level in the programs in which you are enrolled.

You can easily upgrade your Free Trial account to a paid membership by logging in to your student homepage, clicking ‘Add/Renew subscription’ and following the instructions.

No, if you have an active subscription to a LAGA program, or if you were a member in the past, you can login to your account and use the upgrade option to easily sign up for any program.

If you have professional goals (concerts, recitals, auditions, competitions etc) you might choose to enroll in LAGA Live for live 1-on-1 lessons, customized to meet your needs. These live webcam lessons will take your playing to the next level and help you build a repertoire based on your musical interests.

There are many DVDs and other online programs that have classical and Flamenco guitar lessons. But our lessons follow a proven systematic approach using the same levels, method, and curriculum that we use in our studios. Our instructors have graduate degrees from some of the best music schools on the planet. They have studied the topics that they teach at the doctoral level. Furthermore, the caliber in each of their specialties is of concert quality. The curriculum we offer exceeds standard guitar repertoire.

We also offer our students a personalized feedback monthly. If you send us a clip of your playing, one of our studio faculty members will carefully review your technique, and send you a detailed report of your progress, areas in which you can improve–and how to correct them.

Therefore, these lessons are offered at a higher price than many of the others. We do not speak ill of our competitors, but the qualifications of our instructors, the quality of our teaching, combined with production and maintenance of the regularly updated video platform, and our monthly personal attention to your progress, will cost more. We cater to the serious student of the guitar–but at a fraction of the cost of studio lessons.

Occasionally, we offer discount coupons on some of our courses. Please follow us on Twitter and our Facebook page to find out when we have these special promotional discounts available. We also offer an affiliate program. On our website, we have banners and links that you can put on your website and social networking sites. When someone signs up for lessons using your links, you will receive a one-time commission. With enough of these, you could use the extra cash to pay for the other programs that you want to study.

Yes, LAGA Classical does come with downloadable sheet music (PDF format).

Yes. Our online classical guitar lessons include a step-by-step process that will walk you through learning to read sheet music in Level 1 of the LAGA Classical curriculum.

In our Flamenco video curriculum, we follow the time-honored method that Flamenco guitarists have used throughout the history of the art. Traditionally, Flamenco guitarists learn by listening to the teacher closely, observing his every movement, then imitating those movements–the goal being to faithfully reproduce his sound. Written materials–such as tabs, scores/sheet music–actually get in the way of this process. The subtle nuances inherent in the music are best understood by the student first hearing the music and watching the finely-detailed movements of one’s teacher as he plays, then reproducing those phrases on their own instrument. Hence, we do not use tabs or written material in our Flamenco course.

Learning Flamenco music properly requires a logical, step-by-step approach. Each skill builds upon the ones previously mastered. Our curriculum is designed to take students from the simplest drills to the most advanced pieces. It is an exciting process that may take some patience on the part of the student–but is well worth the wait.

If, however, you would like a course that focuses on the written aspects of guitar music, we would suggest our classical course, LAGA Classical. Our Classical program is supplemented with sheet music for all lessons that require written music. Many students supplement their study of Flamenco guitar with classical guitar, or vice versa, as the styles complement and support each other musically and technically.

On the classical guitar, you will need to learn to read music to move up into the higher levels. Our method makes it very easy to learn to read. The lessons are set up so you will advance step-by-step, building on skills that you have already mastered to teach you the next step in your progress.

There are two ways:
1. You can purchase them on our classical guitar sheet music page.
2. You can obtain them as part of your membership to our online on-demand classical guitar lesson program, LAGA Classical*.
*Please see the below question to find out about the difference between these two options.

LA Guitar Academy requires you to demonstrate competence at the lower levels before you move on to the higher ones. To gain access to the next level, you will need to submit videos of yourself playing pieces from each level, beginning at Level 4. For more information on this process, please login to your student homepage and follow the instructions under ‘Your Level’.

If you are having difficulty with a particular piece, or need a systematic classical guitar course to get your technique to a level at which you can play your favorite pieces with ease, it may be wise to enroll in our online classical guitar lessons, LAGA Classical. LAGA Classical includes all of the sheet music in our curriculum, which may be accessed those students who have demonstrated proficiency at the previous levels. More importantly, it has spot practice clips, close-up views, and detailed instructions on the technical and interpretive aspects of each piece in each lesson. The sheet music included with our online classical guitar lessons allows the student to develop their ability to choose fingering that is appropriate for both the style of music being played, their ability level, and the physical structure of their hands.

The sheet music in LAGA Classical does not come with tab notation.

Although tabs seem to be an easy shortcut for simple works at beginning levels, they are not an effective and comprehensive medium of transmitting and sharing music. In the 14th and 15th centuries, composers used tablature to indicate fingerings for various fretted stringed instruments such as the vihuela, theorbo, and lute, which were the predecessors of the modern classical guitar. As the complexity of the repertoire increased, this practice evolved into the modern standard staff notation.

The advantages of using standard staff notation for guitar music are many. With staff notation, a composer or arranger can indicate multiple layered textures (for example, how long a particular voice needs to sustain in a multi-layer texture), in addition to giving important information about key aspects of the music, such as articulation, harmonic structure (such as key signatures and modulatory changes.)

The fingering on the music should be a personal choice of the musician as a result of his musical interpretation of the piece, not the choice of the editor, or the publisher. All fingerings on sheet music are mere suggestions and should be taken with a grain of salt. The fingering choice depends on factors such as the period the piece is composed in (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, for example), phrasing considerations, and articulation. Therefore, the fingering on a piece of sheet music is an optional element. When you follow only the tabs of a piece, not the sheet music, the only information you have is the secondary, fingering information suggested by the editor–which serves only as an optional guide, and can actually be the wrong choice for you.

Making good fingering choices is important to developing a fine technique on the classical guitar. It is an important part of our proven teaching system that will take your technical, music reading, interpretive, and ear training ability to the next level–from beginner to advanced–gradually, effectively and quickly. The curriculum provides a systematic, step-by-step approach which teaches students to think on their own in a logical progression. These pieces and the accompanying lesson videos were specifically chosen to gradually reinforce the student’s ability to recognize the inherent structure of the fingerboard. For that reason, the sheet music in LAGA Classical does not come with fingering numbers.

To develop your understanding of the fingerboard, and be able to make the right choices for the piece, you may want to enroll in a long-term study of the classical guitar, such as LAGA Classical.

There is usually a period of several weeks between the time that the piece is copyrighted and posted on our YouTube channel and the time that it takes to prepare it for purchase and to post it in our regular curriculum. No sheet music is provided for the mini-lessons on our free guitar lesson pages, or the LAGA Free Trial.

You can unenroll anytime by browsing to ‘Your Payment History’ tab on your main student account page, and clicking ‘cancel’.