Why pay for guitar lessons when you can learn to play for free?

TechCrunch reported today about a new feature in Apple's famed music editing program, Garage Band, that allows user to leave the program and be directed to the "Lesson Store" where they can download an app that helps wanna-be musicians learn how to play the guitar.

Since its unveiling at Macworld, enthusiasts think it might be the next music "revolution in music" - whatever that means. Essentially, the guitar lessons offer a video of the music artist discussing hwo to play their song. Below the video is a tab that notes the finger placements. The most valuable feature is that you can loop any segment of music until you've mastered it.

The lessons are 5 bucks a pop. At launch, the selection will be pretty weak, with the store only offering four songs available for the guitar, with artists including Sting (cool), Ben Folds (not cool), Jimmy Page (way cool), and Billy Joel (not cool).

Although its safe to assume the selection will surely grow, I offer a counter-solution to quench your musical thirst.

Use this gameplan to save yourself some dough and learn how to play any song on the guitar:

1. Tune the guitar - Use a free guitar tuner flash app like the one found at HowToTuneaGuitar.org to tune the guitar to your liking. You can either tune by ear with the guidance of the app. It's super easy.

2. Learn the chords - Go to Google images and do a search for "guitar chords." Pick the chord sheet of your choice and start training your fingers with the chord placements.

3. Learn the tabs - Now that your hands are tired and your fingertips are throbbing, go to Ultimate-Guitar.com and search for music you wish to learn how to play. You can search by song name or artist. You can select to view either the tab or the chords to the song. Keep practicing using these tabs or...

4. Watch a video lesson - Speed up the learning curve by heading over to YouTube and do a search for a guitar lesson of your choice. Most popular songs will be on here and offer a step by step practice lesson. Be aware of the tuning on the guitar in the video; it may be different than yours. Viewing multiple videos on one song will offer you a variety of different ways to play the song.