Are the days of boring old guitar lessons going the way of the dinosaurs? If GuitarQuest is any indication, the future of guitar instruction is indeed epic!

Note: For the purposes of this article, I was granted full access to Guitareo features. As some links are affiliated, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

GuitarQuest Summary

Editor’s Rating

(4.5 / 5)

Designed to give beginners a rocket-fueled start to playing, GuitarQuest is available as its own standalone course for a one-time fee of $197, or as a Training Pack that comes bundled with a Guitareo subscription.

GuitarQuest Course and Membership Offers

As a standalone course

$197 one time

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Included with a subscription

$127 per year

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Guitar Quest Takes a Different Approach

Probably the most concise description of what Guitar Quest is and attempts to accomplish comes from within the Guitareo program itself:

Guitar Quest takes you on an adventure as you play shows, shoot music videos, make commercial jingles, and most importantly have a lot of fun making a lot of music. It just so happens you’ll learn all of the basics of the guitar along the way.

Guitareo

If the course description sounds unique – that’s because it is.

Yes, it’s another guitar course aimed at beginners, but I’ve never come across another guitar program that combines entertainment, fun, creativity, theatrics and musicality all in the same package.

Based on the concept of dividing core guitar skills into nine advancing levels, Guitar Quest leads you through a virtual theme park of “Missions”.

Each mission (chapter) in the adventure is broken down into individual lesson videos that leverage Rob Scallon’s insightful, and thorough, approach to teaching.

At face value you may get the impression the course is primarily electric but acoustic guitar is indeed thoroughly injected by the time you reach mission 4: “Campfire Chords”.

From a traditional point of view, Guitar Quest seems to intentionally avoid all conventional elements of teaching guitar. Yet in retrospect, it works!

Having reviewed all sections of the program, I found it still packed a punch when it came to covering the basics of playing and beyond – with a twist. Most of all, it was entertaining and fun.

Who is Rob Scallon?

You may be familiar with Rob Scallon, the madman behind the concept, through his YouTube channel.

As a producer and multi-instrumentalist based out of Chicago, he’s best known for his unique approach to making music with, well, just about anything with strings on it.

With over 400 uploaded videos, many with millions of viral views, Rob’s approach in general could be described as “wacky”. A blend of pop, metal and mayhem sprinkled over just about any cultural inspiration you can think of.

With that kind of background, it’s no wonder Guitar Quest was born this way…

How Much is Guitar Quest?

Guitar Quest is available as its own stand-alone course for a one-time fee of $197, or as a Training Pack that comes bundled with a Guitareo lifetime membership.

While doing research for this article, some forum members mentioned they had started with the Guitar Quest course, then transitioned into a Guitareo membership.

Considering the array of bundled programs, a Guitareo lifetime membership makes a whole lotta sense when you do the math. It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open and grabbing the offer when it comes around.

What’s the Difference Between Guitareo and GuitarQuest?

First off, it’s important to understand that there is a very clear hierarchy to the entities that govern the courses.

The topmost company is Musora Media Inc which controls a number of music instructional platforms, one of which is Guitareo, and under the Guitareo umbrella we have GuitarQuest.

While Guitareo’s Method course is a well-conceived traditional approach to learning guitar quickly and efficiently, GuitarQuest focuses on the fun side of making music from the get go.

Instead of trudging through an academic, black and white guitar course, you’re plunged into colorful scenarios that illustrate how you can creatively apply your new guitar skills as you’re actively learning.

With its unique spin, GuitarQuest still manages to cover the basics in a very entertaining and practical way.

For a better idea of what Guitareo is all about, you may be interested in reading the complete review here.

How Does GuitarQuest Compare to Other Programs?

That’s a tough question. GuitarQuest is kind of in a league all its own. It’s like asking how does Rick Nielsen’s Uncle Dick double neck Hamer compare to a “normal’ guitar?

But seriously, there are other personality driven courses out there, like JustinGuitar for example, but nothing quite like this. What GuitarQuest lacks in breadth and scope, it makes up for in creative concept and execution.

Inside the GuitarQuest Program

The GuitarQuest course is broken down into nine color-coded chapters or missions:

1. Song in an Hour
2. The Jam Session
3. Music Video Shoot
4. Campfire Chords
5. Selling Out
6. The Punk Show
7. The Recording Studio
8. Play Anything
9. The Final Boss

Clicking on a thumbnail opens another full page containing further subsections for that mission. Each relatively short explainer video then walks you through the topic covering it in logical bite-size pieces.

Example: Chapter 1 – Play a Show

This section, as expected covers the basics.

The aim is to get enough info into your head and under your fingers to be reasonably familiar with the guitar.

The ultimate goal is to be able to pull off a performance; a “SONG IN AN HOUR” – from scratch.

Thanks to Rob’s approach yes, it is possible.

Further Chapters and Observations

As the course progresses, students are introduced to more and more branches of the musical tree.

Where most of us would expect to start with the roots and focus on strictly guitar related elements, GuitarQuest manages to weave in more complex topics very early on.

For instance, song structure is covered in Chapter 3, chord changes and transitions in Chapter 4, palm muting and vibrato in Chapter 5 and so on.

The course even covers where to find guitar tabs, a little theory and practical exercises. Finally culminating in Chapter 9 “The Boss”, a pseudo-Misirlou mashup that puts it all together.

Along the way, Rob is able to take elementary guitar principles and turn them into very musical constructs in their own right.

My Personal Thoughts on GuitarQuest

After reviewing a majority of popular guitar courses currently available, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like GuitarQuest.

For a new student, the entertainment factor is very high. Rob Scallon is very personable with a great sense of humour and teaching style that’s concise and entertaining.

The complete series is quirky, tongue-in-cheek (at times cheesy), yet extraordinarily educational. Moreover, it’s a qualified study on teaching guitar outside the box.

But beyond the exceptional concept, presentation and execution of the course there are a few caveats to consider:

1. GuitarQuest relies heavily on one person’s ability to carry the show.
2. If you don’t gel with Rob’s personality, you may have a hard time getting the value you expect.
3. Some students may find the leap to creativity a little beyond their means.

Negative points aside, I feel the pros outweigh the cons – by a long shot.

In terms of sheer creative output, GuitarQuest is a testament on how you can use modern ingredients and mix them together to cook up an entirely new recipe for learning guitar.

The result? No more boring lessons!

Editor’s Rating 4.5/5

The post GuitarQuest Review: No More Boring Lessons first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Who provides the best online guitar lessons? Lucky for you we’ve done the hard research to help you choose the best service that fits your needs perfectly.

Our Top 3 Picks:

Best Choice

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Most Diverse

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Premium Pick

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Who Offers the Best Online Lessons for Acoustic or Electric Guitar?

There are more guitar lesson providers than ever before, making the instrument hyper-accessible for students in the 21st century.

If you’re one of the thousands looking to learn guitar online, you may be wondering which website or subscription is the one for you. Which one is the best choice?

To help you make a good decision, we’ve compared all the major players side by side with thorough reviews to help you find which one is truly the best online guitar lesson site.

Note: This is a long article. For the TL;DR version, you might want to skip to the Final Summaries section, then navigate to any of the full reviews you may be interested in.

The most important questions;

• • How easy is the website to access/navigate?
  • How affordable are the lessons?
  • Are the lessons and instructors engaging?
  • And how diverse are the song or lesson video options in genre, style, or difficulty?

By pitting the top, most popular and well known sites against each other, we’ll analyze how well they stand up to these questions giving you a solid start on which lesson site is best for you.

Each site has been thoroughly reviewed by our Guitar Niche staff slowly working through beginner, song, and advanced technique lessons, as well as trying out some of the extra features like tuners, chord finders, ear training, and more.

We certainly hope you find this article helpful, informative and unbiased. Just so you know, we may receive compensation if you use the links on this page. If you do, thank you so much!

Top Guitar Lesson Websites Compared:

Service	Cost	Rating	Offer?
1. GuitarTricks	$19.99 per Month	(4.1 )	14 Day Free Trial
2. TrueFire	$29.00 per Month	(4.3)	30 Day Free Trial
3. ArtistWorks	$35.00 per Month	(4.1)	Free Samples
4. Justin Guitar	$0.00 per Month	(4.2)	Trial – N/A
5. Fender Play	$9.99 per Month	(4.0)	50% Discount on Annual Plan
6. JamPlay	$19.99 per Month	(3.9)	Free Trial
7. Guitareo	$10.58 per Month (billed annually)	(4.3)	30 Day Free Trial

Top Online Guitar Lesson Sites Reviewed

1. Guitar Tricks

Guitar Tricks is one of the most complete, and user friendly lesson sites on the market featuring a wide range of tools, lessons, and add-ons.

Boasting over 11,000 video lessons per their website, there is surely something for everyone on Guitar Tricks.

Before we dig in and walk through, some of the highlights include the vast number of lessons previously mentioned as well as the large volume of song lessons the site features.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(4.1 / 5)

Overview

At the most basic levels of review, Guitar Tricks checks a lot of boxes you should be looking for. It has an easy to navigate website and homepage in addition to one of the largest selections of diverse technique, genre, and song lessons databases online.

The linear and easy to follow “core lesson plan” starts all players off with a series of video levels split into multiple chapters.

Each level is taught by the same instructor throughout and lets you branch off into specific genres as you move up in skill.

While there are no famous, “rock star” instructors like some of the other sites boast, the instructors are nonetheless engaging and informative.

Product Services/Highlights

One of the best features of Guitar Tricks has to be how user friendly the website is while still retaining the highest quality video lessons.

The site doesn’t overcomplicate itself, and clearly labels where beginners should start while displaying the paths they will soon follow on their learning journey.

GuitarTricks’ video lessons are engaging, high definition videos featuring pop-up tablature and musical notation along with multiple screens displaying the strumming and fretting hands of the instructor.

Lessons can also be sped up or slowed down to help you follow along with the video at your own pace while the more advanced song lessons feature a more interactive set up with built in guitar tuner and recommendations for gear.

The ease of use and quality of lessons is really where the value of Guitar Tricks is fully on display.

In addition to the diverse lesson toolbox, the site has great add-ons such as a diverse list of song lessons available, a jam station for improvisation practice, and forums for chatting with other students.

The Good / What We Like

While many of these sites bombard you with too many features and tools to remember, Guitar Tricks focuses on offering easy guitar lessons for beginners are easy to access and keep up with.

This emphasis on making it easy to learn guitar is a more important but less glamorous selling point.

Guitar Tricks also has one of the largest and most diverse collections of song lessons, an important feature that keeps students engaged as they move past the beginner stage and begin to lose interest or the need for formal lessons.

Furthermore, these advanced song and technique lessons come with expanded tools like chord finders, scale finders, and jam stations that really increase the practice capabilities of students.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

While it isn’t necessarily a negative, all these top notch features that make it one of the best guitar lesson sites come at a cost of $19.99 per month, in the mid to high range of the subscription options reviewed here.

For this price, some students may expect perfection, and the lack of some features like an “ask the teacher” button on video lessons or section for taking notes that other sites has been replaced by other add-ons like lyrics or external links.

However, this is generally nit picking and we feel the subscription cost is fair for the volume of lessons available to the student.

GuitarTricks Summary

View Guitar Tricks’ Free Trial Here >>

2. TrueFire

TrueFire is a bit unique when compared to other guitar lesson sites in the sense that it comes jam packed with great features, but also has many different subscription options.

Free to sign up for, you can pay for all-inclusive access, or buy and download individual lessons or lesson plans.

With over 600+ collaborating instructors, over 900 courses, multiple thousands of videos, and great reviews from students and critics alike, TrueFire is one of the most dense, complete lesson sites you can learn from.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(4.3 / 5)

Overview

With an easy to follow website and linear lesson plans, anyone should be able to navigate their way around and search through the site’s many, engaging lessons with ease.

For those looking to learn from the pros, you’ll be happy to know TrueFire also boasts several famous instructors such as Steve Vai, JD Simo, Robben Ford, Alex Skolnick, Jennifer Batten, and a host of other recognized personalities.

In addition to straight ahead lesson plans based on the genre or style you wish to learn, there is also a Channel section to help build community involvement.

For beginners, there is a Learning Paths section designed to take the edge off of having to read music and make the getting started process as easy as possible.

Basic subscription packages start at $29 per month for complete access to the site, players who sign up for free have access to a decent selection of free lessons or can pay per downloaded video lesson.

Product Services/Highlights

When compared to cheaper or free alternatives, you’re certainly getting access to a huge volume of lessons for the price.

And we were impressed with the number of free lessons available, over 6000+ according to the site at the time of writing.

But there were not many free online guitar lessons for beginners, so these are probably better suited for more advanced players.

One of the best services that comes with this site has to be the “In the Jam” function that lets you practice improvising over pre-recorded full band or guitar arrangements for different styles, scales, and genres.

TrueFire also have a somewhat limited number of song options to learn, but the selection is very diverse in artists and genres.

Furthermore, they have a request a song function that allows students to ask for lessons for their favorite songs, which could really help grow that list in the months to come.

The Good / What We Like

We really love the “In the Jam” function and think that the volume of options it has is a great tool for students.

Improvising and creating your own music can be one of the hardest things to practice or learn, especially if you’re a solo guitarist alone in your home.

The addition of famous instructors is always a cool way to learn techniques or playing styles from the people using them every single night on tour as well.

For more advanced students, access to a large number of free lessons makes this a very appealing option for those looking to continue their education, not begin it.

Another cool feature is their interactive video jam sessions with some of their top artists and instructors called “Trading Solos” which lets students learn directly from the source in an engaging manner.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

As with some of the other sites, the $29 per month can be a financial roadblock for many students, especially younger, less independent ones.

From a value standpoint, while the site has thousands of video lessons, the limited song selection, and presence of free access to the “In the Jam” function, may not make it worth paying for.

Likely, this would be a great supplementary site to others or live, in person lessons.

TrueFire Summary

Special for GuitarNiche readers: use code “PARTNER10” and get 10% OFF TrueFire >>

3. ArtistWorks

ArtistWorks is another site that strays a bit away from the basic template of the others reviewed here.

ArtistWorks features lesson plans built around what style of guitar playing you wish to learn such as Electric Rock Guitar or Acoustic Classical guitar, with each being taught by one dedicated instructor who leads you through the whole series.

ArtistWorks is also home to video lessons for almost every instrument you can imagine, outside of the guitar, making it the most musically diverse site discussed.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(4.1 / 5)

Overview

ArtistWorks’ flagship lesson series may be the Electric Rock Guitar lessons taught by modern day icon Paul Gilbert, which are some of the best online rock guitar lessons.

Each series features its own unique teacher that guides you through lessons ranging from 2 to 15 minutes, keeping students engaged through various techniques, riffs, and songs.

Unlike all the other sites here, ArtistWorks doesn’t seem to have a dedicated page or database for song lessons.

Meaning you can’t just scroll through a list of options looking for your favorite Beatles or ACDC song.

What it may lack in songs or extra tools it makes up for diversity with woodwind, piano, mandolin, and many other instrument learning videos that can expand your musical skills.

Furthermore, the video exchange feature helps students connect, learn from each other, and stay engaged throughout their playing life.

Product Services/Highlights

The services here are a bit more straightforward than other lesson sites, you simply pick what style of music and instrument you want to play, and then you follow along from there.

There is also a menu that shows you all the instructors the site boasts, where you can choose which path or style to follow based on their description.

The biggest highlight has to be the Video Exchange Learning feature, which lets you post a live video of yourself playing and receive feedback from other students and a tailored video response from an instructor.

This helps make your online guitar learning experience much more personal than you may otherwise experience on rival websites.

This is site is really tailored towards beginners, and honestly doesn’t have many features meant to engage more advanced students such as a song database, gear demos, or musicianship training.

New From ArtistWorks

More recently, ArtistWorks has added a new Beginner Acoustic Guitar Course hosted by David Butler who is also the Chairman and Cofounder of ArtistWorks.

With a focus on comprehensive, step by step instruction, this fresh online guitar course is designed to help first time players avoid getting frustrated.

The Good / What We Like

The Video Learning Exchange feature is really something special, especially because you get that detailed video response from an instructor helping to critique your playing.

Having that personal interaction can really help keep some students engaged and motivated to improve, practice, or complete their whole lesson series.

Overall, the video lessons are great and the ones we had access to showed off the instructor’s enthusiasm for the material as well as an active community of students responding to the videos.

They most certainly are good guitar lessons for beginners, but lack upper levels of advancement.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

ArtistWorks is overall the most expensive out of all the sites, with a yearly package coming in at $35 a month (3 month term), to as low as $23.25 a month for a twelve month term.

Personally, we think you may not get enough value for that price, especially without advanced musicianship training such as ear interval or songwriting lessons.

Although, their recent expansion of courses, especially their full Beginner Acoustic Guitar Lessons course from Chairman and Cofounder David Butler to their platform, have added exceptional value to their platform.

But with no song database, student’s may be inclined to go to YouTube or tablature websites to learn their favorite songs.

This may ultimately pull them away from the site as they advance and grow towards other guitar coaching online.

ArtistWorks in Review

View ArtistWorks’ Master Players >>

4. Justin Guitar

Justin Guitar is the brainchild of popular YouTube teacher Justin Sandercoe and features an interactive and modern website.

The site features all the same videos as his YouTube channel, in a more organized, user friendly package.

Justin Guitar is further unique in that he is the sole instructor and produces hundreds of videos, lessons, and content himself without the help of other instructors, famous or otherwise.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(4.2 / 5)

Overview

Justin Guitar is shockingly on par with all the other sites despite being a largely solo effort and has many of the same features you find elsewhere.

Song lessons, beginner lesson plans, and advanced techniques can all be found on Justin Guitar along with some interesting extras like podcasts and advanced theory lessons.

With engaging lessons for a variety of styles and genres, Justin Guitar has something for everyone and costs exactly zero dollars for full access. If you want to know how to learn guitar easily, this site may be the ticket.

Product Services/Highlights

For that incredibly tempting cost of $0, what do you get with Justin Guitar? The answer is a lot more than you might expect at that price point.

At the time of writing, the site boasts 940 lessons, 554 songs, musicianship lessons, and interval ear training.

Lessons and songs are color coded to indicate difficulty, and a helpful “beginners start here” path and welcome video make it easy for new students to navigate the web page and lesson plans.

At first glance, the song selection is also incredibly diverse with everything from Tracy Chapman to Ritchie Valens.

Justin’s musicianship lessons struck us as very impressive simply because they are featured or advertised so prominently on the site.

The drop down menu goes on to list really advanced lessons on production, songwriting, ear training, and transcribing, features that will surely keep students engaged long past their beginner days.

The Good / What We Like

Generally speaking, Justin Guitar has just about every major option, lesson, or section of all the other sites, but for free.

That’s a huge plus that could potentially make up for any of the limitations in lesson quantity or available tools that could be hampered by the site being a one man operation.

The familiarity of having the same teacher for all lessons is valuable as students who enjoy Justin’s style and lessons will be engaged time and time again while feeling comfortable with their learning.

Furthermore, the web site is beautiful built and offers super accessible guitar lessons for beginners by experts with clearly labeled options.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

Justin Guitar does lack some of the features that are standard on other sites such as pop up tablature that follows along or is displayed next to the video.

Other in-lesson tools such as a tuner or notepad are also missing when compared to the diverse user interface of JamPlay or Guitar Tricks.

Otherwise, there is a lot to like and a ton of excess value thanks to the free membership.

Justin Guitar Summary

View Justin Guitar for Free Here >>

5. Fender Play

One of the newest additions to this best online guitar lessons review, Fender Play was launched by the legendary guitar company just within the past few years.

Fender Play has become an important part of Fender’s attempt to preserve their legacy of excellence in all things guitar while attracting new players from an ever changing student pool.

Using a wide variety of instructors in age, gender, and race, Fender hopes to appeal to the ever diversifying musical scene with a modern update on traditional guitar lessons.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(4 / 5)

Overview

Despite a much shorter history than competitors, Fender Play is another strong contender featuring an affordable monthly subscription cost of $9.99 per month.

Furthermore, the website has a wonderful, easy to navigate design that is integrated into Fender’s main website.

Boasting a number of instructors, interviews, and gear demos, Fender Play has something for everyone even if it lacks some of the famous instructors of other sites.

Fender Play lessons are engaging and are super accessible as every Squier and Fender guitar or bass sold comes with a free, 6 month subscription to the service.

Product Services/Highlights

The Fender Play lesson plan is designed around a linear progression called “My Path”, which makes it super easy for students to begin learning, get hooked, and make steady progress.

Each student chooses their path based on the genre they wish to learn and options include rock, blues, folk, country, and pop for electric guitar as well as other options for acoustic, bass, and ukulele.

Fender Play also features a diverse list of song lessons, many that they incorporate directly into your path, as well as gear demos, articles, guitar tuners, and support for their IOS app to help you learn guitar online fast.

All of this comes included free with your monthly subscription giving you plenty of value compared to many of the $20 per month options.

The Good / What We Like

Fender’s “My Path” lesson plan is one of the most easy to use and streamlined lesson plans on the market, and is paired with an exceptional user interface that is so easy to use.

Videos have great tools comparable to other sites like playback speed options and pop-up tablature along with the song or style lessons.

They also boast over 500 song lesson options which are all very diverse in style, difficulty, and range from classics to modern hits.

Get 50% Off Fender Play >> Use Code “learntoplay50“

Lastly, one of our favorite things is how they incorporate songs and riffs into the “My Path” lesson plans early on.

This puts an emphasis on how making music can be a part of learning the guitar, which is important for engaging students and motivating them to practice.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

There isn’t much to complain about here, but while the $9.99 per month is on the cheap side, it can still create an extra monetary barrier to learning the guitar.

This is fairly mitigated by the 6 month subscription that comes with every new Squier or Fender guitar, making it more ideal for students planning on purchasing one of those specific products.

As with any new product, some people may be wary of the short history and lack of years of coverage in reviews for online guitar lessons.

Fender Play Summary

Try Fender Play Here >>

6. JamPlay

JamPlay is another veteran of the guitar lesson website world and has a long history of successful guitar coaching online.

While the site has a number of appealing features such as live lessons, famous instructors, and a plethora of tools, its song selection is widely focused on the rock and metal categories.

This makes it one of the best online rock guitar lessons even though it is structured around five, somewhat redundant genre based lesson plans.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(3.9 / 5)

Overview

Once again, JamPlay provides a lot of what beginner guitar students are looking for; quality instructors, song lessons, and a lot of diversity in the lesson options.

One nice touch is that the roster of instructors features a few high profile musicians, including Tosin Abasi, Steve Stevens, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, and Kaki King.

However, the web page and lesson choices are a little harder to navigate, presenting many options as opposed to a one stop shop for beginners that then branches as you progress.

Product Services/Highlights

As stated before, many of the highlights of JamPlay are based around the sheer volume of video lessons for techniques, theory, and professional styles. Another great service is the diverse set of tools found with each video lesson.

Tabs for supplemental info (tablature, backing tracks, PDF documents), notes, comments, and ask a teacher functions are all easily accessed below the videos.

Furthermore, with your subscription of $19.99 per month, you get access to live lessons, their “jamchat” forum, interviews, and fun training games. Definitely a lot of bang for your buck in terms of extras.

The Good / What We Like

There are tons of awesome features packed into the subscription mentioned above, and there are so many lessons ranging from beginner to pro level options.

All these, along with access to lessons from famous musicians, make it one of the best guitar lesson sites, but again it comes at a decent monthly price.

From the step by step acoustic guitar lessons for beginners to the plethora of electric rock and metal songs, there is a lot to like about JamPlay.

JamPlay also features one of the best sets of in-lesson or in-video toolboxes that should allow you to maximize your learning experience with supplemental materials or follow-along tablature.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

As engaging as the lessons are, there is one flaw in their beginner lesson plan in our opinion. Instead of one, streamlined beginner lesson plan that branches out as the guitarist learns, they lead students to a page with dozens of beginner lessons and ask them to choose their own.

Some people may enjoy digging through each lesson to find the best one, but it may also frustrate some students who struggle to find what they are looking for, or begin a lesson sequence only find out half way through it isn’t the one for them.

Furthermore, your song lesson options and famous instructors are mostly focused on hard rock and heavy metal, with very little diversity otherwise, which may make it one of the best online rock guitar lessons site, but not generally the best site overall.

Jamplay Summary

View JamPlay’s Free Trial Here >>

7. Guitareo

Guitareo, though relatively new, has actually been around for years in the form of GuitarLessons.com hosted by Nate Savage.

As part of the Musora Media Inc family of music education platforms, Guitareo essentially has a rocket attached to its future as a guitar lessons provider that must be taken seriously.

In a highly competitive remote learning market, you gotta be different – and good at what you do. In this respect, Guitareo is making huge gains.

EDITOR’S RATING:

(4.3 / 5)

Overview

Guitareo’s core offering is “The Method” which is designed to give players an easy and wholistic way to start enjoying the guitar.

Aimed primarily at beginners, the course walks you through each step of learning guitar starting with basic functions such as tuning, all the way through to the principles of complex soloing.

But there’s much more than that, Guitareo is packed with highly informative video-rich content.

From a user’s point of view, the video lessons are in bite-size lengths of around 15 minutes, but can be longer or shorter depending on how long it takes to fully illustrate the lesson.

This short-form video length format not only makes it very easy to digest individual topics and concepts, it gives you a real sense of progress and lets you manage your time more effectively.

Similar to GuitarTricks, Guitareo is not necessarily driven by leveraging historically recognizable guitar gods. Still, the instructors are extremely personable, engaging and knowledgable professionals.

Product Services/Highlights

If you’re oriented towards value, Guitareo has it in spades.

Compared to other platforms, their price point is extremely reasonable at $15.00 per month. Not quite Fender Play territory and certainly not free, but you do get the insights and benefits of multiple instructor insights versus a single individual.

As video becomes more of the standard in media used for teaching, the bar keeps getting set higher. And Guitareo is no slouch – instructional videos are well produced in terms of production value using multiple angles and split screens wherever appropriate.

As mentioned, beyond the Method, you’ll find multiple sections covering specific topics in detail. If there’s a particular topic, concept, chord, scale or technique, chances are Guitareo has a lesson for it.

Like any service, you should like the people you’re working with. Guitareo’s instructors make that very easy, but some players may find the presentations a little too gimmicky for their tastes.

As for the instructors, this area is a little thin, at least for the time being. If you’ve been actively seeking out guitar lessons online, there’s no doubt you’ve come across the “Guitareo girl” Ayla Tesler-Mabe – who is a featured instructor for many of the lessons.

As we pointed out previously, you’ll find a substantial amount of course material hosted by Nate Savage. It’s clear to see the majority of Nate’s previous educational guitar material has been incorporated under the Guitareo umbrella.

If you’re a fan of having materials to work with offline, you’ll appreciate the fact that many of the lessons have downloadable assets for handy reference later.

There are jam tracks, a quick tips section and lesson “packs” which are bundles of lessons that comprehensively cover top-level techniques and topics very thoroughly.

In the Student Focus section, you have the ability to get first-hand feedback from the instructors by submitting a video. There’s also a library of live Q&A lessons, each about an hour in length, packed with insights from the teachers and feedback from students in real-time.

Likewise, the forums section is a lively communications hub where members can interact with each other. It’s also a pipeline to the platform developers and folks behind the scenes who take feedback from users, and rightly so, very seriously.

Between the Student Focus and Forums sections, you get the impression Guitareo’s platform is highly geared towards interaction.

One interesting, and ambitious feature is 500 Songs in 5 Days. The underlying premise here lies in illustrating the basic skills that can be used to play hundreds of familiar songs.

While the 500 Songs concept is sound, it’s definitely more of a primer geared towards beginner students.

The Good / What We Like

What Guitareo lacks in current content, it makes up for in opportunity.

With the amount of work being put into the platform’s growth, compatibility and usefulness, there’s no doubt you’ll see a steady stream of new content and even more robust features in the very near future.

Well illustrated lesson videos feature close-ups and split screens of the skills being applied, topics are covered thoroughly, plus the accompanying diagrams, tabs or notation are downloadable.

Even though the platform is relatively new, there’s a robust forum and options to get real, meaningful feedback from the instructors.

The Bad / What We Don’t Like

Guitareo’s strength is also it’s weakness. Because it’s one of the newer players in the lessons market, it has relatively few instructors. Additionally, compared to other sites in the space that have been around for a long time, not nearly the same volume of instructional material.

Furthermore, while the vast majority of the site is well-populated, some sections are still in the process of being fleshed out.

While there is a section specifically for Chords, scales are mysteriously missing, though they are available as videos lessons in the Courses section or can be found using the site’s search field.

Guitareo Summary

View Guitareo’s Free Trial Here >>

Online Lessons Guide

When looking for online guitar lessons it’s important to remember what the end goal is; to learn the guitar.

You should always be looking for ease of use, helpful features and tools, quality instructors, and tons of lesson options to keep you engaged as you grow.

Let’s take a look at key factors you need to consider when trying to learn guitar online.

What to Look for

An Easy to Navigate Website

Regardless of your comfort with technology, you always want to easily find what you’re looking for when you’re on a lesson site.

Time wasted searching for beginner’s lessons or a song page is practice time wasted.

Websites that have well labeled “Beginner’s Start Here” functions on their homepage are some of the best online guitar training sites because they make it so easy for new students to get started.

Even better, helpful features like prominently displayed drop down menus or website introductions serve as awesome tutorials and introductions to the product you’re either trying or buying.

A Large Volume of Diverse Lessons

Whether you’re a beginner or more experienced player, one of the first things you should look for on a lesson site is how numerous and variable the lessons are.

Unless you’re going there to strictly learn punk rock and that’s it, explore the song options, techniques, genres, or musicianship offerings to see if there is enough, engaging content to keep you on the site.

• Are there lessons on the same topic with different skill lessons so you can grow in a linear manner?
• Can you learn a handful of genres or playing styles on the site?
• How many of your favorite songs are featured?

All important things to consider when searching for the best beginner guitar lessons.

Engaging, High Quality Guitar Instructors

Different sites offer different instructor options and you should carefully comb through to find which suits you best. Do you want to learn from only one instructor who you can build familiarity and trust with?

Or, would you rather have numerous, diverse teachers and maybe a few recognizable touring musicians?

When it comes to guitar coaching online you need to be careful to make sure your instructors have a history of good reviews, testimonials from pros, and guitar skills that align with what you want to learn.

Lastly, you have to like the instructors, maybe they crack jokes, maybe they know a ton about gear, whatever it is, make sure you want to be watching them for minutes or hours at a time.

The Cost of the Lessons Makes Sense to You

For those students on a tighter budget than others, it is always important to maximize the value of your guitar related purchases.

Similar to gear shopping, you always want to get the best quality without paying top prices.

If you’re looking strictly for free online guitar lessons that may limit your options. First off, you should decide which site you like best regardless of price, and hopefully it’s one you can afford.

If not, start going down your list or ranking of the sites, and think about all the things you absolutely need to learn guitar, this is different than what you want.

Also, consider how long you want lessons or access to the site, if it’s a short time it may be worth it to pay for access to a ton of lessons, even at premium prices.

Answers To Common Questions

Not sure where to start when looking for online guitar lessons? Feel like you have more questions than answers? We’ve collected some FAQs (frequently asked questions) and with our best answers to each one included below.

Be sure to check here for a definitive guide on how to learn guitar online thanks to our reviews, informative articles, answers, and other resources.

How much does a membership to each site cost?

Generally, the prices range from $0 per month to $35 per month based on subscription plans and site to site differences.

Justin Guitar is the only completely free offering we’ve reviewed here, while Fender Play comes in at an affordable $9.99 per month.

True Fire also features over 500+ free lessons but you will have to pay for access to the full beginner lesson plan.

A free six month Fender Play subscription also comes included with every new Squier or Fender guitar and bass purchased from licensed Fender dealers, meaning you can get a good package deal of free lessons with your first guitar.

How long does it take to get good at the guitar?

Check out our very own article on that topic! The short answer is that it is different for everyone and involves a combination of forming good habits.

These habits start to stick quickly over the first few months while also building physical muscle memory and calluses over the first few weeks.

Lastly, it also takes discipline and motivation by you, the student, to make time to pick up the guitar and practice scales, chords, and techniques.

Even if it isn’t always easy or as fun as playing along to your favorite song, practice makes perfect.

What makes a guitar instructor good?

Everyone will have a different answer to this question but usually you should be looking for two things: informative lessons and an engaging personality. You’re not likely to enjoy learning from an instructor you find annoying, boring, or out of touch with your playing goals.

That’s what makes shopping around these sites important, even if one option has all the specs or subscription package you may want, are the instructors a good fit for you?

On the other hand, an engaging personality may be fun to watch, but are they also providing the best teaching and instruction possible?

Can I just learn guitar on YouTube?

Technically yes, but YouTube has a less streamlined platform and does not monitor the quality of the teachers.

Essentially, you have to sift through lots of bad or amateur instructors, and even when you find the good ones you’ve likely wasted precious time.

What’s better to learn guitar on, YouTube or a lesson site?

In that everyone may have different preferences, lesson sites are generally better places to thoroughly learn guitar.

With thousands of lessons you can take in a linear fashion as well as built in tools, you just have access to more, quality information on lesson sites.

While many players learn through some combination of YouTube videos, forums, tablature websites, and lesson sits, the best guitar lessons for beginners can be found on these lesson sites.

When it comes to song lessons, lesson paths, tools like tuners or chord finders, and years of great ratings, these lesson sites have streamlined and improved on much of the info available on these other avenues.

While they may cost more money than the others, there is a reason you are paying, dedication and quality lessons don’t come cheaply – check out our article on the best way to learn guitar online to learn more!

Can I learn my favorite songs on these lesson sites?

For the most part you probably can, unless your favorite song is some obscure, underground single. Many of these sites feature 300+ song lessons and they’re adding more every week.

While tabs and chords can be found at a number of other free websites such as songsterr.com or ultimate-guitar.com, you get the best, most detailed lessons from lesson sites like these.

What sites features famous musicians and guitarists?

JamPlay.com and TrueFire.com feature lessons from guitar luminaries like Tosin Abasi, Steve Stevens, and JD Simo.

FenderPlay.com often features live videos, interviews, or gear demos with famous musicians as well.

What site has the best beginner guitar lessons course?

Each site has their individual benefits, but one will probably stand out as the best fit for you.

Read each review above to make sure you have all the information you need to make an educated decision based on your individual needs.

When you think you’ve found your winner, see below for a quick final comparison to confirm your choice.

Is it worth it to pay for online guitar lessons for beginners?

In the grand scheme of things, you’ll get so much more out of your guitar playing with the right lessons from the get-go.

Pay once to get the best lessons, and you’ll never have to pay again when you need to re-learn or break bad habits.

Wrapping It Up, Which Provider Is Best For You?

Throughout this article, we’ve focused on four main specs throughout this article: engaging lesson plans, diverse lesson choices, affordable monthly subscription cost, and easy to navigate web pages.

But there’s more than what we see on the surface.

Editor’s Personal Notes

The remote learning space in general has become extraordinarily competitive and will continue to do so as the bar keeps getting set higher.

For us users, this is a good thing. In terms of choice, variety and price-points, there’s literally something for everybody.

At the end of the day, there are a number of factors which influence your decision for a particular educational service. Beyond the most obvious – cost, the most important elements in my opinion can be summed up in two simple questions:

• Do you like the people you’re working with?
• And, are you getting what you need out of the lessons?

Considering what you can get out of YouTube, these questions find answers pretty quick. But for some things you have to fish for the exact information you want.

The ultimate irony is that all of the services listed here got their start or at the very least have a YouTube channel. Moreover, many successful services are the result of aggressive marketing with big budgets; some are more sizzle than steak.

If you do decide to subscribe to a paid service, they better be prepared to offer up something special you can’t find anywhere else – and that’s a tall order.

Every provider has their own “secret sauce”. Hopefully, we’ve provided enough insight to give you a taste of each one.

Final Summaries

GuitarTricks

GuitarTricks has been a fan favorite and for many years. In the online guitar lessons race, it’s the dominant force and one of the most well known websites out there.

The site features great options and an extraordinary amount of material to draw from, but to be frank, we’re not completely convinced they contain anything that strictly justifies the cost of a subscription membership.

However, GuitarTricks does have a long history of success, online reviews and customer testimonials for you to justify a decision.

Truefire

Looking for a runner up? TrueFire would be choice number two thanks to their incredibly useful “In the Jam” feature that should keep students engaged longer, even after they have their beginner phase.

While their lesson selections are engaging and competitive, the price of $29 per month really limits the value when compared to Justin Guitar specifically.

However, the ability for players to practice improvising or song writing with the large selection of pre-recorded “In the Jam” tracks is a huge addition that not all sites have.

ArtistWorks

Our premium pick ArtistWorks, while still good, unfortunately comes in last place for recommended paid programs. Reasons being it has no song database, a top-heavy subscription cost, and relatively limited styles.

Having said that, we still think ArtistWorks is great at teaching specific things in depth and the instrument variety is convenient, but it just doesn’t feel as suited for modern students compared to the other sites.

More recently, ArtistWorks, has raised the bar by aggressively expanding their lesson courses in an effort to become a more robust service for modern students.

They have fully realized the need for a broader range of options for all players, including multiple styles and catering to different experience levels.

JustinGuitar

If cost is your primary motivator, the overall winner in all four categories would have to be Justin Guitar.

Why? First off, lessons via Justin Sandercoe and his website are completely free, which just makes them more accessible and a greater value than any other site listed here.

Furthermore, there is little to no drop off in quality or quantity of lessons when comparing Justin Guitar’s free site to more costly $10 per month or more options.

He has the same or more song lessons, technique lessons, and a really great section dedicated to musicianship training.

But – he’s just one guy. If his personality doesn’t resonate with you, you either have to learn to like him or look elsewhere.

Still, with all these features, we just can’t justify spending more money per month for lessons of the similar or equal quality and diversity. Reddit users certainly seem to agree as he’s one of the guitar favorites with his own subreddit.

Fender Play

If you’re a beginner who is considering buying a Fender or Squier product to learn guitar or bass on, then Fender Play is the choice for you without a doubt.

The 6 month free trial that comes with each new instrument will save you money and give you plenty of time to get comfortable with the instrument and platform before deciding to subscribe or move on to another site.

Jamplay

If you’re more into the aggressive side of guitar (hard rock, metal etc), JamPlay’s your best option with a long list of celebrity instructors, tools, and a massive library of lessons.

Similar to GuitarTricks, Jamplay has shared a long history as a go-to site for guitar instruction. Will they continue to stand up over time? Only history will tell.

Their achilles heel may actually lie in their continuous focus on the heavier style of guitar. Not a bad thing at all, but when heavy music falls out of favor with the trends, it becomes a liability.

Guitareo

Our latest addition Guitareo has a hidden advantage. They get to draw on all the experience of the other competitors to create an educational platform that’s more in line with the what students are looking for – today.

With a modest, yet robust collection of well-produced lessons and courses geared mostly towards beginners, Guitareo is thoughtfully laid out which makes getting a grip on developing your first playing skills that much easier.

On the downside the platform has relatively few instructors and some sections are obviously still under development.

On the upside, Guitareo is constantly evolving: adding functionality, content, new features, additional tools and looks to have a very bright future.

Final Comparisons

Service	Cost	Rating	Offer?
	$19.99 per Month	4.1 / 5	Trial – Yes
	$29.00 per Month	4.3/ 5	Trial – Yes
	$35.00 per Month	4.1 / 5	Trial – Yes
	$0.00 per Month	4.2 / 5	Trial – N/A
	$9.99 per Month	4.0 / 5	Trial – Yes
	$19.95 per Month	3.9 / 5	Trial – Yes
	$10.58 per Month	4.3 / 5	Trial – Yes

The post The Best Online Guitar Lessons (Reviews with Comparisons) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Aimed primarily at beginners, Guitareo is designed to get you playing as soon as possible through great content with a strong focus on making the whole process easy – and fun.

Note: For the purposes of this article I was allowed unrestricted access to Guitareo to make sure you get a complete, first-hand and unbiased review. As some links are affiliated, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Guitareo Summary

Editor’s Rating

(4.3 / 5)

Guitareo Prices and Membership Offers

1 Month Free Trial

$0 for 30 Days

VIEW

Monthly Payments

$15 per month

VIEW

Yearly Plan

$127 per year

VIEW

Why anyone wouldn’t want to start with the free month option is beyond me – it’s a good deal.

When you consider it’s only $10.58 a month on the annual plan, it’s an even better good deal.

Still, the relatively low price points reflect a highly competitive market – that’s very good news for you as a consumer. Whether they can be sustained over the long term is a different story.

Editor’s Note: The entire Guitareo platform is currently going through a massive update – for the better.

Guitareo’s parent company, Musora Media Inc is unifying all their offers – guitar (Guitareo), drums (Drumeo), piano (Pianote) and voice (Singeo), under one roof.

The verdict is – if you’re interested in the program at all, get in and grab the free month deal while you can!

Steve B.

Interestingly enough, Guitareo occasionally offers a Lifetime Membership. Considering the platform’s growth trajectory, this should be a serious consideration for anyone who likes the program and wants the absolute best value you can get.

At the very least, it’s worth joining their email list should it, or any new opportunity come up.

How Does Guitareo Compare to Other Programs?

Here’s a quick cross reference of how other online lessons programs rate at the highest level:

Service	Cost	Rating	Offer?
	$19.99 per Month	(4.1 )	14 Day Free Trial
	$29.00 per Month	(4.3)	30 Day Free Trial
	$35.00 per Month	(4.1)	Free Samples
	$0.00 per Month	(4.2)	Trial – N/A
	$9.99 per Month	(4.0)	50% Discount on Annual Plan
	$19.99 per Month	(3.9)	Free Trial

In Reddit’s subreddit on guitar, users tend to favour the Justin Guitar program. This may be because it’s free, and who doesn’t like free? But it is just one guy, which automatically stifles the ability to absorb perspectives from different personalities.

What Makes Guitareo Different?

Whether you’re interested in learning acoustic or electric guitar, Guitareo’s strength lies in the quality of its instructors and its core offering: the Guitareo Method.

The “Method” itself is logically graduated to allow a new guitar student find their way as easily as possible.

The emphasis here is on fun and taking the time to make sure topics are covered fully.

As with other platforms there is an underlying history built on proven principles developed over time. This is very much the result of Nate Savage’s work with guitarlessons.com for many years.

if you’re musically inclined, you’ll find instant familiarity with Musora’s other offerings – particularly Drumeo.

As mentioned, Guitareo is actually part of a larger family of specific instrument courses offered by Musora Media Inc.

The benefit for you as a student is in Musora’s ability to draw intelligent feedback from a number of musical disciplines within their network.

For instance, Drumeo’s Method is instantly familiar in layout. Moreover, there’s no doubt Guitareo is based on the same overall design, but for guitar of course.

Considering Drumeo’s long standing history of providing excellent instruction from a long list of world class instructors, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar future for Guitareo.

Who are the Main Faces of Guitareo?

While Guitareo does have a good number of instructors, there are two main personalities you’ll find in the primary content and across most of the marketing materials: Nate Savage and Ayla Tesler-Mabe.

Nate Savage of GuitarLessons.com

Nate Savage has been cultivating a guitar lessons system for many years – over 13 years in fact.

With his inclusion into the Guitareo family, that patience and persistence has paid off for everybody.

A quick scroll through Guitareo’s Youtube channel revealed literally hundreds of Nate’s instructional videos in the archives. That resource alone represents an extraordinary treasure trove of free lessons.

Ayla Tesler-Mabe: The Guitareo Girl

Still in her early twenties, Ayla Tesler-Mabe is direct, knowledgable and a very good teacher.

Following in Fender Play’s decision to capitalize on an under-served market, Ayla has taken on the responsibilities of putting a friendly female face on what was becoming a rather dusty collection of all-too-familiar male faces.

As they say, nothing stays the same forever, and this shift towards female inclusiveness in what has been a male-dominated industry is entirely refreshing.

Using the Interface

On Devices

Whether you’re accessing the course through a desktop or on your phone, the platform is instantly familiar.

At the time of this writing, there’s no Guitareo app in the traditional sense – the lessons and features work just fine in the browser-based format.

I wouldn’t be surprised though if, as the community and opportunities continue to grow, there may be an app version available down the road.

In fact, word is Musora is actively developing its own app, which would of course include Guitareo, due for release some time in 2023.

Video Players and Tools

Private membership videos are hosted by Vimeo. Chances are you’re already familiar with Vimeo controls which are similar to YouTube’s, and supports features such as playback speed etc.

There are a number of YouTube videos included which make use of the native YouTube video controls. If you’ve spent any time on YouTube (and who hasn’t), it’s a no-brainer to adjust playback speed and many other options.

If you have any experience with using lessons apps, you’ll find the player window features a number of familiar tools to help you learn the song as efficiently as possible.

Sections Layout

The site interface can be broken down into four main sections:

• Home – Your main point of entry including quick access to popular sections.
• Main Content – Courses, packs, lessons plus all the other meat-and-potatoes resources and materials.
• Forum and My List – As the section implies, here you can access Guitareo’s very lively forum, and keep track of you progress using the “My List” feature.
• User Profile – Your User icon. This is where you can adjust settings, account info, plus it’s your communications hub. There are also entries for the gear you use and a place to post a gear photo – which is great for sharing your problem with gear acquisition syndrome (GAS) but also good for the ego :)

Inside the Guitareo Program

Let’s have a more in-depth look at each section step-by-step:

Home

Once you login, you’re taken to the home page where you’ll find the latest and greatest program updates, quick access to the program’s core offerings, popular conversations and upcoming events.

Method

The “Guitraeo Method” is the platform’s core offering and is designed to be user-friendly especially for beginners.

Your primary instructor is Ayla Tesler-Mabe who is very personable and does an excellent job of explaining and demonstrating each topic.

The course itself is laid out in ten logical levels with each level broken down into individual lessons that cover each skill in detail.

The total number of individual lessons is 82 (yes, I counted them). And even though level 10 has yet to be released at the time of this writing, I can tell you the scope and breadth of what IS available is remarkable and extremely thorough – nice!

Before you begin the course, you might want to check out the “WHERE TO BEGIN” button at the top of the page. If you already have some fundamentals under your belt, this feature helps filter content that’s more appropriate for you.

Songs

Currently, the Songs section is sparse and looks underdeveloped. It also seems geared towards the upcoming Christmas season?

Still, a quick global search brings up tons of other song options which are easily filtered.

Coaches

In the Coaches section, we get to meet the individual personalities to learn from.

As with any human interaction, some personalities may work better for you. If you dig around a little bit, you should easily find someone you have an affinity for and fits your style.

Clicking on an individual coach will pull up their list of videos including seminars, Q&A sessions, and individual lessons. Some of these videos are from Guitareo’s YouTube channel, others are only available from within the platform.

Packs

The “Packs” section contains full courses assembled in comprehensive clusters which cover the topics in depth.

From a user’s point of view, the section represents an easy way to access some of the most valuable content on the site in one shot.

Guitar Quest – Something a Little Different

Where the majority of Guitareo’s training packs follow a more traditional approach to learning, Guitar Quest takes you on an entirely different ride.

Similar to the Method, you learn the basics of guitar but from a point of view that focuses exclusively on the fun factor.

Using creativity and musicality as driving forces, the Guitar Quest course is laid out in a very linear way via nine color-coded levels or “missions”.

If you’re into writing, recording or performance of any kind, Guitar Quest is designed to level-up your playing by applying what you just learned in a very practical and entertaining way.

For new students looking for something outside the box, or an approach that’s more similar to TikTok or even gaming, Guitar Quest offers an unconventional yet enjoyable method of learning guitar.

Check out the complete Guitar Quest review here.

Courses

In a nutshell, all courses in one place – and there are LOTS of them.

You will find a wide variety of topics including but not limited to strumming, scales, chords, techniques, exercises, reading music, music theory, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and more.

Guitareo’s Courses section

Luckily, the handy filtering section at the top of the page makes finding a particular course topic much much easier.

Quick Tips

Keeping with trend for information in a digestible short format, the Quick Tips section is not only highly practical, but lets you quickly drill down on the precise topics you’re interested in.

Student Focus

Probably one of the most underrated sections, Student Focus gives you the chance to drill down on areas you really need help with.

Split into two sections: Student Reviews and Q&A, this section acts as a portal giving you the opportunity to ask specific questions or submit a video directly to the staff.

This type of interaction with the teachers is indispensable when you’re, for instance, trying to figure out a certain approach or need clarification on a concept.

Live

Guitareo has a schedule of live streams that cover various topics you can jump in on once you subscribe to the calendar feature.

This is a great opportunity to interact with the teachers and other students in real time. But if you do miss a live session, no worries, you’ll find it in the archives later.

Play-Alongs

Play-alongs (one of my favourite sections) is where you get to test your chops and improvise.

They’re essentially jam tracks that are conveniently broken down into individual videos illustrating all the separate parts.

The beauty of this is you can cross-reference specific skills that make up a song or you may have a particular interest in. From picking, to strumming, chord work, breakdowns, song structure etc, this section lets you expand your abilities in a very comprehensive sense.

Lessons

In the Lessons section you’ll find a smorgasbord of courses, lessons packs, tips, and pretty much everything else Guitareo has to offer.

Luckily, the Topics section at the bottom of the page makes filtering for specific interests a breeze.

500 Songs

500 Songs in 5 Days is an ambitious attempt in getting a new player to realize just how far they can go with even a modest skill set.

You don’t literally get five hundred instructional videos – that would be nuts! But you do get instructions on the basic skills needed and downloadable pdf guides to get the job done.

Chords

As the name implies, the Chords section focuses on, well, the fundamentals – chords specifically.

Instead of a series of pdfs, you get a complete illustrative video that covers the item in full.

For the time being this section is very sparse and it’s unclear as to whether it will be properly populated in the future.

Note: This section is still very much in development. And you would think there would would be a similar section covering scales – which is curiously missing.

Should you be looking for help with scales though, you can easily find what you need using the global search function.

Archives

Here you’ll find all previous streams for the record including Q&A sessions, student collaborations, special guest appearances and more. Handy if you missed one or want to re-watch a particular episode.

Between the Archives and the Forum sections, virtually any question can be posed and answered.

Forums

If you’re familiar with forums, this is a no-brainer. The Guitareo forum community is lively, full of highly relevant topics and extremely helpful.

Of course, you also get to voice your opinions on how the site is working.

From a developer’s point of view, these interactions are gold nuggets that drive platform iteration into more meaningful territory for members.

My List

The My List section is broken down into 3 categories: Added, In Progress and Complete.

This section gives you a detailed overview of your current progress.

Account Settings

Other than the obvious, this section also gives you a chance to show off your gear by uploading a pic, provide details on your current rig and share your history (good or bad) with the guitar.

There’s also an option to switch the interface to dark mode – nice!

Shop

Clicking the Shop takes you to an entirely separate area where, depending on your enrolment status, you can purchase individual breakout courses or merchandise.

Personal Notes on the Guitareo Program

Guitareo might not have the same celebrity draw of other platforms but they make up for it in sheer value through content. There’s something for everybody.

With a focus on fun, feedback and patience, Guitareo takes a lot of the dryness out of common educational tasks such as learning theory and practicing. The end result being a thoroughly enjoyable musical experience.

With unique approaches to teaching guitar such as GuitarQuest, it’s obvious Guitareo is trying to re-think the whole approach to online guitar lessons. The focus is on making the process as fun (if at times a bit cheesey at times) and enjoyable as possible.

My only real complaint is that, due to the aggressive development some sections are glaringly underdeveloped. But after reading through some of the forum interactions with developers, it’s obvious the folks at Guitareo, and Musora in general, are focusing on an ambitious growth trajectory.

In closing, whether you decide to take advantage of Guitareo or not can be a matter of how you feel about it. Easy enough if you just ask yourself some critical questions:

• Does it seem like it can meet your basic needs or goals?
• Is it easy to use?
• Is the quality up to snuff?
• Is there enough material to challenge you and allow you to grow?
• Do you like the people that you deal with?
• Is the platform stale or innovating?

Considering the free trial offered, you really have nothing to lose by trying it out to get a sense of whether the program is right for you – or not!

Editor’s Rating 4.3/5

The post Guitareo Review, Insights And Complete Walkthrough first appeared on GuitarNiche.

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What is MasterClass?

MasterClass is an online instructional platform that contains hundreds of hours of educational content from some of the most instantly recognizable personalities and celebrities in their chosen fields.

Sporting incredibly polished and professionally produced content, the site includes courses from iconic names such as Martin Scorsese, Samuel L. Jackson, Gordon Ramsey, Serena Williams, and of course, many famous names in the music industry.

MasterClass Guitar Courses at a Glance

Learning Guitar with MasterClass

Riding the wave of internet-based lessons and learning, MasterClass guitar courses include multiple award-winning instructors who can help you polish your skills.

This article covers three select courses:

• Tom Morello Teaches Electric Guitar
• Carlos Santana Teaches the Art and Soul of Guitar
• and St. Vincent Teaches Creativity and Songwriting.

All three names are icons in the music industry and undeniably possess a ton of knowledge. But are we getting more sizzle than steak?

We’ll review all three guitar courses in great detail, warts and all, to help determine the benefits and downsides of each one.

MasterClass Guitar Lessons in Review

Tom Morello Teaches Electric Guitar

A comprehensive Tom Morello MasterClass review.

As one of the better online courses you can find on the website, you’re sure to enjoy it, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced player.

Tom Morello MasterClass Overview:

Morello’s class covers the following topics:

• Tom’s history, experiences, and gear
• Advice and tutorials on writing songs and riffs
• Detailed case studies about RATM songs
• Philosophy and advice on various subjects, such as recording, performing, practice, etc.

Tom Morello Guitar MasterClass Video List:

Beginning the course, Tom focuses is on teaching you how to develop your unique style and creative voice while providing examples from his own experiences.

He then moves starts elaborating on his riff writing approach. Stylistically, unique sounds and compelling riffs lie in the center of Tom’s performances.

As with any strong personality, it’s no surprise that he puts so much emphasis on his own approach while teaching his students.

Another fascinating part of the Tom Morello MasterClass course is his take on what being an artist really means.

Tom believes everybody has their creative voice and mentions how to find it and use it in the first video.

“I’d like to teach a class that makes your guitar playing, meaningful to you.”

Moreover, he encourages his students to move on from imitating their favorite players to exploring and pushing the boundaries with their instruments.

This is an integral part of developing your own creative voice, own playing style and sonic identity.

The middle section of the course tackles practice philosophy, music theory, basic techniques, improvisation, and Tom’s role models.

For instance, Tom refers to several involved exercises designed to eventually help you play a lot faster. Plus he illustrates how to apply the theory and techniques with various examples.

In the final portion of the Tom Morello MasterClass course, he talks about case studies about RATM songs, demonstrates how to write a full song, and advises on collaborating and performing with other players.

Tom Morello MasterClass Review: The Good and The Bad

View the Tom Morello MasterClass Here >>

Defining Tom Morello’s Electric Guitar MasterClass

The core idea of the course is to help you hone your skills, regardless of your proficiency. There are plenty of materials and assignments that can turn your passive experience into active learning.

The entire course targets several groups – from enthusiasts who play the electric guitar for a hobby, to players aspiring to become professionals.

That being said, it’s hard to say exactly who would benefit most from the course.

Again, maintaining the focus on individuality, the course drifts away from a conventional teaching approach, to motivating students to develop their own style rather than emulate other players.

Tom Morello Teaches Electric Guitar – An Inside Look

The most significant benefit of this MasterClass Tom Morello course may be the unique teaching style.

This isn’t a regular video lesson you can find on YouTube or Udemy.

Instead of spending about 10 minutes explaining how to play songs from a technical perspective, Tom shows how to develop your own segments inspired by many RATM songs.

One significant detail that separates Tom’s course from typical lessons is that he doesn’t provide a step-by-step guide on playing songs.

He focuses on how parts of songs were written, why the he, the instructor chose that approach, and how to develop similar parts.

Additionally, there are no tutorials on using a DAW (Digital Audio Worksation) to record your parts.

As an alternative, Tom shows you how to record riffs and build them into a song.

Another special aspect of the Tom Morello MasterClass is that Tom not only aims to teach you how to learn to play the guitar, but perform and write music as well.

Even though he provides some exercises, the technical aspect is not the central issue in his videos.

The goal of many of them is getting you in the right mindset with the music you’re playing. As a result, the course is quite refreshing and will help you put the advice and philosophy into action.

Personality Goes a Long Way

Overall, Tom comes across as an excellent, personable guitar teacher. By comparison, many renowned guitarists may be well-versed in their trade, but aren’t necessarily good at teaching.

In fact his teaching skills stood out during the riff sections. Tom starts by illustrating a RATM riff and explains where the inspiration for the riff came from. Later, he shows various ways of modifying the riff and taking it in other directions.

Like most players, Tom was influenced by numerous people from the music industry. Accordingly, he explains several techniques from different genres he developed by listening to them.

Here’s a cross-section of genres you’ll encounter in Tom Morello’s MasterClass:

• Classical music
• Jazz
• Rock
• The blues
• Folk music
• Hip-hop
• EDM
• Non-guitar sounds

Not only has he picked up techniques by listening to such a dynamic mix of styles, but he’s also picked up the melody and attitude. Therefore, Tom can share extensive knowledge and add versatility to your course.

Also, Tom thought the course through before publishing it. He determined what his students need to know and came up with a useful approach to deliver the information.

Plus, the extensive workbook is cleverly designed and features a variety of helpful practices.

With these combined aspects, Tom Morello’s course is a strong contender for the best guitar MasterClass.

If you’re expecting to take a course on how to play RATM songs from a purely technical point of view however, this isn’t the right class for you. A better alternative would be another platform such as YouTube.

Moreover, even though both novice players and experienced guitarists can appreciate Tom Morello’s Masterclass course, not every player will find all parts of the course equally useful.

For instance, beginners may have difficulty following some advanced methods, whereas more knowledgeable guitar players won’t have a lot to gain from hearing about basic electric guitar skills.

Tom Morello MasterClass Features

• Potent riffs
• Finger exercises
• Utilizing the full potential of the fretboard
• Understanding pedal effects
• Unique sounds

Potent Riffs

One of the central issues of the Tom Morello MasterClass is learning how to play powerful riffs.

It’s a singularly dynamic electric guitar aspect Tom is famous for, and this is what components he wants his students to experiment with:

• Adding holes
• Enhancing tuning for dynamism
• Double picking
• Slides
• Pauses and chukkas
• Fills and locks
• Following your guitar’s tone
• Inverting traditional riffs

Experimenting with each of these elements is critical to creating your unique voice.

If you want to learn to play stunning riffs, just follow the tips he mentions in the video lessons. They’re straightforward, easy to apply, and yet incredibly effective.

In the course, Tom demonstrates multiple approaches to writing riffs you can take yourself.

There are numerous handy tips, such as changing your tuning to come up with a new idea.

For example, even a simple change to Drop-D tuning can provide you with an entirely new viewpoint on riff writing – as was used to write the main riff in “Killing In The Name.”

Finger Exercises

Tom delves deep and elaborates on into repetitive exercises that can help you play your instrument faster.

He clearly explains the steps to each exercise and how to perform them correctly. His techniques are easy to follow, and over time, enable your fingers to move faster and get to the proper positions.

Plus, Tom also teaches you how to play faster gradually with the help of a metronome.

All the exercises are underpinned by many theories. By including these theoretical concepts, Tom aims for a more comprehensive ensures method of understanding the electric guitar.

As a result, you can understand the instrument better and unlock certain limitations you may be facing.

Utilizing the Full Potential of the Fretboard

Another vital segment of the course is mastering the fretboard where Tom, using broad strokes, teaches you how to perform a solo in any key.

He guides you through the typical minor keys and shows you how to utilize these scales in your playing.

Afterward, he instructs you on building on that knowledge by using the same notes in different keys.

Understanding Pedal Effects

The course has several points where Morello presents his equipment and lays out ways to maximize your potential on each segment.

One of the earlier videos in this Tom Morello MasterClass review – Gear: Pedals and Effects, is dedicated completely to pedal effects.

In the video, Tom gives advice on choosing pedal types, and how to set them up to create a diverse palette of sounds.

His basic pedalboard consists of the following effects:

• Whammy
• Wah-wah
• DOD EQ
• MXR phase 90
• Tuner
• Delay
• Space station

Tom also stresses that the gear you use doesn’t matter. He doesn’t dwell on details, such as whether the fret is made of mahogany or other materials. He focuses on more important information that can improve your jamming.

Unique Sounds

The “Tones and Sounds” video sees Morello explaining how you can use pedals to develop new sounds.

He employs a noise chart to keep track of each element he develops. This is an excellent way to capture your tonal ideas and recreate them when you wish to.

Because this segment is a little more technical in nature, more experienced guitarists should it particularly more beneficial.

Who Benefits the Most From Tom Morello’s Electric Guitar MasterClass?

Anyone who wishes to learn how to play the electric guitar should take this course.

If you’re a complete beginner, you’ll have a hard time replicating Tom’s methods, but the videos and his enthusiasm will inspire you and at least expose the possibilities.

This way, you’ll know your objective, which will help you zero in on learning the fundamental electric guitar skills.

But considering the advanced techniques Tom showcases, intermediate players are sure to enjoy the course and pick up many handy tips as well.

Learn more about the Tom Morello’s MasterClass Guitar Lessons here:

Tom Morello
Teaches Electric Guitar

(4.7)

Carlos Santana Teaches the Art and Soul of Guitar

Next up is a MasterClass Carlos Santana review. The legendary guitarist starts by maintaining that the art of playing the electric guitar not only entails technical details, but also communicating and putting your feelings into notes.

He encourages players to familiarize themselves with the musicality their guitar. Santana also explains that pushing your boundaries will help you fully understand your instrument’s potential.

Carlos Santana MasterClass Overview

Santana’s core personal musical concepts:

• entertainment
• tame the beast
• and music that uplifts the world to a whole new plane of existence

Santana MasterClass Video List:

Using emotion as the the primary driver, he focuses on how you can use guitar playing to access the gateway to total wonderment.

He includes a great deal of philosophy throughout the course, but also presents more practical elements.

During those parts, he aims to change your mindset and approach to music through mental warm-ups and breathing techniques.

Santana MasterClass: The Good and The Bad

View the Santana MasterClass Here >>

Santana’s Guitar Course Insights

The Carlos Santana MasterClass course provides you with 16 videos dealing with an array of topics.

He walks you through each one, and there are additional materials, such as the ever-popular TAB, that help you apply the information presented in the videos.

However, Santana’s approach is unconventional, it’s more organic. Not that that’s entirely bad, but those looking for technical nuts and bolts may be disappointed.

Santana plays with his soul and heart rather than the head. He doesn’t necessarily describe how to move your fingers as you play guitar. Instead, Carlos wants to teach you how to add emotion to your music.

“You have to share with people what goes inside the note.”

Frankly, this course isn’t meant for everyone. If you want a technical guide on playing the electric guitar, you won’t find the details you’re after in Santana’s videos.

But if you’re a guitarist searching for inspiration and insight into emotional expression, you’ll discover a lot of useful tips.

A Closer Look at the Santana MasterClass

Again, you won’t find enough practical pieces of advice in Santana’s course, but the renowned musician offers many tips that can improve your playing:

Don’t Refer to Practice as “Practice”

According to Santana, the term practice carries a negative connotation, which is why you shouldn’t refer to it like that.

You should envision practice as a chance to work on yourself and not as an obligatory task.

Reward Yourself While Practicing

If you’re making an effort to learn some techniques or scales, don’t forget to reward yourself by having fun during the practice sessions.

After Developing Technical Skills, Focus on Your music

Consider your technical skills as a vessel that will help you reach your goal of creating music. In other words, practicing shouldn’t be a goal but rather a way to accomplish it.

Practice with a Single Note

By using just one note in your practice, you’ll adjust your ears to the note.

In turn, your confidence will grow, and you’ll know what to play when you hear the note.

Use a Rhythm Machine

Including a rhythm machine is a great way to ensure plenty of freedom to experiment.

For example, by incorporating drums in your jamming, you won’t be bound to keys or chord changes.

This lets you work on any area you want, and all you need to do is remain synchronized with the rhythm.

Learn an Entire Song

Learning every part of a song will help you truly get to know it and raise your confidence.

Learn the parts with the drums, bass, vocal melodies, keyboards, and don’t just focus on your own part.

While this is all sound advice, there’s not much to learn from the Santana MasterClass course.

Music, Guitar, and Spirituality

The videos don’t provide you with an opportunity to play Santana’s songs since he doesn’t explain any of them.

Moreover, there are no descriptions of his approaches to writing music, melodies, creating solos such as that for Tom Joad, or playing with other musicians. The topics are partially covered but only from a spiritual person’s perspective.

“Activate your imagination before you play.”

There are also so many metaphors that you might get confused at times. While they may help you get into the right mindset, they are usually an inadequate starting point for further practice or application.

Overall, the message of this Santana MasterClass review is that Carlos isn’t a good guitar teacher.

Despite his admirable accomplishments, his approach is simply too vague and won’t get you very far regarding your electric guitar skills.

Although his experience and wisdom are undeniable, he often struggles to explain his thoughts and feelings.

There are numerous moments throughout the videos where he’s trying to find the correct word or phrase to explain himself.

This is the biggest issue with the course – teaching the topics Santana is trying to teach is sometimes too challenging.

Carlos is also a spiritual person and has adopted the same approach to his guitar. Putting his way of thinking into words is difficult, and it’s even more difficult to teach it.

Additionally, Santana tells a large number of stories that aren’t closely connected to the subject matter.

He drops many names, plays something in the musician’s style, and moves on to a different topic. This can be very confusing and make the course hard to follow.

Sanatana’s Guitar

Generally, Santana’s guitar’s sound has a rich quality, but it’s completely different in these lessons because his own sound is so isolated without the backdrop of a band.

Though there are oversaturated bass levels at times, you can still recognize the familiar Santana tone and witness the famous sustain of his own signature PRS guitar.

Santana MasterClass Features

• Creating a personal sound
• Finding a source of inspiration
• Combining rhythm and melody
• Using the blues
• Going inside the note

Creating a Personal Sound

Santana believes that all of us have a special musical taste and style. He advises his audience to be confident to allow themselves to uncover their personal sounds.

To do this, you’ll need to explore a lot. One of the most useful practices is observing the work of other musicians.

Learning from and listening to the greats, such as Aretha Franklin, is part of his workbook.

It also contains a few songs written by some of the most famous guitarists, including hard rock, jazz, and other artists.

Finding a Source of Inspiration

This theme of learning from other musicians continues in other videos. Santana mentions his sources of inspiration, how he discovers them and incorporates them into his music. Here are some of the sources he enumerates:

• Nature
• Human voices
• Music from different cultures
• People’s way of walking
• The rhythm of daily and work-life

Combining Rhythm and Melody

Santana illustrates one way he came up with his unique playing style – mixing conga patterns and rhythms into his guitar playing.

He describes how he pulled this off and utilizes several melodies and types of rhythm to engage his audience.

Utilizing the Blues

Carlos is an avid fan of the blues and believes his students should cherish it as well.

Unfortunately, this section lacks some structure. He heavily concentrates on sharing his love for the blues instead of showing you how to play guitar in the particular style.

Only a few techniques are mentioned, leaving a lot to be desired.

Going Inside the Note

This is another somewhat odd lesson, but surprisingly, it features multiple handy details.

During this segment, Santana wants you to learn how to engage your heart, soul, body, mind, and vitals.

You can apply several hints he brings up. For example, you can use the vibrato technique to stir emotion.

Who is the Carlos Santana MasterClass Guitar Course For?

If you’re a huge fan of Santana and you’re looking to find out more about his insight into life philosophy, this course has a lot to offer.

Carlos talks in great detail about his life outlook and shares the profound wisdom he’s obtained during his life as a musician.

His take on the importance of music is also enjoyable. Therefore, he can help you find your source of inspiration.

On the other hand, and unfortunately so, it’s doubtful that you’ll learn much about playing the electric guitar.

Santana isn’t a natural music teacher. He spends a lot of time telling various stories and rambling instead of demonstrating useful techniques.

Find out more about Santana MasterClass guitar lessons here:

Carlos Santana
Teaches The Art and Soul of Guitar

(3.9)

St. Vincent Teaches Creativity and Writing

A review of Saint Vincent’s MasterClass and her 16-video course.

In the course, Annie Erin Clark (aka St. Vincent) deftly walks the audience through how she crafted the persona and her songwriting approach.

One segment of the course deals with the process that went into developing the song “Savior”. Detailing the process from the demo sketches to a number of rewrites and revisions, to the final mix.

Saint Vincent MasterClass Overview

St. Vincent’s course is divided into five key sections:

• Meeting the instructor
• The art of songwriting
• The roadmap to “Savior”
• Vincent’s many faces
• Guitar notes

Saint Vincent MasterClass Video LIst:

Defining St. Vincent’s Creativity and Writing Course

Annie Erin Clark’s videos are filled with practical advice on songwriting.

The artist includes many examples to illustrate her point and engage her students, the most famous of which is the song “Savior.”

The primary objective of the course has multiple facets. Here’s what it can help you accomplish:

• Improve your performance
• Finding your feet in a studio
• Polishing your songwriting
• Coming up with your unique sounds

The course can also help you boost your confidence by teaching you how to discipline yourself properly and reject anything that can harm your songwriting.

Also, Clark includes a mindset lesson that corrects negative self-talk hindering your progress.

St. Vincent MasterClass: The Good and The Bad

View the Saint Vincent MasterClass Course Here >>

An Inside Look at St. Vincent’s MasterClass  Course

“Every song needs to have an epiphany.”

Exploiting dual personalities, St. Vincent’s videos are advantageous in so many ways. One of the modules that stand out is the one called “Every Song Needs an Epiphany.”

It contains several great listening exercises that include iconic artists, such as Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, and Leonard Cohen. All of them are ideal for outlining the journey the writer later embarks on.

Another reason why the model is so valuable is that Clark manages to present some abstract concepts in a straightforward manner.

The explanations are clear, and all the methods can be easily applied and put into action. Considering how understandable all the information is, St. Vincent displays outstanding guitar teaching skills.

Her explanations and demonstrations are terrific. She has a particular way of describing terms that genuinely makes sense.

This is incredibly difficult, especially when you’re talking about abstract concepts, such as creativity and music, but Clark does it seamlessly.

St. Vincent takes her time to describe potentially problematic effects and applies a thorough strategy with each one.

She first introduces the effect and explains how it works. Then, she explains why it sounds that why and mentions notable musicians who have used the effect. Finally, St. Vincent demonstrates the effect so that you can hear it.

Such in-depth explanations will help you understand various concepts much easier and feel more confident when applying them.

Also, Clark wants to instil creativity in her students. Considering that she continually looks for ways to reinvent herself, she wants her audience to think in a similar direction.

Accordingly, the course contains a host of things you’ve likely never seen before, such as rediscovering your groove by playing a familiar song on an electric or acoustic guitar with unfamiliar tuning or putting paper clips on your instrument.

The on-screen glossary plays a significant role. Since there’s technical language throughout the videos, Annie doesn’t get a chance to explain some of them, such as phantom power and midi. But you still find out what they refer to owing to the on-screen glossary.

Even if you don’t possess a lot of prior knowledge, you can understand most of the language and benefit significantly from the course with these little extras.

As for the downsides, this Saint Vincent review will note two minor issues.

First, the course contains many demonstrations overall, but that’s not the case with the first couple of videos.

Namely, she only begins to play the guitar in the third lesson. Adding the instrument from the very beginning would have been a nice touch and made the course more gripping from the onset.

Short, But Sweet

And second, this is one of the shortest MasterClass lectures. It’s about two hours long, and while it’s generally an excellent viewing experience, more elements could have been added.

Another case study could have resolved even more obscure techniques and ensured no grey areas remain.

A bit more comprehensive workbook could have fixed some issues since the current one, though strikingly designed, lacks assignments and further reading.

Saint Vincent Creativity and Writing Course Features

• Using joy and discipline
• Composing on a budget
• Improving your songwriting
• The importance of rewriting, revising, and refining
• Different tunes and techniques

Using Joy and Discipline

Annie teaches you how discipline and joy can mix in a creative process. She reveals some of the most extreme measures she’s taken to reach her creativity zone and stresses that creativity doesn’t always look the way you may think.

For instance, in addition to active engagement (being busy and working hard), St. Vincent promotes passive engagement. It’s just as important, and it can include activities like taking a shower or staring into blank space to start creating.

Composing on a Budget

Clark provides several tips on what you can achieve if you have a modest home setup. This can be extremely encouraging if you don’t have the proper means to perform in a studio.

The musician guides you on how you can organize a bedroom studio and what essentials you need. Some of the most practical tips for guitarists playing on a budget include:

• Ensuring proper reverberation for ideal recording
• Using everyday items, such as blankets, to get higher-quality audio
• Finding strange sounds through digital presets or unexpected places (e.g., pawn shops)
• Making an entire album from your home

Improving Your Songwriting

St. Vincent deals with many subjects that are integral to your songwriting, including:

• How to tell if the lyrics are good and if you need to get rid of some lines
• Incorporating the right amount of ambiguity into the lyrics so that you can convey what you mean and your audience have enough room for interpretation
• Using release and tension to create good lyrics
• Making sure that your song works without extra details by testing it in a stripped-back version

Clark illustrates her advice by guiding you through one of her most popular songs, “Savior.” She picked this song because she had written most of it in her teenage years.

“There is no wasted effort”

As you may have noticed from her previous interviews, St. Vincent is embarrassed about her previous recordings. Many people even assume that she would never share her unfinished recordings, but this is miles away from the truth.

Clark talks at length about the work that went into writing “Savior” when she was about 17. Even though she’s embarrassed, she provides the unpolished versions to show you the song’s growth and development over the years.

The most valuable part of this segment is that even if you don’t like some parts of your song, they can become memorable lyrics you’ll be proud of.

The Importance of Rewriting, Revising, and Refining

Annie highlights the importance of rewriting, revising, and refining by going through some older versions of her songs and explaining the reasoning behind the changes.

She also provides contemporary performances of the same songs so that you can hear the differences.

This demonstration will teach you:

• How to add layers to music by using perceived loudness without overpowering your vocals
• What’s the crucial tool for making your writing more intriguing
• How to collaborate with other musicians
• How to make references in your songs to other performers

Different Tunings and Techniques

One lesson, in particular, is packed with tips. It’s the one concerning different tunes and techniques, and this is where you can finally see St. Vincent play all three of her guitars.

She walks you through the following elements:

• Tuning variations (glam, standard, St. Vincent, and Nashville) – Clark shows you what they sound like and where you can use them
• Using different tunings to create new content
• The tuning she uses in her song, Masseduction, and why she uses it
• The unique sounds produced by baritone guitars
• The technique she picked up from the finest fingerstyle jazz guitarist
• How to use harmonics

Who is the St. Vincent Creativity and Writing MasterClass For?

Even if your skills are limited, you’ll be able to follow Annie’s course effortlessly. It suits both beginners and professionals, which is extremely rare.

The course is an outstanding option for several groups:

• People who are already writing music but want to explore new possibilities
• Musicians who want to add more sounds into their arsenal using different effects, instruments, or by playing guitar in a different way
• Women facing prejudices in the industry
• Anyone who wants to find out more about St. Vincent’s versatile career

If you fall into either of these categories, be sure to check out Clark’s videos. Saint Vincent courses are rare, which is why you should take full advantage of this one.

Still, the course isn’t meant for anyone in particular. This is because it lacks further reading and assignments generally associated with similar lessons.

Consequently, if you want to take a structured course with assignments and feedback, this one isn’t right for you.

Learn more about Saint Vincent courses here:

St. Vincent
Teaches Creativity and Songwriting

(4.5)

MasterClass Guitar Lessons FAQs

You may already have a clear picture of the course you’re going to choose at this point. But before you take it, there are additional details you need to consider.

Is MasterClass Any Good?

As a smorgasbord of talent and eye-candy, MasterClass is a great option for many people, and many disciplines.

Who wouldn’t want to learn from masters such as Judd Apatow, Deadmau5, Steve Martin, and a who’s-who of other A-listers?

It offers superb courses for creative persons, such as photographers, musicians, writers, cooks, and artists. If you’re looking to polish any of those skills, MasterClass is the way to go.

Advanced Techniques From the Pros

The courses will help you add a lot of creativity to your life, and you get to learn all the fundamentals and advanced techniques from a host of well-known instructors.

What’s more, the lessons’ production quality is exceptionally high – the great thing about them is that, with the subscription, you can access the courses from whomever you want, whenever you want.

There are no class schedules, allowing you to enjoy the lessons at your convenience.

But if you want to find out more about the skills required for a non-creative career, such as a desk job, MasterClass isn’t the right choice.

Plus, not all classes deliver a comprehensive, focused experience for everyone, as we learned from the Santana course.

How Much Does MasterClass Cost?

Considering that some of the most famous experts in the world are teaching you, you’d expect MasterClass to take a massive toll on your budget. Luckily, that’s not the case.

On the contrary, the courses are relatively affordable, and the price for an annual membership is currently $180. Once you’ve purchased your plan, you can access all the features and classes MasterClass provides. This is a great value for many reasons.

• The video quality is incredible and is one of the strongest suits of MasterClass courses. All the videos are amazingly done, and all the elements, such as the sound and lighting, make the experience more enjoyable. They make the lessons easy to absorb, and you can play them on multiple devices, such as smart TVs, Android phones, iOS, or desktop computers.
• First-class instructors – All the teachers are highly competent and know what they’re talking about. In most cases, they live up to their reputation and are enthusiastic about their lessons. The importance of having legends explaining to you their craft can’t be overlooked.

Variety and Options

• A wide array of classes – There are over 90 classes you can watch on MasterClass, with more content being added almost every week. Best of all, the annual membership lets you access all of them without choosing which ones to pay for.
• Quick lists – MasterClass recommends courses based on your interests. Accordingly, you can find related lessons from different instructors to obtain even more knowledge. Moreover, you don’t have to watch them linearly. You can skip to any video you find interesting, no matter the order in which it appears in the course.
• Approachability – The complexity of the courses varies, but most of them are very approachable. Regardless of your skill level, you can listen to the lectures and find out useful information from the teachers.
• The courses include PDF workbooks, and there are communities where you can share your work with other students.

How Long Is a MasterClass?

The length of each course varies, but they usually last between two and five hours.

Divided into smaller segments, they allow you to take a break when necessary. Lessons last anywhere from six to 20 minutes, and most of the courses feature about 18 lessons.

Some courses last a lot longer and contain some bonus content, adding to their runtime.

Can I Buy a MasterClass Guitar Course by Itself?

You can buy any MasterClass Guitar course by itself with the “gift” option.

Whether you want St. Vincent’s, Morello’s, or Santana’s course, you’ll need to pay $90 to purchase them as a standalone option.

Does MasterClass Have a Free Trial?

MasterClass has a one-day free trial period that begins when you enter your account credentials and the payment method.

MasterClass needs to verify your payment method to make sure your information is valid.

However, the company offers free trials only for certain countries and people. Here are the eligibility requirements:

• You must be new to the All-Access Pass. If you’ve already purchased it or taken an introductory or trial offer, you won’t qualify for the offer.
• The payment method must be valid.
• You must register on the MasterClass website directly and not use third-party pages.

Also, MasterClass typically doesn’t offer discounts on their price. The cost of the annual membership is the same for all users.

But a few times throughout the year, the company runs a two-for-one deal.

As a result, you can buy one membership and gift the other to someone else.

Can I Pay MasterClass Monthly?

MasterClass used to offer monthly subscriptions, but the company has terminated this option. Your only choice currently is to pay for the annual subscription.

How Many Times Can You Watch a MasterClass?

You can watch MasterClass video lessons as many times as you want, provided your membership is still active.

Is the Tom Morello MasterClass Worth It?

As demonstrated in our Tom Morello MasterClass review, the famous guitarist’s course may worth it for many intermediate guitar players.

With Morello’s masterclass you can learn a host of creative approaches to the electric guitar from this world-class musician.

For instance, perhaps the course’s main highlight is his demonstrations on writing riffs and showing you exercises on doing the same task. You won’t find this in your typical interview or YouTube lesson, which is enough to justify the cost.

Real World Application

Tom also didn’t cover just any topic that popped to mind. He only explained the segments you can apply in real life.

Additionally, Morello didn’t spend half his course instructing you step-by-step how to play RATM songs. Instead, he included comprehensive topics, such as songwriting, that made the course more worthwhile.

The abstract topics are explained extremely well. Unlike many renowned guitarists who have a hard time explaining their approach or the creative process, Tom explains the issues in practical terms and uses clear language combined with a personable delivery.

Navigation and Workbooks

Navigating the workbook is also effortless. There’s a summary of each chapter and assignment that can help you learn more.

While going through the workbook, you’ll notice that Tom is very flexible and open-minded in that he doesn’t just cover the techniques he’s famous for. Instead, he integrates insights from many other musicians who have inspired him over the years.

The assignments are relevant to the course Tom’s teaching and help bring closer the demonstrations he presents in the videos. This way, you can easily follow the course by checking out Morello’s videos and going back to the workbook to practice.

Overall, for most intermediate players, the course is worth the price due to Tom’s valuable insight on multiple aspects.

Can I Get a Refund If I Don’t Like MasterClass?

MasterClass can give you a refund if you don’t like their courses. You do have a 30-day window to ask for a refund if you purchased your course directly through MasterClass.

You may still qualify for the refund if you bought your course through a different provider, but you’ll need to verify your eligibility by going through MasterClass’s refund policy.

Final Thoughts – Are Any of the MasterClass Guitar Courses For You?

To sum up, even though the three courses are guitar-centric, they offer very different content structures. Plus the instructors have their own unique approach on the subject matter.

Out of the three courses reviewed, there may be one that suits you better than the others – or perhaps none at all. Just to be sure, let’s have one last look to summarize:

Tom Morello
Teaches Electric Guitar

Tom Morello

(4.7)

Tom Morello’s MasterClass guitar course is the most well-balanced of the three offered. Featuring both practical exercises and the music theory that supports his techniques.

The many videos accompanied by terrific demonstrations make Morello’s course a more overall comprehensive experience.

Carlos Santana
Teaches The Art and Soul of Guitar

Carlos Santana

(3.9)

If you want inspiration on how to play from a completely emotional perspective, Santana’s MasterClass course is an excellent choice.

However, Santana could have done a much better job of explaining his craft for those who are technically inclined. There are few demonstrations, depriving you considerably of a more practical aspect of the course.

St. Vincent
Teaches Creativity and Songwriting

St. Vincent

(4.5)

Using a completely different approach, the Saint Vincent MasterClass course is versatile and equally good for novices thru advanced musicians.

Her uniquely artistic type of presentation can help you add new sounds to your playing, expose new ways of writing your own music, and enhance your creativity.

In Closing

While all three MasterClass courses have their sweet spots, the one that speaks to you most will depend on your own personal needs as a guitar player.

Either way, you have everything to gain by learning from professionals who reached the top of their game.

MasterClass Guitar Course Ratings as a Group:

The post MasterClass Guitar Review (Can You Play Better With Celebrity Lessons?) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

We certainly hope you benefit from the information we provide in this article! Just so you know, we may receive compensation if you use the links on this page. If you do, thank you so much!

JamPlay vs Justin Guitar: Who’s Offers Better Lessons?

JamPlay and Justin Guitar are no doubt two of the best online guitar lesson sites available to both beginners and experienced players.

Both sites offer a wide range of lessons for both beginners and experienced players alike. While JamPlay has a wide range of instructors, some famous and some not, Justin Guitar is the work of just guitar player and teacher Justin Sandercoe of YouTube fame.

Even though both sites are great options for online guitar lessons, we here at Guitar Niche pit Justin Guitar vs JamPlay to find out which is truly the best option for you.

JamPlay vs Justin Guitar Quick Comparison:

JamPlay and Justin Guitar In Detail: Breaking Them Down

Before we get started, let’s go over how we’re going to compare and judge the two sites against each other. We’ll be comparing both the features and appearance of the websites as how we imagine a beginner and an experienced player will view them.

For example, an experienced guitar player is more likely to be impressed by number of songs or technical lessons available while a beginner will be looking for an easy to follow set of introductory steps or lessons.

The major criteria, as with all good online guitar lessons, will be how easy it is to navigate each page, how many features and lessons are available, and how easy each video is to follow.

Guitar Teachers and Basic Lesson Plans

No matter how easy the user interface is, the site will ultimately only be as good as the teachers who are teaching the lessons.

The teacher’s ability to communicate the importance of each technique or lesson and how it pertains to the overall lesson plan is vital.

Without being able to see progress on the instrument and through each site’s student path, beginners are likely to get frustrated, or lose interest.

JAMPLAY

Our first impression of the site for this JamPlay review section was that the instructor list features a lot of big-name guitar players who teach either techniques or their own songs.

While it can be really inspiring and motivational to players to learn from their heroes, we feel this feature has more marketing value than teaching value.

The basic lesson play is split into 4 phases:

1. Beginner
2. Genres & Skills
3. Songs, and
4. Songwriting

We really like the flow of this order and think it makes it easy for the student to accumulate skills while constantly using them.

You’re earning them in a new context such as “here is a country riff, now let’s play it in a popular country song, finally, let’s write a song featuring this riff”.

Furthermore, the instructors in the beginner series videos we watched spoke slowly and clearly, demonstrating years of experience teaching the guitar.

However, there are multiple options and pathways for each phase and level which can be confusing or redundant.

For more info their site, check out our complete JamPlay Review >>

JUSTIN GUITAR

To kick off our Justin Guitar review, let’s take a look at the lessons and learning structure. All Justin Guitar lessons are taught by the main man himself, Justin Sandercoe.

While some people may be discouraged by the lack of famous, guitar hero instructors, the familiarity and consistency of having the same instructor can be very comforting to new players.

The lesson plans are well laid out with a nice, descriptive “welcome” page explaining a little bit about the site and module structure.

With labeled beginner and topic options, we found it easy to navigate but somewhat “busy” with the number of options.

The color-coded difficulties are also helpful as it works to break up the wide number of options into smaller, more manageable sub-categories.

The lessons are also further split up under the labels of “beginner”, “intermediate”, “advanced”, and “spectrum”.

For more info on this service, check out our comprehensive Justin Guitar Review >>

Winner: JUSTIN GUITAR

User Interface

When learning guitar, there are enough small things to frustrate and discourage you enough to quite altogether. One thing that can easily make it worse on a student is a hard to navigate website or lesson plan.

Even for experienced players, you don’t want to have to spend too much time trying to figure out to how to find your way around the song lesson pages or figuring out how to slow down the video or where the tabs load from.

JAMPLAY

Overall, the user interface is not difficult to navigate whatsoever, but we wish there was more of an emphasis on getting started with lessons.

Once you scroll down a little bit, the viewer is bombarded with course options that don’t seem to tie in together at all based on genre, style, or difficulty.

Once you get to the lessons tab on top of the site, the four phases are easily laid out and you are directed to the homepage for each phase.

However, as we mentioned before, it can be a little bit overwhelming to a new student as there are about two dozen options, split between acoustic and electric guitar.

This site puts the onus on the student to find out which path is best suited for them and the page layout further emphasizes that.

JUSTIN GUITAR

The home page on Justin Guitar is set up with a much more user-friendly appearance in our opinion with the first thing you see being a 1-minute introduction video and a “beginner’s start here” page with links.

As you scroll down, a screen pops up with interesting stats and numbers representing the site such as the number of songs and lessons available as well as users, subscribers, and facebook likes.

From a strictly aesthetic perspective, the Justin Guitar site is much more modern, interactive, and appealing than the JamPlay web page.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the front page, there are helpful drop-down menus along the top page to help guide you towards tools, lessons, and more.

Winner: JUSTIN GUITAR

Lessons Toolbox

Along with all the videos and great teachers that makes these sites great, the real value lies within the tools they offer via the website.

Things like tabs that pop up next to the video, the ability to slow down/speed up the pace, built in tuners, or chord finders are all invaluable to students.

JAMPLAY

JamPlay has a very easy to use toolbox that is located right below the video screen of each lesson. It’s simple to find and shouldn’t be too confusing for students as it has helpful labels and links to multiple features.

Students can hit the clearly labeled “Ask A Teacher” button for additional help, take their own notes in “notes”, and control playback speed with an adjustable clicker among many others.

While we have not been thrilled with their home screen and lesson selection user interface, this is clearly a top-notch video lesson webpage.

JUSTIN GUITAR

For those of you familiar with YouTube video formatting, you may enjoy the Justin Guitar video lessons and toolbox, or lack of a toolbox.

Basically, his site is just YouTube videos with a few additional comments and tabs you can access under the video.

While the video content is no doubt fantastic, many helpful tools like video speed control, note taking, or separate published tabs are not available on the same screen as with JamPlay or Guitar Tricks.

For some, they may appreciate this streamlined platform and with no subscription cost, you are certainly not getting ripped off or losing value. But if cost is not problem, it may be best to opt for a more complete learning package.

Winner: JAMPLAY

Available Song Lessons

Last but not least, if you’re going to be shelling out your hard-earned money to learn your favorite songs, you expect at least some of those songs to be available on the platform.

JAMPLAY

While licensing and tablature rights can get legally tricky, JamPlay still appears to have a questionably low number of songs available for its students to learn; somewhere in the range of 200-300 by our hand count.

Hard rock and heavy metal are well represented, as are The Beatles but overall the selection is lot on many classic and modern rock hits such as guitar lesson staples “Wonderwall” or “Good Riddance”.

Blues and Country are similarly understaffed as a dozen or more of the instructor’s original pieces take up valuable space.

JUSTIN GUITAR

Justin Guitar’s free online guitar tutorials lists over 550 song lessons available, while JamPlay doesn’t list a number, our hand count suggested they had only 300 or so. In addition to having more than JamPlay,

it also has a more diverse selection of genres such as alternative, funk, and reggae.

The same color coding from the general step by step guitar lessons is used here to help users filter songs based on difficulty.

What’s more impressive is how many of these lessons are available with only one instructor, while sites like JamPlay have dozens of teachers and less lessons.

Winner: JUSTIN GUITAR

Final Recount:

(3 / 4)

JUSTINGUITAR WINS 3 OUT OF 4 CATEGORIES

PROS

• • • Free
    • More available song and genre lessons
    • One teacher simplifies things
    • Easy to navigate
    • Live Lessons

CONS

• • • No famous instructors
    • Few in-lesson tools available

(1 / 4)

JAMPLAY WINS 1 OUT OF 4 CATEGORIES

PROS

• • • Familiar, famous instructors
    • Awesome in-lesson tools
    • Live Lessons

CONS

• • • Little diversification in song/genre lessons
    • Lack of streamlined lesson plans
    • $19.99/month
    • No clear “beginners start here” button

In Summary, Which Is The Best Online Guitar Lessons Service For You Personally – JamPlay or Justin Guitar?

Justin Guitar won three out of the four categories, making it incredibly impressive considering it costs $0 per month compared to the $19.95 per month that a JamPlay membership costs – though they do offer a free access trial.

While you can’t go wrong with either, Justin Guitar definitely offers more value and is less risky considering it is free and accessible to all.

While JamPlay packs in more features and instructors, Justin Guitar is a step above in usability and quality.

The post JamPlay vs Justin Guitar [Who’s Better?] first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Fender Play vs Guitar Tricks, Which Legendary Brand is Superior?

Quick Comparison:

We hope you find this article helpful, informative and unbiased. Just so you know, we may receive compensation if you use the links on this page. If you do, thank you so much!

Regardless of Price, Which Site Provides the Better Guitar Lessons?

While Guitar Tricks has long been one of the best guitar lessons sites out there, Fender Play is a far more recent addition to the competition.

Both sites offer a ton of options to keep beginners or experienced players engaged. Like Guitar Tricks, Fender Play employs a ton of different instructors and gives you lesson choices based on techniques and genres.

Fender Play does come for free for 6 months with new Fender/Squier gear however. This may make it a bit more accessible for some beginners who just purchased their first guitar.

Let’s dive into the specifics and throw Fender Play vs Guitar Tricks in this side by side comparison!

Breaking Down the Battle Between Guitar Tricks vs Fender Play

Before we get started, let’s go over how we’re going to compare and judge the two sites against each other.

We’ll be comparing both the features and appearance of the websites as how we imagine a beginner and an experienced player will view them.

For example, an experienced guitar player is more likely to be impressed by the number of songs or technical lessons available while a beginner will be looking for an easy to follow set of introductory steps or lessons.

The major criteria will be:

• how easy it is to navigate each page
• how many features and lessons are available
• and how easy each video is to follow.

Hopefully, taking a look at these features will help you decide whether Guitar Tricks or Fender Play is right for you!

Guitar Teachers and Basic Lesson Plans

No matter how easy the user interface is, the site will ultimately only be as good as the teachers who are teaching the lessons.

This hinges on the teacher’s ability to communicate, the importance of each technique or lesson, and how the subject matter pertains to the overall lesson plan.

Without being able to see progress on the instrument and through each site’s student path, beginners are likely to get frustrated, or lose interest.

Furthermore, some guitar players may be interested in getting lessons from pros, touring musicians, or their guitar heroes themselves.

Fender Play Instructors and Lessons

We’re big fans of how Fender Play has set up their lesson plans. Fender online guitar lessons can essentially be broken down into two categories:

1. songs & riffs
2. playing skills.

Furthermore, you can subdivide these lesson plans by genre.

Want to learn to play rock guitar? Fender Play will lead you through The Rolling Stones’ and Foo Fighters’ hit singles to show off the basics of electric guitar playing.

Fender Play’s basic lesson style is built around their “My Path” feature that has tons of excellent features built into the user interface to get you learning quick and easy.

On the instructor side, Fender has excellent in house instructors but is always featuring famous guests from across the guitar world in live videos or pre-recorded lessons.

It doesn’t have any featured famous instructors like some competitors, but you will certainly see high profile Fender users pop up now and again.

No Fender guitar lessons review would be complete without mentioning how nicely this site pairs with their wonderful beginner line of instruments, the Squier Affinity Series.

For more info read our complete Fender Play review here.

Guitar Tricks Teachers and Plans

The most important part of this Guitar Tricks review has to be the core lesson plan. Guitar Tricks, much like Fender Play, doesn’t have any resident rock stars on the instructor staff.

While they also provide live video lessons, you’re not as likely to find as many popular musicians popping in. On the other hand, Guitar Tricks has long been a popular, trusted source of lessons because of the quality of their instructors.

It may be no-frills, but their linear “core lesson plan” helps breed familiarity. The same instructor takes you from the beginning steps of your lesson plan until the end.

These lessons are still engaging, and most importantly informative. Ultimately, while Guitar Tricks may not have the shine of the newer Fender Play, it is the time trusted and reliable. Guitar lessons by Guitar Tricks will not let you down.

Winner: GUITAR TRICKS

User Interface – Your Online Experience

When learning guitar, there are enough small things to frustrate and discourage you enough to quit altogether. One thing that can easily make it worse on a student is a hard to navigate website or lesson plan.

Even for experienced players, you don’t want to have to spend too much time trying to find your way around the lesson page or website.

Fender Play’s Site

The user interface is a real highlight of this Fender Play review, and is quite modern and sleek. Helpful buttons like “how it works” and “start your free trial” make it easy to find starting points.

For mobile users, there is also a Fender Play App, which helps broaden the opportunities for students to practice. Fender Play is littered with helpful drop down menus and a prominent search feature.

While it does miss something like a clear “start here” pathway, most everything else is very user friendly.

Guitar Tricks’ Site

For this Guitar Tricks review, we think the winning feature is the helpful “start here” buttons that then clearly show the lesson paths.

It’s very easy for Guitar Tricks users to figure out where to start and where they will be going next. Plus, retaining the same instructor throughout the path makes it a comfortable experience.

There are great features built into the user interface like the toolbox, pop up tabs, and home button, all presented in big text. Similar to Fender Play, there’s a convenient Guitar Tricks free trial feature that quickly gets your attention.

On the other hand, we wouldn’t describe the website as sleek looking as Fender Play. At the end of the day though, Guitar Tricks takes the win for the “start here”-type user interface!

Winner: GUITAR TRICKS

Lessons Toolbox

Along with all the videos and great teachers that makes these sites great, the real value lies within the tools they offer via the website.

Things like tabs that pop up next to the video can make the experience even better. We’re looking for features like slow down/speed up the pace, built in tuners, or chord finders that are all invaluable to students.

Fender Play’s Features

Fender online guitar lessons feature a fairly stripped back video and tab set up. The tool box is certainly not limited however, with tuners, chord charts, and even gear demos alongside lessons and song videos.

When paired with other Fender Play apps like Fender Songs and Fender Tune, you’ll be getting the most out of your subscription in no time.

Personally, we like that the tools and tabs are stripped down, only coming on screen when you click on them. You’ll find everything you could ever need and more alongside each Fender Play lesson video.

Better yet, we find this function more streamlined than Guitar Tricks.

Guitar Tricks Features

Guitar lessons by Guitar Tricks feature excellent and engaging videos with a nice toolbox of features. Pop up tab, easy controls, and tutorial progress reports are all available.

Furthermore, you can easily slow down or speed up the lessons and tablature on your screen. On the other hand, there are some features missing even with the elevated Guitar Tricks price.

Some features common on other sites but not here include an “ask the teacher” feature or a notes section. Despite the Guitar Tricks cost, we still wouldn’t say you’re getting a bad deal at all though.

The rest of the high quality features of this website speak for themselves.

Winner: FENDER PLAY

Song Libraries – Does Size Matter?

For more experienced musicians, these sites can be attractive due to their detailed song lessons. No matter where you are in your progression, having access to learning the songs you love is important.

Let’s take a quick look over the song offerings from each service.

Fender Play Song Library

This is where the relative youth of Fender Play may hinder its chances. The website does boast an impressive 500+ song collection that is always growing, but it still lags a bit behind others.

Fender Play seems to focus more on popular hit singles from a diverse list of bands and genres.

The one downside to that is that the number of songs per artist is low, even if the overall song choices are wide and varied.

You’d be likely to find only a few Led Zeppelin tunes for instance compared to the handful of classic Zep tunes found on other sites. However, you can expect this song list to continually keep growing.

The lessons they do have are incredibly effective and engaging. Perhaps the more affordable Fender Play cost limits the song choice.

Guitar Tricks Song Library

Home to one of the largest and most diverse song lesson collections, Guitar Tricks clearly wins this round.

We simply lost count after trying to manually tally all the song offerings, but it certainly beats Fender Play’s 500 or so options.

One thing we also appreciated was while Guitar Tricks may not have as many pop-oriented options as Fender, it has more depth to each bigger artist.

You can find more lessons for classic rock, blues, and jazz musicians than just the one or two big hits featured on Fender Play.

When considering the Guitar Tricks cost, this is one feature where the price can pay off.

Perhaps more of that money has gone into the licensing for songs. But the options here are second to none and will keep you engaged in the site long after you’ve learned the basics of guitar lessons by Guitar Tricks.

For more, read our complete GuitarTricks review here.

Winner: GUITAR TRICKS

Fender Play vs Guitar Tricks Final Recount

In Summary, Fender Play vs Guitar Tricks – Who Wins?

When comparing Guitar Tricks vs Fender Play you surely can’t go wrong with either option.

The sleeker, more modern Fender Play may engage younger students, but Guitar Tricks has the longer history of success.

The Fender play review has to get extra credit because you can pair their free trial along with a free 6 month subscription included with a new Squier or Fender guitar.

This gives you tons of free lessons and content, raising the question is Fender Play worth it?

While we think the answer is yes, the time trusted lessons from Guitar Tricks are our final recommendation.

While the Guitar Tricks price may be higher, the volume of lessons and easy-to-follow lesson plan make it the clear winner.

Overall Winner:

Start Guitar Tricks For Free >>

The post Fender Play vs Guitar Tricks – Which One Packs More Value? first appeared on GuitarNiche.

TrueFire Lessons Review: Key Features

We certainly hope you benefit from the information we provide in this article! Just so you know, we may receive compensation if you use the links on this page. If you do, thank you so much!

Try TrueFire Free Here >>

TrueFire is a video-based guitar lessons website that also offers limited lessons for bass, ukulele, and harmonica.

Started in 1991 and boasting contributions from 600+ instructors, TrueFire boasts that over 2 million students have learned through their system.

Many competitors brag about their wide selection and diversity of song lessons, but TrueFire specifically focuses on detailed technical instruction videos with learning paths guided by the genre of music you wish to play.

Furthermore, the site has many spectacular instructors including top session players and GRAMMY award winners as well as an awesome feature, “In the Jam”, which lets students play alongside pre-recorded rhythm sections.

For a full comparison of available the best online teaching services, check out our complete review of online guitar lessons providers here.

Let’s dig into the site for a thorough TrueFire review.

How Much Do TrueFire Lessons Cost?

TrueFire has multiple options to access their massive catalogue of lesson resources – from one-time downloads to traditional membership structures:

• Free Membership: Unlimited
• Full Access Membership: Free for 30 days
• One-time purchases and single courses between $10 and $60
• Monthly Plan: $29 per month
• Yearly Plan: $149 per year
• Lifetime Plan: $1,499 one-time fee

Who Is TrueFire For?

Some of you may be asking, what is TrueFire and what separates it from the other lesson sites?

Well, the true strength of the TrueFire guitar courses lies in its offerings for beginner and intermediate players.

With over 900 courses to offer and more being added constantly, TrueFire lessons thoroughly explain basic musical theory, or related terms alongside guitar fundamentals.

Also, the site has so many video lessons because many of them are short, only minutes long, opposed to some of the 10 or 20-minute lessons featured on other sites.

From the Creators: LEARN. PRACTICE. PLAY.

Shorter videos help keep the attention of new students who would otherwise get fatigued or frustrated should they struggled.

The video feature is further enforced by the lack of song lessons for newer music, a trait that usually helps engage more experienced players to access other established lesson sites.

While many non-students may turn to these sites for accurate tabs or advanced technique lessons, it would appear TrueFire guitar courses use song lessons as more of a teaching tool for beginners than a specific learning resource.

What’s Included With a TrueFire Subscription?

TrueFire is free to sign up for your first 30 days and when you do, you get plenty of coupons of future lesson downloads.

After that 30 days, you must begin paying to download lessons or features such as the “In the Jam” sessions.

If you’re looking for their All-Access package, similar to what other subscription sites offer, the regular price is $29 per month. But, when on sale at $19 per month, is more comparable to competitors like Guitar Tricks or JamPlay.

With the All Access pass you’re entitled to, like it says, access to all of the website’s lessons and features.

In addition to the lesson plans and song videos, the site boasts an impressive number of complementary lessons meant to add additional skills from top artists such as Jimi Hendrix or Bo Diddley.

Interested in a TrueFire subscription?

Use the code “PARTNER10” and get 10% Off Today! >>

Overview of Features

The TrueFire website itself is broken down into easy to navigate sections;

• Courses
• Learning Paths
• Jams
• Sales (Special Offers)
• Live
• Channels
• Educators
• More (Apps, Private Lessons etc.)

When comparing TrueFire vs Artistworks or TrueFire vs JamPlay, it is important to look at the distinct features of each site.

The Learning Paths section is designed to help you accelerate your playing through focused study plans – without the need to read music, and without “boring” exercises.

One of the coolest features we’ve seen on a lesson website is TrueFire’s “In The Jam” section which features 10 minute, multi-track video sessions, some featuring famous musicians, that allows players to play along with a pre-recorded band.

Featuring a large variety of options including jams like “Modern Groove” and “Soul Jazz”, this is truly a one of a kind option for students to begin practicing improvisation.

Inspiring creativity, songwriting, and improvisation is key, especially has students begin to progress out of the most basic level, to keeping them engaged with the instrument.

The song lessons that are included are on par in quality and useable tools with all other major sites.

Though they’re continually adding new material, generally the songs are limited to mostly older classic rock, jazz, and pop songs which may turn off some younger players.

“Big” Little Extras

TrueFire Channels is a rich community-centric section where you can engage with your favorite artists and educators.

Featuring exclusive self-produced video lessons, the TrueFire Channels section hosts performances, vlogs, video discussion threads, and even private and group instruction.

Lastly, the beginner lessons are built in a linear fashion based on what genre or style of music you want to play such as rock or blues.

Even better, the video lessons have awesome tools like speed up/slow down and discussion forums for the students to chat about the video.

New: Free Lessons Section

While a relatively small fraction of what the entire TrueFire site has to offer, the new Free Lessons feature packs a heck of a lot of value.

With over 6,000 lessons, the free lesson section serves as a great cross section of what could be available should you decide to dive into a complete course.

This means that you get bits and pieces of the same high quality content, but not the full picture.

Truefire Tutorials & How To Access

TrueFire’s extensive video lesson selection can be accessed at TrueFire.com where you will find easy direction to log in or create your own account to access your 30 day free trial.

They even have desktop application, plus a full suite of TrueFire apps for ios and Android so you can take your lessons on the go via your mobile phone or tablet.

For a great introduction to the site and how it works, hit the “About TrueFire” button option on the top right of the website.

TrueFire Lessons Review – Key Points

Top Lesson Site Alternatives

As you’ll find in our other reviews of GuitarTricks, FenderPlay, and JamPlay, there are many different options out there for guitar students looking to learn online.

TrueFire is another awesome choice with its diverse lesson options, streamlined website, and strong toolbox.

A Fan Favorite for Decades: Get GuitarTricks Today >>

A Fresh Approach for Newbies: Get Fender Play Here >>

If You Rock, This Is The Site: Try JamPlay Free Today >>

JamPlay has drawn raves reviews for the number of famous musicians who have recorded lessons on how to play their own songs or techniques, something Truefire has begun to compete with.

Furthermore, TrueFire has the history and student testimonials to go against any of those sites. Ultimately, the choice will come down to what instructors or lesson plans you are looking for.

In The End, Are TrueFire Lessons Worth It?

Ultimately, we believe TrueFire is the most technically impressive of all online offerings. The web page is easy to navigate, which is certainly valuable for attracting and maintaining a base of beginner students.

These two factors, in addition to the diverse toolbox that comes with each video lesson, make it an excellent option for students looking to dive right into the guitar head first.

The lack of present-day song demos and lessons makes the site feel somewhat dated and limited to pure skill learning, but the “In the Jam” feature helps make up for it by inspiring improvisation and creativity in students.

For the sale price of $29 a month, you get a lot of value with the sheer volume of lessons, especially after the first 30 days are free giving you a great introductory period to see if TrueFire is the lesson site for you.

Try TrueFire for Free Here >>

The post TrueFire Lessons Review (Are They The Best Out There?) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

JamPlay Key Features:

We certainly hope you benefit from the information we provide in this article! Just so you know, we may receive compensation if you use the links on this page. If you do, thank you so much!

Try JamPlay.com Free Here >>

JamPlay Guitar Lessons Review: Do They Really Deliver Great Value?

JamPlay is home to one of the largest lists of guitar instructors on the web, including popular performing and studio musicians.

For a full understanding of some of the highest rated providers available to you, check out our complete guide to online guitar lessons.

JamPlay Overview

In addition to the impressive teaching array, JamPlay offers great features like live lessons, chat forums, and a wide variety of technique lessons as well.

A JamPlay membership will set you back about $19.99 per month, but with the huge selection of lessons, it should be easy of guitarists at any level to extract value from their membership.

Let’s take a more detailed look at the song options, lesson plans, and instructors you’re paying for with an extensive JamPlay review.

Who Is JamPlay For?

If you’re asking what is JamPlay?, or is JamPlay worth it?, the answer comes down to your familiarity with the guitar. With an incredibly extensive selection of lessons, JamPlay is a great way to continue your guitar education but has some flaws that make it not necessarily the best option for beginners.

As we’ll discuss in later sections, a limited song selection and busy lesson plan makes it more optimal for student guitarists who have already advanced passed the beginner stages.

Despite some of these shortcomings, the video lesson quality is still top notch, and if you can find the lessons you need, you’ll learn from some the best instructors online.

What’s Included?

For the JamPlay membership cost of $19.99/month, you are certainly getting a lot of value when you consider all that’s included.

Quality concerns aside, there are four phases of learning that includes beginner lessons, skill lessons, song demos, and songwriting help.

While each phase has a somewhat overwhelming number of paths to follow, some students may be grateful for all the options. The song selections are also limited in both number and genres when considering JamPlay vs Fender Play or other competitors.

Specifically, the hard rock and metal categories feature heavily with some lessons being instructed by the musicians and songwriters who made the songs famous.

Furthermore, there is a huge variety of instructors in playing style, musical genre, and instruments (acoustic, electric, bass lessons all included).

If that’s not enough there are free live lessons available with your subscription and an IOS app available so you can take your lessons with you, however the app doesn’t have great JamPlay user ratings on the app store.

Jamplay Features

One of the best features on the JamPlay website is the video lesson portals. With the biggest toolbox of all lesson sites featuring tabs, supplemental notes about the lessons, speed controls, and “ask a teacher” help functions, you can truly find everything you need once you start each video.

Lessons like “classical guitar for the modern guitarist” and “modern grooves and retro rhythms” show off the strength of the site, diverse and educational options spanning multiple styles, but only somewhat covers up for the more lacking features.

As stated before, I hand counted somewhere between 300 and 400 song options, much less than some competitors which can influence song-hungry students when picking to subscribe to JamPlay or Guitartricks.

While modern rock and metal are certainly popular, many of today’s guitarists and music fans play and listen to a wide variety of genres and styles, many of which aren’t featured in JamPlay’s song selections.

Online Tutorials & How To Access

JamPlay is easily accessible via their website, www.jamplay.com, or by searching for JamPlay in your web browser. As stated before, there is also an IOS app which is great for guitarists who want to practice at work, school, or while travelling away from their computer.

All the videos I watched and followed along with, also featured great introductory or beginner sections that introduced the instructor, lesson material, and tools featured along with the video.

JamPlay Lessons Review – Key Points

Alternative Lessons Programs

As you’ll find in our other reviews of GuitarTricks, TrueFire, and ArtistWorks, there are many different options out there for guitar students looking to learn online.

JamPlay is one of many great choices with its diverse lesson options, quality instructors and great lesson toolbox to help you get the most out of each video.

JamPlay has drawn raves reviews for the number of famous musicians who have recorded lessons on how to play their own songs or techniques, something other sites have begun to compete with.

Furthermore, JamPlay has the history and student testimonials to go against any of those sites. Ultimately, the choice will come down to what instructors or lesson plans you are looking for and how easily you feel you can navigate the website.

Conclusion: Is JamPlay the Right Guitar Lessons Program for You?

As we researched this JamPlay lessons review, there’s a lot to like about the service, but in comparison to some of its competitors, it just doesn’t stack up.

One of the most engaging features of these sites is their song lessons and tabs, which can engage even more experienced players.

This helps keep subscribers after they have learned the instrument, or attracting players who aren’t strictly beginners or amateurs.

Compared to other services like TrueFire, the low quantity and limited genre options really hold JamPlay back, as does the difficult to navigate beginner lesson plan.

Personally, we just don’t think it is smart to let the beginner students choose for themselves which path to follow out of a handful of similarly labeled options.

The more traditional, linear options on other sites may be more limited in variability but help give students a quick and easy intro before allowing them to branch out.

You certainly can’t go wrong with JamPlay and its high quality video lessons, but be sure to make sure it is the one for you by taking advantage of a free trial when possible.

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ArtistWorks Guitar Lessons in Review: Is The Service Worth It?

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ArtistWorks Overview

Boasting lessons for over 15 different instruments besides the electric and acoustic guitar, ArtistWorks has thousands of published video lessons.

Featuring famous musicians who teach each genre or style of guitar playing that made them famous, ArtistWorks also has one of the most interactive student bodies of any online music lesson site.

Started in 2008 after the founder couldn’t find any suitable Jazz guitar teachers in their area, ArtistWorks does have one of the longer histories of successful online guitar lessons. Let’s take a look at all the site has to offer in this GuitarNiche ArtistWorks review.

Who Is ArtistWorks For?

If you’re looking for the best guitar course, ArtistWorks is certainly worth considering. ArtistWorks is best suited for beginner students who are looking to learn specific genres or styles from the basics to advanced levels.

Guitar fans may rejoice when they see that each step by step set of lessons is taught by a genre specific professional musician.

Rock guitar is taught by Paul Gilbert, country by Guthrie Trapp, and Keith Wyatt handles blues guitar.

However, with no designated metal or hard rock teachers, players hoping to learn jazz, rock, blues, or acoustic should make up the primary student group here.

Additionally, each genre-based course selection features the lesson’s page, a Video Exchange Learning® platform, study materials, and links to forums where you can discuss music topics with other students.

Paul Gilbert ArtistWorks Review

If you’re a serious fan of electric guitar. particularly from the 80′ and 90’s, you’ll have heard of Paul Gilbert.

Paul Gilbert is simply a monster rock guitarist world-renowned for his intense shredding ability and musicality.

Not only is he rated by Guitar World as one of 50 fastest guitarists of all time. He’s also an accomplished and very experienced guitar teacher.

Early on in his career Paul graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology, which is enough to give any guitar player serious credibility.

Throughout his career, both in collective efforts and as a solo artist, Paul has been known as a player that can shred guitar like no one else.

His incredible skill combined with a very personable presence and guitar teaching ability made him a natural fit for ArtistWorks.

From ArtistWorks:

He’s known for his enthusiastic and approachable guitar lessons, which are founded on decades of experience.

Gilbert has been the guitar teacher of an impressive list of players including Buckethead, Joey Tafolla, “Satchel” from Steel Panther (Russ Parrish) and Nicole Couch of Phantom Blue among many others.

Other notable accomplishments include writing articles for the prestigious Premier Guitar magazine.

In May, 2012 he launched the Online Rock Guitar School with Paul Gilbert as a part ArtistWorks’ offerings and has since been sharing his extraordinary talents under the category of “Rock Lessons with Paul Gilbert“.

Paul Gilbert Jamming with Online Students

In terms of what ArtistWorks has to offer for edgier guitar lessons, Paul Gilbert is a pleasant surprise. Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or highly advanced guitar player, he has something to bring to the table.

Paul Gilbert’s video lesson lengths run from roughly five minutes to a half hour with the built-in option to play them at slower speeds or in a loop.

As mentioned, the Video Exchange feature allows students to submit their own videos of themselves rocking out, or just asking Paul a question.

Consequently, Paul goes through each student’s video and in exchange, as the name implies, records a video offering support and answers in response to the questions.

Although this could seem intimidating for some, students in Paul’s community are nothing short of supportive and respective. The channel is held accountable as a judgment-free zone and in turn, is friendly, collaborative and highly interactive.

Alternatively, if you want to observe more than interact, you can still draw inspiration from the hundreds of archived exchange videos. You’ll find tons of useful hints you can interpret and then apply to improve your own technique.

ArtistWorks Rock Guitar Lessons with Paul Gilbert: Highlights

• Students get a music theory workshop from an A-List pro
• Access the Video Exchange Library at any time
• Subscribed students get up to 5 submissions
• Affordable guitar lessons from a world recognized personality
• Communication through a mini chatroom.
• Community spirit fostered by the video exchange platform
• Easy navigation

Check out Paul Gilbert’s Rock Guitar Course here >>

For those who prefer a less intense style of playing, Paul Gilbert may be a bit much. And for you we have other choices mentioned in this article.

But if you gravitate to online lessons with Paul Gilbert, your guitar abilities are sure to improve. With regular practice and instruction, your guitar technique, repertoire, and confidence will all reach new levels.

As mentioned, the real value here is in the the video exchanges. This is what sets Paul Gilbert’s ArtistWorks lessons apart from all the others. If you take advantage of it, you’ll realize the true value of the service and can’t go wrong.

ArtistWorks Adult Beginner Acoustic Guitar Lessons

In answering the call for more diversity, and the demand for those who are looking for a creative pastime during a pandemic, ArtistWorks has added a full Beginner Acoustic Guitar Lessons course to their platform.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the course is its instructor: David Butler who is the Chairman and Cofounder of ArtistWorks.

As a lifelong acoustic guitarist and one of the original engineers at AOL, he developing an industry-unique approach to online music instruction only available at ArtistWorks. Moreover, he has been awarded three US patents in the process.

Geared more towards adult beginners, the course features familiar songs and focuses on developing core skills.

With a focus on comprehensive, step by step instruction, the online guitar course is designed to help first time players avoid getting frustrated.

Access the ArtistWorks Beginner Guitar Lessons Course Here >>

ArtistWorks Beginner Acoustic Guitar Lessons Highlights:

• introductory monthly price of $35 (discounts available)
• Beginner Guitar Chords
• Guitar Tab
• Basic Music Concepts
• 100s of guitar lessons at your own pace
• Specifically geared to adult beginners
• Easy Guitar Lessons & Tunes

What’s Included with the Service?

When figuring out if ArtistWorks lessons are the best option for you, it ‘s important to consider all that’s included in your subscription.

It seems, at the moment at least, there are no ArtistWorks free trial options, making some people hesitant to purchase a subscription without a test run.

Still, there is quite a bit included in your subscription fee, which can be anywhere from $23 a month for 12 months or $35 a month for 3 months.

Most notably, the huge diversity in lessons is a huge plus, you can learn multiple guitar styles, both electric and acoustic, as well as multiple electric bass styles.

If your musical thirst still isn’t quenched, you can peruse the piano, mandolin, voice, or woodwind instrument options.

That’s a lot of musical opportunities laid out in front of you if you so choose. If diversity is of value to you, ArtistWorks may be the best guitar course for you.

While the lessons are engaging and feature quality content, one of the most endearing inclusions has to be Video Exchange which allows students to upload videos of themselves playing.

Having the ability to learn from other students while also getting or giving constructive feedback, can improve your playing, musicianship, and music communication in no time.

Features

No review of ArtistWorks online would be complete without a detailed look into what makes these included features so great. The backbone of ArtistWorks learning experience is the instructors.

Each course, aka the series of lessons for each genre, features the same instructor throughout, giving you the chance to build familiarity with the learning experience.

The lessons are typically short, ranging from a few minutes to tens of minutes, allowing even the shortest of attention spans to follow along lesson by lesson.

One thing that struck us about the lessons was the lack of follow along tablature, We don’t see any option to have it pop up while you watch a video.

Easy to follow tabs or musical notation can be a huge help for young musicians looking to follow along at their own pace and learn where the notes and frets are up and down the neck.

Access, Tutorials & How To

ArtistWorks can easily be accessed via its webpage, artistworks.com, or by googling “ArtistWorks”. Unfortunately, there is no app currently available so that you can take ArtistWorks on the go with your guitar.

Between having no app and no ArtistWorks free trial, it makes the site’s lessons somewhat inaccessible. If someone asked “what is ArtistWorks?”

I’d happily reply that it is a great online community of teachers and students but is strictly computer based, and one of the more expensive online guitar lesson options when compared to alternatives.

Overall, any type of expansion into the IOS world would likely draw in a few more users as the world moves towards more and more mobile entertainment and learning.

Alternative Sites to ArtistWorks

As you’ll find in our other reviews of TrueFire, JamPlay, Guitar Tricks, and Fender Play, there are many different options out there for guitar students looking to learn online.

For your convenience, we’ve put together a complete review of the best online guitar lessons for beginners.

JamPlay is one of many great choices with its diverse lesson options, quality instructors and great lesson toolbox to help you get the most out of each video.

JamPlay has drawn rave reviews for the number of famous musicians who have recorded lessons on how to play their own songs or techniques, something other sites, like Truefire, have begun to compete with.

Furthermore, JamPlay has the history and student testimonials to go against any of those sites. Ultimately, the choice will come down to what instructors or lesson plans you are looking for and how easily you feel you can navigate the website.

If you’re debating Fender Play or Guitar Tricks, or any of the other sites, try a 14 day Guitar Tricks free trial before investing. For those significantly worried about their budget,

Justin Guitar is one of the only completely free guitar lesson sites and should be given careful review as well.

It’s important to remember that for $23 a month, you need to make sure you are getting that much more than you do with free/cheaper sites like Justin Guitar or Fender Play.

ArtistWorks Lessons – Key Points

In Closing, Are ArtistWorks Guitar Lessons A Good Choice?

While doing the research for this ArtistWorks lessons review, we found the service to definitely be one of the most diverse and in-depth musical lesson sites we’ve discussed to date.

But in our opinion, you may have better choices depending on your preferences.

For the price, we feel you are missing too many features like follow along tablature, dedicated song lesson databases, or live lessons.

If you are or are aspiring to be a multi-instrumentalist, then this is no doubt the lesson site for you.

With many guitar, bass, woodwind, and piano lessons available, even mandolin options, you can learn a wide variety of styles and instruments that could further inspire your aspiring music career.

Without the free trial, it may make more sense for some comparison shoppers to take advantage of other sites free trials and then circle back to ArtistWorks if they don’t have what you’re looking for.

Overall, it’s still a great option, just like all the others we’ve reviewed, and especially if you want to become proficient on more than one instrument.

View the Latest ArtistWorks Deal Here! >>

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Guitar Tricks Review – Are Their Lessons Really Worth It?

Overview

Guitar Tricks is one of the largest, and most well known online guitar lesson sites with 20+ years of guitar teaching experience. In this Guitar Tricks review we’ll go over their various video lesson selections including beginner, song, and advanced guides.

Quick Stats:

• Price: $19.95 a month, or $179 per year
• Free Trial: 14 days
• Lessons: Over 11,000
• Refund: 60 days guaranteed
• Song Tutorials: 1,000+

We’ll also look at some of the extra features that make the site so popular such as the forums, blogs, and informative videos they offer all the for the Guitar Tricks price of $19.99 per month.

With over 8000 lessons and guided programs, students should have no trouble combing through the easy to use website to find something that interests them.

Interested In Improving Your Guitar Skills?

If you’re looking for the best guitar teaching website, Guitar Tricks is certainly one of the top options. Guitar Tricks is best suited for beginners with a variety of linear learning paths aimed at teaching students the genre of their choice.

Though the paths seem limited to three major genres, the linear, step by step features make it easy to navigate the site and follow along as a student.

Some interesting features that will keep students engaged passed the beginner stage include a diverse song list and guitar style lessons.

Once you’ve progressed through the beginner stages, which takes about 4-8 weeks to finish according to Guitar Tricks, you’ll find many, interesting video lessons on a wide variety of topics on their “channel” page.

Lessons ranging from artist-specific lessons, to technical information, to in-depth jazz chord discussions should help push students forward as musicians and players.

What’s Included with Guitar Tricks?

When asking “is guitar tricks worth the money?” it’s important to first understand everything that is included in the subscription deal. In addition to linear beginner lessons for country, blues, and rock guitar, there are a wide variety of extra features.

Guitar styles lessons to expand your horizon after completing the beginner phases include world, funk, classical, and bluegrass just to name a few. And the song list features 500+ lessons for all of those same genres and styles.

Beginner Fingerpicking Lesson

When comparing Guitar Tricks vs JamPlay or Justin Guitar vs Guitar Tricks, Guitar Tricks contains more variety and quantity. If you’re pitting TrueFire vs Guitar Tricks, you’ll be happy to know Guitar Tricks features its own “In the Jam”-style tool called “Jam Station” albeit with more limited options.

Lastly, Guitar Tricks includes a diverse toolbox with scale and chord finders among other features and a helpful chat forum for students to interact, discuss, and learn from one another.

Guitar Tricks Features Overview

One of Guitar Trick’s best features is the engaging instructors and lessons. Take for example this lesson for modern alternative rock hit “Trouble” by Cage the Elephant.

Along with the video lesson you’ll find tablature, lyrics, a description of the lesson, and even gear and tone recommendations by the instructor.

All of Guitar Tricks lessons are similarly detailed and should be explored by you via a Guitar Tricks free trial before you settle on subscribing to a site.

While Guitar Tricks has an overall less diverse toolbox and no famous instructors like JamPlay and TrueFire, it has an incredibly easy to navigate web page that should make it easy for students to jump right in and begin learning guitar.

As mentioned before the Guitar Tricks “Channel” page has access to even more interesting, lessons for a variety of topics meant to enhance your experience. So how much does Guitar Tricks cost? You get access to all these lovely features for $19.99/month.

Online Tutorials & How To Access

Guitar Tricks can be easily accessed via their website, www.guitartricks.com and even has an ios application so you can take lessons on the go.

With a 4.3 rating out of 5 stars on the google play platform, it seems the app may be a reliable additional option for students interested in it.

Guitar Tricks also features a “Beginner Lessons” option right in the middle of their front page that should lead eager newcomers right to the first guitar and website tutorials available.

Even better, once you click on that selection, you’re brought to a page with a “beginners start here” option making it so easy for students to access the correct lessons.

Eddie Van Halen Artist Study

GuitarTricks: The Good and The Bad

Guitar Tricks Review – Key Points

Alternative Guitar Lessons Sites

As you’ll find in our other reviews of TrueFire, ArtistWorks, and JamPlay, there are many different options out there for guitar students looking to learn online.

JamPlay is one of many great choices with its diverse lesson options, quality instructors and great lesson toolbox to help you get the most out of each video.

JamPlay has drawn rave reviews for the number of famous musicians who have recorded lessons on how to play their own songs or techniques, something other sites, like Truefire, have begun to compete with.

Furthermore, JamPlay has the history and student testimonials to go against any of those sites. Ultimately, the choice will come down to what instructors or lesson plans you are looking for and how easily you feel you can navigate the website.

If you’re debating Fender Play or Guitar Tricks, or any of the other sites, try a 14 day Guitar Tricks free trial before investing.

For those significantly worried about their budget, Justin Guitar is one of the only completely free guitar lesson sites and should be given careful review as well.

Final Thoughts: Is Guitar Tricks the Right Lessons Site for You?

You definitely can’t go wrong if you choose Guitar Tricks for your online lesson needs and it rates as one of the best guitar teaching websites.

Thanks to diverse lessons and song options there should be something for every guitar student on Guitar Tricks. The only issue is that the cost of a Guitar Tricks subscription, about $20 per month, may create a financial barrier for some students.

With cheaper options like the free Justin Guitar or $10 per month Fender Play sites, Guitar Tricks certainly has to continue to add bells and whistles to its Jam Station, channel, and blog features.

While the lessons don’t have as complete a toolbox or interface as JamPlay, we think Guitar Tricks features more diversity in its lessons and content.

If you’re still not convinced, take the 14 day free trial to sift through all the information and see why Guitar Tricks prioritizes its students making music on day one.

Overall, Guitar Tricks is an awesome choice for you or the guitar student in your life as long as you’re willing to pay the price.

Check Out GuitarTricks.com Free >>

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