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

VIEW

Included with a subscription

$127 per year

VIEW

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.

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.

JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks: Which Guitar Lessons Website is Right for You?

While both make excellent options, let’s pit JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks and compare them side by side to see which one is best for learning guitar or bass.

Both sites offer technique, song, and genre-specific lessons taught via videos including tabs, musical notation, and close ups of the finger positioning.

Both sites also feature good guitar lessons for beginners and guides from famous guitarists alongside dedicated, professional guitar teachers.

But which is the better choice?

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 GuitarTricks Quick Comparison:

Breaking Down The Details of JamPlay and Guitar Tricks Lessons

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.

Furthermore, you want to make sure you’re getting a good value for your Guitar Tricks subscription or JamPlay membership cost, so we’ll be sure to pick the winner that offers the best features for the price.

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 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. Without further ado, let’s dig into this Guitar Tricks vs JamPlay review.

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. So, let’s see who has the better teachers and lesson plans: JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks.

JAMPLAY

JamPlay Beginner Lessons

Our first impression while doing this JamPlay review 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 or learning 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 reviewed 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 further insight into lessons providers, check out our article comparing JamPlay and Justin Guitar.

GUITAR TRICKS

Guitar Tricks CORE Learning System

Featuring less recognizable guitar instructors, Guitar Tricks seems to prioritize concise, easy to use features over the name recognition and flair of JamPlay.

Guitar Tricks bases their lessons around their “core learning system”. While JamPlay offers multiple different beginner options from different teachers, Guitar Tricks slowly and easily takes you through all the basics with one teacher, and one set of classes, one core step at a time, offering a simple way to play guitar.

We personally believe this linear learning path is much easier for beginners and students as they don’t have to choose from a number of options that they may not be able to differentiate between.

Keeping the same instructor through first lesson step can help breed familiarity and continuity as the student progresses through the most essential part of learning the guitar.

If you’re going to pay the Guitar Tricks subscription cost of $19.99 per month, you should get access to the easiest path to learning guitar.

Winner: GUITAR TRICKS

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

JamPlay Account

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.

GUITAR TRICKS

Guitar Tricks Home

The home page on Guitar Tricks is set up with a much more user-friendly appearance in our opinion with the left side of the page featuring an easy to read menu.

Better yet, the center of the page features four, large, clickable options for beginner lessons, experienced lessons, learning songs, or learning styles. Once you click on the beginner lessons, it then directs you to the easy to follow core system, with a labeled starting point that says, “start here”.

Even better, on the same page, there are sections for tuning your guitar, practicing, and learning songs below the main core system. We strongly feel if we were starting today, this site would be more appealing based strictly on the appearance and usability.

Keep in mind the guitar lessons landscape is always changing. For a look at where online lessons may be headed, check out our article comparing Fender Play and Guitar Tricks.

Winner: GUITAR TRICKS

Tools and Learning Aids

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 Video Lessons

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. Tools like this are the easiest way to play guitar while you learn.

GUITAR TRICKS

GuitarTricks Lesson Tutorials

The toolbox and lesson interface for Guitar Tricks is much more stripped down and simple than JamPlay which some students or experienced players may prefer.

As someone who has been playing guitar for years, we appreciated the simple screen setup that only has options for slowing down the video speed, while the tab pops up on a screen next to it.

For beginners, it doesn’t have quite the options and resources of the rival JamPlay but it still certainly is enjoyable and informative.

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

JamPlay Song Library

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, not something that really justifies the Jamplay membership cost.

A diverse list of songs is a critical part of intermediate guitar lessons, as students begin to advance from the beginner stage.

GUITAR TRICKS

Guitar Tricks Song Library

With over 700 song lessons available, Guitar Tricks is off to a good start in making sure your favorite song or at the very least, band, is represented.

The site also offers a more diverse group of styles such as world, surf, and funk music that JamPlay does not. Specifically, the “Top Hits” includes a great selection of the site’s most popular lessons, including some made easier for the student.

Even just the rock section is wildly more variable with everything from modern day indie rock like Cage the Elephant, to pop rock such as Elton John. When comparing Guitar Tricks vs Jamplay, the former takes the cake here.

Winner: GUITAR TRICKS

Final Recount:

Conclusion: Which Is The Better Lessons Site – JamPlay or Guitar Tricks?

There are a lot of features between these two sites that weren’t compared head to head because of similarities.

First off, looking for the best online guitar instruction, both sites have readily accessible and highly rate IOS apps that can be used to learn on the go or reference while practicing.

Secondly the Guitar Tricks cost and JamPlay cost are identical at $19.99 a month for the basic subscription plans, with yearly subscriptions also available. Both of the sites also offer basic tools such as guitar tuners, chord finders, and discussion forums or group chats.

For those looking for a bargain, a JamPlay or Guitar Tricks free trial is one option if you want to try before you buy (or steal a free month) and every so often coupons will pop up, sometimes associated with reviews.

So which is better, Jamplay or Guitar Tricks?

Guitar Tricks won three out of the four categories, making it far and away the most impressive of the two and our ultimate recommendation to anyone deciding between the two.

Overall Winner:

Overall, we believe you can’t go too wrong with either option based on the number of commonalities between the two as well as the popularity of both, but Guitar Tricks clearly has the upper hand based on song options, user interface, and linear lesson plans.

That wraps up our JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks review, let us know which one you think is the better value or if you learned through either platform.

VISIT GUITAR TRICKS TODAY >>

The post JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks (Which One Has The Secret Sauce?) first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Guitar chord theory is a subject that worries a lot of players, but if you’ve ever wondered how guitar chords are created, or you want to figure out chord voicings in other registers on the fretboard it’s a priceless bit of knowledge.

It also allows you to see links between scales and chords, very useful if you intend on a lead part following a specific chord progression or landing on a specific chord tone.

It all starts with the major scale of the key you are trying to figure out chord voicings in.

For the purpose of this lesson I will use the A Major Scale.

The A major scale:

The concept applies in every key, as long as you start with your major scale and remember the distance between each interval (Tone, Tone, Semi-tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-tone).

Major Chords

Major Chords are made up from the I, III and V internals of a major scale. In the key of A Major our major chord would be:

I   III   V

A   C#   E

Major chords are made up of only the I, III and V intervals from the scale.

A Major Open Position	A Major 6 String Barre	A Major 5 String Barre

Minor Chords

Minor chords are made up of the I, bIII and V intervals of a major scale. In the key of A Major our minor chord would be:

I bIII V

A C E

The note C (Which is our flat or minor 3rd) is not in the key of A Major, but flattening this 3rd interval of the scale is where we get our minor quality.

A Minor Open Position	A Minor 6 String Barre	A Minor 5 String Barre

Recommended Online Guitar Lessons

Dominant 7th Chords (Also known as 7 chords)

Dominant 7th chords are made up of the I, III, V and bVII intervals of a major scale. In the key of A Major our dominant 7th chord would be:

I   III   V   bVII

A   C#   E   G

The dominant 7 chord shares the I, III, V trial of a Major chord, with an added flattened 7th note. In the key of A Major, the VII note in our scale is a G#. As a dominant 7 chord requires the VII to be flattened, this gives us a G note.

A7 Open Position	A7 6 String Barre	A7 5 String Barre

Major 7th Chords

Major 7th chords are made up of the I, III, V and VII intervals of a major scale. In the key of A Major our major 7th chord would be:

I   III   V   VII

A   C#   E   G#

The Major 7 chord can be created by just adding a VII note to a standard Major (I III V) note grouping on the fretboard.

A Major7 Open Position	A Major7 6 String Barre	A Major7 5 String Barre

Recommended Help for Easily Understanding Chords

Minor 7th Chords

Minor 7th chords are made up of the I, bIII, V and bVII intervals of a major scale. In the key of A Major our minor 7th chord would be:

I   bIII   V   bVII

A   C   E   G

The minor 7 chord is a minor chord trial (I bIII V) with an added bVII note added. This chord is great for adding a sombre vibe to your chord progressions. Try playing blues with Min7 chords and see where it takes you.

A Minor7 Open Position	A Minor7 6 String Barre	A Minor7 5 String Barre

For each chord grouping I have included 3 variations across the fretboard to get you started. These shapes are all transposable between all keys with the root note being the lowest note in every chord shape.

Once you become familiar and comfortable with the intervals that make up the chords, you can attempt to find these groupings in non-familiar orientations across the fretboard.

Chord theory will open many doors and allow you to find new voicings for chords across the guitar.

About the Author

Leigh Fuge is a guitar tutor and professional guitarist from the UK. He divides his time between session work, playing with his band and teaching. He has a passion for sharing information and helping students across the globe improve their craft. He is a regular contributor to many online guitar publications and has taught hundreds of students in both face to face and Skype guitar lessons.

The post Guitar Chord Theory Made Easy first appeared on GuitarNiche.