🎸 With over 45,000 videos, 900+ courses, 600+ teachers including a host of celebrity instructors, and an equally impressive lifetime on the net, do they still offer a fair bang for the buck? Find out in this TrueFire lessons review.
TrueFire Lessons Review: Key Features
Interface
(4.4) Tabs easily accessed at the top of the page. Streamlined, easy to use design. |
Toolbox
(4.4) Easy to access options under all videos, high quality graphics. Many tool options. |
Quality
(4.3) Very detailed, many instructors, some famous, but videos often short. |
Options
(4.1) Expanding, but many song options mainly made up of typical “classic” or old songs. |
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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.
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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
What We Like
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- Easy to follow, clean website
- Multiple, linear lesson plans for each genre
- Mostly free lesson options available
- Some famous instructors
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What We Don’t Like
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- No modern song lessons
- Hard to find song lessons via webpage
- Number of lessons may be hard to navigate
- >Lots of videos but all short lessons
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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.
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.
- USER INTERFACE
- LESSON TOOLBOX
- LESSON QUALITY
- SONG OPTIONS
Summary
Overall Score:
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