Guitar Tricks Review – No Frills Just Great Guitar Instruction
When I first logged into my Guitar Tricks account I was pleasantly greeted with an easy to navigate members section . One complaint I’ve had about some of the online guitar lesson websites is they try to make things to fancy and technical. When it comes to learning guitar there are only 4 things that make a difference in your learning experience, they are:
- Lessons topics covered and the quality of the lesson videos
- Quality of the instructor and their explanation of topics
- Availability of practice tools and jam tracks to use
- Some sort of online support and community to help you along as you learn to play
Guitar Tricks has focused all their energy on these four areas of the guitar learning process and decided to shy away from some of the shiny bells and whistles of other online lessons sites offer.
Let’s take a closer look
Lesson Plans and Learning System
Whether you’re a complete beginner starting with the Guitar Fundamentals course or an intermediate player wanting to learn the blues Guitar Tricks has their lessons divided into skill level, style and technique. This makes it easy for you to get started and progress through their lessons.
Because their lessons are so well organized it’s easy to jump right in and get started as soon as you join. Following their learning system (see link below) you’ll know which lessons to watch next and when you should progress to a more advanced section of the site.
Click here for an over view of their Learning System
Specific Teachers for Specific Skills
One of the many benefits of learning to play guitar online is the teacher you watch for a particular skill or style is an expert in that skill or style. So if you’re a beginner then you’re watching lessons recorded by a teacher who is familiar with teaching beginners the basics. Or if you’re learning the blues you’re watching lessons recorded by someone who plays and knows how to teach the blues.
This benefit ensures you get the best possible learning experience. Guitar Tricks has over 40 different teachers on staff, the most of any online guitar lesson site, and they’re adding to that count all the time.
Click here for a listing of all Guitar Tricks Instructors
Practice Tools
This is where some sites go a little over board with fancy tools and toys. When it comes down to it you need chord and scale libraries/software, backing tracks to play along with, a metronome and tuner for beginner skills and that’s about it.
Guitar Tricks has done a great job creating easy to use and locate (inside the membership area) practice tools.
I enjoyed their JamStation, software programmed with over 200 different backing tracks, and their chord and scale libraries which were easy to access and navigate.
Click here to see all the Guitar Tricks Practice tools
Support and Community
If you’re going to learn guitar online then at some point you’re going to have a question that needs answering, want some feedback on your progress or just some general interaction with other players.
The forum inside Guitar Tricks is visited hundreds of times daily with literally thousands of threads. As a free member you have access to the basic discussion forum with other members. With a paid membership you’re granted access to a private section of the form where you can ask questions and get feedback directly from those teachers who create the Guitar Tricks lesson content.
You might be learning on your own at home, but you’re never on your own completely.
Price is Right
Guitar Tricks is only $14.95 a month and you have the option to sign-up for a free account which provides access to 24 sample lessons and a portion of the support and discussions form. The price point is the lowest of the big guitar lesson sites by about $5.
Click here to sign-up for a free account.
$14.95 a month is less expensive then one private guitar lesson but you get access to hours and hours of lesson content 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
A Few Negatives
Of course no product is perfect and Guitar Tricks has a few cons. While they use close up shots of the fretting and strumming hands in some of their lesson videos they have opted not to use split screen technology. This wouldn’t be that tough to do seeing the price of equipment is coming down all the time.
While I don’t think this affects you’re over all learning experience after seeing the split screen lesson videos at some other sites it was a nice feature.
Guitar Tricks also lacks some of the bells and whistles that some of their competitors have. For example, JamPlay has several live daily webcam lessons that members can tune into and ask questions to the instructor on-screen. Again, these webcasts are a nice bonus but I don’t believe it greatly improves the learning experience of the student.
Conclusion
Guitar Tricks has done a great job at making the important parts of learning guitar strong. The lesson topics and learning system is solid, their teachers are fantastic and the pricing is great.
I believe they’ve created an easy to use guitar learning environment that suits players of all ages and styles. If you’re not sure if Guitar Tricks if right for you signup for a free account and view the 24 sample lessons. I’m sure after you see the lesson quality you won’t hesitate to pay the $14.95 a month for a full membership.
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