Guitar Tricks Review

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Guitar Tricks Review

OVERALL RATING: Lesson Quality: Value for Price: Support: Teaching Style: Lesson Variety: Ease of Use: Entertainment: Product Community: 3,000+ Videos Price: $14.95/month Delivery: Instant Guarantee: 60-Day, 100% Will GuitarTricks.com Work for you? Reviewed by Kyle, the Guitar Lessons Critic Some people pay a private guitar instructor $15-$20 (or more) for each 30-minute lesson, which adds up to $100-$200/month, for 8 lessons or so, from one teacher. Other people (like me) pay $14.95/month for unlimited access to over 3,000 high-quality video lessons online, from 45 instructors. To me, it's a no-brainer, except for the getting less 1-on-1 attention. GuitarTricks.com is a great place to talk to & learn from other guitarists, and watch videos to help you learn songs, master the basics (tuning, reading tabs, chords, scales, etc.), and even get into more advanced styles like heavy metal or classical finger-picking! Here's what you'll get when you join Guitar Tricks: Unlimited access to over 3,000 high-quality video lessons Community Support (Huge forum & help from 45 instructors) Tons of tutorials from professional guitarists JamStation software: Customizable backing tracks The "Technique Reference Library" Ultimate Metronome & Reference Tuner software While it's easy to get distracted by the 1,000's of video lessons & tutorials, they do a pretty good job of organizing them so they flow from beginning, to intermediate, to advanced skill levels. In the end, Guitar Tricks is tough to beat on value for price. At $14.95/month, you couldn't get more than 1 half-hour lesson from a single instructor, but with this membership you could watch 10 video lessons/day and practice along the whole time, at your own pace, in your bedroom. Pretty sweet, I have to admit... Check out GuitarTricks.com to get 24 FREE video guitar lessons:

GuitarTricks.com Pros

Here are some of my favorite things about being a member of Guitar Tricks:

• The video lessons are high-quality
• It's cool meeting, talking to, and learning from 10,000's of guitarists around the World
• The membership is insanely cheap for what you get ($14.95/month for unlimited access)!
• There are 45 instructors to learn from, covering tons of styles & genres
• JamStation is pretty cool for designing backing tracks to solo and/or sing over
• Ultimate Metronome is a good way to increase dexterity by boosting the tempo of exercises
• I love being able to learn & practice at home, whenever I want

GuitarTricks.com Cons

Though it's awesome overall, there are some things I do NOT like about Guitar Tricks:

• Ever spend like 3 hours on YouTube? With so many lessons, it's easy to get distracted here too
• Some of the lessons focus too much on beginners, moving too slowly for intermediate players
• Since there are so many instructors, sometimes it's tough to switch mindsets for their teaching styles
• It'd be really cool if they offered more video guitar tabs for specific songs (though there are quite a few)

I've realized that if you follow the flow of their lessons, and stick with 1-3 instructors at a time, it's a lot easier to sort of master one skill or technique, then move on. Plus, to be honest, I try to avoid the forums unless I'm sick of practicing or just really tired, just to make sure I don't get too distracted, which helps. Overall, I definitely recommend Guitar Tricks.

How Guitar Tricks helped me...

I have been a guitarist for over a decade now, but I had always learned from guitar tabs. I gradually built up my skills by pushing myself to master tougher songs, but I never really dove in to get formal training. I never really knew any of the specifics of playing guitar, any of the advanced techniques, or any of the "Why's" & "How's" of the instrument.

After investing in a home study course, I realized that I also wanted to be part of a community, to watch newly-added videos, talk with other guitarists, and learn more about specific genres.

I found 3 websites that had all of this, but GuitarTricks.com was the ONLY one I stuck with after trying them all.

Overall, I'm happy knowing that for less than the cost of a 30-minute lesson, I get an entire month's worth of improving my skills as a guitarist, all from home, without any pressure or need to practice stuff I don't like.

I get to learn at my own pace, and have fun with it. Plus, most of the books and home study courses I found didn't really get into specific techniques and styles like some of the video lessons they've created, and the ones that do would cost a lot of time & money to buy separately. If you like learning guitar from home (and saving money), Guitar Tricks is sweet!

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YouTube vs Guitar Tricks: "Why should I pay for video lessons?"

So I've gotten quite a few emails asking about learning guitar with YouTube videos, and I agree that (like with just about anything nowadays) there are tons of videos out there to help you learn guitar. Most of the emails I've gotten about this are from guitarists concerned that they shouldn't have to pay for videos, when there are so many free ones available. I personally have learned a few songs from free videos on YouTube.com, so I understand the concern.

However, I will say that one of the biggest flaws with learning anything online, is that it's easy to get distracted. In fact, that's one of the "Cons" of GuitarTricks.com, compared to learning from an instructor or with books or DVD's alone.

That said, belonging to a community of aspiring guitarists and learning from 45 professional instructors by watching high-quality videos made specifically for instruction, is a bit different than seeing some random dude show you how well he can play "Free Bird", ya know? There's a HUGE difference between learning from random people, and learning from professionally-trained instructors.

While there are tons of cool free videos online, the biggest problem is that it's VERY difficult to stay focused, and next to impossible to go through a step-by-step process to learn the fundamentals, then build upon that solid foundation with more advanced techniques, all from pros, for free.

Oh yeah, and it's important to say that learning from books can not be compared to watching someone while they teach you something, so any videos designed to help you learn guitar will help you out. But, if you bought one book every month or so (like people had to do less than 20 years ago), you'd be spending more than the $14.95/month for Guitar Tricks.

As for private lessons: you couldn't get more than 30 minutes with an instructor for the cost of a 1-month membership with unlimited access to 45 teachers, so it's still a ridiculously good deal.

YouTube videos are cool, but you'll never learn as much from them as you could with professional guitarists teaching you specific techniques, a community of other guitarists to learn from, and killer guitar training software programs. Period. But, if you think scouring the Internet for hours & hours to filter out the lame stuff and find the videos worth your time, is really worth saving $14.95 (less than a large pizza), more power to you...=)

Bottom line: You get what you pay for. If you want to spend less time finding random people on YouTube than actually learning guitar from professionals, then Guitar Tricks is definitely worth the $14.95/month. The fact that the videos are well-organized, edited, and in a step-by-step order for every style and skill level means you'll save TONS of time in the end.

Other GuitarTricks.com User Reviews

"Unique and worth trying. I'd give it a 4/5."
By "Marc" - Intermediate Guitarist.

"Since a private teacher is too expensive for me, I decided to give online guitar lessons a try. My first choice was GuitarTricks.com, because it is cheaper than JamPlay.

As I wrote in my Jamplay.com Review, I already moved on to them. Still, I'd recommend Guitar Tricks for everybody who don't wanna spend the high price of $20 per month just for your first steps with your new instrument. I guess, Guitar Tricks is probably the best choice for beginners.

The two longer beginner courses with a lot of content as well as the either two blues, country or rock courses in same length, are one of the best things a beginner could use to get used to the instrument. With four courses in a row, given hundreds of specific videos in a row, you'll have a great common thread you can work on, especially if you are new to the instrument.

Even me, after some years playing, learned new things, especially about music theory. Every upside has downsides – content for intermediate is a little bit rare and the jump from beginner to professional-experienced lessons is higher than it should be. Maybe I did not spend enough time with it. I guess it might have something to do with the fact that they're not in an order like the courses before, so you need to re-educate the lesson style, which I had no time to do before my subscription run out ;).

Also, the quality of the videos varies a lot, as there are videos from 2005 till now. Older ones are very amateurish (not in lesson quality, but in simple video quality) while newer ones are very good recordings.

The quantity of content is enormous. There are a lot more videos and categories compared to it's competitor, so it'll give you a larger variety of especially music genres. GuitarTricks.com might give you examples for nearly every music genre which exists.

But I guess, since the price is very good compared to it's alternatives, it'll be profitable to just give it a try. Comparing Guitar Tricks vs JamPlay is really hard, since it lacks of some features (no webcam sessions, less social networking), but has got almost the biggest video amount as well as the lowest price, which makes it unique and test-worthy.

I'd give it a 4/5."

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"Guitar Tricks was okay to me, but didn't beat out it's competitors."
By "Alex" - Intermediate Guitarist.

"I wrote a review recently on this website about JamPlay.com, and now I have decided to write a review of a website that I don't like as much, but I still like, Guitartricks.com. I have been playing guitar for around 3 years now, and I love to use guitar lesson sites. I first signed up to this site about 6 months ago, only to have a bad experience with the site.

Apparently, someone hacked in and stole my credit card information. Well, I canceled it and got JamPlay, but about two months ago I decided to try it again after noticing that Guitar Tricks had started to put song lessons on their site, something that they hadn't done when I first had it.

I tried it again for about 2 months, but a couple days ago, I canceled it again. Not because it was terrible, but because I just can't afford two lesson websites at one time. Nevertheless, I am still going to write a review based on my two months of experience of this website. I don't feel the need to post a picture this time, seeing as I am now a free member as of a week ago. Okay, enough talking about that, lets talk about my experience on this site. This site is definitely a good site, but I still have problems trusting it after my information was stolen from the website.

I really liked what they had improved on when I came back to the website. I loved the fact that they had put in the new features of song lessons. That was a real plus for the site. I really like their amount of instructors. They had a HUGE amount of instructors, a lot more since the first time that I subscribed. They have a whole lot more than JamPlay does. I liked how they had 14.95 a month subscription. That was cheap compared to other websites that I have purchased in the past, but still, it is hard to afford two guitar sites at the same time. That is why I canceled this and stuck with Jam play.

I will tell you my main reasoning for this now. Here are some of the cons of this website. One con is the layout of the site. It is not very neat in my opinion, and kind of hard to navigate. I like the layout of sites like Jam Play more, but that could just be personal opinion. I didn't really like that overall quality of the lessons either. They just didn't have all of the supplemental content or instructor support that its competitor, JamPlay has. I may sound like a Jam Play fan boy, but this is just what I see in Guitar Tricks.

I think that without a doubt, Jam Play is the smarter option. You get more bang for your buck, but lets get back to guitar tricks. This site has about 3/4 of the stuff that it's competitors have, but for about 3/4 the price. That is a good thing, but I would rather pay the extra 5 dollars a month to get something with more interactivity and help to beginners.

If I were you, I would just pay the extra five dollars a month and go with JamPlay, because they are going to give you a lot more features than Guitar Tricks will, and the instructors actually reply to you. Guitar Tricks was okay to me, but didn't beat out it's competitors. It didn't sell me, and I don't think it will sell anyone else who has gotten a subscription such as Jam Play, or any other lesson site."

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"No consistency beween the lesson content"
By "Jill" - Intermediate Guitarist.

"I have always loved music and have played instruments since I was a kid. Piano, flute and then my favorite...the guitar. I took lessons with the piano, played flute in the school band program and then was mostly self-taught on the guitar until I hit a point where I felt I needed further instruction to continue to progress.

I had used books, DVDs, etc but I still felt like I needed something else. The internet seemed to have a lot of options but there is so much out there to choose from I didn't know where to site. I found an ad for Guitar Tricks online while searching for guitar tab. I checked out the free content and thought it would be just what I had been looking for. I joined and it really is a good site.

Guitar Tricks offers a wide variety of styles, genres and instructors to choose from. They have online tools such as metronome, tuner and backing tracks. They offer community forums and of course! the freedom to take lessons at your own pace, at convenient times and in your own home. They have song lessons which is always fun and the site works well although I thought the layout of the site could have been a little easier to use if it was laid out a little differently.

My main disappointment in the site was that it seemed there was no consistency between the lesson content. It seemed like the instructors just video taped or recorded themselves on whatever equipment they personally owned and then Guitar Tricks put it on the site. I could be wrong about this and this may have changed since I let my membership expire, but when I was a member some of the instructors had very useful videos and included printed material as supplement to the lessons while other instructors might only have an audio clip and no supplemental content. I found this made the site feel very disjointed and made me frustrated when there was a lesson on a technique I wanted to learn but no video to help me visually see how to accomplish the technique.

I didn't feel like the site was updated enough to keep it interesting to me. A lot of the instructors seemed uninterested in their videos and some of the lessons felt like not a lot of effort was put in. I did really like the jam station and some of the reference tools. Some of the videos that were done well were very good and some of the instructors were great...it just wasn't consistent. I like that they have a forum for members to exchange ideas but I never got a real sense of community while I was a member.

Overall Guitar Tricks is a good site but as this guitar lesson critic site has pointed out...there may be a better choice out there. It is worth checking out some of the free lessons for yourself though and see what you think. I have also posted a review for Jamplay and if you read both reviews you will see how I feel the two sites differ. I would highly recommend checking both sites out and see which one fits your personality and learning needs the best."

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About the GuitarTricks.com Team

In 1998, a guy named Jon Broderick decided that the Internet didn't have enough high-quality guitar lessons, so he created a website called GuitarTricks.com, designed to focus on providing as much material as possible.

He gradually found over 40 professional guitarists trained in styles ranging from classical to heavy metal, and together they've created over 3,000 video guitar lessons.

There are over 400,000 guitarists that go to GuitarTricks.com every month, and many of them are active in the forums. Over time, more and more support has been added, along with more lessons being added every day, all to help as many aspiring guitarists as possible.

While there are many resources online for learning to play guitar, Guitar Tricks offers what some claim to be the best value, charging only $14.95/month for unlimited access to their entire library of video lessons, tutorials, software programs, and massive community forum.

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"Is Guitar Tricks right for me?"

If you're a complete beginner, I would at least sign up to get their 24 FREE video lessons. They're a great place to start, walking you through things like holding the guitar, tuning, the fretboard (guitar anatomy), notes, chords, scales, and more...If you've already been playing a while, Guitar Tricks is a cool, inexpensive way to expand your skills from home.

If you're an advanced player, most of the video lessons on this website probably won't challenge you too much, but the one advantage it has over home study courses is that the instructors dive deeper into advanced skills like fingerpicking, classical guitar and tougher styles like Flamenco. There aren't anywhere near as many advanced lessons as there are beginner or intermediate, but at least they cover the more difficult stuff, right?

While it's not the only thing you'll ever need as a guitarist, you definitely can't beat Guitar Tricks for $14.95/month.

Guitar Tricks Review Summary Learning guitar from home is awesome, and I highly recommend doing it with Guitar Tricks: Learn at your own pace, whether you're a beginner or intermediate guitarist Unlimited access to over 3,000 video lessons & tutorials Build your skills with the Ultimate Metronome & JamStation software Learn tons of styles and techniques from 45 professionally-trained instructors Get all this stuff for $14.95/month! If nothing else, sign up for 24 FREE video lessons to see what they have to offer:

 

$25 GuitarTricks.com Rebate Want $25 back when you sign up for Guitar Tricks? Already a member? Either way, click the play button below to see how you can get a $25 rebate just for writing a review! Here's the simple 5-step process: Sign up for Guitar Tricks (Current members can also participate) Stick around for at least 30 days Write a helpful review (At least 300 words) I'll post your review on this page Then, you'll get $25! (See video for details) Note: You can now choose between Paypal or an Amazon gift card Thank you so much for your help, and I look forward to reading your Guitar Tricks review! Name: * E-mail: * Experience Beginner Intermediate Advanced Guitar Course: * Guitar Tricks Overall Rating: Picture (Optional) Payment * Paypal Amazon Review Details: *   Note: Your email address will NOT be published or used for anything other than sending your $25!

 

Disclosure: As an independent reviewer of guitar lesson websites, I appreciate any purchases made through links on this page, because I receieve commissions when I refer friends & visitors. This in no way affects my in-depth, unbiased analysis of the website, but it does help fund this website and my iTunes music addiction. =) Thanks for reading my Guitar Tricks review!