Guitar Tricks

Guitar Tricks is one of the oldest sites around for online guitar lessons. Started in the late 90's, they've become very good at delivering useful and quality lessons for guitarists of all skill levels. Essentially, they are a subscription service that you pay for on a monthly basis. This gives you full access to all of the site's guitar lessons as well as many other features. Their huge database of nearly 4,000 video guitar lessons are taught by 45 different guitar instructors, and they're steadily adding more all the time - at a rate of about 100 per month. With such a such a prodigious colletion of guitar lessons it isn't too outrageous to say that Guitar Tricks might be the only guitar learning resource you'll ever need. You can get a taste of their offerings by trying out their 24 free lessons.

Lesson Content

One might think that with so many videos available the lessons would be unorganized, therefore making it difficult to learn guitar through a logical and methodical process. This, however, is not the case. Guitar Tricks has done a great job of organizing these video lessons into sections that allow you to progress in sensible way. Furthermore, the site keeps a history of your viewed lessons and also allows you to bookmark lessons, which gives a bit more structure to your learning process.

For beginner guitarists they provide something called a 'Core Learning System'. They've made an attractive flowchart with 'start here' markers and arrows, which seamlessly guide you through a complete guitar course. This Core Learning System begins with 2 levels named "Guitar Fundamentals" 1 & 2, altogether totaling around 75 video lessons. After these you progress to one of the specific guitar styles (blues, country, rock, etc.), each of which contain 2 levels of video instruction.

Beyond the 'Core Learning System' the lessons are divided into various categories. These include:

• Artist Studies - An artist inspiration series of lessons featuring instruction in the techniques and styles used by many noteworthy guitarists.
• Techniques Studies - Guitar lessons covering a wide array of advanced techniques.
• Genre Studies - Lessons for playing guitar in a particular style, about a dozen different styles are covered.
• Guitar Songs - a growing database of videos offering instruction for learning to play specific songs.

The video lessons are in .flv format (flash) and you can either stream them from the website or download them to your computer. The latter option requires an installation of the Guitar Tricks flash player on your computer. They call their flash player a 'Full Control Player' because it allows you to loop and repeat sections of the video. This is an excellent feature when trying to closely watch the instructor's fingers are doing.

Because the guitar lessons are taught by numerous independent instructors the audio and video quality varies. However, Guitar Tricks does require that the videos meet their quality standards and the majority of them are of good quality. In addition, the videos have high and low resolution options to choose from, allowing speedier viewing for those with slow connections. The lessons aren't only made up of videos either. Nearly every one includes extra study materials (diagrams, exercises, and tablature) which can all be printed out if needed.

Bonuses

• Guitar Tricks also includes a Jam Station tool, which provides over 150 different backing tracks for you to practice guitar with.
• Their Ultimate Metronome is software that they usually sell separately, but it is included free for download or online access when you become a member of Guitar Tricks.
• The Reference Tuner is another useful bonus for Guitar Tricks members. It can be accessed online or downloaded and features standard as well as alternate tunings.
• The User Forum is another highly valuable feature. With about 10,000 members on the site there is ample opportunity to learn and share.

Price and Guarantee

At $14.95 per month Guitar Tricks is cheaper than any of the other online guitar lesson sites. Signing up for the one year membership will save you $51 (their payment page says the one year membership will save you $26, but we did the math numerous times and kept coming up with a savings of $51, so this might need to be clarified with Guitar Tricks). Guitar Tricks offers a 60 day 100% money back guarantee. Guitar Tricks also offers full phone and email support as well as a good FAQ section. They also allow you to directly email the guitar instructors if you have any particular learning difficulties or comments to make.

Final Analysis

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced guitarist, Guitar Tricks offers something for everyone. With such a large amount of quality guitar lessons the price is hard to beat. The subscription model may not appeal to all. For others though, having the ability to access 4,000 lessons and a community of 10,000 guitarists is definitely a boon. If you're serious about learning guitar, we think that Guitar Tricks is one of the best ways to do it. However, if you do sign up be prepared to take advantage of the site's content or you'll just be wasting your money month after month. At the very least, take advantage of their 24 free lessons.