guitar tricks

Review of Guitar Tricks

Online subscription-based guitar lesson site with over 3400 video tutorials from more than 40 different tutors. Offers something to guitarists of all levels form students just beginning guitar through to advanced players. View Free Sample Lessons

Rating starstarstarstarstar 5/5

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Price: $14.95 USD per month

Pros

    • High Quality Video
    • Well Designed structure to lessons
    • Professional Instructors
    • Covers Wide Range of Styles
    • 60 day money-back guarantee
    • Very Affordable Pricing
    • Online users forum
    • History function allows bookmarking of lessons
    • Free lessons to try before you buy

Cons

    • If you are just beginning guitar you could easily get lost with the large amount of lessons available

Review Detail

Guitar Tricks has been online for 10 years, offering guitar lessons, tutorials, and an amazing amount of quality content for only $14.95 a Month. The sheer scope of the material here is impressive. The videos are mostly high quality and the instructors are knowledgeable, professional and obviously passionate about what they do. The videos tend to increase in quality and clarity as they become more recent, but even older videos offer clear instruction and examples. Each lesson displays information related to of the key the lesson is played in, level of difficulty, the focus of the lesson and graphical representations of tablature, music notation and fretboard diagrams where appropriate. For an example of the lessons offered, click the button below.

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This is one learning option that can offer something to guitarists of almost any skill and experience level and is an especially rich resource if a student is beginning guitar or even intermediate. The lessons are categorized many different ways including by technique and by Musical style. Even advanced guitarists that may not require the fundamentals taught here, can expand their repertoire by delving into styles they may be unfamiliar with. This is one of the only guitar resources that allows you to explore slightly more obscure styles such as Surf and Rockabilly, along with standards such as Blues, Rock, Country and Metal. For the advanced or intermediate guitarist I would recommend you click on the "Instructors" tab once you have signed up, as this gives a good listing of more recent and better quality videos. Beginners are probably best off following the set curriculum.


Lessons based on music styles covered by Guitar tricks:

    • Acoustic
    • Alternative
    • Bluegrass
    • Blues
    • Classical
    • Country
    • Folk
    • Funk
    • Jazz
    • Metal
    • Rock
    • Rockabilly
    • Surf
    • World

An interesting idea offered here is categorizing lessons based on inspiration. They have scores of lessons based around the playing styles of top-level guitarists. The only problem I see with such a plethora of options is that it may require an absolute beginner to exercise a great deal of discipline. The best option would be to follow the lessons in a logical sequence – starting with fundamentals. But try telling a 15 year old who has his first guitar that he should first work through the fundamentals BEFORE tackling the Kirk Hammet and Paul Gilbert lessons. Many who are beginning guitar will probably get a little off track here as a result.

Guitar Tricks also includes with full subscription, a "Guitar Toolbox" including
Jam Station - 150 backing tracks
Ultimate Metronome - available online or as a download
Reference Tuner - For players wishing to explore alternative tunings.

There is also an online users forum and a history function which allows you to bookmark your lessons and stay current with updates.

For $14.95 per month, Guitar tricks is exceptional value. With a subscriptions based format, you only need to use the site for as long as your need. If in doubt, I would recommend signing up for the 24 free lessons offered. This is a great cross-section of the scope of tutorials offered, ranging from the "How to hold a pick" for newbies, to "string skipping arpeggios" for the not-so-new.

What you get

    • 3400 (and counting) Online video lessons
    • Jam station
    • Ultimate metronome
    • Reference Tuner
    • Online forum

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