About Guitar Tricks

Who doesn’t want to learn how to play the guitar? These instruments are usually at the top of any budding musician’s list. While anyone can make a wish, few people actually follow through with pursuing their dream of playing a guitar. Luckily, thanks to the emergence of online guitar learning sites, there really is no excuse to not make your dream a reality. One such guitar site that’s been particular popular for learning how to play the guitar is GuitarTricks.com.

Founded in 1998 by Jon Broderick, a San Francisco bay guitarist, Guitar Tricks is one of the oldest and largest guitar learning sites on the Internet. The site currently boasts over 8,000 video guitar lessons from 45 guitar teachers with experience in all the major genres and styles of guitar. The site is really a powerful and useful tool for anyone who has ever wanted to strum along on their instrument. The service provides aspiring guitarists with more in-depth guitar lessons, no matter what their skill level or favorite style of music to play on guitar. The site has been a popular learning tool because it includes:

There’s a lot to be learned and fun to be had on Guitar Tricks. It’s an exciting place to hang out and boost your skills from home, but how does it compare to other learning systems? Let’s delve further into some of the key features of GuitarTricks.com.

Top Features Of Guitar Tricks

Regardless of your skill level, Guitar Tricks can help you get to where you want to be. Upon arrival to the website, you’ll be greeted with a large video of a guitar that automatically starts blaring music through your speakers. For an aspiring guitar player, this should be totally rad and motivation for how well you’ll be able to play should you move forward with a Guitar Tricks membership. In order to gain access to all of the lessons and features on the website you have to create a membership.

A GuitarTricks.com membership is a good option for beginners, though many of the lessons are for intermediate to advanced guitarists as well. Regardless of skill level, guitarists are sure to find plenty of lessons to keep them busy. One of Guitar Trick’s greatest advantages of GuitarTricks.com is that they are one of the few websites that offer licensed song lessons from artists such as the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, 3 Doors Down, Five for Fighting, Nirvana, and KISS amongst others. In fact, they currently have approximately 500 licensed songs, which is twice as many as their competition.

A nice selling point of Guitar Tricks is that it lets anyone try out the services prior to subscribing. The site has a free 14-day trial membership available which grants full access to their massive video guitar lesson library. For those new to online video lessons, this is an excellent way to see how you like them.

The lessons on Guitar Tricks are grouped together to form many different learning paths. For instance, if you are new to guitar, you’ll probably want to go through their “Core Learning System” course. There are also sections of the site that will link you to a particular genre or technique. If you are interested in learning a particular genre (Blues, Rock, Jazz…) or a particular technique (Fingerpicking, Hammer-Ons, Sweep-picking…) you can do that as well. The courses on Guitar Tricks are often taught by several different instructors, not just one, which allows you to select an instructor that you think you will jive with the most.

Guitar Tricks also has a YouTube channel that houses all of the videos. Once you log-in to your account, you’ll also be granted access to these private videos. Currently the channel boasts 1.8 million followers, which can attest to the power and success that the service has had in teaching budding guitarists.

Guitar Tricks Prices

The basic functionalities of Guitar Tricks are free to the general public. Although you still need to create a log-in regardless of the subscription you select, you’ll still be able to watch a limited number of videos and tutorials. Now, if you’re really serious about learning guitar it’s recommended that you subscribe to the full access subscription. At the low price of $14.95 per month, you’ll have full access to over 5,000 different guitar lessons. You’ll also have full access to all the videos, music, jam station and can actively post in the community forum.

Criticism Of Guitar Tracks

Though the site is awesome overall, there are some faults that users have found with Guitar Tracks. Some of the lessons focus too much on beginners, moving too slowly for intermediate players. In addition, a big complaint that users seem to have with the service is that there are just too many videos on the site that it sometimes can make it difficult to sift through video upon video. This really just comes down to organization, and could easily be fixed if the site simply categorized the videos in a more effective manner.

Another criticism of the site is that there are just too many instructors in the videos and tutorials and since every instructor has a different teaching style, it can sometimes be hard to adjust to the particular teaching style at hand. To combat this it is best if you follow the flow of the lessons, and stick with 1-3 instructors at a time. It’s a lot easier to sort of master one skill or technique and then move on. Using this strategy will also make much better use of your time.

Customer Support

If you need help with your membership, Guitar Tricks has both email and toll-free phone support available. The general consensus from past users of the service is that the response time is very good, with calls answered immediately as long as they happen within normal business hours. E-mail response times generally take a little longer, but you can usually expect to receive a response within 24 hours after the message is sent.

Another nice way Guitar Tricks aims to serve its users is through its member forums. If you need help with your guitar playing, you can post your questions in their public guitar forum. Full-access members have the additional option of asking questions directly to some of Guitar Tricks’ teachers. The community is very active, so you won’t have to wait long for someone to get back to you about your question or issue.

Conclusion

Guitar Tricks is really one of the best guitar learning services on the Internet. The site is well-constructed, easy to use and fun to interact with. It offers an almost endless amount of lessons and the videos are very good quality. One of the most popular features is the overlay of a graphic that shows you what note is being played and when to play that note. No other site in this category offers this service and it can be very helpful when trying to learn a really hard lick.

The service is also very reasonably priced for all that you receive with your subscription. Not only that, but the customer support is first-rate and the forums allow you to interact with some of the guitar professionals and other aspiring guitarists. Guitar Tricks is truly a perfect site for anyone who has ever had the dream of learning how to play the guitar. So strum away to GuitarTricks.com and you’ll be on your way to rocking out!