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Year after year, guitar experts across the globe rate Guitar Tricks as one of the top-rated online guitar learning platforms on the internet. In this Guitar Tricks review, we’ll try to explain why the app is winning people over..
While learning how to play the guitar is just a mere hobby for some people, for others it can be a career in the making. So, whether you’re a
You’ll be surprised to know that more than 3 million people around the world are leveraging the app to enhance their guitar playing skills and become expert guitarists. The app has over 700 songs and 11,000 lessons to learn; sounds interesting, right?
To help you decide whether Guitar Tricks can be a good guitar learning tool for you or not, our guitar experts bought the app and tried it first-hand. Therefore, in the Guitar Tricks review, you’ll only find authentic feedback. We’ll discuss the features of the app, pros and cons, and a lot more. Keep reading and you’ll find out.
Guitar Tricks Review Summary
Guitar Tricks is an online guitar learning platform, suitable for beginners, intermediates, and expert guitar enthusiasts. The platform comprises a plethora of songs and lessons to train beginners and help intermediate, as well as expert guitarists, hone their skills.
You can use the access the courses and lessons using the Guitar Tricks website, Android app or iOS app.
Notable features of the Guitar Tricks platform:
- Interactive, engaging and user-friendly interface
- Suitable for beginners, intermediates and expert guitarists
- Detailed, well-structured courses and lessons
- Is compatible with different operating systems and devices
- Value for money
- Knowledgeable one-to-one sessions
- Over 700 songs with varying difficulty levels
An overview of the format
The format of the Guitar Trick app is easy to understand, especially for beginners. Moreover, the newly updated lesson page design has made the format even more well-structured.
The video player takes the center stage. You can simply and quickly adjust the video quality (from 224p to 4k) in no time. Even if you play the videos on a big screen using an HDMI cable or Wi-Fi, you can enjoy the highest resolution.
The A/B looping system in the video player allows you to repeat a portion of a video or the full video in a loop. This feature can come in handy when you’re completing a difficult lesson or learning a challenging song.
Another useful feature is the speed adjustment bar which allows you to adjust the speed of a video to as low as 0.5x without impacting the pitch. Alternatively, you can also increase the speed of the video as much as you like.
Right next to the video, you’ll find the notation/TAB for the song. The TAB has been strategically placed so that you don’t keep scrolling back and forth while the song is playing in the video player. So, you can simply hit the ‘play’ button, pick up your guitar and focus on your lesson without any disturbance.
Below the video player and the notation, you’ll find the details of the song as well as the lyrics if you wish to read.
The lessons can vary in duration and come in parts (introduction, chorus, verses, solo, octave riffs, and so on) instead of a complete song. This makes it easier to learn tricky compositions and solos, especially for beginners with no or very little experience. You can simply switch to the part of the lesson you want and watch it as many times as you want.
The Guitar Tricks dashboard
With Guitar Tricks there is a wide variety of topics you can explore. You’ve got the:
Core Learning System
- Lesson categories
- Lessons grouped by artists
- Style categories
And so on.
You’ll find the following sections of the homepage:
Beginner Lessons- Experienced Lessons
- Learn to Play Songs
- Learn Guitar Styles
- Guitar Coaching Program
Each category comprises lessons categorized differently.
Beginner Lessons
If you have no experience with guitars at all, Guitar Tricks can be a whole world of new learning for you. Our experts feel it is excellent for beginners. As you’ve seen in the previous section, you can easily find the ‘
Once you access the
You’ll be happy to know that at this stage you start learning how to play the guitar instantly. The instructor, Lisa McCormick will help you sail through the process easily. She is friendly and explains everything very clearly. Believe it or not, the Level 1 material is enough to keep you occupied for at least a few weeks.
Level 2 simply picks up from where you leave Level 1. At this stage, you’ll learn how to use barre chords and power chords, understand different scales, and so on. So, if you’ve never played the guitar before, Guitar Tricks will be your guitar teacher since inception of the course and will push you to play songs from day one. Just wait and watch; in a matter of weeks, you’ll be playing your guitar with ease.
Advanced Lessons
On the one hand, Guitar Tricks provides beginners with an extremely comprehensive guitar learning course, and on the other hand, it helps advanced players explore the foundation of the three key styles of music – blues, country, and rock.
With every style come two lessons and a new instructor. There are countless lessons to get you started with a new genre of music, covering both lead playing techniques and rhythm. You’ll also learn how to find the right tone using different equipment.
Intermediate and experienced players will benefit the maximum from the later levels of the Core Learning System. Nevertheless, the real deal for experienced guitar players is Guitar Trick’s large collection of songs with different difficulty levels.
The difficult levels are categorized using a mini guitar scale – a single guitar for ‘
You’ll find the Fundamental lessons for intermediates and experts highlighted in grey and the advanced courses highlighted in red.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll find advanced lessons further categorized as:
- Styles
- Practice
- Techniques
- Chords and Scales
- Artist Studies
- Gear and Tone
While some lessons in these categories overlap with the ones you cover in advanced courses, most of the learning materials are unique. How you want to learn and which courses you want to take are completely your choice. The Guitar Tricks app is flexible when it comes to usage.
Different styles
When it comes to styles, Guitar Tricks knows no limit. If you think that blues, country and rocks are the only styles the app has to offer, you’re mistaken. You can also take lessons on other guitar styles such as:
- Acoustic
- Bluegrass
- Blues
- Classical
- Country
- Funk and Soul
- Jazz
- Metal
- Rock
- Surf
And so on.
You can access the ‘Guitar Styles’ page directly from the homepage. They’re also listed throughout the website.
Guitar Tricks Instructors
Since Guitar Tricks is an old player in the online guitar learning space, it features a long list of instructors. Currently, there are almost 32 instructors on the Guitar Tricks app.
The instructors are spread across different age groups, genders, countries, styles, and so on. Some specialize in one genre, while others know a variety of styles. Doug Fearman is a classic example of one instructor wearing multiple hats. He knows blues, jazz, and rock.
Almost all the instructors are friendly and knowledgeable. However, some are more energetic than others. Most of the artists have either performed or recorded with top guitarists and artists around the world. Some instructors such as Tom Finch and Dave Celentano are well-known across the industry for their guitar playing as well as teaching skills. So, in one program, you learn from many different instructors with different experiences and skills.
Also, you’ll find the following qualities in Guitar Tricks instructors:
- Enthusiasm about guitar and guitar-related subject matter
- Confidence and willingness to teach
- Clear and concise teaching methods
- Friendliness and patience, especially with beginners
Bass Lessons
If you’re a bass guitarist, you’re in for some bad news. Guitar Tricks does not have separate lessons for bass guitarists. Guitar Tricks lessons primarily focus on acoustic guitars and 6-string electric guitars. So, if you’re looking for bass lesson, we recommend you check JamPlay.
A large collection of songs
As already mentioned at the beginning of the Guitar Tricks review, the app comprises a broad collection of songs that have officially been licensed to learn.
With over 700 songs, Guitar Tricks is one of the largest guitar learning tools out there. Our experts noticed that they add almost 1-2 new songs each week.
Talk about the variety of songs you can play and we’re pleased to tell you that you can play almost everything from the Beatles to Pearl Jam. The collection covers different styles of guitar music including guitar classics by Beethoven and Tarrega. On the contrary, you may also be unable to find renowned artists.
Each song lesson comprises the following features:
- 100% accuracy
- TABs
- Instructions divided into segments
- Licenses
- Complete demos of all songs with the ability to slow down or increase the speed and watch any part at any given time
Some artists that are featured on Guitar Tricks include:
- AC/DC
- Ed Sheeren
- Pink Floyd
- Rolling Stones
- Godsmack
- Eric Clapton
All in all, whether you’re a
One-to-one coaching
Just recently, Guitar Tricks discontinued their Full Access Plus/Pro subscription plans that allowed members to have three group sessions with an instructor week after week.
The online guitar learning platform now offers flexible one-to-one sessions that are either 30 or 60 minutes long. Even though this exclusive feature will increase the overall price, it’s convenient and worth every buck you spend.
The Guitar Tricks app
Like many other online guitar tutorial sites, Guitar Tricks is now available on Android and iOS devices. Therefore, you can take guitar lessons from your bed or office.
The free version provides you with access to only limited lessons and courses. Nevertheless, if you update to the full membership plan, you’ll have access to everything that Guitar Tricks has to offer.
Both Android and iOS apps are user-friendly and work as smoothly as the Guitar Tricks website.
Blog and toolkit
Along with the lessons and songs, Guitar Tricks provides users with a toolbox comprising a range of basic web apps that can be useful for both beginners and experts.
The 9 tools offered by Guitar Tricks include:
- Metronome
- Reference Tuner
- Chord Finder
- Scale Finder
- Fretboard Trainer
- Jam Station
- Chord Charts
- Glossary
- TAB guide
While you may already be having access to these apps, having them in one central place can be convenient when you’re learning new songs. All apps are easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.
When it comes to the blog, authors discuss an array of topics and share all the latest updates related to the guitar world. You will also find interviews of popular guitarists, important announcement, guitar gear reviews, competitions and contests, giveaways, and a lot more.
The Guitar Tricks community
The Guitar Tricks community is something you shouldn’t miss. It allows you to get in touch with expert guitarists and ask them whatever guitar-related questions you have. You can also get a glimpse of what your fellow Guitar Tricks members are up to.
The community forum comprises dedicated guitar-related sections for members such as the basics of guitars, recording, song-writing, guitar techniques, and so on.
Cost and pricing
When it comes to the cost and pricing plans, you can buy a monthly subscription amounting to $19.95 or an annual subscription amounting to $179.99.
While the Guitar Tricks subscription is definitely not the cheapest online guitar tutorial subscription on the internet, it’s value for money. You won’t regret spending even a single penny.
Pros and cons
Before we conclude the Guitar Tricks review, let’s look at some pros and cons of the online guitar learning platform to help you decide if it can be the right choice for you:
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Detailed lessons with limited or no redundancy |
Our experts spotted some minor bugs while playing the videos |
|
Lessons and courses for |
The online guitar learning course does not have any learning material for bass guitarists |
|
Unlimited collection of songs |
Exclusive features are only available with the paid subscription |
|
Well-structure courses and learning material |
|
|
Frequently updated to enhance the user experience and make the content more engaging and useful |
|
|
One-to-one instructor-led lessons |
|
|
Value for money |
|
|
Can also be accessed on Android and iOS devices |
|
|
The Guitar Tricks community allows you to engage in conversations with expert guitarists as well as fellow community members |
Guitar Tricks alternatives
After reading the complete Guitar Tricks review, if you feel the Guitar Tricks course does not suit your requirements, here’s a list of Guitar Tricks alternatives you can explore:
- Yousician
- JamPlay
- Guitar Gate
- Guitar Reo
- Fender Play
- Justin Guitar
Conclusion
It was hard for our guitar experts to find issues with the Guitar Tricks platform. The platform has been around for over 2 decades and is a very solid platform. The library of songs and courses impressed our guitar experts big time as it is suitable for beginners, intermediates, as well as experts. Imagine, our experts explored the platform for nearly a week and did not get bored even once.
All instructors are knowledgeable, friendly, patient, and talented. The video player is easy to use and sits at the center of the platform. In just one click, you can practice the song of your choice and see the notations side-by-side. No scrolling here and there to see the notations. It’s also a delightful experience to see 4k videos.
If you really want to know if there are any faults in the platform, we would say that the collection of songs could have been better and less arbitrary. Moreover, there are no bass lessons whatsoever. Nevertheless, the best thing is that both monthly and annual subscription plans are fairly priced and not very expensive.
We hope you found the Guitar Tricks review helpful and by now you’re able to identify whether Guitar Tricks is a good option for you or not. If you don’t think it meets your requirements, you can check the Guitar Tricks alternatives listed in the Guitar Tricks review above. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comment section below. Our experts will ensure they answer your questions as soon as possible.
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