Guitar Tricks Review – Is It Worth It? (2024)
Guitar Tricks is an online learning platform designed specifically for guitar enthusiasts, offering a variety of lessons, tools, and resources for players of all skill levels. Through its comprehensive lesson structure and skilled instructors, it stands out as an effective way to learn guitar.
After spending some time on the platform, I’m ready to share my experiences and thoughts which should help you determine if it’s right for you.
Please note that I was provided with free access to Guitar Tricks in order to evaluate the service. However, my opinions are my own and I am honestly explaining my thoughts in this review.
Guitar Tricks has a well-organized Core Learning System that guides users on a structured learning path, starting from fundamentals to advanced concepts.
Contents
- Guitar Tricks
- Verdict
- Pros
- Cons
- Is Guitar Tricks Worth It?
- Guitar Tricks Core Learning System
- Instructors and Teaching Styles
- Additional Features and Tools
- Guitar Tricks App
- Community Forum
- Pricing and Membership Options
- User Experience and Interface
- guitar tricks vs justin guitar
- Guitar Tricks vs Guitareo
- Lesson Download and Offline Access
- Guitar Tricks Trial
- Verdict
Guitar Tricks
Verdict
Guitar Tricks is a comprehensive online guitar-learning platform that caters to players of all skill levels. It has a structured curriculum that is excellent for complete beginners and even more experienced players who want to learn something new. The platform is in affordable territory, has a vast following and engaging community, and has an array of instructors that cater to a lot of different styles and genres.
Pros
- Structured curriculum
- Excellent for complete beginners
- Vast following and engaging community
- Caters to all skill levels
- Additional features and useful tools
Cons
- Some lessons are not downloadable due to licensing constraints.
- The visual design of the platform is a little bit dated, but of course, this doesn’t affect the quality of the lessons.
- The platform doesn’t have gamified features (which can help motivate some people).
Guitar Tricks has a lot of experienced instructors, which ensures diverse teaching styles and caters to different learning preferences. Alongside its main lessons, Guitar Tricks also offers various supplemental features and tools, such as jam tracks, reference materials, and progress tracking, making the learning experience more engaging and interactive.
When it comes to pricing, Guitar Tricks provides flexible membership options to fit individual budgets and requirements. Compared to private lessons, much like other online learning platforms, it is way more affordable. As for comparing Guitar Tricks to its alternatives, potential users should weigh factors such as lesson content, instructor quality, teaching approaches, pricing, and additional resources to make an informed decision.
Let’s dive in deeper to get a better understanding of the platform.
Is Guitar Tricks Worth It?
Guitar Tricks is a great online guitar-teaching platform that caters to players of all skill levels. It has a ton of content ranging from beginner to advanced and has a pretty comprehensive song library. All in all, I highly recommend you try it out if you want to learn guitar.
Guitar Tricks has a structured curriculum known as the core learning system, which helps you stay disciplined and make sure that you’re keeping on track with the essentials.
Guitar Tricks Core Learning System
The Core Learning System, at the heart of the Guitar Tricks platform, is designed to provide a personalized and step-by-step learning experience. It aims to cater to different skill levels while ensuring a smooth progression of knowledge and techniques.
The beginner lessons start with the guitar fundamentals, such as understanding guitar parts, tuning, basic chords, strumming patterns, and simple techniques. This foundation enables novice players to develop confidence, muscle memory, and the necessary skills to advance in their guitar journey. After finishing the fundamental stages, you then get to choose which style you want to progress which I think is really cool.
You can always go back and learn another style but the fact that it’s built with your preferences in mind is actually quite interesting.
There are also a ton of video lessons for advanced players who want to take their skills to a new level. Advanced lessons focus on intricate techniques, music theory, and improvisation, as well as specific guitar styles such as blues, rock, country, and jazz. There’s even a lesson plan for gear and tone which is not something you see every day. For frequent giggers and those who want some advice, this is also a very useful option.
Instructors and Teaching Styles
Guitar Tricks offers access to a diverse pool of professional instructors, each with unique teaching styles, expertise, and the ability to connect with a wide range of learners. This variety ensures that you can find the right fit for your individual learning preferences.
The instructors on Guitar Tricks have backgrounds in various guitar styles and genres, allowing students to explore different areas of expertise such as rock, blues, country, jazz, fingerstyle, and more.
Each instructor employs a distinct teaching approach, from focusing on music theory and technical aspects to prioritizing practical playing tips and demonstrations. The platform also features interviews and discussions with instructors, which is great insight, in my opinion.
Additional Features and Tools
Beyond the Core Learning System, Guitar Tricks offers an array of additional features and tools to enhance the learning experience and make it more interactive and enjoyable for students.
Some of these noteworthy offerings include Feedback playing, live online guitar lessons, a Guitar Toolbox with useful apps (Metronome, Tuner, Scale Finder, Jam Station, Chord Finder, etc.), a Collections tab for style-based song tutorials from different eras, and much more. Additionally, I really like the Guitar Insider series which is practical and useful advice ranging from everyday issues to touring advice and even gear advice.
Overall, these additional features and tools not only supplement the main lesson content but also make Guitar Tricks a well-rounded learning platform, enriching students’ journeys as they master the guitar.
Guitar Tricks App
The app works in conjunction with your Guitar Tricks account, meaning that when you log in, you can continue where you left off. It does a great job of transferring the online/website experience to your mobile device or tablet.
Going through the app, I can honestly say, in comparison to the website, the whole user-interface experience is a tad better and more appealing on the app because the site design is a bit outdated.
You can basically do anything on the app that you could on the website. Granted, the smaller screen is a bit hard to navigate or read, however, if you have a tablet or iPad, the larger screen makes it way better to use. Overall, the app is a great travel-friendly option for musicians on the go!
Community Forum
Guitar Tricks has a fairly vast community that frequently engages in discussions about various topics and gives advice while also engaging in gear reviews, recording advice, and even music listening.
Guitar Tricks has a pretty cool community forum page that delves into different aspects regarding the guitar. You can ask for advice, discuss gear and tone preferences, and even participate in open discussions. There’s even a listening post where you can share your music and get feedback.
All in all, there are a bunch of useful tabs in the forum that range from practical to very detailed advice which is beneficial.
Pricing and Membership Options
Guitar Tricks offers flexible pricing and membership options, monthly and annual membership, allowing students to choose the plan that best suits their needs and budget.
These options facilitate an accessible and cost-effective learning experience, especially compared to private guitar lessons. Additionally, seasonal promotions and discounts may be available. By offering varying payment plans with a 60-day money-back guarantee and a 14-day free trial, Guitar Tricks ensures that you can access a comprehensive learning experience at an affordable cost.
User Experience and Interface
The Guitar Tricks platform is fairly straightforward in terms of use. The user interface is a tad outdated but easy to use, nevertheless.
Each section or tab can be easily accessed and the instruction tabs have a very simplistic design where you can clearly see the tablature, slow, speed up, or loop lessons, check the lyrics (in conjunction with the chords), and more.
Compared to Guitareo, for example, where they use a gamified system where you can earn experience, almost like a game, Guitar Tricks is more simple but effective. This may be a positive or negative, depending on what you actually prefer. Overall, the entire user experience is very simplistic and easy to use.
guitar tricks vs justin guitar
Since Guitar Tricks is one of the best and most popular paid online guitar-learning platforms, I think it’s fair to compare it to one of the best free options which is Justin Guitar. Is it worth paying for Guitar Tricks when you can get free lessons from Justin Guitar? If you’re serious about learning guitar then I think Guitar Tricks is worth trying out.
Justin Guitar is a great free online guitar-teaching platform but when it comes to the number of lessons available, it falls really short in comparison to Guitar Tricks. You can choose between more styles of guitar on Guitar Tricks, pick a preferred instructor (whereas on Justin Guitar you have only 1), and have a more well-rounded experience overall.
Not to knock Justin Guitar in any regard as it’s a very decent platform for learning guitar (fo free), but if you want a more calculated and structured approach to learning the guitar, Guitar Tricks is a better option. Justin Guitar is a great free platform for those that like Justin’s approach to learning, but if you want to branch out then Guitar Tricks is well worth considering.
Guitar Tricks vs Guitareo
Overall, I feel that Guitar Tricks is a superior platform to Guitareo in terms of its content as it has a larger song and lesson library, it has a lot more instructors, and it offers lots of content for more experienced guitarists.
That said, Guitareo still has a particular charm to it (check out our Guitareo Review to learn more). It’s newer, has a better interface, and the instructors have a particularly consistent level of enthusiasm about them! Also, Guitareo has two different types of starting curriculums which you can read about in our guitareo review, so you can choose your own journey a bit.
Lesson Download and Offline Access
Guitar Tricks does offer offline access and downloads of lessons and song tutorials but they are limited to 15 videos per day. Also, not every lesson is downloadable as there are limitations due to legal agreements with music publishers.
Bottom line, it would have been nice to have an all-access to downloads, but it’s understandable that they have to work within their licensing restrictions.
Guitar Tricks Trial
Guitar Tricks offers a 14-day free trial period where you can test the platform in its entirety. There are no limitations of the trial period and you can view all the lessons and songs.
During the 14-day free trial, you can do everything that you could normally do with a paid membership (no limitations).
Verdict
Guitar Tricks is a comprehensive and user-friendly online learning platform tailored to guitar enthusiasts of all skill levels. With its structured Core Learning System, diverse instructors, wide-ranging lesson content, and additional features and tools, the platform provides an engaging and supportive environment for the modern guitar player.
Its flexible pricing options and free trial period make it an affordable choice for those seeking a solid guitar learning experience.
