If you are thinking of learning an instrument, learning the guitar is an excellent choice. It's cheap, takes up very little space, and you will see that performing a tune that you’ve been listening to your entire life, or improvising will be really enjoyable.

If you're considering teaching yourself the guitar without a live teacher, GuitarTricks, JamPlay, and Learn and Master Guitar will be your most likely options. We will now review all three of these guitar learning methods, so you can decide which one you'll go with.

Comparison table

Here are the main differences between the 3 guitar learning methods at a glance. To find out the details, keep on reading 🙂

 JamPlay.com

 

GuitarTricks.comLearn and Master Guitar
MethodVideo guitar lesson websiteVideo guitar lesson websiteDVD lessons
LessonsThousands of lessons
- All levels and genres
- Song lessons
- Supplemental tabs & chord charts
- Video lessons not downloadable
Thousands of lessons
- All levels and genres
- Song lessons
- Supplemental tabs & chord charts
- Video lessons downloadable
20 lesson DVDs
- Introduction to several genres
- Few song lessons- Detailed workbook with tabs, charts and theory exercises
- General customer forum
LevelBeginner to AdvancedBeginner to AdvancedBeginner to Intermediate
User interfacePersonalized UI:
- Bookmark lessons
- Lessons viewed
- Progress history
Personalized UI:
- Bookmark lessons
- Lessons viewed
- Progress history
10+10 DVDs & workbook:
- 20 lesson sessions
- 10 main lesson DVDs and 10 workshop DVDs with extra exercises covering the main lessons
Online tools- Chord and scale library
- Backing tracks
- Metronome
- Reference tuner
- Interactive chord finder
- Backing tracks
- Metronome
- Reference tuner
- Downloadable video player
N/A
Extras- Active forum
- Live webcam sessions
- Active forum
- All lessons and tools downloadable
- 5 jam-track CDs
- The big binder looks good on the shelf 🙂
Pricing$19.95/month$14.95 / month$149
Refund policy7 days60 days60 days

GuitarTricks

GuitarTricks
GuitarTricks styles

During our review of GuitarTricks, we found that the guitar lesson site is just enormous. You can get lessons covering all different guitar genres, so it suits everyone from absolute beginners to skilled guitarists. The tutorials are sorted and grouped in several various ways, which is a must, given the number of lessons offered. You can search based on level of difficulty (complete beginner, beginner, easy, more advanced, advanced as well as extreme), which helps you to save lots of time since you do not have to search through lessons that are far too simple, way too hard, or just not your thing.

A fantastic aspect pertaining to advanced players is that the search function lets you locate lessons in the styles of popular guitar stars. This specific section of GuitarTricks is named “By Inspiration,” and lets you find music performed by stars from The Edge, to Chet Atkins, to Zakk Wylde to Jimmy Page, etc.

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GuitarTricks can teach you these types of music:

Acoustic, Alternative, Bluegrass, Blues, Folk, Funk, Jazz, Metal, Rock, Surf,

It's also possible to learn to perform like famous guitarists:

Jack Johnson, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Chet Atkins, and numerous others...

Positives:

  • The sheer number of video tutorials is virtually overwhelming, they have thousands of lessons for just about all levels and styles.
  • Different ways you'll be able to browse and do a search for guitar lessons (skill level, tutor, genre).
  • One of the greatest features we discovered during our GuitarTricks evaluation is the fact that videos on the site are all downloadable, and you also get a complimentary movie player to watch them.
  • Affordable prices compared to the quantity of courses on the site. Paying for this many lessons from a guitar teacher would certainly cost a small fortune, yet only $15 per month at GuitarTricks.

The elements we don't like about GuitarTricks:

  • We found some really old video lessons, that happen to be of very low production quality (roughly 1% of the video tutorials).

Learning how to play guitar with GuitarTricks is a perfectly fine alternative to employing a personal guitar instructor these days.

GuitarTricks provides a huge range of benefits, that a personal guitar tutor won't be able to offer. The associated fee difference is one of the most significant benefits of learning from online lessons, simply because you will be charged a fraction of what one would normally spend on a personal teacher.

JamPlay

JamPlay
JamPlay

Should you get started learning how to play the acoustic or electric guitar at Jamplay, you'll go through their 3 "Phases": Fundamental basic courses for novices, Style training (such as country, rock, etc.), and learning how to play famous songs. An excellent element of Jamplay was in fact the construction of the website. Though you'll find around forty-five guitar teachers now, the site format permits you to move forward over the tutorials in a very simple, sensible form. Plenty of Jamplay's teachers have courses about almost every genre, which means you can find the ones you enjoy most.

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Jamplay can show you these varieties of music:

Acoustic, Bluegrass, Blues, Folk, Funk, Jazz, Metal, Rock, Surf, World

Pros:

  • Many ways to browse and search for guitar lessons (level of skill, tutor, style).
  • Very varied skill levels, making the site useful for guitar players at all playing levels.
  • Affordable pricing (only $12 a month with the annual membership)

Nonetheless, there were some negative aspects we found at Jamplay:

  • At this time there are more than 40 guitar instructors in total, but some tend to be far better than others.
  • Videos and guitar tools are not downloadable, like Jamplay's main rival, GuitarTricks.

Teaching yourself how to play acoustic or electric guitar with the help of Jamplay can be a completely good alternative to working with a personal guitar instructor. Jamplay provides many advantages, which a personal guitar tutor simply cannot provide. The cost difference is among the largest benefits of learning by way of online guitar lessons, simply because you will be charged a fraction of what you might normally spend on a private guitar teacher.

To find out more, have a look at this detailed review of JamPlay.com and our comparison of GuitarTricks vs Jamplay.

Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar with Steve Krenz

Learn and Master Guitar
LMG with Steve Krenz

DVD guitar courses are really popular among novice guitar players nowadays. After you perform a side-by-side assessment between learning guitar from a guitar teacher and learning from Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar, you will discover that the latter option has several big advantages, for instance:

  • Review the lessons at any time,
  • Enormous price benefit, since Gibsons Learn and Master Guitar, will cost approximately $150 with about a years worth of lessons, which will cost thousands coming from a private music teacher,
  • Learn whenever you want from home, not having to go to the tutor's house and satisfy his / her agenda.

Obviously, all guitar learning DVDs are not made according to similar standards. Some are good, and many are definitely not.

Learn and Master Guitar can be a suitable option for you if you happen to be a rookie who wants to master the electric or acoustic guitar. Listed below are a few key elements of Learn and Master Guitar:

  • A well-outlined course agenda, which begins from very basic guitar aspects, and continues on to more difficult material in a linear manner.
  • The best DVD guitar learning programs will use a professional production team with several cameras filming the instructor since you need to see close-ups of anything and everything the tutor does. 1 camera simply does not work.
  • On-screen graphics, chord fingering graphs as well as tablature are things that the very best DVD lessons, like Learn and Master Guitar will utilize.
  • Guide book to accompany the lessons, so that it is easy to practice even when you do not want to re-watch a DVD.
  • Learn and Master Guitar deals with not only the fundamental techniques and theory, but additionally certain styles, including the blues, rock, classical, and so forth.
  • Learning theoretical concepts by seeing and hearing it is easier than attempting to remember every little thing on its own. Learn and Master Guitar provides plenty of examples built into the videos.
  • The Learn and Master Guitar program also contains "homework". These lesson aids are made to get you practicing the elements you need to have the skills to advance in the program.

If you have chosen to start teaching yourself at home, you can't go wrong with Learn and Master Guitar. The Internet is actually filled with guitar instructional products, but only the top DVD guitar programs will satisfy the above expectations.

In conclusion, we can say that either GuitarTricks or JamPlay or Learn and Master Guitar can start your guitar journey off in the right direction. Learning how to play guitar is a never-ending process, but all guitarists will tell you that the start will be the most challenging.

So which is better?

The above should be sufficient info for you to make up your mind.

If I were learning today, and I would have to say which one I would prefer, this would be the order:

  1. GuitarTricks: since the videos and tools are downloadable, and the courses are easier to follow.
  2. Learn and Master Guitar: If you need a DVD course, this is the best one you can get.

But that's my take. Feel free to try them all, you can always get a refund from the one you don't like.

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2 Comments

  1. Yes, that’s Learn and Master Guitar, the publisher of the course is Legacy Learning Systems

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