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Guitar Tricks launched in 1998 and is among the industry's first (and longest-running) online music lesson platforms. Helmed by heavily experienced coaches and equipped with advanced features, GT has helped over 4 million students across all skill levels reach the next stage.
In this article, we'll break down the secret to their longevity, enviable coaching success rate, and innovative features, so let’s start from the top.
What is GuitarTricks?
GuitarTricks is a music coaching website focused on guitar, complete with free lessons and modules focused on specific playing styles. From rock, blues, and country to the bare-bones guitar essentials, you’ll find everything in their acclaimed “Learning Paths”.
Besides offering premium, easy-to-follow lessons, the site also boasts a broad range of utility features in its “Toolbox” section, such as the chord finder, reference tuner, fretboard trainer, and more.
Over 40+ world-class music coaches, trainers, and instructors are helping newcomers learn the basics and more experienced players refine their skill sets. Debatably the biggest draw of GuitarTricks is that their staff consists of genre-specific specialists who continuously contribute new content.
Lessons
GuitarTricks is leading the industry with over 11,000+ lessons available to its subscribing members; over a dozen lessons and tutorials are hosted for free and are accessible to everyone.
Going through such a huge library of tutorials would’ve been incredibly difficult and time-consuming were it not for its patented Core Learning System.
The system is essentially a personalized learning path; all beginners start from the same point, and once they’ve overcome the second level of Guitar Fundamentals, they get to choose their guitar style specialization (country, blues, rock, etc.).
As far as beginner lessons go, GutarTricks takes it a step above the plain basics. Their instructors cover everything from guitar parts, tuning, and strumming patterns to chords, finger exercises, and elementary aspects of music theory.
Finally, the specialization part is there to transform newbies into full-fledged musicians. Each style specialization is taught in program suites comprised of two levels; more importantly, multiple instructors collaborated to bring in varied content, so that even the most experienced of players get to learn something new.
The “Toolbox” Features
The grand GuitarTricks bag of tools and tricks, the “Toolbox” is the section where you’ll find 9+ apps.
Each “tool” serves a different purpose and encourages productivity in a different way:
- Chord Finder: features virtual tablatures of most guitar chords along with their alternative finger positioning styles;
- Reference Tuner: a comprehensive tuner emulation with virtual sliders, string names, and notes;
- Fretboard Trainer: navigate an emulated fingerboard and learn the ins and outs of what can be done on a real guitar;
- Metronome: a simple yet highly versatile timekeeper equipped with a programmable BPM range and click sounds;
- Jam Station: a comprehensive library filled with over 1,500 backing and jam tracks, covering acoustic, blues, bluegrass, metal, funk, rock, surf, and various other genres;
- Scale Finder: illustrated and completely digitalized music theory 101;
- Chord Charts: tap the desired chord, and choose from a list of all available variations;
- Guitar Glossary: a complete alphabetically-ordered list of the key terms used in the world of guitar playing;
- Fretboard Diagram: a mix of chord charts and fretboard trainer, featuring detailed note names and positions across the entire fingerboard;
- Guitar Tab Guide: a series of video tutorials teaching you how to read and use guitar tablatures.
Instructors
Over 40+ battle-hardened guitar coaches teach guitar on this music lesson platform.
What makes GuitarTricks different is that each instructor specializes in different fields. Dale Turner and Caren Armstrong are at the forefront of acoustic guitar lessons; Ralph Spight, Nick Kellie, and Joel Van Dijk are there for your rock needs while the leading instructors like Anders Mouridsen, Mike Olekshy, and Dave Celentano handle pretty much everything from blues to country and anything in between.
Guitar Tricks coaches interact with their students in various ways. They are constantly bringing new tutorials and content to the website, host private & group lessons, answer questions, and strive to ensure newcomers are quickly and comfortably onboarded.
Song Library
Besides being one of the most popular guitar lesson platforms in the contemporary market, Guitar Tricks is also a massive “radio station”, featuring a song library with over 810 songs.
Unlike your average radio site, Guitar Tricks “Song Library” section features complete walkthroughs, difficulty ranking, genre classification, and a variety of other filters that members can use to explore and learn how to play new music.
Some of the most popular styles covered by Guitar Tricks’ library include bluegrass, blues, classical, country, funk & soul, jazz, metal, rock, rockabilly, and pop. The “Master List” is a good choice for newcomers as a preset list of recommended songs, mixing beginner tunes with intermediate-level tracks that make for a varied listening and playing experience.
Pricing
One of the best things about GuitarTricks is that some of its features can be used for free indefinitely. Unlike some alternatives that offer a limited-time free trial version, anyone can access the 20+ free lessons, browse its song library, get to learn more about the instructors and use almost any app in the “Toolbox” for free.
The upgraded “Full Access” membership subscription costs a tad more than a few cups of coffee. It unlocks a range of exclusive perks, most notably access to more than 11,000 guitar lessons, the full Toolbox features, the Jam Station, and more.
Arguably one of the most prominent benefits of upgrading to a paid subscription at Guitar Tricks is the access to its budding community. Being able to converse, share ideas, and ultimately befriend millions of like-minded individuals is priceless in itself.
Wrapping Up
Guitar Tricks has been the go-to guitar lesson platform for aspiring musicians for well over two decades. It retained not only its relevancy but its competitive edge as well as dozens of new platforms started pouring into the market in recent years.
We warmly recommend it to all guitarists who are looking for reliable, dependable guitar lessons, as well as to seasoned players who want to polish their chops. Use our affiliate link to securely create your Guitar Tricks account and join today.
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