Guitar Tricks Review
Author: Jason Parker

Where do I start with this review? Guitar Tricks is the oldest
video guitar lessons website on the net, online since 1998, when
it took over an hour to download anything of size. Long-time
guitarist Jon Broderick started the site struggling to find
accurate tabs and good information about playing guitar.

Today Guitar Tricks is the mecca of guitar lesson sites with
over 3,000 video lessons for $10.95 a month. The lessons are
taught by absolute experts, professionals who put food on the
table by playing guitar. I find the techniques and tricks they
teach to be unique and rare.

You don't find the same old, "This is how to play the Am
Pentatonic Scale, this is how to play the C chord..." at Guitar
Tricks. You find this with the absolute beginner material, but
what impresses me with the site is that it's so diverse in skill
level (beginner to expert), and you can browse lessons based on
both genre (so diverse there's even Surf) and influences such as
Eddie Van Halen for instance.

I have a drawer full of DVDs by all of the top pros like Frank
Gambale, John Petrucci, and Michael Angelo Batio. All of which
cost me roughly $500. Jon Broderick's site has videos that show
you how to play the same sort of techniques I paid out the rear
for. Valuable doesn't quite describe the site, more like
invaluable.

I learn more in one day with the website than I used to in a
month. The navigation is very fluent. The lessons are dense with
great material.

But there are some downsides. While Guitar Tricks may be
literally 10 times cheaper than even taking private lessons and
great for progressing quickly, some of the older videos have bad
lighting and not the greatest sound quality. For instance,
there's a killer 8 to 10 video tapping lesson I'd like to
tackle, but it must have been uploaded on the site carelessly
near the beginning of the site. That said, there are tabs along
with the videos that aren't booming with visual quality, so it's
not too big of an issue.

Another downside we have is that there's not a private teacher
correcting your technique every step of the way. Sites like
JamPlay have less valuable content in my opinion, but may be
better for the beginner because there's literally a staff of
guitar teachers who can work with you one-on-one online. For the
better guitarists, intermediates and advanced, there's no
topping Guitar Tricks.

What makes Guitar Tricks so special for the advanced player, I
think, is that they're are lessons that will take you to expert
levels unlike any other site I've used. You can learn exact
techniques that are used by heroes like Paul Gilbert, Joe
Satriani, and Jimi Hendrix. That was all I needed to know before
I became part of the site.

In comparison to YouTube videos, you can take all day filtering
out the crummy videos taught by average guitarists in their
bedrooms or you can use GT. For those of us who don't have but
an hour a day to practice anymore, you surf one great lesson
after another. It's remarkable what you learn in just one day.

That was my inside scoop and review of the site. Even with the
couple negatives, I give it two thumbs up no doubt.


About The Author: Jason Parker is a guitar teacher at
http://AtomicGuitarist.com a resource of free guitar lesson
videos on speed soloing and edgy, creative rock.