I'm new and I'm wondering how this site has worked for people...

Hello all,

I'm sure you get a constant stream of new people that wander into this forum to introduce themselves. Well, I'm the latest one. :)

Actually, I post this with a specific purpose. I'm hoping that some of the people on this forum who know their way around this site could give me some honest opinions.

Here's the deal: I'm considering trying to teach myself the guitar using this site. I recently joined a contemporary music group at my church, and while I'm more than happy doing the singing that I'm doing right now with the group, I also know that guitar skill could eventually come in handy and add some depth to the whole experience.

What I'm wondering is if I could truly learn the instrument solely by using this site. I've been browsing around for a few days now, I've read the testimonials, I've even signed up for the free membership so I can watch a few of the free lessons. Everything looks fantastic. I don't even have a problem with eventually spending $14.95 a month to gain full access...I'm just wondering how it will go once I start.

By this time, I'm sure everyone is thinking, "Well Marc, we can't really tell you because we have no idea of your musical skills in general." That is true, and that is why I'll give you a little background now. I played Alto Saxophone from 5th grade through 12th grade in elementary/high school. I sang in the high school choir my 12th grade year, and in the college choir for all 5 years of my college education (I sang bass and baritone). While in college, I also took piano lessons off and on (usually when I could fit it in my schedule). I can read treble clef easily, but I'm a little slower identifying notes on the bass clef. (Right now I look at a note on bass and think, "That's the same letter as the treble note that is a third above that position on the staff." Obviously, that's not the best method since it takes a couple seconds for my brain to process that information. Finally, I even have a little bit of experience with the guitar. When I say "little," I mean very little: I took lessons in a class setting for one semester in college, but I was simply too busy at the time to really put in the time required for it. I know how to hold the guitar and I could probably find C, F, and G Major chords if I really tried, but beyond that, I have no experience.

That brings me to the here and now -- roughly 10 years after college -- and this message. I don't even own a guitar yet, but I've been eyeing a few that I think would be suitable for a beginner instrument. So, to wrap it all up, what have people's experiences been with this site? Are there any people who started from scratch and can't believe what they're doing now?

I have a feeling I'll be giving this a whirl either way, but I'd be interested to hear what people have to say. I'm looking for more productive ways to use my free time instead of just surfing the internet or playing video games all the time. :D

Thanks for reading! (And sorry about the long post.)

Marc

When I first started using this site I was a complete newbie. I barely knew the names of the strings on the guitar. I found guitar tricks and was a little skeptical but I gave it a chance. I started going through the beginners lessons and I have to say they amazing. I fully recommend guitar tricks to ANYONE who wants to learn to play the guitar. Christopher Schlegel does a great job thoroughly explaining everything in his lessons. Very much worth the price considering what a guitar teacher would cost you. I am not busting out insane riffs right now because I've been neglecting my guitar for the past 9 months (video games can be distracting ;) ) and it takes tons of practice, but I am 1000 times better than I was when i 1st started. After a long break I reactivated my account and I am ready to start practicing and learning again.

Well, Marc, I've been a member of the site for a few months, and here's what I think:

This site is a HUGE, constantly growing library of guitar lessons. One thing I love about it is the fact that for less than $15 a month, I can access thousands of great lessons, download them and practice whenever I please. I've tried most of the 'popular' guitar-learning infoproducts out there, and this site, by far, provides the best value for my money (you think it ranks no. 1 for "guitar lessons" on Google by accident?!).

Then again, the site does throw all these lessons in your face with no sense of continuity, or even a roadmap whatsoever to tell you where to go from where. What this can do is (as in my case) overwhelm you, and force you to put off sorting through all the material, and picking a "good" lesson to practice with, for another day. Days become weeks become months and you're still stuck with that Blues Primer 3 tutorial and some intermediate lessons that you dl'd two months ago.

I'd definitely recommend that you join the site as a full access member but only if you're really passionate about constantly finding new and challenging lessons to play. The fundamentals, music theory etc are all very good but can be found elsewhere too. The real highlight of the GT library is the sheer amount of practice you can give yourself.

At best, this site is a collection of superb, professional guitar lessons put together by real masters. At worst, though, it's a random assortment of licks, riffs etc that I wouldn't recommend to my 11-yr old nephew (if I had one) who needs to be walked through every single step of the learning process.

If you're jailed in a real library for one year with a guitar, and you find guitar lessons everywhere you look, would you make the most of that? Would come out slinging your gat, a maestro of the instrument? Or would you come out whining about how the air conditioner stopped working four months ago? If the former feels like you, join right now; you've found paradise.

Slasher hit it right on, the site can be overwhelming with its vast amount of content. But it does represent an extremely good value for the fee, no question about it. Only reason i stopped full access (temporarily) is due to bandwidth issues. But more than just the lessons, what attracted me to the site was the community. I lurked for a while before signing up and found the members here to be more mature than some of the boards out there. Some of the "free" sites can be a little hostile and unstructured with unmoderated forums. This site is professionally run and the members as well as the instructors are always willing to help and provide encouragement and feedback.
If you decide to opt out after a while permanently or temporarily, theres no questions asked and no hassle chasing your credit card billings.
Just a very well run site. :)

mpaq,

you hit the nail on the head. I love how the boards are moderated.

Mpaq got it right about the complete lack of hostlity here at GT, one of the main reasons why I try to check in daily (if I can). Too many other sites are full of knowledgable guys who like to put beginners down with no constructive criticism. Some of the mods here are serious players too - you may see a guy called Ren posting around- if you ever get a chance to listen to his material make sure you do, it will keep you motivated to keep practicing.

[QUOTE=

Then again, the site does throw all these lessons in your face with no sense of continuity, or even a roadmap whatsoever to tell you where to go from where. What this can do is (as in my case) overwhelm you, and force you to put off sorting through all the material, and picking a "good" lesson to practice with, for another day. Days become weeks become months and you're still stuck with that Blues Primer 3 tutorial and some intermediate lessons that you dl'd two months ago.

I'd definitely recommend that you join the site as a full access member but only if you're really passionate about constantly finding new and challenging lessons to play. The fundamentals, music theory etc are all very good but can be found elsewhere too. The real highlight of the GT library is the sheer amount of practice you can give yourself.

At best, this site is a collection of superb, professional guitar lessons put together by real masters. At worst, though, it's a random assortment of licks, riffs etc that I wouldn't recommend to my 11-yr old nephew (if I had one) who needs to be walked through every single step of the learning process.

[/QUOTE]

Hey slasher, and everyone else,
We are working on this right now, I personally am working on organization of my section. The other instructors are doing the same thing, and we are all reshooting the videos in HD.

This is not the kind of thing that can be done overnight, of course it will take time to organize the lessons. We have also added curriculum courses to the site, and are working on expanding them. We want structured lesson plans also, but we are dealing with several audiences, so to speak.

We all have lessons to categorize, and we are all working towards the same goal. That goal is to make our site the best overall, and all of the instructors, and the staff are working together on this.

Being here for a while, you probably haven't noticed much of a change. There have been a lot of changes to the site, but nothing is going to jump out at you, yet.

I have seen what the competition has to offer, and they are yet to impress me. The lessons are inaccurate, and the techniques are very sloppy. The videos look great, outstanding quality, they can spit out a lesson in record time. Will it be accurate? Will they really teach you what they're doing? The one's I've seen didn't, one guy even belched during a lesson.

Once we organize what we already have, and continue to add lessons that are more structured, we will be the best of the best. Things are being done in different ways now, and it won't be long before every member sees much improvement. Keep in mind we are all musicians who have taught ourselves how to teach, remember we're still learning too. We appreciate the compliments you give, and we already know about all the problems you mentioned. We've been discussing them for months with eachother, and given time we will fix each one of them.

To answer marc's question, even with the problem of disorganization. You can certainly teach yourself to play guitar using only this site, and in various styles. You also get instructors that will answer any questions you may have regarding the lessons. I just wanted everyone to know we are making improvements, and I hope you all stick around to see the new GT.

JD

Speaking for myself...

Originally Posted by: sixpicker
The other instructors are doing the same thing, and we are all reshooting the videos in HD.
[/QUOTE]

That's cool. I can generally settle for lower quality videos but the HD reshoots will definitely set a standard for the future.

Originally Posted by: sixpicker
This is not the kind of thing that can be done overnight, of course it will take time to organize the lessons. We have also added curriculum courses to the site, and are working on expanding them. We want structured lesson plans also, but we are dealing with several audiences, so to speak.
[/QUOTE]

The new courses are all excellent, and I'm sure things will only continue to get better. Also, I do acknowledge that it would be impossible to create "structured" content for upper-intermediate or advanced players without getting to know them in person.

Originally Posted by: sixpicker
That goal is to make our site the best overall, and all of the instructors, and the staff are working together on this.
[/QUOTE]

GuitarTricks.com is already the best guitar instruction website on the internet.


[QUOTE=sixpicker]
I have seen what the competition has to offer, and they are yet to impress me. The lessons are inaccurate, and the techniques are very sloppy.

Agreed.


[QUOTE=sixpacker]I just wanted everyone to know we are making improvements, and I hope you all stick around to see the new GT.

I will.


[QUOTE=my frustration]
What's with the formatting?

Well, I took the plunge today. I went down to the local Guitar Center and got a Yamaha FG700S acoustic guitar. It's just a no frills natural looking acoustic, but I figured it was best to not go overboard when I don't know exactly where this will lead. If I end up trading it in on something better in a few months, then so be it.

I guess all that remains now is to become a full member on this site. Wish me luck!


Funny side note: I was just looking at my receipt and toward the bottom it says, "Please Note: All gear purchased must be used to ROCK." :p

Welcome to the site and congrats on the new guitar.

I'm an instructor here and figured I'd offer my 2 cents on the site

I joined the site way back in about 2000. My first experience was just like anyone else I guess.... I was expecting a bunch of beginner lessons that kinda petered out after several lessons like many of the other sites on the internet.

My first experience here was using a freebie AOL account and as a lark I took one of my riffs and uploaded it... thinking nothing more of it and then just kinda forgetting about the site. Back then there were no videos so I just posted an audio file.

Shortly thereafter, my freebie account ran out at AOL and I went almost a year before I signed back on again.

Just outa curiosity I went back and checked my submission and found a ton of positive opinions and questions on how to play the riff.. including one from the owner of the site Jon Broderick.

I uploaded a better quality version of the same lesson and next thing I knew I got a message from several instructors asking why I wasn't submitting lessons to become a Guitar Tricks instructor.

So, I redid the lesson and submitted it.

Next thing I know I'm getting praise from all the instructors and pretty much a pre-authorized invitation to join the site as an instructor.

I redid the MultiBar Tap along with several others and got a pleasant surprise when I was praised by each instructor and offered a position here.

Needless to say... I was surprised as heck and put together a bunch more lessons on tapping and advanced lead techniques.

So... the first thing I did after joining the site was start work on my "All About Tapping' tutorial".

Needless to say... after being involved in the music industry for over a decade playing in Major Label bands, cover bands and numerous years as a personal teacher... this was a welcome new experience.

Within a few months I was receiving thousands of hits and praise from other players and back then when I got 1600 hits I thought that was amazing.
(1600 people looked at my lessons?? Like, holy crap!)

Now, we're 8 years later... I've got about 500 lessons posted and my page hits are up over a million.

I've got several albums released and awards from numerous internet radio stations as well as placement with TV/Film publishers....


What can I say..... I work my butt off for this site providing what I hope are the best video lessons on the net. Not just posting the usual beginners stuff, but delving into riffs and techniques that it's taken me 30 years to learn.

In the next few months I'm upgrading all my lessons with re-writes and Hi-Def videos and the one thing I notice about the site is the strive for qualtiy in the lessons. As well as going beyond what normal sites offer and covering Studio Techniques,

Hopefully, the site will be around for a long time to come.

Well, it's day two of my guitar odyssey.

I'm burning through Christopher Schlegel's "Guitar Fundamentals I" classes and so far I'm having a ball. Yesterday I mostly did things like alternating between simple C and G, simple C and A, and simple A and E. My finger tips were a little sore by the end of the evening, and I'm still amazed that the smaller E string doesn't just slice the finger right open, but it felt like I accomplished something and that was good for the first day. Today was even better, because I just got done plucking my way through a simple Jingle Bells melody and a "Riff on the G & D strings." Nothing fancy, but dang if hearing that Jingle Bells tune coming from my fingers didn't bring a little smile to my face. :)

I'm curious about one thing. I can do fairly well with these simple melodies if I just read the guitar tabs, but I always feel guilty about it...like I should be trying to read from the notes on the staff instead. I'm not at the point where I can look at a staff, see a G (for example) and then think, "Oh, that's this finger on this fret." I mean, as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm thinking, "Well, that G would be 1st string, 3rd fret," but while I'm playing my brain doesn't process it quite so quickly because I'm also thinking about getting the fingers down in the right spot and plucking the right string.

So, I guess my question would be: Should I worry about working on sight reading from the staff right now, or should I save that for awhile and just read from the tabs.

I'm just glad that acoustic guitar uses the treble clef, because I'm better at reading those notes. :p

Glad you are getting value from the site and my lessons. Good for you!

Originally Posted by: MarcInMN... I always feel guilty about it...like I should be trying to read from the notes on the staff instead.[/quote]
Reading music notation is covered in Guitar Fundamentals 2.

The reason we did not cover it earlier is because we want GT students to play a little something on the guitar before having to worry about advanced info like sight reading. All of the beginner course material is like that intentionally.

We want you to have fun and get something out of it in order to motivate and encourage you.

As opposed to burying you under a mountain of complex info as soon as you get going.

You need all that complex info (the theory) in the long run. And it is included. For example, being able to read music notation properly is of course a valuable goal. But it is just part of playing music on the guitar. And not even an absolutely necessary part if you are only interested in playing a little guitar as a pleasurable hobbie.
[QUOTE=MarcInMN]I'm not at the point where I can look at a staff, see a G (for example) and then think, "Oh, that's this finger on this fret." I mean, as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm thinking, "Well, that G would be 1st string, 3rd fret," but while I'm playing my brain doesn't process it quite so quickly because I'm also thinking about getting the fingers down in the right spot and plucking the right string.

Don't worry about it. If you take the time to learn it you can achieve it in time. If you keep playing and reviewing the notes, eventually it becomes an automated process and second nature. Right now just enjoy the process of moving your fingers around and hearing them play a beautiful little melody. :)

We're also heavily involved in updated every lesson to include HI-Def videos.
In the process, some of us are completely re-writing lessons to make them easier to understand.

As far as the later lessons are concerned where you get into the intermediate and advanced stuff... it's harder to come up with static lesson plans because every student is different and may want to go in different directions.

While there'll always be structured plans in place, we'll still be keeping the thousands of random lessons aimed at teaching various tricks of the trade and little riffs that can usually take years to learn.

The advantage there is you can take a unique riff or original song from an instructor and then apply the things you're learning to your own songs.

I know with my own lessons, I don't delve into theory as much as some of the other instructors and tend to try and explain what I'm doing in simple language that anyone can understand. (quite a few of the emails I get praise the fact that I don't ramble on with a lot of gobbledy gook theory that just tends to confuse them)

For instance just learning something like this end of song lead:

http://guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=1589
(Which I'll be redoing in Hi-Def soon along with an expanded lesson)


... can be used in just about any song in the key of E... either at the beginning or end of the song.
And rather than get into the intricate details of theory or what scales I'm using, I'll be just showing how to play it slowly at first using visual examples. Then posting a song where it's been used as an example.
However, the transcription is always available for those who prefer to read music or tabs.

Originally Posted by: CSchlegelGlad you are getting value from the site and my lessons. Good for you!

Reading music notation is covered in Guitar Fundamentals 2.

The reason we did not cover it earlier is because we want GT students to play a little something on the guitar before having to worry about advanced info like sight reading. All of the beginner course material is like that intentionally.

We want you to have fun and get something out of it in order to motivate and encourage you.

As opposed to burying you under a mountain of complex info as soon as you get going.

You need all that complex info (the theory) in the long run. And it is included. For example, being able to read music notation properly is of course a valuable goal. But it is just part of playing music on the guitar. And not even an absolutely necessary part if you are only interested in playing a little guitar as a pleasurable hobbie.

Don't worry about it. If you take the time to learn it you can achieve it in time. If you keep playing and reviewing the notes, eventually it becomes an automated process and second nature. Right now just enjoy the process of moving your fingers around and hearing them play a beautiful little melody. :)

Wow, a message from the guy I've been seeing so much of in the past three days.

I was just trying that "Riff on the G and D Strings" that is listed as another melody on the middle (and upper) strings. I always thought I had pretty long and flexible fingers, but I don't see how you can get your fingers on the second, fourth and fifth frets all at the same time. I tried to do what you did on the video but my pinky just can't get over to that fifth fret and still have enough leverage to put pressure on the string. In the end, I made a compromise of sorts and lifted my pointer finger off the second fret in order to get the other two (although I did keep my finger on the fourth fret as I went up to the fifth and back down again.

I guess I need to work on finger flexibility as well... :eek: