I took lessons for a couple of years, there's pros and cons of live lessons. The best thing about live lessons is that a teacher will be able to actually watch you play and give you live feedback. The best thing about the site is that lessons are self paced and the curriculum is very structured. A lot of the times I felt like my teacher was just winging it, our lessons sort of veered all over the map and often focused on subjects that I wasn't too interested in. I feel like I'm learning a lot more on my own, but I'm glad I took the two years of lessons when I was starting out.