How are you using guitar tricks?

I've worked my way through fundamentals 1 and 2. I'm here to learn the blues and jazz, but thinking I should move on to rock and acoustic before I attempt the blues. I'm hoping to eventually tackle all of the music genres. I'm curious if other people are using the site in the same way. I haven't looked into learning individual songs as I'm more interested in pouring a scotch, putting on a backing track and jamming until my partner tells me to shut up. Am I missing out by not using the song lessons?

I use the Song Lessons almost exclusively. How you use the site, or any educational tools is going to depend on your musical goals, of course. I just dearly love learning songs, and trying to recreate the original parts as accurately as possible. I guess part of this goes back to my days playing in a cover band, where I took great pride in playing the songs "correctly". But beyond just the satisfaction of that accomplishment, I also find that learning songs correctly is one of the best ways to improve my technique, and to learn new skills, etc. I'd far rather learn a new technique in the context of a song than as some abstract exercise. When I learn a song fully and correctly, I kind of get into another player's head, and essentially take lessons from some of the greatest players ever. 

And I can figure out songs on my own if needed. I did that for years in the cover band. I even did some professional transcribing for a while. But I found that having a good guitar teacher show you the song on video and walk through it made the learning even deeper, and often saves me from doing something in a way that's harder than it needs to be.

I've occasionally looked at some of the other lesson content, but honestly, if all of that material disappeared tomorrow and we were left with only the Song Lessons, I wouldn't bat an eye.

Hi Andrew - I came to GT primarily to learn how to jam, so I launched into the lessons and artist studies first.  Finished both Blues courses and tapped into portions of other courses that I found of interest.  The songs were like "treats" I'd give myself when I needed a burst of inspiration or just saw something I wanted to play.

I do agree with doug in the sense that learning the songs hone a very specific skill set and, I might add, really improve your ear for things.  It's also fun to create a set list from the GT song catalog and see if you can't play an entire set as you would during a gig.

My 10 cents.

Rumble

I like the idea of pouring a scotch!

I joined because of the lesson path. I took Lisa's GT1 and 2 then I took Ander's Blues course. Today I use it for songs mostly but I do use the chord finder when I need it and the jam tracks from time to time.

I also enjoy the forum.

Mostly for the lessons and a few songs. For me though it takes a few times for something to stick so I've gone through Lisa's fundamentals a couple of times and dabbled in both Chris's and Anders to get other perspectives.

I've also explored all the styles course and Lisa's fingerpicking program, but I can't honestly say I've mastered or even completed all the lessons. I take what I can and what interest me and if there is something that doesn't I'll breeze through it just to get an overall understanding with the mindset of returning to it if I need or desire to be more proficient at it. 

Moe

I'm with Doug. I came to GT with a fairly solid guitar background. I wanted to learn the great classic rock guitar songs performed by my guitar heroes. I also wanted to get in their head and follow why they did what they did. It literally changes the way you listen to music, at least for me. It also allows me to understand a bit more about the genius behind the music. 
when MANY of these songs went away, it was a bit heart breaking to see. 

Although I still do a technique lesson once or twice a week, my primary reason for being here is to learn songs.  Isn't that the whole purpose of learning an instrument?  Instruments were designed to play songs.