Ibanez JEM Forum banner

On LIne Guitar Lessons

9K views 31 replies 23 participants last post by  jim777 
#1 ·
I am looking for a good on line guitar lesson package. I haven't got the time for personal one to one lessons due to kids, work etc nut but I would really like to benefit from professional guidence. I have been looking at Licklibrary and guitarport on line but i am still undecided if these are any good as they seem to be song orientated. Any ideas?
 
#2 ·
Doug Mark's DVD package seem pretty good, though I haven't tried it. A few musts for instructional DVDs would be Paul Gilberts intense rock stuff and Michael Angelo Batio's first speed kills DVD. If your masochistic enough to through with it, Rusty Cooley's stuff is pretty intense and yet pretty easy to follow.

If your talking like actual 'guitar learning programs' from guys like Tom Hess and stuff, I personally don't see the need. They take guitar playing way to seriously, and it seems like it would just take the fun away from practicing. I see no personal need or reason for them. Whatever floats your boat, though.
 
#8 ·
I am currently using www.shredguitarschool.com. It has a amazing amount of info on it plus video. you can get one on one lessons by web cam if ya want. I have just been working at my own rate and using what is posted. I have messaged the site founder and asked questions and he has been excellent and replying very fast and being really helpful. There is also new info, lessons,tabs etc being added almost daily.
I am amazed at how much I have learned from the site. I hope this helps :)
 
#9 ·
I too have been using Shred Guitar School for several months now and I can tell you I have learned so much stuff. It is amazing I think there is something like 200 video lessons about theory, scales knowledge, Every chord, and tons of licks, I am really enjoying the Styles of the legends Leigh has been adding tons of Paul Gilbert signature licks and is now working on Joe Satriani. I am really looking forward to Randy Rhoads and Steve Vai. I have had some great webcam lessons also the cost is cheap and Leigh is right on it and has gone into over time for free to make sure that I understood everything we talked about. I can highly recommend this site. ShredGuitarSchool com

There is also a public forum and a member forum for any question you might have. Every time I have had a question and posted on the forum I get a reply within the hour or at least a few hours but in ever case it's been the same day. So it doesn't matter where you live you can get a pro Instructor to help you at Shred Guitar School.
hope this helps you.
 
#10 ·
This was a bit of an addiction for me as I travel quite a bit for work and cant commit to a local guitar teacher. I'm lefty playing right and started a little over 2 years ago and practice whenever I can. I have Learn & Master Guitar, Doug Marks complete guitar course, Doug Doppler Diatonic theory, the John Petrucci dvd. I did Jamplay and also subscribe to Songpond. I'll give you my thoughts on each and if you want more detail, just ask.

I started with "Learn & Master guitar" course (~$150 they have specials all the time and if you dont buy the extras they will make you offers again later)with Steve Krenz, which is a home study dvd set of about 20 or so DVD's. It's well thought out and organized. The book and production quality is very good. My problem with this course is that its set up as a true lesson plan reading music. I had/have a hard time reading sheet music as admittedly I didnt spend as much time in this area as I should have and skipped along. I struggle with this course because Steve expects you can read the music along the bottom of the screen. I have to continually pause apply the "F_A_C_E" or EGB... associations to get through it. I still use but not often. I find Steve to be like the strict teacher you hated going to see in school but the one you remember most because they knew how to set you straight.

Doug Marks- Complete Course ($25- 40) is good when you get frustrated and just want to learn how to play something. He teaches more in tab and his primary focus is the pentatonic theory. Production quality is...ok. The video quality of him and his hands is great. Although the tab he shows to play along to, was probably done on an early 1990's computer. All of his lesson plans are on the dvd's in PDF. It works its just not as good as the Learn & Master series. My younger niece also learning guitar (13 yrs old) like to make fun of Marks hair.
Doug Doppler's Diatonic theory ($30-40) is an excellent compliment to Doug Marks. Its not something to start with at all but Doppler answered so many questions for me that Marks didn't cover. Doppler is focused on learning the fretboard above all other things. He expects that you know the basics but reviews them quickly as a point of reference "excellent". (after you see it you'll know what I mean.) I think this dvd is a must.

John Petrucci ($20) was a show off video on how fast he can play. (at least at my level) I sold this dvd but the one thing I got out of it was the stretching routine for not just your hands but your arms, shoulders and back.

SongPond. (~$15/mo subscription) I like this site. I think its better than Jamplay at breaking down actual songs and the songs you buy you own. So you can subscribe and then cancel the following month and still access the songs you purchased so you can practice them whenever you want. They do offer technique lessons during the month that you lose access to when you cancel. The strumming techniques are very good.

Jamplay ($10-20/mo subscription) I liked this service but its time based. If you dont have time you waste your money. I tried this for 3 months. The genre courses are very good but you have to spend time picking your teachers. They have quite a few good ones but they also have some bad ones that are boring and sloppy. Comparatively the lessons for Hotel California and Back in black are much better on song pond. The blues course were very good but I found better on youtube.

Beyond this I've purchased various books too. The only one I highly recommend is Fretboard logic. Learning the fretboard is a must. If you cant find the notes you cant play.

I know this was long but I hope it was helpful. If I could do it over again I do wish I had more time to actually play with a local teacher for constructive feedback. This is the part that you miss out on when you home study. My tips are search youtube and learn as much as you can there. You'll find alot of different stuff there. Above all buy a metronome, without it, you'll be fixing bad habits for a long time.
 
#13 ·
There's lots of stuff out there including some offering on-line correspondence. Just recently I've gotten into u-tube, yes you'll come across some junk, but generally its quite good and has some excellent stuff as well.

For me it has some big pluses:
:smile: "lessons" are short - I work long hours and my practice time is scarce and not very long, so a new technique or song explained quickly and clearly is ideal;
:smile: variety - like many "musos" I listen to lots of stuff and like to play around with new things (i.e. new to me), usually I can find something explaining how to get into what I want to play whatever mood I'm in;
:smile: focus - being video based it's easy to recap any lesson, part lesson, or phase, whilst learning.

Guess it depends on what you're looking for.
All I can say is this works for me, I've got books/vids/dvds/and had lessons but feel my playing has come on much more in the few months I've discovered lessons on ut than it has for years (wish it was around years ago when I had more time).
 
#14 ·
Hey Ant,

I just wanted to throw out another option for you. Jimmy Bruno Guitar Institute. It's a Jazz thing - but Jimmy Bruno is an absolute monster player. It has a large community, tons of videos/PDFS and you submit your lessons to Jimmy and he comments on them. In addition you get to view the other videos from other students and see Jimmy's comments. It is very well done and reasonably priced ($20.00 per month - but I think you have to buy in chunks of 3 months or something).

One worth looking at for sure - check out some Jimmy Bruno youtube clips or whatever if you haven't heard him before - very talented dude and a really good teacher.

Having said that - I'm going to check out the shredguitarschoool.com myself as I haven't seen that one yet!
 
#15 ·
I have been using Justinguitar.com quite a bit and i recently did the free trial with nextlevelguitar.com and guitarjamz.com. Learned lots of great stuff from all the sites. I kinda like mixing it up with different instructors because they will all teach you something a different way. Can be a bt refreshing sometimes.
 
#16 ·
I know I bought some DVD's a year ago and joined a site and i was very dissapointed. I got no replys from teh instructor nor was there ever much stuff added.
I have been impressed with shredguitarschool.com as the instructor replys very quickly. he is very helpful and doesn't act like I am wasting his time . I know he is busy cause he is always filming new lessons and techniques to add. If I was looking into a site like I was in Jan I would go check out the free stuff he has go to the public forum he made and ask some questions and message the admin/founder and ask him about the site.
for the price I can't beat it as I can easily waste $20 on stupid stuff and here I have acess to theory info, massive amounts of scales, Plus if ya really stuck or just want a little more personal teaching he will also do webcam lessons where he can see ya and point out any Items that may be causing you problems etc.
Leigh is one of the nicest people I have met and he knows everything I can think of about guitar and theory etc.
 
#20 ·
wjs1820 thank you for your very thorough review. I was thinking of plunking down my money for the Doug Marks DVDs, but now I am going to check out the Learn & Master course first. I can read music, but more importantly, I need organization. I too have a limited amount of time to practice, some of which I waste trying to decide what to study. I am also going to check out the Shred Guitar School.
 
#27 ·
The Reason I like Shredguitarschool.com so much and Promote it even though I am not Financially Tied to it was due to the fact after I had just bought some DVD's and was a part of a Site that the owner acted like he was to busy to answer my questions I just happened across SGS and as a last ditch effort I sent a message to Leigh and without paying 1 red Cent he was more then happy to answer my questions and told me about the Free Lessons and info he had posted and he replied promptly on many occasions so I figured he was 100 X better then any site i tried yet even though I had still not subscribed yet.
Since then that was Dec 09 I have seen him add a ton of Lessons and is always very prompt to reply to questions and just this last week has added a a FREE Basic Membership so people can join to Risk Free get an Idea of whats available. I need to join that way using my ISP email so I have a better Idea of whats available to teh Basic Members.
He was also doing a free weekly Podcast every fri night for a hour sometimes a little more but he didn't have a big enough audience so decided to work more on teh site and possibly start it up again later. It was super cool as it was live and you could text in questions about the lesson and get live replys. I just found Leigh to be a great Teacher and a Super Nice guy who is an awesome guitarist who is passionate about it and loves to share his knowledge and help others Learn.
Well there is my 1 1/2 cents on SGS. BTW he also started up a FREE online Community at shredguitarschoolcommunity.com which has Tabs, Contests and all sorts of cool features.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top