Review: Online Electric Guitar Lessons

Quick Links to:
Guitar Made Simple by Chris Standring
Play What You Hear by Chris Standring
Guitar Tricks by Jon Broderick
Jamorama Guitar Learning System By Ben Edwards
Guitar Burning Speed by Charlie Wallace
Jam Play

Quick Links to This Page:
Introduction:
About Guitar Methods
Set Realistic Goals for Yourself
Which Method Suits You Best
Organize Your Study Time
What a Good Guitar Method Consists of
Product Reviews:
Guitar Tricks - Review
Play What You Hear - Review
Guitar Made Simple - Review
Jamorama - Review
Guitar Burning Speed - Review
The Frank Gambale Technique Book I - Review
Improvization Made Easier - Review


Introduction
Simply buying a guitar method is no guarantee that you're going to become the world's greatest guitarist. This endeavour requires work and dicipline, and any method that hypes you into thinking that by buying their method you are going to magically know how to play like Joe Satriani is lying to you in the face. Good guitar playing takes dicipline, a good method and regular daily practice. Don't fool yourself!
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About Guitar Methods
There are, good guitar methods and not so good ones. An example of a not so good way to learn would be, for example, buying a book that gives you umpteen thousand chords on a few pages and then leaves you stranded. Are you really going to use that many? I don't -and I've been playing for almost 30 years! These types of books are like a dictionary. They are only good as a reference and should only be considered as such. They are good for what they were intended. A better approach would be to give you a series of chords, the harmony principles behind them, show you good examples of how they are used professionally and give you good excercises for practice.

Remember, theory is important, but too much theory and not enough practice will both saturate and frustrate a beginner guitarist. You need a method that takes you step by step, with one lesson flowing into another where possible and some good practice exercises to consolodate what you've learned.
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Set Realistic Goals for Yourself
Set long term and short term goals for yourself, make a checklist and celebrate the achievement of each goal, whether short or long term. Simple goals are easier to achieve. Complicated things are combinations of simple things. Don't start with the roof of your house, start at the foundation.

Long Term Goal example:
'master the tapping tecnique'

Short Term goals to achieve it:
1 knowing how to make your tapping sound clean and solid, not noisy or dinky! (your fingers will get tired and sore at first until they are hardened by practice)

2 understanding how the fingerboard is laid out and finding a way of knowing what every note is at a glance, so no played note takes you by surprize.

3 knowing chord theory and basic harmony to be able to tap out a chord, know which chord it is and where it will fit in a certain piece of music.
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Which Method Suits You Best?Don't be fooled into thinking that you can ONLY make use of a Shred Guitar Method, for example, unless you have already learned the basics, which are common to ALL genres, because you won't be able to take advantage of it. As a matter of fact, it will probably even frustrate you to the point of throwing it away because you haven't yet mastered the concepts that the book takes for granted you already know (build the foundation first).

If you find that after buying a book, you look through it and don't understand what it's talking about from page 4 on, put the book away for when you do know it and look for something simpler. Don't punish yourself with a difficult book!
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Organize Your Study Time
Set a realistic, responsible and consistent time and duration for your lessons. If you go on a six hour binge the first day, I doubt your mind and fingers will resist doing it again the next day. But if you are systematic and take the lesson book out at the same time every day, 4 or 5 days a week for about 1 hour, I guarantee you'll soon start seeing results much faster than using the 'binge method'. And relax! Rome was not built in a day.

Have a notebook or agenda for your study time. Write down what you learned that day and plan what you need to do the next day. This way you can track your progress by looking back from time to time, seeing what you've learned, seeing what still needs consolidation and you'll know which direction you'll need to take to achieve your end goal.

One thing is practicing for pleasure and another thing is your study time. Don't confuse the two! As time goes by your attention span will improve for learning and you'll realize that 2 hours have gone by and you're still concentrated. This is like weight training. A little weight at first, then slowly build up. This is the secret to success!
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A good electric guitar method will consist of the following characteristics:
-Well outlined lessons with relevant excercises that you can put into practice right away. Not 80% theory and 20% practice. A higher percentage of practical excercises is always better for consolidation.

-A CD or downloadable material where you can hear the excercise being played and hopefully a backing track or two to be able to practice the excercise in context is very useful.

-Shy away from methods that don't teach you at least a little musical theory and reading practices. If you don't start to learn musical theory today, you're just putting it off for another day when you will need it and won't be able to get that high paying job on TV, etc. because you couldn't be bothered when you were younger.

-Tablature is nice, but it needs the written music above it. It's important to know how long a note or chord lasts exactly and you will also start getting used to how it looks in musical writing. Although having a good ear for music is important, you can't always rely on your ears -they are subjective. Get the best of both worlds: good musical theory and a good musical ear. This combination will wipe out most of your competitors when looking for high paying jobs, because I don't think you're going to be in your same garage band the rest of your life and you will eventually want to achieve higher goals (again, build your foundation).

-although it's not always possible, find a method that includes some kind of examination in your town or on the net. This means that it is a real method with a real school backing it and real teachers who you can talk to and ask questions. A good alternative is having a teacher online to explain concepts that you don't understand. I realize that these methods may be a little expensive for some, but having a mentor is a big advantage. Also, certificates from reputed schools are your passport to being taken more seriously.

-I will always trust a method more if the people selling it are willing to answer my questions before buying. Shy away from those that do not give you their contact info, because they are probably more worried about making a sale and couldn't give a flying f&?# whether you will actually benifit from it or not!

-Any online product should have a guarantee. Make sure anything you buy has one and you agree to it's terms. Don't buy now and worry later.
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Product Reviews:If you have actually purchased a method found here, please post a comment on it so others can benefit from your experience. My email address is: rubencardos2@hotmail.com, if you need help making up your mind or have any suggestions for products that you believe should be here. Make sure to put 'BandSuccess Help' in the subject line and I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible.
Note:
The Bandsuccess rating is based upon whether all of the criteria in the online lessons review introduction are met or not. A 10/10 would ONLY be given to a method which fully features every characteristic discussed.
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1. Guitar Tricks - Online Guitar Lessons

Features:
-well over 3000 quality video lessons
-you choose the lesson you want to learn and when you want to learn it
-over 40 different teachers that specialize in different styles and techniques
BandSuccess Rating: 8/10
Level: All
Band Success Comments: One of the best comprehensive video courses available on the net.
Price: 10.95/month. Click Here! to visit the Guitar Tricks site.
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Guitar Courses from Chris Standring:
2. Jazz Guitar - Play What You Hear -The complete interactive home study jazz guitar course

You will be able to:
-play melodies anywhere on the guitar neck effortlessly
-recognize sounds against simple harmonies
-avoid wrong notes
-know fretboard harmony
-play melodic patterns in all keys
-use a simple system to learn and utilize advanced jazz chords

Course Learning Blocks:
Melody
Harmony
Playing Over Changes
Phrase Development

New Features for 2.0:
-over 300 rhythm section audio examples and play along files
-Jazz guitar audio examples played by Chris Standring
-Super fast streaming audio
-Quick & simple downloading
-Additional pdf files so you can print out the whole course
-guitar tab along with the music notation ...and more

BandSuccess Rating: 9/10
Level: Intermediate & Advanced
Band Success Comments: Highly recommended for jazz enthusiasts and any musician wanting to get out of the playing 'box'. Also, Chris is more than willing to answer your questions and give you full support via email. The course is fun, practical and easy going.
Price: $97.00 one time fee. Click Here! to visit the A & R website
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3. Guitar Made Simple
A complete beginner to intermediate home study guitar course
BandSuccess Rating: 9/10
Level: Beginner
Band Success Comments: One of the best comprehensive video courses available on the net!
Take advantage of the special discount for ordering from this site! Click Here! to visit the A & R website
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Guitar Courses from Jamorama:

4. Jamorama Complete, Multimedia Guitar Learning System
An all in one package at a very good price

Features:
-148 step-by-step video lessons
-lessons well explained and laid out
-multi-angle, animated videos
-26 exclusive, professionally recorded, quality jam tracks for practice
-teaches tablature reading
-comes with 1000's of lines of guitar tablature
-comes with 3 software bonuses for learning how to read traditional staff music and transcription for ear training
-thorough, comprehensive theory, lessons and drills
-Lifetime Online Updates

Try the 6 part FREE minicourse before you buy!

BandSuccess Rating: 8/10
Level: Beginner and Intermediate
BandSuccess Comments:
This is a comprehensive, down to earth course at a very good price.
Price: $69.95 one time fee. Click Here! to see the Jamorama site.
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5. Guitar Burning Speed -speed training course

Features:-complete audio tracks of every single exercise-full color photos-easy to view diagrams to help you along this course.
-The 3-Step-System the PRO's use to learn any song fast
-How the PRO's quickly warm up for any performance
-How to improve your guitar tone
-How to build strength and speed in your picking wrist and fret hand
-How to increase your flexibility
-How to eliminate all wasted motions
-How to play sweep picking at burning speeds...and more
Bonuses:
*ebook -Learn every note on the fretboard in 15 minutes!
*ebook -Fretboard Warrior (similar to the above ebook)
*software -The Guitar Scale Tool (very useful for studying scales)
*software -Easy Chord Guitar Chord Dictionary (useful reference)
*ebook -How to read TAB (Uh! The name speaks for itself!)
*software -Metronome
*software -Guitar Tuner
*download -101 Midi Drum Tracks
*full email Support

BandSuccess Rating: 6/10
Level: intermediate - advanced
BandSuccess Comments:
'Hypey' would be considered an understatement for the sales page! Buy this only if you want to build up speed in your playing. This is not a comprehensive course!Price: $19.99 one time fee. Click Here! to see the Guitar Burning Speed site.
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Top Selling Jazz/Fusion guitar methods books at Sheet Music Plus

The Frank Gambale Technique Book I By Frank Gambale. For Guitar. Guitar Method or Supplement. Manhattan Music Publications. Jazz. Book & CD. 92 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (MMBK0002CD)Level: Intermediate Rating: 7/10 Band Success Comments: Excellent Jazz guitar method by one of the best Jazz/Fusion guitarists in the world. Price: $26.95 (+$2.99 shipping fee within US - others consult Sheet Music Plus) Click Here! for mor information at the Sheet Music Plus website. Top of Page

Improvisation Made Easier Written by Frank Gambale. Instructional book and 2 examples CDs for electric guitar. 103 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.0005B) Level: Intermediate & Advanced Rating: 7/10 BandSuccess Comments: This book is excellent for anyone wanting to enter into the world of jazz improvization. price: 26.95 (+$2.99 shipping fee within US - others consult Sheet Music Plus) Click Here! for more information at the Sheet Music Plus website. Top of Page