The Best Guitar Lesson Programs

Saturday, June 3rd

2023 Guitar Lesson Program Reviews

Guitar Tricks

• "A+" Better Business Bureau rating
• 60-day refund policy
• Over 11,000 video lessons
• Try for free

Guitar Tricks boasts that their platform is the "easiest way to learn guitar" . Through their core learning system, beginners start by playing songs rather than learning music theory and fundamentals a piece at a time, since sometimes that feels less exciting. Whether you're a retiree starting a new hobby or an aspiring young rockstar, Guitar Tricks has an easy-to-use platform that will help you learn quickly. They've helped millions of students already and have a solid "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau.

You'll be well-equipped

Once you've signed up for Guitar Tricks, you just have to log into your account from your mobile device to start watching videos. It works through a web browser as well as Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. They have over 11,000 video lessons on the website that can be viewed at any time. With each lesson comes step-by-step instruction that includes a multi-angle video, guitar notation, guitar tabs, a written description, and table of contents. You'll also have access to Guitar Tricks' toolbox that includes apps like a guitar tuner, chord finder, scale finder, metronome, chord chart, and more.

Play popular songs

If you are wanting to learn specific songs, Guitar Tricks has a massive list of choices from popular artists like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, The Eagles, and many others. The platform features over 1,000 songs with new releases every week.

Try the course for free

You can try a basic account with Guitar Tricks for free to get a feel for the style and methods they offer. Basic access has 12 instructors and 24 sample lessons you can test out. Once you decide to commit to a full membership, you get access to 45 instructors with all the courses and techniques available through the program. If you choose to pay month-to-month, the cost is $19.95 billed monthly. If you want to pay for a full year upfront, you'll save 25% and pay a total of $179. To sign up for this pricing, you have to go all the way to the checkout to find it, which is a little annoying but not the end of the world.

Improve your skills or your money back

Guitar Tricks has a generous guarantee so you can sign up without worry. If you change your mind about your subscription, you can request a refund within 60 days, no questions asked. Just reach out to their support team to get it taken care of.

Stay connected for tips and tricks

You're never alone when you're going through your lessons. If you get stuck or can't seem to master one of the skills being taught, there are guitar teachers and fellow students readily available to answer questions and walk you through different tips to help you overcome your hurdles on Guitar Tricks' public forum. For an additional cost (not disclosed on the website), you can have 1-on-1 Zoom lessons with an instructor if you need a little bit of personalized assistance.

Great student feedback

Guitar Tricks passes the customer review test with flying colors. They have great ratings from students who say they like the platform, it's easy to follow and understand lessons, customer service is helpful and doesn't give any pushback on refunds when they're requested. Students say it's worth every penny and you're guaranteed to find success here. From what we see, Guitar Tricks is a safe and affordable option for learning the guitar, so it's definitely our top choice.

True Fire

• "A+" Better Business Bureau rating
• Over 600 courses
• Design your own learning path
• Stream on-demand with any device
• 14-day free trial
• 100% guarantee
• Cancel any time

TrueFire features interactive learning tools and a library of over 50,000 video lessons to help students learn harmonic knowledge, technical skills, rhythm playing, and soloing. They have helped over 2 million people worldwide learn to play the guitar. The instructors at TrueFire range from Grammy award-winners to world-renowned artists. In all there are over 300 blues, rock, jazz, country, and acoustic guitar educators on this platform.

A system for everyone

Students can access TrueFire in HD through a desktop browser as well as mobile devices (iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, Mac, Apple TV, and Roku) - anytime and anywhere. Most of the 600+ courses are designed to let students self-study, but there are also options to get private one-on-one instruction ($40 - $150/session depending on skill level and instructor), have group lessons, view live streams, and more. The system works for people of all levels who are interested in different styles and topics.

No boring exercises

An assessment tool is used to help beginners find a starting point, follow recommended lessons, and then track progress. Some of the integral learning tools used on the platform are video synced tab and notations, slo-mo, looping, and practice jam tracks. Students can pick their favorite lessons to craft their own study program and advance in areas they want to. TrueFire boasts that they don't make students slog through boring exercises, music reading, or tedious music theory, but rather the TrueFire curriculum lets you play through the whole course.

Extensive collection of material

In addition to the hundreds of courses available through TrueFire, there are 10 multi-track video jams that let you play along with top artists and follow along with lead charts, over 200 practice rhythm tracks, and over 1,200 audio guitar lessons. The amount of material available here far exceeds what's available through most other online guitar courses.

14-day free trial

TrueFire is one of the more expensive courses we've reviewed, but it also includes more than most other companies. We recommend starting with their 14-day free trial to really browse through their course material and get a feel for how the platform works. Then you can decide to either buy a month-to-month membership ($29/month) or pay for an annual membership ($249/year). Both plans come with all access streaming, over 51,770 guitar lessons, 30,000 tabs and notations, 20,000 jam tracks, a free monthly download, and new course releases.

Satisfaction guarantee

There is so much to TrueFire's platform that it could be overwhelming at first. To get a grasp of all the courses and options, you'll have to do some exploring on the platform with the free trial. If you aren't completely satisfied with TrueFire's membership even after you've used the free trial, you can rely on their 100% satisfaction guarantee to get your money back. If you contact them within 14 days of purchase they'll either give you a credit or refund the purchase price. You can also cancel your membership at any time so it doesn't auto-renew.

A great option to dive into

The company has an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau and gets high ratings from students. The learning paths make it so that people of any skill level can benefit from this learning platform. Even though it's slightly more expensive than some other online guitar lessons, you're still saving tons of money compared to in-person lessons. TrueFire is a great option if you want to really dive into learning with a lot of resources, instructors, and styles.

Fender Play

• 2-week free trial
• Annual or monthly subscriptions
• Song-based approach to lessons
• Android and iOS compatible

Fender Play offers a no-pressure way to learn the essentials of playing guitar, bass, or ukulele through thousands of instructional videos and hands-on exercises. This company has been recommended by Vice, Nylon, Marie Claire, Today, Forbes, Fast Company, Guitar World, and Teen Vogue.

Song-based approach

Fender Play provides easy-to-follow, bite-sized video lessons that you can access from an app on-the-go. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and most other devices running iOS 13 and higher. It also works on any devices running Android 8 and above. As you complete lessons, you'll be able to view your progress. One of our favorite things about Fender Play is that they use a song-based approach: master your skills while learning to play popular songs. This helps practice feel less like work and also motivates you to learn faster to get that sense of accomplishment.

Monthly or yearly options

Students can subscribe to either a monthly or annual pass to access Fender Play's resources. You don't have to choose what skills you want to learn or the type of music you want to play in order to get started. Through your Fender account, you'll have full access to all of the lessons. To get started, you'll create a free account with your name and email address. The cost for a monthly subscription is $9.99 (with a 7-day free trial) or you can pay $74.99 to have access for a year with a 14-day free trial.

Sign-up perks

You can cancel your subscription at any time if you don't want it to auto-renew. Some other perks that come with signing up include 10% off of Fender gear all year long. This means you could score a discount on a brand new guitar or any accessories you want to go along with it. Even without any perks, you're still going to be saving hundreds, even thousands of dollars by using Fender Play instead of attending in-person lessons.

Good customer reviews

Fender Play is owned and operated by Fender Musical Instruments Corp, a company that sells musical instruments and accessories. They have a "B-" rating from the Better Business Bureau, which isn't great, but it also isn't much of a reflection on their guitar lesson program either. Fortunately, we found that Fender Play has thousands of independent reviews from students who have used the platform and overall it is very highly-rated. People say it is comprehensive, intuitive, and will undoubtedly help people learn the fundamentals of guitar playing.

Decide with the free trial

If you're on the fence about signing up for Fender Play, don't hesitate to try out their free trial. This should help you make a decision about whether or not you'll get enough information here to help you confidently start playing the guitar. You'll be able to see if you like the teaching style and if the app runs well on your device. We like that this is an option and with their over 1,000 videos, you should be able to learn quite a bit along the way. Fender Play is worth your consideration.

Virtu Academy

• One-on-one guitar lessons
• Private lessons without leaving home
• 50% off trial lessons
• Instructors with prestigious accolades

Virtu is slightly different from the format of other online guitar platforms we've seen. Rather than having on-demand lessons that you do on your own time by yourself, they provide private lessons with a teacher one-on-one over Zoom. They say that there are studies showing that students are 36% more focused and perform 22% better with distance learning over in-person lessons. Virtu Academy features instructors from The Metropolitan Opera, The Cleveland Orchestra, Juilliard, Berklee and other prestigious organizations.

Pick a teacher, book a lesson

To use Virtu, just choose a teacher that appeals to you and book/pay for a lesson with them. It takes as little as a few seconds. You'll be sent a link that connects you to your teacher at the scheduled time and all you need is a computer with a built-in microphone and webcam. Teacher profiles are available to view through the website: see their picture, learn their background, check the experience levels and ages of students they work with, and find out the genres they specialize in.

50% off trial lessons

To let you test out Virtu's lesson quality, they offer a trial lesson at 50% off. Standard pricing is $29 for 30 minutes or $54 per hour. There are no subscriptions or memberships required to use Virtu, so you just pay for as much or little instruction as you want. You can buy a bunch of credits upfront if you don't want to pay every time you have a lesson. Once your credits run out, you just purchase more. If you aren't happy with your trial lesson, Virtu says they will find you a new teacher and pay for the lesson so you can give it one more try.

24-hour cancellation notice

If you have a lesson booked, you can cancel or reschedule it 24 hours in advance; you aren't "locked" into a schedule. You can also schedule your lessons as short as 24 hours in advance. All communication with teachers and lesson changes are done through your account on Virtu's website.

Refer to FAQ section

If you have any other general questions about your account or lesson scheduling, it's best to refer to Virtu's FAQ section. They don't provide a lot more information about their platform other than what we've already discussed. To get a sense of whether or not you like the learning format of Virtu, you'll need to sign up for a trial lesson. This may not be super-enticing to everyone since there is no "free" trial. You'll have to pay to see what you think about the instructors and platform.

Few customer reviews

Virtu Academy is not rated by the Better Business Bureau and doesn't have hundreds of reviews like some other guitar lesson platforms do. Some of the customer reviews we've seen refer to their singing lessons or lessons for other instruments, but they are mostly all positive. We like the idea of having personalized lessons from the comfort of your home from renowned instructors. However, this may not be the right method for everyone and it requires more structure than some are looking for, so you'll have to give it a try and decide for yourself.

Jamorama

• 60-day money back guarantee
• Lifetime access
• 275 HD guitar lesson videos
• Track your progress

Jamorama guarantees that they are the easiest way to learn the guitar. The head instructor and creator of the course, Mark McKenzie, came up with a system that aims to take students step-by-step from a beginner level to becoming an advanced guitar player. McKenzie is a contributor to Guitar Player Magazine and also has a YouTube channel called "The Guitar Guy" where you can learn more about him as an instructor and get a few free tips and tricks along the way. However, to learn all the skills needed to play guitar, you'll want to dive into the Jamorama course.

Sleek, comprehensive platform

You can see a snapshot of what the Jamorama platform looks like from the website. It's straightforward and modern, and all of the video lessons included are in HD and available on-demand anywhere 24/7. You'll be able to chart and measure your progress as you go through the different levels and lessons too. A few of the basic things you'll learn with a Jamorama membership include foundational skills, chords, strumming, styles, techniques, scales, progressions, music theory, picking patterns, improvisation, guitar maintenance, and more.

10-part system

The Jamorama system works in 10 parts. On the website you can see the categories that are part of the method with an explanation of what's included. For example, the first section of Jamorama is a Stage 1 Beginner Guitar Method that shows you the ropes for building a solid foundation on the guitar. You'll be playing recognizable riffs within the first week. This section comes with 45 videos that last 2 hours and 42 minutes in total. Other sections include speed picking, a 1-hour workout, fingerstyle guitar, Blues guitar breakthrough, and so on.

Lifetime access

When you subscribe to Jamorama, you aren't billed monthly or only getting temporary access to the materials. Rather, you're billed one time at a price of $97 and you'll be able to use the Jamorama course for a lifetime.

Guaranteed results

Jamorama guarantees that you'll successfully learn the guitar through their platform or you'll get your money back. You have 60 days to take advantage of your membership before requesting a refund if you decide that this isn't the right teaching method for you. This is nice since there isn't a free trial and it's hard to know just what you're getting until you actually try out the course.

Limited but positive testimonials

There are quite a few testimonials about the effectiveness of Jamorama on the website. They all speak extremely highly of the course, but since they are hand-picked and posted by the company, they aren't the most reliable resource for knowing whether or not it's worth signing up. The Better Business Bureau doesn't have a rating for Jamorama, but there are some customer reviews we found elsewhere. The few people we found feedback from mostly had good things to say. Students said that they got clear, smart guitar lessons through Jamorama, this is a great starting point for beginners, the price is hard to beat, and Mark is a great teacher. A few people said they had technical issues, but as far as course material, there was nothing negative.

Keep it as an option

We like that you can fall back on the 60-day guarantee in case you aren't satisfied here. Keep Jamorama as an option if you don't find what you need with one of its higher-ranked rivals.

Jamplay

• "A+" Better Business Bureau rating
• 383 song lessons
• Monthly and yearly membership options
• Over 9,300 guitar lessons
• Money-back guarantee

JamPlay offers one single membership where students can explore thousands of on-demand lessons that range from beginner level to master classes. There are nearly 150 guitar teachers featured through the platform that are either artists or popular band members, acoustic guitar teachers, electric guitar teachers, or bass teachers. JamPlay boasts that they've served over 500,000 students and offer more than enough content to teach anyone to play the guitar.

Over 9,300 lessons included

There is so much content available from JamPlay that it's almost overwhelming. There are over 9,300 guitar lessons in total, 383 song lessons, and more than 20 music genres. To see the full spectrum of what's available to you, you'll need to sign up for the course, but you can view the list of course categories. They include:

• Lessons for beginners
• Lessons for kids
• Popular courses
• Music genres
• Skills and techniques
• Master classes
• Toolkits

You can go through each category and see the different lists of videos and the instructors who lead them. View how many lessons come with the course, the runtime, an overview of the course, and other relevant material that's included.

More than just videos

Some of the perks that JamPlay highlights about their music system include getting interactive tabs, notations and fretboard, JamTracks to play along with, the functionality to ask a teacher questions, speed up, slow down, and loop video, note-taking features, 4k video, and more.

3 membership levels

There are three membership levels through JamPlay, all of which are billed monthly. If you want 30 days of access at a time, you can pay $19.95/month, which is the most expensive option. If you'd rather have a full year of access, you can choose between the standard ($7.99/month) or pro ($14.99/month) membership. The standard membership includes a bonus of 75 ownership credits, one 1-on-1 consultation, and a free toolkit with extra lessons and tabs. The pro membership includes everything from the standard membership plus 150 ownership credits, four 1-on-1 consultations, and a member welcome kit.

Satisfaction guarantee in place

If you're not happy with your JamPlay membership, the company offers a hassle-free refund to customers within 30 days of signup. To qualify, you'll just need to call or email customer service. However, we have seen some reports that this is more difficult to do than it sounds since JamPlay's support team isn't always very responsive or easy to work with.

Weak customer reviews

JamPlay has an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau, but our concerns come from customer reviews. Over the last year or so, JamPlay has been criticized for everything from a bad interface to incorrect billing issues and poor customer service. Some people are charged money long after they've canceled their subscription or get random charges in the months after they've signed up. Others say even though the content is good, the website is so bad that it cancels it out.

Has potential

JamPlay seems like they have a ton of potential and content, but it isn't organized neatly on their website or really clear how to follow a straight path to learning guitar. It seems like their back-end platform could use some work as well. We imagine that with some work, this course could have huge improvements, but for now they've received a "just average" rating from us.

GuitarGate

• Try level 1 for free
• Subscription or lifetime membership options
• One award-winning instructor
• Get feedback on personal video lessons

GuitarGate provides step-by-step beginner to advanced guitar courses online with any device. The lessons are given by instructor Michael Palmisano, an award-winning GIT grad with nearly 30 years of professional experience who has taught over 90,000 students. He helps students focus on the "why" of guitar playing to really understand rhythm and reading music instead of just memorizing music theory.

Adaptive curriculum

The GuitarGate curriculum covers lessons with topics like chords, scales, arpeggios, improvisation, music theory, tone, and technique. The curriculum changes over time if students post on the public forums about updates they'd like to see or new lessons that would be helpful. With each lesson, you'll have the chance to post a video of yourself online for feedback so that Michael can watch what you're doing and try to help every step along the way.

Pay monthly or yearly

By signing up with your email, you can try out level 1 for free for three days to see how the platform is set up and test out the lesson formats. In order to access it, though, you'll have to provide credit card information upfront. Then, if you decide GuitarGate is your online platform of choice, the recurring cost is $14.99/month. If you want to pay yearly, you'll save 20% and pay a total of $149.99/year. Or if you'd rather have lifetime access and priority on video feedback, a one-time payment of $299 is the cost. You can cancel your subscriptions at any time through your account.

We want more upfront

Something missing from this platform is the ability to really gauge whether or not this is a good option for you without starting a free trial and providing payment information. We wish they had some free video clips to view or an outline of the structure of the lessons. We aren't even sure exactly how many lessons you get with a subscription and how thoroughly it covers all levels of mastery. It would be nice to get more information about the guitar lessons first instead of feeling roped into a payment plan right away.

No guarantee or refund policy

We see that you can cancel your subscription at any time, but if you purchase the lifetime plan or pay for a year in advance, is there a way to get a refund if you're unsatisfied with the platform? Unfortunately this isn't clear. We assume since they don't list anything about a refund policy, it's not a common thing they give out, so you'd have to deal with customer service directly if you have any concerns.

Good for some

GuitarGate does not have a rating from the Better Business Bureau. The course also doesn't come with as many customer reviews as some other platforms. However, people do seem to be big fans of Michael Palmisano as an instructor. Some feel that the lesson content is too slow and they wish they could go through videos at a quicker pace. Others say it's great for people of all levels. To decide what you think about this course, you'll want to test out the 3 day free trial - if you feel comfortable putting in payment information upfront. This is probably a good course for some, but not an overall winner in our book.

Artist Works

• Personalized feedback from teachers
• "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau
• Get 25% off of 3-, 6-, or 12-month plans

ArtistWorks is an online platform that teaches students guitar, banjo, voice, bass, woodwinds, piano, percussion, and many other instruments. It was created by a husband and wife team in 2008 who wanted to connect music students to their teachers for ongoing, personal feedback on their own schedule, and at their own pace regardless of how far apart they are in the world. ArtistWorks has taught tens of thousands of students in 80 countries through their 50,000 video lessons and 44 teachers.

14 guitar instructors

The most extensive lessons available through ArtistWorks are for guitarists. There are 14 instructors that teach guitar lessons, all with a slightly different focus. One might focus on beginner acoustic guitar, another on electric jazz improv guitar, and one on electric country guitar. You'll get the full range of guitar lessons through the experience of all the teachers here. To familiarize yourself with a teacher, you can read a bio about each one with the awards and accomplishments that make them qualified to be an effective instructor.

Hundreds of self-paced lessons

ArtistWorks' guitar program is for players of all levels. There is slow motion and looping on videos so you can go back and practice a technique over and over again until you've mastered it. There are hundreds of lessons that you can do at your own pace. A few of them include:

• Parts of the guitar
• Posture and holding the guitar
• Tuning the guitar
• Holding the pick
• Changing chords
• Cross picking
• Barre chords
• Harmonics
• Playing in different keys
• Chord shapes
• Playing your favorite songs

Within each category are lots of specific lessons you can go through, depending on the type of guitar you're learning and the level you're at. The full amount of material could take years to complete if you go through it thoroughly. The one thing missing from all of what's available is a demo version of the lessons so we could get an idea of whether or not the course fits our learning style before signing up.

3 subscription options

On the "Plans and Pricing" page, there are three available plans for any given course you're signing up for. A 3-month plan is $35/month ($105 total), a 6-month plan is $30/month ($179 total), and the 12-month plan is $23.25/month ($279 total). Compared to the cost of in-person lessons, this is a great deal. They also offer 25% off your total price if you use a discount code that pops up when you first get to the website. However, with so much material available, it would be nice to have options that allow you to have longer access to all the videos. In addition, you have to pick the style of guitar you want to learn and pay for each course rather than having a choice to sign up for all the guitar lessons and learn a wider range of songs and techniques.

Personalized feedback from instructors

With the membership plans at ArtistWorks, you can use their video exchange program to submit clips of yourself playing guitar to your teachers and receive personalized feedback. Depending on the plan you choose, you'll either get five submissions (3-month membership), 12 submissions (6-month membership), or unlimited submissions with the 12-month membership. This is a good way to gauge your progress and have an outside opinion on what you can do to improve your guitar skills..

No refunds

If you decide that ArtistWorks isn't the best option for you after you've paid for a membership, you'll just need to make sure not to renew at the time of your next billing cycle. Unfortunately, there are no refunds for the courses, so we wish students could get a free trial or demo the material before signing up. It's hard to know in advance if you're going to like the way teachers present or how you access your lessons without jumping into the course. If you aren't happy with it, you'll be out the cost of the class.

Mixed feedback from students

AristWorks appears to have relevant material that would give you plenty of tips to increase your guitar skills and help you level up quickly. However, without demo lessons it is hard to know exactly how effective and reliable their program is. They have an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau, but we aren't wowed by their student reviews. It's not uncommon to see people report that it takes instructors a long time to respond to questions or with feedback from the video exchange program. Others say ArtistWorks needs some updating and should be available on more devices. Their auto-renewal policy is tricky because it sneaks up on you and once you're signed up and paid again, you can't get your money back. Some students say the course material is decent, but it's not worth subscribing for a very long time.

Just average

ArtistWorks seems to have potential, but we know there are better options out there. The lack of a satisfaction guarantee and demo options has bumped them down our list and we've given them one of our lower ratings among providers of guitar lessons.

Elmore Music

• 20 programs available
• See clips of lessons
• 60-day money-back guarantee

On Elmore Music's website they say, "We teach everyday people to master the guitar without attending expensive hourly lessons." And that about sums up the purpose of this company. They were founded in 2001 by Chris Elmore, who built a website on how to play the guitar in a unique style with an easy-to-follow format. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the company has taken off or done a lot of updating to their materials since that time.

Free guitar lessons?

For people serious about learning to play the guitar and looking for straightforward lessons that cover a range of topics, you may - like us - feel confused about what exactly Elmore Music offers. They have a big button on the homepage that says, "Sign up For Free Guitar Lessons." From there you provide your name and email address to receive your first edition, but as far as what you'll get and how much, it's unclear.

See a snippet of presentation and quality

There is a "Videos" page that has a list of brief clips on things like effective practicing, pentatonic scales, chord progressions, finger picking, and more that give you an idea of what the video lessons from Elmore Music are like. The quality of video proves that these were recorded a long time ago, but if you like the presentation, the information is still relevant. To view more of the content from the short clips, you're directed to the programs offered by the company.

Sales pitchy

There are 20 different programs you can purchase through Elmore Music. The full list includes:

• Beginner
• Acoustic
• Bluegrass
• Blues
• Chords
• Progressions
• Classical
• Country
• Finger picking
• Jazz
• Lead
• Rock
• Scales
• Strumming
• Changing chords
• Practice plans

When you select a program you're interested in, you'll get way too much of a description/sales pitch (in our opinion) about what's included and "bonus material" . It's a lot to read through and doesn't jump to the point of why you should use this guitar course.

Instant download and hard copy material

Once you finally reach the bottom of the product page for a guitar course, you'll find pricing. For an instant download of a course, the cost is $39.95. If you want the instant download as well as a hard copy that's shipped to you within 24 hours of ordering, it's $10 more at $49.95. If you want access to all the programs, you could go for the all-access pass for $12.95/month (with a 7-day free trial) or $97/year (with a 7-day free trial). The only downside of this is that you don't permanently own the lessons. In addition, we wish they were more clear about what devices you can view your guitar lessons on once you've purchased them and what the platform is like.

60-day money-back guarantee

If you purchase a guitar program from Elmore Music and decide it doesn't fit your learning style or incorporate everything you were hoping to learn, you have 60 days to get a refund.

Not a top choice

Elmore Music doesn't include unfiltered reviews on their website. They don't have a rating from the Better Business Bureau or very much customer feedback anywhere else online. Since this seems like a slightly outdated program without a sophisticated platform offering different tools and teaching strategies, we aren't surprised that many people probably opt for something else when wanting to learn guitar. However, this is an inexpensive route if you like what you see. It also helps to know you can get your money back if you aren't happy with it. However, it's not even close to being our first choice, so Elmore Music hasn't earned one of our highest ratings.

Learn & Master

• "A+" Better Business Bureau rating
• 60-day money-back guarantee
• One-time cost for lifetime access

Learn and Master uses the "Legacy Learning System" to teach students to play the guitar. Rather than promising you'll master new guitar skills overnight, the courses were built to be comprehensive, systematic, fun, and unintimidating. Learn and Master started out providing training for music instruction, but has since broken out into other topics related to arts, hobbies, careers, and other special interests.

Outdated materials

The Learn and Master website could use some updating. The same goes for their material since your guitar lessons will be delivered in DVD, CD, and physical paper formats (does anyone even own a DVD player these days?) The basic guitar course here is called "Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar" . It includes 20 DVDs, 5 jam-along CDs, and a 100+ page lesson book. In addition, customers will get access to Learn and Master's online student support site. The course is meant to be for both beginning and experienced guitar players.

Would like more specifics

The little video clips of the course look like they were filmed in the early 2000's. Guitar playing techniques haven't necessarily changed since then, but it's nice to use a course that doesn't have an outdated feel and that uses more modern songs in its teaching. We wish that the description of the courses was more specific about the exact styles of music you'll be playing instead of just saying they are "popular styles" . They also don't list the exact topics covered. People who are familiar with guitar playing will want to know what exactly is taught in the course to make sure they'll be able to learn something new.

Out of stock

The price of the full Gibson's Learn and Master course is $89. However, at the time of this review, it was out of stock. Interested students could provide an email address to be notified when it was coming back in stock, but we wonder if the company is phasing out their products and not putting a lot of effort into growth. If this is the case, then Gibson's Learn and Master guitar course won't be available again.

Advanced options

If you are an advanced guitarist, we recommend looking into one of the more narrowly-focused courses available from Learn and Master. This includes Blues guitar, fingerstyle guitar, rock hits, or song hits. With these, the topics aren't listed and it's unclear how much material you're getting, so that's disappointing. The cost for each of these is a one-time payment of $89.

Money-back guarantee

There are no free trials for Learn and Master, so it's nice that they offer a 60-day money-back guarantee. If you aren't happy with the course, you can return it for a full refund, no questions asked.

Lacks convenience

The Better Business Bureau has a profile for Legacy Learning Systems and gives them an "A+" rating. Overall, it seems like students have enjoyed the courses, but a lot of reviews are from years ago. Our biggest hang-up with this course is that it isn't available to stream through your Apple or Android devices. These days the convenience of on-demand guitar lessons is what most people look for, so we're afraid the DVD situation won't work for most. Learn and Master is best left as a last resort.