With guitar lessons that take you from the very first time you pick up an instrument to walking you through more than 1000+ songs that have been meticulously transcribed, Guitareo has enrolled more than 78,000 students and is taking on some of the major players in the online guitar learning world.
However, with so many pro-level guitar and bass learning platforms available today, does Guitareo provide something unique?
In this review, I’ve stress-tested Guitareo in-depth so you can decide if it’s the right learning platform for you.
Getting Started
Compatibility
Guitareo offers a dedicated Musora app, in addition to being fully functional on Mac and Windows, with your standard Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer browsers.
However, the most recent version of Google Chrome is the one that Guitareo suggests students use. The Musora app is downloadable from the Google Play and Apple App Stores for use on mobile devices.
Signing Up
The monthly and annual subscriptions are laid out quite conveniently, with available choices for guitar lessons with songs included, or standalone guitar lessons. However, there aren’t any bass lessons included, unfortunately.
Priced at $30/month or $20/month if paid annually, the guitar lessons with songs, aren’t exactly cheap. However, we need to consider that they’re dropping in free access to Pianote, Singeo, and Drumeo. This becomes a game changer, especially if you’re learning to play guitar and sing at the same time.
Priced at $25/month or $16.67/month if paid annually, the standalone guitar lessons are the cheaper alternative. However, I recommend going with the songs too, as it speeds up your learning curve and makes the learning experience more fun.
As you enter the platform, you’ll have to fill out a few questions for your specific instrument. Ranging from playing level to style to the type of music you would like to learn to play to the type of education method that you prefer.
This makes sure that the courses you’re shown are relevant to your current interests and playing level.
Curriculum
Once you’ve got yourself set up, the Guitareo home screen contains all the different options available for a student. Accessible on the left-hand side, you’ll find:
- Method
- Songs
- Coaches
We’ll discuss the songs and coaches in detail, further in the article. But first, let’s go through the Method, which takes you step by step on your guitar learning journey.
Method
As you enter the Method section, you can start off with a series of video lessons that take you from the very basics of what the different parts of the guitar are called, to playing your first song.
Laid out from level 1.1, all the way up to level 10, the video lessons grow in complexity from catering to an absolute beginner, to an intermediate guitarist.
Levels 1-5:
While level 1 deals with the basics of holding a guitar and posture, level 2 deals with all the open Major chords on the guitar – D, A, E, F, C, G, along with power chords. As you can imagine, this is enough for a beginner to start trying out a lot of songs, using these basic chords.
This idea is emphasized and in fact, turned into a full series of video lessons called 500 Songs in 5 Days, which we’ll touch upon later.
Level 3 takes you through the various strumming patterns you could apply to these freshly learnt chords while level 4 gets you into reading and interpreting the tabs and chord charts, that you often find with songs.
In level 5, Ayla takes it up a notch and introduces color chords, which add a bit of variety to the basic chords, once you’ve got them under your belt.
Levels 6-10:
Things get quite interesting once you enter level 6. Without boring you with too much additional information, Ayla teaches you the necessary basics of playing a guitar solo – note identification, octaves on the guitar string sets, scale shapes, and simple alternate picking to execute them.
In level 7, Kent runs you through bar chords, which test your finger strength, especially if you haven’t developed calluses yet.
Level 8 gets you up a notch, by adding vibratos, slides, bends, and legatos, which add character and uniqueness to your playing. This is where you start noticing the nuances that make your favorite guitarist sound different from everyone else.
Level 9 culminates with you learning to make your own licks and level 10 focusses more on guitar tone and maintenance.
Packs
Keeping the songs and coaches aside, as you progress from the levels in the Method section, the next chronological section on the left-hand side strip are the Packs.
The training packs are very well-crafted lesson packs that focus on some of the most important topics and skills, that guitarists tend to focus on.
That being said, Guitareo also has packs that encourage you to bring back the excitement in your guitar-playing journey by focusing on the most important thing- having fun while learning to play guitar!
Guitar Quest
Learning the guitar can be a really slow process and Guitareo has tried to make the initial stages fun and exciting, with the course called Guitar Quest.
Naming it, as the ‘song in an hour’ the course starts off on a fun journey, with the tutor starting the lesson on the backstage of a show he is about to perform in.
While the concept is great, and the work put into the production is quite commendable, I feel there are much simpler and more effective two-chord progressions or riff ideas that could’ve been used.
The tutor breaks away from the basic melody taught and adds more complex voicings, followed by an intricate guitar solo.
While the teaching approach is commendable and quite fun, I feel they could’ve chosen a better musical example to demonstrate it.
Recording Courses for Guitarists
One of the standout courses which I found, and would be useful for a large variety of audiences on the site, is the ‘Ultimate Guide to Recording Guitar.’
The course starts at a highly rudimentary level, with little to no knowledge about recording gear or interfaces required, such that everyone can follow along.
With fairly detailed explanations of the things you’ll need to start recording your guitar tracks at home, the course is a must-have for the modern-day guitar player.
Beginning right from guitar intonation, and tuning, to its importance in a band setup, the course moves onto recording interfaces, and their integration with your computer/laptop.
Touching upon all the gear involved, like studio monitors, interfaces, DAWs, DI boxes, preamps, and connections, the tutor browses through the basics of microphones and mic’ing techniques.
While you do find beginner recording tutorials on YouTube for free too, these are surely way more organized, and systematic and run you through the basics of everything you should know, in order to record guitars.
500 Songs In 5 Days
500 Songs in 5 Days is an innovative and fun approach to putting the chords and strumming patterns you’ve been rehearsing into practice. 500 songs in 5 days is undoubtedly a bold claim to make, yet it holds water.
The way the husband and wife duo of guitarist and singer present the course here is quite compelling and provides you with the skills necessary to read and perform through complex chord charts.
The tutors achieve this by laying a solid foundation for reading and applying chord charts.
This includes mastering the million-dollar chord sequence, expanding on basic chord progressions, playing in Major keys, reading chord charts, adding embellishments to your playing, learning new chords, playing with bar chords, and utilizing a capo.
Having all the songs in the list transposed to the key of G, makes it possible for beginners to attempt complex songs like Toto’s Africa, for example, along with the simpler ones.
The duplicability of this teaching method is quite powerful and is quite encouraging for beginners to be able to play so many songs so soon.
Courses
As you enter the courses section, which is the next one, after Packs on the left-hand menu, you’re exposed to a plethora of material to choose from. Spread across various difficulty levels, the courses span from beginner to intermediate to advanced.
They are further divided into sub-levels like Beginner 1,2,3, Intermediate 2,3,4, going all the way to Advanced 8, where you get detailed courses on guitar fills like the one by Snarky Puppy’s Mark Lettieri.
There are also some courses termed as ‘ALL’, which are more informative in nature. Examples of these are courses on guitar picks and some fun ones, which take backstage with Rush.
These can be accessed by beginners and advanced players alike. In fact, a lot of these are fun to watch for guitar aficionados as well, due to their high production quality.
Stress Testing The Advanced Material
Since Guitareo isn’t focused on the guitar virtuoso category, the level of complexity and depth in the advanced material isn’t precisely around fast playing or complex picking and fretting techniques.
In fact, as a breath of fresh air, a lot of their material is aimed at session guitar players or players in bands who would like to get their fills and rhythm guitar parts to a very high standard.
With innovative video production techniques, accompanied by a friendly and fun teaching style, the advanced courses aren’t as intimidating as one might think.
One of the standout features of the teaching style I found was the sheer number of references. The tutor gives a lot of examples while running you through the guitar licks.
He constantly references songs by Van Halen, Prince, The Cars, Chris Issac, and Nile Rogers which use similar guitar fills and licks to the ones he is demonstrating.
This style of teaching allows the student to go reference these songs, and find similar ones too, in their own research.
This gets you into a mind frame where you can identify similar fills in other songs too, and eventually be able to compose your own on these lines.
Songs
Though the dedicated ‘songs’ section is comprehensive and is the centerstage, you’ll find individual lessons on songs, in a few different places.
As mentioned earlier, the 500 Songs in 5 Days, has a huge collection of songs transposed to the key of G, so it could be played with open chords on the guitar.\
The other place where you’ll find detailed song lessons is on the ‘Quick Tips’ section, which is duplicated on Musora’s free YouTube channel. All these song lessons are available for free for non-Guitareo subscribers on YouTube.
However, the section in focus, the primary ‘Songs’ section has over 1000 songs. While there is little to complain about the amazing collection of songs, Guitareo hasn’t technically gotten into the songs in detail, with lessons, like the one you see on their YouTube channel.
The lessons allow for two options. One is a guitarless backing track, which allows you to play guitar over the other instruments. The second one is the full track itself.
As you can see below, the song Toxicity displays the YouTube version of the album track. The tabs and chord charts are synchronized to the YouTube track. You can also pull down the fretboard, which lets you know where the notes are, as you play along.
However, I found this a bit disappointing as they could’ve inserted at least a bit of human interaction and teaching within this section.
Coaches
Guitareo has a fun and inspiring set of tutors from different backgrounds, who make the platform quite light-hearted, and take the seriousness from learning guitar, away.
While the existing set of tutors is enough for the material at hand, I feel there could’ve been more variety with guest tutors or guest lecturers who do a specialized course, in which they have expertise over.
However, Guitareo, stays in a space between the serious virtuosic guitar platforms and the beginner material. They carefully make sure, that you’re having fun, no matter how hard the piece is, that you’re learning.
So in that regard, the selection of tutors is great as they all maintain the friendly vibe and stay consistent with the light-hearted mood of the platform.
Community-Based Guitar Learning
One of the highlights of Guitareo, is the community. With a very warm and welcoming set of tutors and online support staff, the students feel comfortable to express themselves freely, and showcase their playing and participate in the forums as well.
Student Reviews
Student reviews, which can be found under ‘Student Focus’ is a really exciting section, that is worth checking out. It’s full of uploads by different students on various topics, within the Guitareo curriculum.
Uploading to the student review platform is easy and the tutors encourage you to upload the rawest performance, without much intentional refinement, so they could get a fair idea of the places you might have to improve in.
As you can see below in the example of ‘hammers and pull-offs’ uploaded by the student, the video is a regular smartphone video shot from a few feet away. The student plays the example, as Kent, the tutor, examines it and points out the areas where he could improve on.
Forums
The forums on Guitareo are very well organized based on topics. Spreading across guitar gear, to general guitar talks, to upcoming songs on the platform, to songs, to peer feedback on your progress, the forums are quite comprehensive
Besides being comprehensive, what’s great is that tutors like Kent and Ayla, who mainly conduct the bulk of the lessons are active on these forums too.
As you can see below, Kent answers quite a bit of student questions, himself, and what’s commendable is that the replies are prompt as well.
Live Talk And Q&A Sesssions
With access to the Live events, the students are able to tune into a live event, like they would at a masterclass in a music college.
With the ability to have your questions answered in the Live Q&A, Guitareo have tried their best to make the platform as interactive as possible.
You can also set your time zone in the pull-down menu and link your Google, Yahoo, Outlook, or Apple calendar to the times, so you’re notified.
Live streams on gear talk are always fun, and open up the budding guitarist’s mind to the plethora of ways in which pedals, amps, and other recording equipment get connected. So the choice of live stream topics are quite interesting too.
Add-Ons
Guitareo has an interesting set of add-ons that complement the songs and lessons you learn. They also act as a toolkit while practicing or creating something of your own.
Chords
The quick 1-2 minute lessons on playing various chords are as elaborate and clear as it could get.
With the tutor explaining the way the chord chart is read, along with the fingering, it’s quite easy to get a hang of understanding chord shapes and symbols for a beginner.
The tutor also points out his finger number, in order to avoid all confusion, while holding down finger twisting chords. All the resources here, become invaluable while learning songs, as they act as an immediate tool-kit.
Playalongs
I found the play along to be one of the most creative sections within Guitareo. With a detailed breakdown of musical concepts in the style of a particular song, the tutor goes into detail on how to understand and play them.
Starting with a brief overview of a band’s song, the lessons on Deep Purple, called Purple Fog, and Megadeth’s Cyborg, for example, are extremely engaging. They touch upon each part of the song.
Purple Fog, for example, is a power chord-based rhythm song. So the focus is kept on moving smoothly through the intro, verse, chorus, and bridge while learning about key shifts as well.
With a dedicated focus on the techniques used in solos and the differences between the parts in the verse and the chorus, the play alongs cover most things needed to play these songs in their entirety.
While there isn’t a huge collection of play alongs yet, they are surely worth checking out.
Quick Tips
Besides the play alongs, I found the Quick Tips section to be quite interesting.
All the videos in this section are 10 minutes or less and have a really innovative structure to their videos.
Other examples include the 5 levels of complexity of a certain song, like Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing and Sweet Home Alabama. These are great for beginner to intermediate players to add more and more complex parts as their skills develop.
Quick lessons on the “Top 5 Riffs” by RATM, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Jimi Hendrix’s unique chords, make the quick tips section, an extremely informative and handy section to have.
As mentioned before, most of the videos in the Quick Tips section are given out generously for free on Musora’s Youtube channel.
Pros And Cons
Now that we’ve outlined the curriculum and discussed the platform in detail let’s quickly look at some of the pros and cons.
Songs Selection: With more than 1,000 songs, the diversity of available material is quite impressive.
Attractive Visuals: The interface is simple, and easy to understand, and the courses are very well designed.
Video Production Quality: Effective and well-done video productions that make the viewing and learning experience very easy to follow.
Community Aspect: I cant emphasize enough, how useful the community-based activities on Guitareo can be for an online learner. Learning solely on online guitar learning platforms can be difficult, especially if you arent very self-motivated.
The community-based sections in Guitareo make it very close to having real peers and teachers around, like you would in a music university.
The Fun Element: All the tutors stay aligned with the fun-filled learning ethos, making the overall Guitareo experience, quite a light-hearted and joyous one.
No Bass Guitar: Guitareo don’t yet offer lessons for bass guitar, which is a shame, given that a lot of the courses, like the 500 songs in 5 days, could easily overlap with bass as well.
No Other Instruments: Since the teaching style is more song-based, they could have easily added additional lessons for the ukelele, banjo, lap-steel guitar, mandolin, etc., as a lot of regular guitarists tend to play these instruments as well.
This could surely help cater to a larger audience as well.
Song Lessons Could Be More Detailed: Though songs have tabs and chord charts included, its surely disappointing that they didn’t add video lessons.
Final Thoughts: Who Is Guitareo For?
Guitareo is for anyone looking for an uncomplicated but fun learning experience on the guitar. While the platform could be used by beginners, intermediates, and advanced players alike, I feel Guitareo’s unique selling point is its vibe.
The fun-filled learning experience might vibe with a lot of learners. But that being said, there are a lot of missing pieces when it comes to video lessons on songs, or lessons for bass guitar, which some users might find unattractive.
While there are lessons dedicated to shredding guitar, Guitareo barely scratches the surface in terms of virtuosic guitar material. So it might not be appealing to a lot of guitarists looking to become polished and refined instrumental soloists.
However, guitarists who are part of bands, or are looking to develop into session players, might find the song-based courses on fills and phrasing, call and answer, and playing with the rhythm section to be quite beneficial.
Since the trial version doesn’t hide any cards, it’s best to give it a go and decide for yourself.
About the Author – Sai Reinhardt
Sai is a music writer and producer/composer who is based at D7 Studios, India where he is the head faculty of the music production department.
After graduating music school, he now collaborates with visual artists and choreographers to create mixed-media audio visual performances.
He expresses his passion for writing through guitar and music articles when he is on-the-go.