I recently bought two of the most popular guitar courses on Udemy.
Do I recommend them to you?
No, I don’t.
The reason is there are some way better alternatives in my opinion.
But before I totally throw Udemy under the bus for their guitar courses, I’ll quickly highlight both of them for you.
It’s the least I can do.
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Udemy Is Pretty Awesome, Just Not For Guitar…
The concept at Udemy is cool.
You can find a course on just about anything, and sometimes the value for money is really good.
But for music, I’ve found that taking lessons from programs and websites which focus solely on a particular instrument, is WAY better.
Sure you will find some really good musicians who create online courses, but alone they simply can’t offer the same learning experience as some businesses who focus entirely on teaching a given instrument.
If we review the two courses I took, you can see they’re a bit on the amateur side when it comes to structure and format.
The courses I tested were called: Complete Guitar System, and the other was The Professional Guitar Masterclass.
They offered around 30 hours of video content broken up into several hundred lectures.
Their retail prices were $145 and $205.
Here are some screenshots from my dashboard:
After going through these courses, I have some personal thoughts, which seem to be similar with other respected guitar review websites out there.
These courses do offer beginners a way to improve and learn, but they're far from complete, and just don't stack up against other programs.
Both instructors are good teachers, and there's some great material on chord progression, scales and modes, music theory and other topics, but they also come up short in some areas.
The cons of these courses:
- 1 teacher
- Few camera angles
- Narrow focus
- No guitar tools
- No song lessons
- No additional exercises
- Full price is expensive
I know this was not an in-depth review, but when you start comparing what you get to some other options out there, it becomes pretty hard to recommend these courses.
The big guitar learning websites have thousands of lessons from many teachers, on many different styles (rock, acoustic, metal, blues), and produce song lessons weekly as well as artist studies, live lessons and more. It's tough to compete with them.
For example, for around the same price, you could get an entire year membership at Guitar Tricks, which gives you unlimited access to over 11,000 lessons, and 700 song lessons. Plus the video lessons are structured way better, and taught by better teachers.
No comparison.
Read my updated Guitar Tricks review here.
Who Might Like Guitar Courses At Udemy?
Honestly, I would only recommend you think about buying these courses if they're on sale, and you're a pure beginner.
Sometimes Udemy has huge discounts on their courses. You can check to see if any discounts are happening by visiting the official Udemy homepage >> Click here.
But now that I'm writing this and thinking about prices, even with the discounts, these courses are not worth it in my opinion, unless you plan on really taking your time with them.
I believe I bought each course while they were on sale. The real benefit is that I have access to each course forever.
So if you're a slow learner, you might benefit from using these courses over a longer period of time. But if you get through the courses in a month or two, which is totally doable, then what?
The huge benefit to the alternative websites which I will recommend below is that you're constantly learning. There are thousands of lessons which build on each other, and you will basically never run out of learning material.
When you buy courses or DVDs which have a start and end point, you will find yourself searching for something else when you're done, and spending more money.
It's way better to simply join a guitar learning website and never run out of lessons.
Find Websites Dedicated 100% to Teaching Guitar
One of my passions over the years has been to review websites which supply online guitar lessons.
Naturally this is why I went out and bought courses on Udemy, to test and research them.
I've tested dozens of courses, websites, memberships, and I've compared many of them side-by-side.
In fact I've created an entire guide on this subject:
But no matter what type of guitar learning program, app, tool or website I test out, I always seem to find myself recommending 2 sites.
These are by far the best alternatives to Udemy guitar courses.
I recommend these WAY ahead of the courses I took at Udemy.
Here are my top 2 recommendations. I suggest you start with their free trials.
Rank | Website | Logo | Skill Level | Best Features | Free Trial |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Guitar Tricks | Beginner to Advanced | Best step by step beginner program and largest selection of song lessons. | Yes | |
2. | JamPlay | Beginner to Advanced | Awesome guitar community and live lessons which are ideal for intermediate players. | Yes |
Learn From World Class Teachers, Not Random Guys in their Basements
If I'm not mistaken, anyone can create and sell courses on Udemy.
You can create a powerpoint presentation on learning the guitar, and sell it as a course.
Obviously the two courses I took at Udemy weren't that bad.
But your guitar coach plays a huge role in your ability to learn. So why not take lessons from a professional?
With the websites that are dedicated to only supplying online guitar lessons, you get exactly that. World class instruction from world class teachers. Find my top 6 websites for learning guitar here.
The main reason I turned to online lessons was because of the convenience from learning at home, which you obviously know about if you're looking into Udemy.
But I also didn't want to find a guitar coach in my area, because frankly I didn't really have confidence that they would be any good. More on that topic here.
So this is another reason why I recommend websites that are only teaching guitar, because they hire great teachers from all around the world.
Again, here are my top two recommendations for learning guitar online.
You can read the full reviews, or sign up for the free trials.
If I could only recommend one website, I would tell you to start a 14 day free trial with Guitar Tricks >> Click here to sign up for free.