TrueFire Online Guitar Lessons Review
While JamPlay and Guitar Tricks have my highest (and second highest) recommendations, TrueFire is one of my favorites. I spend more time using TrueFire than I do Guitar Tricks and JamPlay. The main reason is that TrueFire has excellent backing and Jam Tracks to simulate playing along with a band. Enroll in TrueFire
(Although JamPlay is very good too.)
TrueFire has been around since 1991. It started as a DVD site and transitioned into an online learning platform. With over 50,000 lessons available, students can find any guitar course they want.
Many of the courses offered can be purchased individually and downloaded onto your computer or device, which I do a lot!
TrueFire has exceptional teachers, including one of my all-time favorites – Andy Timmons. He is not only an amazing guitar player, but he is also an outstanding teacher as well.
TrueFire Features and Benefits
- TrueFire is not really for beginners just learning the basic guitar string notes for the first time. It’s a series of learning paths to different genres, instrument types, and learning to play with actual bands. Students can select from specific learning paths of Blues, Jazz, Rock, Acoustic, Country, or Bass guitar. These learning paths are designed to be more structured and are helpful to those who need more discipline.
- TrueFire’s Song Learning System. The Song Learning System is not just about learning how to play songs. Instead, this hands-on music-making experience simulates playing with a full band. So, for example, a student can take a rhythm or lead guitar part that sounds great in a full band context.
- Over 1,100 courses from Rock Guitar, Blues, Jazz, and Country to Classical, Fingerpicking, R&B, and Flamenco. You will find anything you want to learn about the guitar on this site.
- Jam packs and Multi-Track audio jams. These are excellent for jamming along with a live band. These are high-quality live recorded tracks created by professional session musicians. Each jam includes a lead sheet chart showing the jam’s chord changes and general structure.
- As a student learns more on the guitar, these Jam Tracks or backing tracks are excellent (essential) for building on newfound skills.
- Beginning, intermediate, and advanced online guitar lessons.
- Over 300 instructors, including Grammy award-winning musicians.
- Private guitar lessons online. TrueFire has a membership level that offers private one-on-one lessons. These one-on-one lessons carry an additional cost. However, for some students that need extra attention and instruction, this may be well worth the price as some of these instructors are very high quality.
TrueFire Pros and Cons
Pros
- TrueFire is Beginner Friendly. TrueFire has online learning paths for beginning guitar players or students who want to pick up a different style, such as finger-picking. The learning path takes you from no knowledge to an intermediate guitar player. (There is a catch here)
- Intermediate and advanced lessons. TrueFire is strong in this area as many of the lessons are for intermediate and advanced guitar students.
- Innovative ways to learn to play along with songs with the Song Learning system. As a guitar teacher, learning to play along with songs has been the best way to teach students how to play. This Song Learning System is excellent for students to learn and have fun playing the guitar.
- Jam play and backing tracks to jam along with a live band. Again, playing along with music makes learning fun and speeds up the learning process.
- High-quality instructors from almost every genre of music.
- A downloadable app that you can use from your phone or tablet.
- Additional resources include a chord chart, tuner, scale chart, and metronome.
- Downloadable tabs and music from the website so you can print out and use them anytime.
Cons
- TrueFire price. At $29/month, the price for TrueFire is higher than other online guitar lesson sites. However, the price is much lower than in-house private lessons (150-200/month).
- You can also download individual courses at $30 to $40. Some of these courses provide more than enough training and instruction. I have done this with some of the advanced lead guitar-playing courses, which are excellent.
- More intermediate and advanced guitar skill friendly. Although I said, TrueFire is beginner-friendly, beginning students need to be more disciplined and self-motivated to use this site. The beginning guitar student will learn to play guitar on this site!
- The Song library is small. Therefore, if you want to learn to play specific songs, there are not as many songs to choose from on this site.
TrueFire Review Summary
Is TrueFire worth the cost? Yes, you cannot go wrong with this site for the backing tracks, the structured learning path, and the intermediate and advanced lessons. Enroll in TrueFire
It is a close call between Guitar Tricks and TrueFire as my second choice. However, TrueFire is slightly more expensive than Guitar Tricks. In addition, TrueFire does not have an extensive song library, so I rank them marginally lower than Guitar Tricks.
I like the backing tracks of TrueFire, but my students like the song library to learn how to play songs with Guitar Tricks.
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