This Guitar Tricks vs Fender Play comparison will help you decide which guitar lessons online will help you learn how to play guitar easier and become a rockstar faster. Both of these training programs have great courses and teaching platforms, but they aren’t both right for everyone.
It’s important to find the lesson program that will teach you what you want to learn and keep you engaged and entertained enough to keep practicing through the tough parts of learning guitar.
That’s why we’ve researched GuitarTricks and Fender Play lessons and reviewed their guitar courses, instructional videos, platform features, learning styles, pros, and cons, so you can compare each and pick the lesson software that will work for you.
Let’s jump in!
GuitarTricks or Fender Play Comparison
Contents
- 1 GuitarTricks or Fender Play Comparison
- 2 Guitar Tricks versus Fender Play Website Format
- 3 Guitar Tricks vs. Fender Play Courses
- 4 Fender Play or Guitar Tricks Guitar Lessons
- 5 Fender Play and Guitar Tricks Video Lessons
- 6 GuitarTricks or Fender Play Guitar Instructors
- 7 GuitarTricks versus Fender Play Cost
- 8 Guitar Lesson Bonus Features
- 9 Our Recommendation
Free Trial Offers
One thing that I have to mention before we jump into the review comparison of these guitar lesson companies is that both of them offer free trials promotion. Yup, you can use a coupon to sign up for a 14 day free trial and test out the entire program before you pay anything.
This is a no brainer to me. You can sign up for both, play some of the videos, learn some new songs, and then decide which one you like better. I’d suggest signing up for both just to learn some new songs. 🙂 But that’s just me. Either way, it’s worth checking out for FREE!
Guitar Tricks Overview
Guitar Tricks is one of the richest (if not the richest) guitar learning platform on the internet. It was launched way back in 1998, and since then it continues to grow with new content. On Guitar Tricks, you can find courses and lessons for complete beginners, but for intermediate and advanced players as well.
There are more than seven hundred song lessons, tons of style and technique lessons, and pretty much every genre is covered. GuitarTricks costs very little compared to the value you can get from it. Guitar Tricks is one of the best (if not the best) guitar learning platforms on the internet.
Fender Play Overview
We all know Fender. Even if you are not a guitar player or even some sort of a musician, the chances are you heard about Fender. Leo Fender was one of the few guys that popularized electric guitar and made it a household item. Also, in the fifties, he invented a new instrument – the bass guitar. Fender Strat is the world most famous form of electric guitar, and not only it is a great one – it is an iconic one too. But you already know that.
Here, we are going to talk about FenderPlay, the guitar-learning platform that was launched in 2017. Is it any good? What exactly are they teaching? How much does it cost? Well, they are fairly new on the market, but even Vice has approved it, as being a great tool for learning guitar. Fender Play is best for complete beginners in the guitar world.
For advanced and intermediate guitar players, it is pretty limited. What caught our attention also, is the fact that they also provide Bass guitar lessons and ukulele lessons. Cool, right?
Guitar Tricks versus Fender Play Website Format
GuitarTricks Website Format
Guitar Tricks is very easy to use platform due to the design of the site. The site is organized so you don’t need to spend time learning where the stuff is. Everything can be accessed from the dropdown menu and the menu on the right side, and as soon you make an account you can start learning.
The Lessons are designed very well too – you’ve got the video in the center of your screen, the auto-scrolling Tab/notation on the right, and under the video all the information concerning the lesson. If you don’t believe me, and you want to see for yourself, just go on and try out the site with the 14-day free trial.
Fender Play Website Format
The Format of the Fender Play site is very well laid out. It is very easy to understand – crystal clear if you know what I mean. It is very eye-catching.
Everything is easily accessible from the dropdown menu at the top of the page. You can click one of these buttons, and get in seconds to the place you are headed to:
Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, Songs, Toolkit, Articles, and Support. When you click Guitar, Bass, or Ukulele, you are going to get a menu with links to Genre-based Song lessons, Skill Lessons, and Courses. So, with just a few clicks, you are getting the lessons. Well, isn’t that nice?
Guitar Tricks vs. Fender Play Courses
GuitarTricks Courses
On Guitar Tricks, there are lessons and courses for players coming from every stage of experience. You can choose from: Beginner Lessons, Advanced Lessons, Songs Lessons, and Guitar Styles. Well, these are pretty straightforward, and they don’t need further explanation – just go for the one that you think you can get on with. Every Course is laid with step-by-step chapters with lessons, that ensure that finishing the course you will know the song or the technique that you wanted to learn. As of 2019, GuitarTricks started doing one-on-one lessons and coaching with one of their instructors. It’s a separate fee, but it’s something worth knowing about.
Fender Play Courses
When you sign-up on FenderPlay, you need to choose your “path” – first, you are given four options – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Ukulele and Bass. Choose your significant one. Then, if you chose Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar or Bass, you will be asked: “What Style do you want to learn?” – You can choose from Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, and Pop, if you chose Acoustic or Electric Guitar.
If you chose Bass guitar – there are only two options available – Rock, and Funk. The “Path” is divided into five levels – each level has skill and technique courses, and of course, song courses. After finishing the fifth level, you will know how to play the instrument to a decent level.
Fender Play or Guitar Tricks Guitar Lessons
Guitar Tricks Lessons
Guitar Tricks is great for beginners because it offers a very simple path – let instructor Lisa McCormick take your hand and walk you through everything a beginner needs to know and learn.
The GuitarTricks Core Learning System is a step-by-step program that will teach you the techniques, songs, and styles, so you will be able to use them in your playing. All you need to do, is take the courses, and of course, practice.
For Experienced Players, GuitarTricks offers a wide pallet of technique and style lessons. You can learn how to play a lot of styles – Acoustic, Surf, Classical, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, Jazz, Metal, Rock, Funk, Rockabilly, and World – all of these are covered on GuitarTricks. Also, there are Technique lessons, Artist Studies, Practice lessons, Chord Lessons, Scale lessons, Gear and Tone lessons… Guitar Tricks can be a huge teacher for those who want to learn.
Fender Play Lessons
FenderPlay is mostly dedicated to beginner guitar players. When setting up your profile, you will need to choose the instrument you want to learn, and the genre – this is called “path”, and of course, you can change it later, to learn the new genre. The learning path is very straightforward, and it has five levels – each of the levels takes you to a new stage of guitar playing.
For Intermediate guitar players, at Fender Play there are skills and technique lessons that can help you learn the craft. However, for advanced players, there is very little content on Fender Play. This is understandable, due to the short period that the platform exists.
The Song lessons on FenderPlay are great, they are a step by step process of learning, and having in mind the short time that the platform exists, there is a good number of them. Still, compared to Guitar Tricks, Fender Play is a baby. On FenderPlay, you can find lessons in the genres of rock, blues, folk, country, and pop.
Fender Play and Guitar Tricks Video Lessons
Guitar Tricks Instruction Videos
The video player on guitar is truly one of the best video players for learning guitar ever! It has a “Loop” feature – click on the Loop button on the video, set your starting and ending point (A and B) and you can now concentrate on a specific part.
Also, you can speed or slow down the video, if you were not sure about some part. This does not change the pitch of the audio in the video, it just slows or speeds up. And if you were wondering how to make all this happen, and we are not clear enough, there is a Video Player Help on the video itself, when you click the “?” button. All of the videos are recorded in high definition and from multiple angles, so you can see what is going on with both hands of the instructor. We must mention that you can switch the video quality – this is very handy if you are watching lessons on your TV, your tablet, or your phone.
Fender Play Guitar Videos
The Video Lessons on FenderPlay are one of the most attractive lessons online due to the quality they are recorded in (4K), the multiple camera angles and the great design of the studios they are filmed in.
The Video Player on FenderPlay is very basic, and it doesn’t have some extra features like the one at Guitar Tricks. A great thing with FenderPlay is the fact that you can watch all your lessons with the Fender Play app on your iOS/Android device, anywhere you go.
GuitarTricks or Fender Play Guitar Instructors
GuitarTricks Teachers
On Guitar Tricks currently, there are thirty-two guitar instructors. Instructors on guitartricks.com all have over 20 years of experience playing, instructing, and teaching guitar, and some of them are even graduates from prestige music academies, so yeah, you are in the right hands.
Each instructor is an expert in one or more specific genres, so you can see one instructor teaching several different styles. Many of the instructors on GuitarTricks have also made well in the music business playing and touring with celebrities. All of them are pretty friendly, and while every one of them has its charisma, they all appear to be enthusiastic.
Fender Play Instructors
Currently, there are nineteen guitar instructors on FenderPlay, all with significant careers in the music industry, and a decade (or more) of teaching experience. Many of them also graduated at prestige music programs, such as USC, UCLA and Berklee College of Music. The instructors at FenderPlay all have their specialty.
But some of them are thriving at more than one instrument. For example, you can get both Bass and Guitar lessons from the instructor Ozzy Carmona. You won’t find any super-star guitar heroes here, but all these young folks that teach guitar on FenderPlay are dedicated to their job, they are friendly, and always crystal clear.
Songs, Backing Tracks, & Guitar Genres
Guitar Tricks has more than 700 lessons online. This is truly a lot, compared to the other guitar learning platforms. And while there aren’t songs from every single artist in the world, there are covered a huge number of them.
Most of the song lessons on guitar tricks teach you how to play the song from start to finish, and there are song lessons specially made for the beginners. Every song that is covered has a Tab and Notation. Plus, most of the lessons have a backing track, so you can play with what you have just learned.
The Song List on FenderPlay is pretty smaller than the one on Guitar Tricks or Jamplay, but it is still a very rich one. We mentioned that with each level in your chosen path, you are suggested with a few songs, where you can implement the techniques that you’ve learned. However, many of the song lessons on FenderPlay don’t show you the complete song, instead of many of the song lessons are dedicated to a certain part of a song, which is cool too. We must mention that most of the song lessons on FenderPlay are dedicated to beginners at guitar, and they are pretty short in song lessons for advanced players.
We also must mention that Fender is short when it comes to backing tracks. Especially for guitar. However, FenderPlay has backing tracks for Bass students.
In terms of Genres, FenderPlay covers the most popular ones, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, and Pop.
GuitarTricks versus Fender Play Cost
Guitar Tricks Price
A month on Guitar Tricks costs $19.95 for Full Access Subscription. You can also choose the Annual plan – it costs 179.99.
Before subscribing to GuitarTricks, we recommend checking it out with the fourteen-day free trial that is available. Of course, if you already subscribed to Guitar Tricks, but you are not satisfied, there is a sixty-day Money Back Guarantee. Also, there are promo-codes, with which you can get some discounts.
Fender Play Cost
Fender Play shines with its pricing: it costs $9.99 monthly or $89.99 annually. With the annual subscription to FenderPlay, students can get a 10% off discount to Fender guitars, amps, and gear. There is also a free fourteen days trial, for those of you who want to test the waters before purchasing a plan. For Students and Military Troops, there is $20 off discount to the annual plan of Fender Play.
Guitar Lesson Bonus Features
Guitar Tricks has everything you need to learn the guitar. This includes a Metronome, Guitar Tuner, Chord Charts, Scale Finder, Fretboard Trainer, Guitar Glossary, a Guitar Forum where you can talk about everything guitar related and guitar playing, a News Page, etc.
GuitarTricks also has a Jam Station – that has huge number of awesome backing tracks to jam on. Also, there is a Progress page, where you can see all the lessons and courses that you have taken. GuitarTricks is constantly improving and moves together with technology – this is why it has an Android and iOS app with which you can learn guitar anywhere you want to. We also must mention, that Guitar Tricks has also a community both on Facebook and Twitter and a YouTube profile.
Fender Play is a new guitar learning platform when compared to giants like Guitar Tricks, Truefire, or Jamplay. But it still has some extra features, like the Articles section in the Menu. There you can find a lot of written content about guitars, and guitar playing. Also, there is the Toolkit section, where you can find the Fender Tune app for iPhone and Android devices, Online Tuner for Guitar, Bass, and Ukulele. Also, in the Toolkit section, you can find the Fender Tone app for Android and iPhone. You can also watch your lessons on your Android or iOS device with the Fender Play app everywhere you want. This is a cool feature.
Another great new feature is the Skills section in the Guitar section. There you can find a lot of good stuff like Techniques, Chords, Theory, etc., even a Guitar Glossary! One of the greatest extra features on the Fender Play platform is probably the 10% off discount of Fender Guitar, Amps, and Gear.
Our Recommendation
Well, Fender Play is growing and getting popular with beginners, but it is hardly going to outshine Guitar Tricks at any time soon. GuitarTricks exists more than twenty years now, and it constantly updates and improves.
Also, FenderPlay doesn’t have a lot to offer to Advanced players, while at GuitarTricks everybody can learn a new skill. The Song List at Guitar Tricks is the biggest and the platform has all the extra features that you can think of.
Go for Guitar Tricks!
