Guitar Tricks vs JamPlay - [ 2020 Review Comparison ]

Guitar Tricks vs JamPlay are the two most popular online guitar lesson websites to help you learn guitar. Before you can say which one is better, you kind of have to compare both training courses.

That’s why today, we are going to compare the video lessons, features, course platforms, and more side-by-side to see which one is the best guitar training website and which one is right for you to start learning guitar, Jamplay or GuitarTricks.

GuitarTricks or Jamplay Comparison

Free Trial Offers

Before we get started comparing both of these guitar learning programs, I have to tell you that both of them offer free trials. Yup, you can test out their software and take as many lessons as you want during their free trial period without paying anything.

So if you are on the fence about either of these companies, you should just jump into their free trials and test them out to see which one you like better.

Here’s links to their Free trial signups.

GuitarTricks FREE Trial

JamPlay FREE Trial

Guitar Tricks Overview

Guitar Tricks has been online since 1998, and that says a lot. They have more than eleven thousand lessons on their site, and more than sixty songs. The good thing with Guitar Tricks is that they have lessons for everyone – absolute beginners to advanced players!

They offer a step-by-step system, which walks you through every aspect of the guitar playing, they offer genre lessons, and if you want to taste the waters – they offer a 14-day free trial! The Lessons that you will learn from, are designed to be perfect for learning, you can scroll through the video countless times, you can slow it down (this doesn’t affect the pitch), there is a tab with every video, and at the end of the lesson, you get a backing track!

Take Me to GuitarTricks

Jamplay Overview

Jamplay was launched in 2006, and since then, it stands at the top of the guitar-learning sites together with Guitar Tricks and Truefire. There are more than half a million members on Jamplay, more than a hundred instructors on the site, more than 450 courses, and 6500+ lessons. This says a lot.

All of the teachers on Jamplay have their style of teaching, and there can be found lessons from legends such as Bumblefoot, Steve Stevens, Mike Keneally, Rex Brown, etc.
Of course, Jamplay has to offer a lot for beginners, as well as to experienced guitarists. However, they also provide bass lessons, and guess who they have lessons from? – Billy Sheehan!

Take Me to JamPlay

Guitar Tricks versus JamPlay Website Format

GuitarTricks Website Format

Guitar Tricks is very well organized, it is crystal clear and you won’t have to spare a minute “getting” the site. As soon as you start the Free Trial (recommended), you will be taken to the Home page that has four pictures with hyperlinks – Beginner Lessons, Experienced Lessons, Learn how to play songs, and Learn Styles of Guitar.

The Beginner and the Experienced Lessons links will take you to another page that shows the “Core Learning System” of the chosen path.
Go step by step, and you’ll be a guitar hero in a very short time!

On the top of the page, you can find the links to Free Lessons, Songs, Channel, Forum, Account, Get Full Access, Log Out button, and the Search button.
Also, on the right side, you can find the Home button, the Getting Started button, the Instructors button, the Progress button, the Toolbox button, and the News button.
It is a very easy-to-use website!

Jamplay Website Format

Jamplay is a very easy-to-navigate site. Everything is organized so you can access all the things that interest you in a very quick way. On the top of the page, you can find a dropdown menu, which takes you on every corner of the site very fast.

There are seven buttons: Home, My Jamplay, Lessons, Live, Tools, Community, and Extras.

With a subscription to Jamplay you’ll get access to Courses, Styles and Genres Courses, Skill Courses, Song Lessons, Master Classes, Artist Series Lessons, and Songwriting Courses.

On Jamplay, there is a lot of features – A Tuner, a Metronome, Chord and Scales Libraries, Jamtracks (backing tracks) a Chat (Jamchat), Interviews from the teachers, Live Webcam lessons, Training Games, Monthly Giveaways, etc.

Guitar Tricks vs. Jamplay Courses

GuitarTricks Courses

Guitar Tricks has four different Course paths you can take, depending on your experience, you can choose Beginner Lessons, Experienced Lessons, Learn to Play songs, and Learn Styles of Guitar.
The Courses in GuitarTricks are taking you on a step-by-step journey.
For example, the “Rock Style Level 1” course by instructor Anders Mouridsen has six chapters:

Chapter 1: Rock Chords: Open, Barre, And Power
Chapter 2: Rock Rhythm: The Power Of Rock
Chapter 3: Rock Soloing 101
Chapter 4: Riffs, Licks, And Themes
Chapter 5: Amps And Effects: Rock Your Tone
Chapter 6: Born From The Blues

Each of these chapters has five or more lessons that feature videos with tabs.
For example, Chapter 1 “ROCK CHORDS: OPEN, BARRE, AND POWER” has five lessons:

Open Chords Rock!
Rock Your Barre Chords
Power Chord Essentials
Add a Finger to Your Open Chords
Rock Chords: Easy Practice Exercises

Each of these lessons features several videos. For example, the “Open Chords Rock!” lesson has six videos:

Open Chords, New Sounds (Introduction)
Open Chord Hard Rock Tone
The Stadium Open A, D, & G
The Rockin’ Open C
Rock Your Open E Chord
Open Chord Practice Tune

Now, from 2019, there are even one-to-one lessons with an instructor – they are paid separately, and are not the cheapest ones, but they can certainly help you achieve a lot.

Jamplay Courses

On Jamplay there are four different phases:

Phase 1 – everything you need to learn as a beginner;
Phase 2 – Once you learned the basic stuff, you can now start building your style of playing and learning about how to play specific genres – this is the intermediate phase;
Phase 3 – Phase 3 is all about learning songs, from the beginning till the end – this is where you can start building your setlist. Every song lesson has a video and a tab;
Phase 4 – In this phase, you should already have a decent knowledge of guitar playing, and this is the time where you can start writing your own songs;

For beginners, for example, there are a ton of courses from different instructors – read the description and watch the introduction video of the course, and decide if the course and the instructor are suited to you. Each course has a lot of lessons in it and teaches you everything you need to know as a beginner. Every lesson has a video and a tab.

For experienced guitarists, there are the other three phases – look through them and take the courses that you have interest in. There are a ton of good stuff for experienced players who want to expand their playing vocabulary.

On Jamplay you can find Artist Series with instructors that show you their own unique techniques and styles.

There are also Live Courses, which you can tune in and watch at the moment, or see them in the archive later. We also must mention that on Jamplay, there are also lessons for bass guitar players – with an instructor who is a legend himself – Billy Sheehan (and few others from that caliber). The bass lessons are, of course, a whole different plan, and you don’t get them if you chose guitar lessons plan.

Jamplay or Guitar Tricks Guitar Lessons

GuitarTricks Lessons

Guitar Tricks is probably the best site for newcomers in the guitar world. With Instructor Lisa McCormick, you will start playing in a very short time.

The Core Learning System is one of the best systems in the world for beginner guitarists. Try it out, if you don’t believe me – there is a 60-day Money Guarantee.
The Song Lessons at guitartricks.com are done so they will teach you every part of the song, and even giving you the backing track for the song so you can jam on to.
For Experienced fellows that love the six-string, there are lessons too!

First, there are courses with the Core Learning System – two levels for Blues, Country, and Rock Guitar Style, and then there are lessons for every Guitar style ( Blues, Classical, Acoustic, Country, Bluegrass, Funk, Rock, Jazz, Surf, Metal, Rockabilly, and World), Technique Lessons (they go in-depth), Artists Studies (Covering all kinds of artists), Practice lessons, Chords and Scale Lessons, and Gear & Tone lessons.

Jamplay Lessons

Like we mentioned earlier, on Jamplay there are four phases of Courses and Lessons you can take right away, depending on your skills and experience: Beginners, Genres and Skills, Songs, and Songwriting.

These four phases contain courses with courses and lessons for:

For Beginners (You can learn the right way on how to play guitar with some of their step-by-step programs)
Learn Genres (Learn styles of music like rock, funk, metal, blues, etc.)
Skill Builders (This is where your guitar techniques and music theory can be taken on a high level)
Learn Songs (From the Beatles to Megadeth – there are hundreds of song lessons – every one of them comes with an HD video, and a TAB)
Master Classes (Styles of the Pros lessons with legends like Bumblefoot, Steve Stevens, etc)
Live Courses (every week you can watch a Live Course dedicated to a certain task with an instructor that you can make contact with, you get a tablature and homework)

JamPlay and Guitar Tricks Video Lessons

GuitarTricks Videos

The Video lessons on GuitarTricks are specially designed for guitar learning, and as such it has some great features like video looping, changing the speed of the video, and changing the quality of the video.

Setting the video loop is very easy. With clicking the Loop in the down right corner (or with pushing the R button on your keyboard), an A and B markers are going to show up on the video – set these two at the part that you want to loop – A as your starting point, and B as the ending point, and you are good to go. Changing the quality of the video is also handy for those of you who switch watching your lessons on a TV, on a laptop, and a cellphone.

You can also change the speed of the video – this is helpful when you are trying to learn a guitar part that is faster than your current capabilities.

JamPlay Lessons

The Video Lessons on Jamplay are designed very well. They are all filmed in a high-quality resolution from several different angles, and they are filmed in a dedicated studio for the job. You can also change the speed rate of the video, allowing you to carefully see what is happening, and there is also an A/B looping feature, that allows you to focus on a certain area that bugs you.

On the right side of the video, there is a sidebar with all the parts of the lesson, so you can go to the part of the lesson that you are interested in. Under that, there are also other lessons from the same instructor.

Under the video, you can find the TAB and the Notation of the lesson, a Download option for the Tab and for the Video (for the Video you must have the premium membership). Also, you can post a comment or ask your instructor a question.

GuitarTricks or Jamplay Guitar Instructors

GuitarTricks Instructors

At the moment there are thirty-two active Instructors on Guitar Tricks, each with its own specialty. From blues, rock, funk, rockabilly and acoustic to metal, jazz, classical, bluegrass and world music, and everything in-between, there is an instructor that will help you with your playing. Every one of them has its own expertise in guitar playing and has decades of experience playing and teaching guitar.

Every Instructor has its own teaching style, which is completely natural, and you there are a 100% chance that you will find the perfect one for you on guitartricks.com. Good luck!

JamPlay Teachers

At Jamplay there are more than one hundred instructors, each with a distinct style of playing and teaching.

Of course, all of the instructors are hard-core professionals in the style they are teaching, they go step-by-step explaining all the angles of the style, technique, or song.
On Jamplay, there are a lot of rock star guitarists on the site, like Bumblefoot, Nick Catanese, etc.

Also, there are a lot of lessons that you can get from the man itself – the one who actually recorded the song that you want to learn. For example, you can learn Megadeth riffs and licks by their former lead guitar player Glen Drover.

Song Lists, Backing Tracks, & Genres

At guitartricks.com you can find more than seven hundred licensed song lessons.

From Beatles, Clapton, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC to Bach, Beethoven and Francisco Tarrega, and everything in-between, you can find a full lesson showing you how to play the song part-by-part. Well, some artists are not included in the list, like Joe Satriani, or Steve Vai, but you can find a lesson “In the style of…”, showing you their style and technique in that case. On the end of every song lesson, there is a backing track with so you can jam on to your new learned song. On GuitarTricks pretty much every genre of music is covered.

At jamplay.com there are a lot of song lessons from popular artists, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, Pantera, Nirvana, Willie Nelson, etc.
Although when compared to Guitar Tricks, Jamplay has a bit limited song lessons, there are a lot of technique videos, that will surely help you learn a specific genre or a song.

Jamplay has lessons for these genres Blues, Metal, Rock, Jazz, Funk, Flamenco, R&B & Soul, Reggae, Pop, Acoustic Rock, Fingerstyle, Hawaiian Slack Key, Bluegrass, Celtic, Classical, Country, Surf, Folk, Brazilian, and Gospel. Cool right?

Jamplay also has one of the richest backing track libraries, or as they call it “Jamtrack Library”. It has 700+ Jam Tracks – each of these can be downloaded as an mp3 file, it has a description from the instructor, it has a TAB and notation, and suggest what scales work best with it. They are all recorded and produced very nicely and serve to the purpose of learning the guitar. Every week there are new Jamtrack added to the library.

GuitarTricks versus Jamplay Cost

Guitar Tricks Cost

The Full Access Subscription for Guitar Tricks costs $19.95 if you choose to pay monthly, or $179 if you want to pay yearly. There is a 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee, and a 14-Day Free Trial available. You can also book a one-on-one lesson on GuitarTricks, but they are paid separately.

Jamplay Price

A month of subscription at Jamplay costs $19.95. You can also pay for the subscription yearly for $159.95 which saves you 33% of the money you would pay for a year if you paid monthly, plus you’ll get one free Guitarist toolkit.

There is also a “Year Pro” plan that costs , for those of you who are completely sure that this is the right site for you to learn guitar and want to get everything from it (a Jamplay t-shirt, one-on-one consultation, a lifetime ownership to twenty-five lessons that you can download at any time without having a membership, and all seven Toolkits).

Jamplay for Bassists is all the same – 19.95 for a monthly subscription, and $159.95 for a yearly subscription. Jamplay offers a seven-day free trial membership if you want to make sure you are at the right place before paying any money.
There is also a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee when you buy any plan.

Also, Jamplay offers discount promo codes for 10% off on all membership plans, or for 25% off on your first month monthly membership.

Guitar Lesson Extra Features

Guitar Tricks being one of the best sites for teaching guitar also offers some extra features. The Toolbox at guitartricks offers you a Scale Finder that will teach you every scale ever, Jam Station – a program that lets you jam with backing tracks, Metronome, Chord Finder, Reference Tuner, Fretboard Trainer, Chord Charts, Guitar Tab Guide, and even a Guitar Glossary!

There is also a Guitar Tricks YouTube channel with videos discussing all sorts of stuff around guitars, guitar playing, and guitar gear. At GuitarTricks, there is one of the most-friendly Guitar Forums ever, and there is also a News Page where they post a new video every single week. There is also a Progress Page, with which you can track your lessons.

There are ton of extra things you’ll get on Jamplay, besides its lessons and courses – stuff like Guitar Tuner, Chords Charts (+950.000 chords with chord diagram, tablature sheet, and a photo), Scale Library (with tablature and diagram in every key and position), Jam Tracks Library (with more than seven hundred jam tracks), Lick and Riff library (with ton of cool guitar riffs and licks!), Interactive Games (for helping you learn theory, fretboard memorization and stuff like that), and a Community Forum (where you can discuss all kinds of stuff with Jamplay members).

Jamplay is also compatible with iOS devices, iPhone, Ipad, and iPod, and with Android devices – this is great for taking your lessons on the road without having to drag your laptop with you.

Talk about what makes each company stand out and what type of unique overall features they offer that sets them apart.

Recommendation

These two (Guitar Tricks and Jamplay) are definitely the two best sites for learning the guitar. And it is really hard to choose one from these two.

However, we recommend the Guitar Tricks site. It has a bit more lessons, and it appears more beginner friendly. This doesn’t mean that Jamplay is not beginner friendly, but at Jamplay there are a lot more beginner courses which can be pretty confusing to a beginner, while at Guitar Tricks you have a more “straight to the point” beginner path.

Both of these sites are great, and have very similar features and paths. Even the monthly subscription prices for these two are the same!

Still, we think that Guitar Tricks is just a little bit better than Jamplay.