Concerned about lesson video quality

Hey all,

I am new to GuitarTricks.com, so please be patient with me, I may ask things you have been answered ages ago.

I have not yet decided to go for a paid full membership and have access to only 24 free lessons. This is enough to decide what to do, one would think, but I hesitate because of the very big variations in video quality among the instructors.

No doubt all of them know a lot about the guitar and how to play it, and hopefully just as much about how to teach others to become better players. But as high quality the videos of Lisa McCormick are (for example), the far lower quality are those of Dr. Marako Marcus or Christopher Schlegel for example. I like what they tell and show me, but the sound quality (background noises and stuff like that) and also the image quality is nowhere near that of others I had the pleasure of watching.

Some free lessons are annoying me because of the lower quality, and now I am not sure if I can live with those downsides during the many lessons these instructors will have made for paying members.

How do you feel about this? Is the overall quality high enough and consistent enough to go for a full membership? My son urges me to go for JamPlay.com and I think they shoot all videos in high quality, but my feeling is that GuitarTricks.com has more experience in teaching than JamPlay.com at this point. Can someone here make an honest statement about this so I can decide where my dollars will go?

Thank you for your time and honest opinion.

As far as I know from other posts on the topic, all of the old "LD" vids are being reshot in HD. This, of course, takes time. One instructor, for example has something like 1,000 videos.

I was also member of another site that happened to have consistently high quality videos, however, I found GT was more what I was looking for, which was learning to play, rather than learning songs.

I am not familiar with JamPlay, so I cannot give you any opinions on that.

Also, if you have not noticed, there is an option on the player for high or low quality playback that might help.

Hope that helps a bit!

Hi Richard

Most of the videos I've viewed are of good quality.

I'm not sure about the overall quality as there are so many videos available it would take quite some time to get a representative sample.

I would recommend a months GT subscription and then you can have a good look through all those videos that you might use. That way you'll get your own feel for them. If you like what you see renew if you don't jump ship!

I've got a feeling you'll renew :)

I too looked at other sights and agree that other sights may have more "eye candy" interface, videos etc.. BUT the quality of the lessons in my opinion are superior. The FD1 and FD2 lessons gives a very strong foundation. Christopher Schlegel Section on music theory is fantastic. For a long time I just didn't get the theory part of guitar playing. I have several links to other Music theory sites but it still seemed like a nebulous cloud I couldn't get a grasp of. With Chris's lessons I finally get it. The beginner lessons have allowed me to see real progress. Each getting a little more advanced which is what is needed for real growth.

For the more experienced guitarist GT offers a wide range of styles with solid content. I have watched many of them and Thought "Man I cant wait to get to play that" I also appreciate their stance of not using unlicensed music. Their wanting to do it the "right way" shows a huge amount of integrity for the administrators and instructors.

All in all when I'm watching these videos I found I really don't care if the quality isn't that crisp as other sites, I'm too into the content and what the instructor is teaching. The video quality is the last thing on my mind.

It seems like you want to make sure you are getting your moneys worth. At Guitar Tricks I feel like I'm getting way more than my moneys worth.

Just a beginner guitarist opinion

Thanks

Joel

Yes the quality is inconsistent, but the amount and depth of what you can learn is extraordinary.

It's the price of a couple cups of coffee for a month of access, not a second mortgage. Try it for a month, if you don't like it, cancel. That's more or less what I did, except I got hooked on the fundamentals 1 & 2 and am not planning on cancelling any time soon.
-Simon

Originally Posted by: RichardOnGuitarHey all,

I am new to GuitarTricks.com, so please be patient with me, I may ask things you have been answered ages ago.

I have not yet decided to go for a paid full membership and have access to only 24 free lessons. This is enough to decide what to do, one would think, but I hesitate because of the very big variations in video quality among the instructors.

No doubt all of them know a lot about the guitar and how to play it, and hopefully just as much about how to teach others to become better players. But as high quality the videos of Lisa McCormick are (for example), the far lower quality are those of Dr. Marako Marcus or Christopher Schlegel for example. I like what they tell and show me, but the sound quality (background noises and stuff like that) and also the image quality is nowhere near that of others I had the pleasure of watching.

Some free lessons are annoying me because of the lower quality, and now I am not sure if I can live with those downsides during the many lessons these instructors will have made for paying members.

How do you feel about this? Is the overall quality high enough and consistent enough to go for a full membership? My son urges me to go for JamPlay.com and I think they shoot all videos in high quality, but my feeling is that GuitarTricks.com has more experience in teaching than JamPlay.com at this point. Can someone here make an honest statement about this so I can decide where my dollars will go?

Thank you for your time and honest opinion.

Thank you all for the feedback.

I seem to be right about the inconsistent video quality, and it may annoy me, but you make it clear to me that the content of the lessons is great out here, and that I can try it for a month or two and then decide what I want to do for the long term.

When I am ready to start with the fundamentals, I will do just that (and hope that I will get addicted to what is told in the videos).

Again, thank you for your thoughts, I appreciate it.

I am a member of jamplay..that site is fantastic..even have a live Q&A with the instructors..but for me they don't have enough of country and finger picking lesson .. so I come here for this..it is like being rich then being poor..but I love Lisa lesson so I come here for her and I for sure will keep jamplay .I get all the help I need when I need it