There were 2 really big online video guitar lesson websites up till 2022: Jamplay.com and GuitarTricks.com.
Deciding on which one to join was tricky since they were both very similar in so many respects.
In 2023 however, Jamplay was integrated into Truefire.com, so ever since, there is no separate Jamplay.com to speak of. All of Jamplay's video lessons are now on Truefire.com.
This makes the following comparison of GuitarTricks & Jamplay obsolete in 2024, however, I am keeping it online in case you're interested.
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It's important to know that GuitarTricks is the older site, established in 1998. As such, they practically invented online guitar lessons.
JamPlay was the follower, set out to overtake the pioneer, as could be seen from the video editing quality, innovations in online guitar learning, and the rate at which new lessons were added to JamPlay.
Now have a look at this handy Jamplay vs Guitar Tricks comparison table below, to find the nitty-gritty differences between the 2 sites:
 |  All content moved to TrueFire.com  | |
|---|---|---|
| Level | Thousands of lessons - All levels - Many genres - ~900 song lessons - Supplemental tabs & chord charts - Video lessons downloadable (except song lessons) | Thousands of lessons - All levels - More genre lessons than GuitarTricks - ~350 Song lessons - Supplemental tabs & chord charts - Forum on each lesson - Video lessons downloadable by paying extra |
| User interface | Personalized UI: - Bookmark lessons - Lessons viewed - Progress history | Personalized UI: - Bookmark lessons - Lessons viewed - Progress history |
| Online tools | - Chord and scale finder tools - Backing tracks - Metronome - Reference tuner | - Chord and scale library with deep explanations - Backing tracks - Metronome - Reference tuner - Soundslice integration on Truefire |
| Extras | - Active forum - Most lessons and tools downloadable - 1 learning game - True private 1 on 1 lessons | - Active forum - Live webcam sessions - Live studio courses - Private, but delayed lessons |
| Pricing | $29.95/month $143.20/year with this coupon | $29/month $149/year |
| Refund policy | 60 days | 14 days |
As you can see, both websites are very similar, but you can still find differences beneath the hood.
How are Jamplay & GuitarTricks different?
After comparing GuitarTricks.com and Jamplay.com with the help of the table above, you'll notice that the main differences between the sites are:
- GuitarTricks has way more popular songs to learn than Jamplay
- JamPlay has daily live webcam lessons, GuitarTricks does not have any
- The refund period of GuitarTricks is 60 days, while that of Jamplay/Truefire is 14 days
- GuitarTricks has a clearer learning path for absolute beginners than Jamplay
- Jamplay caters to advanced players more through special courses and resources
Let's have a look at a few more things that I noticed while using both sites, these may be of interest in your decision as well.
So, was GuitarTricks or Jamplay better?
Objectively speaking, I would say that GuitarTricks was (and still is) better for learning guitar. Some may agree, some not. Read my reasoning below, and leave a comment if you agree/disagree.
The reason why I think GuitarTricks was the winner versus JamPlay, is because:
- Most video lessons and guitar tools are downloadable, which is nice when you're not connected to the Internet. You can't download song lessons due to licensing issues.
- Longer refund period, so you have more time to evaluate it and see if you like it.
- NEW for November 2024: Check out the new GuitarTricks.com Free Trial Membership for 14 days, where you'll get access to all lessons and tools on GuitarTricks.com for $0.
JamPlay/Truefire is better for intermediate-advanced players, the production quality of JamPlay videos is generally higher (the educational value is about the same), and they release more new lessons and mini-courses in different genres for intermediate-advanced guitarists, which might make them a better choice if you're an established player.
You be the judge, take your pick. You could even sign up to test both, and just get a refund from the one you're least satisfied with.
And remember to save some money!
Go to our posts on the Guitar Tricks discount and JamPlay coupon code before you sign up.
Their “unconditional refund” at Jamplay is a sham, even if you cancel well within the 30 day period. I was sent a really aggressive email saying would not refund me when I requested one. The lessons are long and boring and you don’t remember what has been taught. This company make millions a year and yet they quibble over 12 dollars. Guitar tricks is so much better and run by nice people.
I currently have a paid membership to both GuitarTricks and Fender Play and as a beginner(1 week) this is my opinion: Though the content for beginners is more in-depth on GuitarTricks, I find it too boring to get through the basics. I am learning more on Fender Play only because what they are teaching is more fun probably because they teach using rifts and songs people actually want to learn not this obscure stuff I am trying to work my way through. On Fender play I have been spending hours consecutively on GuitarTricks I can only handle 1-2 lessons before I have to switch… I really hope it gets better
Hi Warren, on Guitartricks if you’re going through the Guitar Fundamentals course, they have a list of recommended songs for each Chapter starting at Chapter 4. You may have missed that, these songs sections are listed on the main course pages.
As of right now, Fender Play is not anywhere as good or complete as Guitartricks.
This is really what separates these programs from many of the other learning tools available. If you want HD video lessons, these are the websites which offer the best material. The videos with Guitar Tricks are a bit more basic, but also very simple which is good. JamPlay offers more camera angles but it’s not always beneficial.
What about Fender Play? Looking at their site and it looks like they have good song lessons.
Hi Viet,
I’ve been meaning to write a review on Fender Play, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Fender Play is still relatively new, and as such, they don’t have anywhere close to as much content as Jamplay or Guitartricks. Fender still has a lot of ground to make up, if they want to “Play” in this space 😉
As you said, they have good songs though, but so does GuitarTricks. Also, I feel the teachers on GuitarTricks are better than on Fender Play.
hi
just want to add something to your comparison,
some topics on guitar tricks are just not covered, like for example nothing about recording / home studio
other subjects are just really introduced but not deeply covered : example for picking techniques, alternate tuning, etc. There is a lesson about circle of fifths for example and it was just not well explained, I sometimes struggle with chris schelegel videos, as he talks super fast and over complicates stuff, so I ended browsing he internet to try understanding some of the stuff he talked about, and then I found much more information on websites and way better explained…
If you take the rock 1 course for example, an advanced course, most of the technical stuff is just not explained, teacher says “just remember to move by 3 frets, or just remember it is like that, you don’t need to understand why for now”. And yeah it becomes frustrating to have to look on internet very often when you pay exactly for not having to go somewhere else.
I have done a bit of research about jamplay and it seems more complete, and there is a whole lesson about home recording 😉
so I would say for beginners and for the songs guitar tricks, and potentially but will have to try jamplay but seems the best place for music theory/technical concepts and in-depth coverage of more topics.
Lastly, I was wondering if you could give an advice on the year and year pro subscription, i.e. is the year pro a gimmick? are those 7 guitarist bundles worth it? I am note interested in the t-shirt, and the 25 credits.
Also, is the one-on-one consultation a 1 shot, or can we request one as much as needed ?
Regards
Hi, you’re right in that Jamplay has more advanced courses than GuitarTricks. This is why I recommend beginners go to GuitarTricks, and higher intermediate to advanced players try Jamplay.
I am currently trying JamPlay to compare it with Guitar Tricks. At this point, it gets a big fat 1-star rating. I am asking for my money back. The ONLY courses I seem to have available to me are new and recently added. There is no way for me to find structured lessons like I can on Guitar Tricks. I also just signed up at justinguitar, a free site and it is VERY impressive.
Hello, I am 37 years old and just started thinking about playing the guitar. I Googled stuff online and it lead me to your website, which is VERY WELL organized; it’s awesome. I skimmed your free beginners guide and it looks proficiently put together. Is there any reason for me to use GuitarTricks or JamPlay over your free beginners guide? Thanks
Hi there, thanks for the kind words. The beginner’s guide I created is thorough, nothing is held back. The advantage Jamplay and Guitartricks have is that they are absolutely huge sites, with loads more lessons than I will ever be able to publish on my own site. This starts becoming important when you get to an intermediate level, and need more variety. But at first, my free beginner’s guitar guide is enough indeed.
Have fun!
I’ve been playing for about 2 years now, and want to learn to play blues guitar specifically. My father was a great blues player and I loved listening to him play, bless his soul.
I started learning from a book which sucked, than a teacher which was expensive, so now I’ll try online.
Do these sites have good blues lessons? If so, which one would you recommend.
Just seen there is not reply to this yet. For FREE lessons of good quality I would highly recommend Justin Guitar. (Paid lessons also available).
Hello, I have a question I haven’t been able to find an answer to yet, maybe you can help me. I want to improve my fingerpicking, so on the acoustic. Just traditional fingerpicking. Which site would you recommend?
Hi there, that’s a good question, I had to go into my accounts on jamplay and guitartricks to look around for you. It looks to me like Jamplay has more fingerstyle lessons, they even have dedicated courses on various subgenres of fingerstyle guitar. So if you are at an intermediate level already, and want start “mastering” fingerstyle guitar, I would recommend Jamplay. If you’re still a beginner, than it would be best if you reach an intermediate level first on Guitartricks, so you are well rounded in everything guitar. I always recommend that specializing towards any given genre should come after you have a solid knowledge of the basics, and are comfortable with anything they throw at you 🙂
Tom,
I know you had opinions in the past regarding Truefire and Nate Savage. What is your CURRENT opinion about these sites?
Truefire currently has an Easter sale ($1000/lifetime). And Nate Savage also had a lifetime subscription for Guitarsystem members to Nate’s newer Guitarlessons.com website.
Some people also like Guitopia (a newer site).
Any opinions on the value and continued regularity of NEW material additions to sites versus the GuitarTricks/Jamplay of the world?
I have bad athritis in my right thumb so cant hold a pick .Can i learn to to pick with my index finger and learn finger style blues rock is it possible. Sorry to bother you with this but i really want to play guitar at 1 of these 2 sites. Thank you.
I would say I’m an early intermediate guitar player that took lesson with a local instructor, but haven’t had a lesson in over a year, and know some barre chords. Would it be worth my time to start at Guitar Tricks to get my skills back and learn late intermediate skills then move to Jam play?
Yes, that sounds like a good plan. Go over the basics again, there’ll probably be a whole bunch of things you’ll learn from the site. If you find a part too easy, you can just brisk through it.
Hi
I want to learn guitar , I am a beginner. Please suggest if getting a personal tutor will be good or choosing from the above 2 websites.
I want to learn it in a period of 5-6month.
Hi, you can definitely learn guitar with these sites. To get good in 5-6 months, that would involve lots and lots of practice. Not just the 1 hour per day, much more.
I use both , they’re both excellent. learning a lot from both.Everything I need to know about music,between the two.
Hey, I used to play guitar when I was younger (decades ago), wasn’t much good, but loved it. I want to start learning again, but I guess I would have to start from 0. I just watched the comparison between jamplay and guitartricks, and have a few questions if you don’t mind:
– when starting over like I am, can I expect my overall pace of progress to be quicker?
– I see in the video that jamplay has lots of teachers with beginner courses. Which would you recommend?
– Do you think it would be faster to progress with guitar tricks or jamplay?
thanks a million!
Hello Jordan, I’m glad you’ve decided to start playing again, it’s never too late (or too early for that matter 🙂 )
Both Jamplay.com and GuitarTricks.com are great choices to get you going in the right direction. Now to your questions:
– well, knowing that you haven’t played for decades, and you weren’t at a higher level of playing when you were young, I would say that you will pick up the basics quicker than most true beginners, but will still face the same hurdles in the mid-term (like barre chords)
– The teacher you choose at JamPlay depends on your personal preference. Check out all of the longer beginner courses (there are some that just have a few lessons, so those won’t be thorough), and choose a teacher you find sympathetic. Just make sure you don’t jump around in between courses, people tend to do that when they are faced with something harder. Stick with one course.
– As I mentioned, both sites are great. Your pace of progress will only depend on your effort. Jamplay and GuitarTricks will give you the groundwork, but practicing diligently will be your job. As I’ve said a number of times, the diligent guitarist will always become better than the talented guitarist.
Hi Tom,
Do you know whether Jamplay or Guitar Tricks allow you to download their backing tracks for offline practice?
Thanks!
Jerry
Hi Jerry, you can download the jam tracks on both sites.
Only for the normal lessons though, you can’t download any backing tracks for lessons on songs. I guess it’s a copyrights thing. But for that, you have guitarbackingtrack.com 🙂
Hi Tom,
I have another question: How about tabs? Are they downloadable for normal lessons as well as song lessons? (Or are there no tabs to begin with?)
Thank you.
Jerry
Hi, you can download the tabs, but not officially for song lessons. But you can always make a screenshot, or just right click -> save image to save the tablature’s image file 😉
Hi. I’m a new beginner at 50. I have been using guitar tricks for the last 3 weeks. And find it quite good however I’m unsure how long I should practice one lesson before moving on to the next. There is another site guitar system by Nate savage that I find interesting. Do you have any feedback regarding that site for learning? Cheers
Hi there! Nate is a good teacher, but I prefer Jamplay or Guitartricks, they have way more lessons.
For you, as a beginner, it doesn’t really matter which one you go with, as long as you stick to one. If you started Guitartricks and are satisfied, stick to their curriculum, don’t jump around.
Practice each lesson as much as you need to, don’t skip things you find hard at first. It gets easier with time and practice. Once you sort of have it down, you can move on.
hey tom i was wondering which one you thought would be better for blues rock/hard rock because i listen a lot to bands like ac/dc
Hey there, if you’re a beginner, than GuitarTricks, because I think their beginner lessons are structured better, even in your specific genres.
If you already know how to play, than JamPlay would be better, because they have more dedicated courses on these topics, held by different teachers. Those are a bit more advanced though, and some teachers are a bit havocy in their material, but if you know how to play, you’ll be ok.
I signed up for jam play and started the beginner lessons. I am 50 yo and have always wanted to play. Do you think it’s possible to learn to play with online lessons only, or would you advise getting a live teacher as well?
Hi, nope, you don’t need a live teacher, just stick to a beginner course, and take your time with each lesson. Don’t skip without learning any given lesson, that’s important. You need self discipline when not learning with a live teacher.
Is the competition from JamPlay and Guitar Tricks to strong for a new online service to establish itself and compete with them successfully?
Yes, but the competition from free youtube video lessons is the biggest killer. Anyone with a camera can become a teacher on youtube, and since it’s free, more and more beginners are choosing that route. Even though they are destined to fail, due to the lack of structure in their learning.
Which one is better for learning fingerpicking for more modern music (not classical)?
Example: https://youtu.be/urIJuFhjNFw
That is more advanced material. Jamplay has more courses on this type of fingerstyle guitar.
Tom, I am curios as to why you are advertising these sites when you have your own site that I have been enjoying.
Ed
Hey Ed,
My original thesis behind my site was (and still is), that I want to create lessons that will make people fall in love with the guitar, and get them motivated to play real songs. I think I’m good at creating high quality lessons that beginners will enjoy and draw enthusiasm from, but the thing is that I am a one man show at TheGuitarLesson.com, and there are only so many lessons I can produce, while Jamplay and Guitartricks are “big” companies, pumping out new content non-stop.
I think my lessons are better for beginners though, since I make things easier with the animated tabs, but some newbies might prefer the giga lesson packages that these sites offer.
Also, once you get to an intermediate level, the above sites will be able to keep you moving forward, all the way to advanced. I only have beginner-intermediate lessons, so I see it as natural progression to move from my lessons to the more advanced lessons of one of the above sites. These 2 sites are the sources I can truly recommend from both quality and cost efficiency point of views.
Best,
Tom
Hi there Tom,
Guitar Tricks is now $19.95 / month, not $14.95 / month.
Best regards,
Pedro Almeida
Thanks for letting me know Pedro, I’ll update the fact sheet.
Your video is useless to me. You have ‘backgrouond’ music playing louder than you are talking. I can hardly make out what you are saying.
You should either drop the music after a brief intro, or make it really background.
Sorry, just doesn’t work for me.
Roger, I don’t have any music playing in this video at all…
Maybe the music is just in your head? 😀
Which site does the best job at explaining theory as it relates to their lessons?
I was also looking at a site called jamorama, what do you think about them? Thanks!
Hey Jared, I just had a look at Jamorama recently, since they upgraded their offering not long ago. They used to sell a guitar lesson ebook which was created over a decade ago, so it was pretty old to say the least. They launched the new site 2 months ago, and are now focusing on video lessons, just like Jamplay and Guitartricks. I had a good look around Jamorama, and to tell you the truth, it’s not looking very good:
So if you compare Jamorama vs Jamplay and GuitarTricks, well, the Jamorama guys don’t really have much going for them.
I am a beginning mandolin player but I like the old country tunes. I know the setup is different and chord structure is different. I think I can figure that part out. what I want to learn and struggle with is rhythm, timing, and strumming patterns. which site would you recommend that may help with the rhythm, timing, and strumming patterns and also give a bigger variety of songs that I may like to play in the country music, bluegrass or appalachian music genre?
thanks.
Ann
What about Truefire, what do you think about their site? It looks like they have lots of videos as well.
Hi Rashi,
TrueFire.com does indeed have lots and lots of lessons. They claim to have 22,000+ lessons, and 400+ teachers. I’m not going to start counting, that’s for sure.
I don’t have that much experience with Trufire as with GuitarTricks or Jamplay though. I have purchased a few courses from their site, which was a bit expensive, I think around $20 for a course. They have a a monthly plan as well, or actually 2 monthly plans.
My problem with truefire is that they have so much stuff, that you get lost in their site. So for example, if you click on blues courses, they have 116 individual blues courses. They do have so called “learning paths”, where they give you the order in which you should tackle the separate courses, but those are just that, separate courses, so not really created with continuity in mind.
So anyhow, if you are an intermediate-advanced player, you will definitely be able to cherry-pick a few courses that will be interesting, but if you are looking for a structured approach to getting from A to B, I would say go with the other 2 big sites instead.
Hi Tom, I am thinking of subscribing to one of these two online websites.But since I am not a native speaker, my listening skill is not good enough to understand what’s being said.So I may need subtitles.Do the videos provide us with english subtitles?Thanks in advance
Sorry but they don’t have subtitles. Try my lessons though if you’re a beginner, I have animated tabs, which makes things easier to follow.
Wow, cool video man, uber informative. It’s interesting to see the side by side like this. I haven’t quite decided which site I’m gonna go with, but I’m leaning more towards guitartricks right now. I used to play a bit when I was younger, so I’m basically restarting the guitar, and those quick to the point lessons from guitartricks come off as a nice way of relearning everything I had long forgotten. I also want to learn Beatles songs, and it looks like only gutartricks has those.
The larger choice of lessons on Jamplay is intriguing, but I don’t know. I think I’ll try GT first since it has a longer refund period, and if it doesn’t work out for me, I’ll just get my money back and head on over to jamplay. I mean it’s not like we’re talking about exorbitant amount of $$$ 🙂 I mean the $15 monthly price is like 20 minutes with a live teacher, that’s pretty ridiculous…
Hey thanks Jackoh, I’m glad you enjoyed the video. I wanted to make the 2 sites as comparable as possible, that’s why I did the side-by-side screen view. I hope the screens weren’t too small like this though, if you put it on full screen and change the resolution to HD, it works really well on my monitor.
So anyhow, both GuitarTricks and JamPlay are great sites, it all comes down to you, the student. If you are diligent and dedicate enough time and practice to it, you’ll succeed either way. The reason I recommend GuitarTricks to beginners is because it gives them one less chance to sidestep and wonder around looking at other teacher’s lessons when things get a bit harder. That’s what a lot of people do on my site.
thanks for the comparison!
My pleasure, hope it helped
Wow, this was a real deep comparison, I was just looking at each site and thinking which one to go with. At first glance jamplay looks better on the, but guitar tricks has a lot going for it. I think I’m gonna try that one because of the downloadable lessons.
I bought the Jam Play yearly membership about 3 months ago. I have to say I am very satisfied and impressed how great this guitar course and want to thank you for your review on the your site. I am really seeing improvement in my guitar playing. This is a course I would recommend to purchase.
I purchased a 1 year sub to JAMPLAY on Christmas day, I’ve known about it for years but what brought me around was their Christmas promotion. $99 for an entire year. I figured this was too good to pass up. PLUS, by the end of my subscription it should be holiday season again and perhaps I will get that great discount again. Not sure if it’s for new subscribers only or not but at any rate, I plan to utilize this site to the absolute fullest because there are things I have wanted to learn my entire life, but wasn’t willing to pay the enormous amount of money to learn it, with JAMPLAY I finally have that opportunity.
I have looked at both Jamplay and Guitar Tricks. I found Jamplay to be some what impressive but hard to navigate,cluttered with useless “gadgets” and the instruction rather robotic from some instructors, on the other hand Guitar Tricks was warm,inviting,easy to navigate,the instruction was short sweet and to the point with tab and notes to accompany each lesson.This is such a structured site which can easily bring a beginner to an advanced/professional level provided you do your share and follow the suggestions on this site.I have found everything I will ever need to become the guitarist I’ve always dreamed of,oh by the way the cost is a steal compared to private lessons for one teacher,did I mention I have 45 teachers?
It is worth noting that if you can do a yearly subscription guitar tricks comes out to $10.75 a month and JamPlay is only about $11.66 – hardly a difference. That doesn’t take any coupon codes into account. At those prices, price is no longer really an issue when comparing the two. Look into each site and pick the one that looks best to you.