Guitar Alliance Review

I can honestly say that rank beginners through experienced intermediate students should be able have a good experience with this program. Beginners will benefit from the thorough, logical lay out of the lessons with audio assistance even without the advantages of video. Intermediate and advanced players will enjoy a polishing of old techniques as well as filling in the gaps of missing guitar theory. I truly believe everyone will benefit from the rich forums.

The Contents

Guitar Alliance is a private, members only, website is well organized with a simple and logical system of navigation. The first time you open the site you will land on a special “ Getting Started “ page that describes how the lessons are organized and how to navigate the website.

Riff-O-Matic Lite - This is a generous taste of the full Riff-O-Matic program where the emphasis is on putting your new skills to work learning some of the classic popular guitar songs. Here is a partial listing:

Best of You by Foo Fighters, Vertigo by U2, Witchy Woman by The Eagles, Moonflower by Santana, The Thrill is Gone by B. B. King and Imagine by Chet Atkins, ( just to name a few ).

This section was so much fun that I ended up spending much more time exploring the songs than necessary to write this part of the review.

Jam Tracks - This is another fun section that is designed for practicing solos and improvisation with well known, popular songs.

Testing - This quiz section emphasizes learning to hear and recognize the open strings sounds, chords and key signatures..

Forums: These contain a wealth of guitar questions and answers from the many members of Guitar Alliance. The topics range from guitar selection and maintenance to helpful techniques. They even have opinion forums that strive to answer fun questions like; what are your top 10 favorite guitarists and guitar solos. Part of the value of these forums comes from the large number of people that participate.

Other sections of the Guitar Alliance lessons program include a Chord Guide, Scales, Arpeggios, Strumming, Songwriting, Finger Style Playing and a Gear Guide.

Negatives

The biggest drawback to Guitar Alliance seems to be lack of video. Learning guitar is a visual, auditory and tactile experience. Teaching guitar by employing all of these senses is ideal.

This program is offered only by internet which, by definition, ties the student to a computer. A fairly fast computer with a fast DSL or Cable internet connection will be important.

Another minor problem is that the audio samples, while excellent in quality and quantity, are usually offered at full tempo which might be frustrating for some students. Optional audio examples of songs and lessons with slower tempos would be helpful for practicing. However, I discovered that I could listen at full speed then turned off the audio to practice. When I could play the lesson at close to full speed I would turn the audio back on and play along.

The Bottom Line

I wasn’t expecting much when I began to explore the Guitar Alliance Program especially when I discovered that it was an internet only experience with no video. I was pleasantly surprised. This website is logically laid out with thorough lessons in technique and music theory that are supplemented by a great many helpful audio tracks. This is a fun course because eventually the lessons teach how to play parts of popular guitar songs. Learning to improvise solos with the Jam Tracks, while quite a challenge, was also great fun. The informative and enjoyable forums alone were almost worth the cost of the course. The annual fee of only $39.95, ( as of this writing ), is an excellent value.

For more information, samples, testimonials or to purchase Guitar Alliance,click here.