• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Best Intermediate Guitar Lessons

So you’re not a complete beginner on the guitar but you know you need some professional instruction to get to the next level. I understand where you’re at first hand. It was about two years ago I realized that I was going to be playing the same open and barre chords forever unless I got off my butt and started learning some more.

For me my largest gap was musical theory and scales. For you it may be something entirely different.

How do you know you’re an intermediate guitar player?

• If you have been playing guitar for more then a year
• If you have a handle on all your basic chords, strumming and changing between those chords
• If you’re able to sing and play right now but feel you’re stuck in your abilities

Three of the guitar courses we’ve used would fall into the intermediate guitar lessons heading. These three are JamPlay, Guitar Tricks and Gibson’s Learn and Master Guitar. Below I’ll explain a little more about each course, why it’s ideal for an intermediate guitar player such as yourself and also mention any short comings the program might have.

JamPlay Intermediate Guitar Lessons

JamPlay has been my go to guitar lessons course for the past several months. Why? Primarily because they just have so much lesson content there’s always something new to learn.

As an intermediate player myself I don’t want to be watching guitar lessons online about how to play my first chords, but rather I want to learn how to play scales, solo and more advanced techniques, and that’s where JamPlay really shines.

What we Like:

JamPlay lessons cover three ranges: Beginner, Genre Specific and Songs. When I first joined I found I feel somewhere in between the Beginner guitar lessons and the genre specific. My theory knowledge was too low to fully understand what was going on in the blues, rock or jazz specific lessons so I had to start back about half way through their beginner lesson series.

Since their lessons are divided up by skill level, and then further by individual topic I was able to dig into their catalog of content and pick up right where my current knowledge left off.

The fact that they have so many styles and genres to choose from means I can login anytime and pick a blues, rock or metal lesson and learn something entirely new. I love being able to do that and it keeps me motivated to continue learning.

Their videos are all shot in HD quality and use a unique 4-way split screen that ensures you get a close up view of the fretting hand, strumming hand and instructors during demonstrations. Also their lessons are taught by 40 different instructors so you always have a choice in who you learn from.

What we Don’t Like:

It does take some discipline to stick to a lesson series when you first join. It took me about a month to settle in and realize that I had to stick to one series of lessons, practice and finish those before moving on to the next thing if I really wanted to improve.

Other then that for the sub $20 price point each month JamPlay has the best online guitar lessons for intermediate players available.

Gibson’s Learn and Master Guitar

This is also our top rated beginner guitar lesson course, but trust me there is still a ton of intermediate guitar lesson content. In fact I found that over 75% of the course was new material to me when I got my copy. Proving that maybe I wasn’t as intermediate as I thought after all.

What We Like:

This course does double duty as a beginner and intermediate guitar course. While the first few discs will be a complete review for most beginners I found that after about disc four or five there were new concepts that I needed to learn. Even some of the earlier lessons on music theory I went back and watched since this wasn’t my strong suit.

Learning using this course is very straight forward. Each DVD has a two lessons on it, then there are workshop sessions where course instructor Steve Krenz tells you what to practice and when you are ready to move onto the next lesson.

The practice book included with the course is great for when you’re not watching the lessons and want to refer to what you’ve learned. Also the Jam-Along Cds provide full band tracks for you to play along with while you practice making it far more interesting then just playing alone.

What we Didn’t Like:

The fact that this course is on DVD and you have to wait for it to get shipped to you may be a down fall for some. Myself I love instant gratification so I like being able to start learning something as soon as I decide I want to do it. For this reason I have both this course and JamPlay.

Also while the linear step-by-step lesson plan ensures you have no holes in your guitar knowledge it can feel a bit like school to some. It ensures you learn everything, but it doesn’t give you a lot of freedom to bounce around with what you’re learning.

Guitar Tricks Intermediate Guitar Lessons

Guitar Tricks is a direct competitor with JamPlay. They offer online video guitar lessons across a variety of genres for both beginner and intermediate players. There are over 3000 different lessons in their catalog right now and they’re offering a 14 day free trial where you can access them all and try it out.

What we Like:

Guitar tricks has a straight forward beginner and foundational lesson course. Like JamPLay, most intermediate players will likely find that their current skills won’t quite cross over to the intermediate level lessons and you’ll need to go through some of the later beginner lessons.

Guitar Tricks has over 40 different instructors providing lesson content and support on their website. So there’s no shortage of teachers to learn from. Also they have a great support forum inside the membership area where you can ask questions, get answers and even make some new online guitar friends.

Their guitar tool box which contains a tuner, chord finder and their jam station backing tracks app is great for practicing. Jam Along tracks are a great addition when learning since playing along with a band is far more interesting then playing on your own.

What we Don’t Like.

The video quality is good, but it’s not quite up to snuff with the 4-way split screen HD videos at JamPlay. This is primarily the reason we don’t recommend this as our first intermediate guitar lessons choice.

Also Guitar Tricks doesn’t offer quite as many style specific lessons as competitors JamPlay. Their blues, rock and country lessons are strong but other areas such as jazz and metal are bit weaker.

Conclusion

It’s a toss up really between JamPlay and Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar. If you crave structure and a straight forward learning system then Learn & Master Guitars DVD course is the right choice for you. However if you like to bounce around, and aren’t a fan of having to follow an exact lesson plan then save a few buck and sign up for JamPlay.com.

Both courses will help you reach the next level with your guitar play so long as you’re willing to put in the time to learn and practice the new techniques.

I personally have both courses, although lately I find I am using JamPlay.com more then my Learn & Master Guitar DVDs. If this changes in the future I’ll update this page, but for now I’m going to say that I edge my personal choice towards JamPlay.com

Related Posts

• Jazz Guitar Lessons Online :: Chord Voicing, Scales, Theory and more
• Rock Guitar Lessons Online :: Chords, Scales, Solos and more!
• Metal Guitar Lessons Online :: Shredding, Power Chords and More
• Looking for a Guitar Lessons DVD? Let Us Help You Find the Best One.
• Beginner Guitar DVD Course :: Learn To Play Guitar At Home