JustinGuitar.com: Free Guitar Lessons Review
Created by Justin Sandercoe, JustinGuitar.com has gained a massive following for its free guitar lessons. As one of the moderators on the Reddit Guitar subreddit (r/guitar), JustinGuitar.com is by far the most frequently recommended guitar resources on the guitar subreddit. It is mostly free and easily accessible. For the vast majority of beginner and intermediate guitar players, it is well suited to their guitar learning needs. In this review, we’ll dive deep into what makes JustinGuitar.com so popular and if it is a good solution for you.
JustinGuitar.com: Free (Mostly) & Kind of Accessible
JustinGuitar.com’s video lessons are free and available on the JustinGuitar.com website and through YouTube. While Justin doesn’t charge for his guitar lessons, he does make money through a series of guitar related products and services. The paid product and service offerings include website lessons, books, downloads, in-person lessons, in-person workshops, and apps. These paid offerings aren’t electronically synchronized with the video lessons. If you buy the Lessons & Songs app, for example, it won’t synchronize with your progress on the free website lessons.
| JustinGuitar.com Free Lessons | Website Lessons | Physical Products | Apps | Downloads | |
| Offering | Free. Includes practice song suggestions and song tutorials | Practical Music Theory ($49.99 USD/yr) JustinGuitar Tabs ($49.99 USD/yr) Transcribing Blues Solos ($49.99 USD/yr) Strumming SOS ($39.99 USD/yr) | JustinGuitar Books (From $5.70 USD) | JustinGuitar Lessons & Songs App (Prices vary by location) Time Trainer App – Metronome ($1.99 USD) Note Trainer App ($1.99 USD) Ear Trainer App ($1.99 USD) Blues Licks App ($2.99 USD) | 101 Children’s Songs e-Books (From $9.99 USD) Jam Tracks (From 7.99 GBP) |
| JustinGuitar Sync | N/A | None | None | None | None |
Lessons, But No Practice Songs
Justin Guitar lessons are recorded videos. In each video, Justin teaches a particular technique or song. He’ll start broadly and then move into more advanced tips and techniques as the video progresses. At the end of the videos, he’ll recommend practice songs and exercises and usually demonstrate the practice exercise or song(s).
For experienced guitar players, looking for a brush up on a particular technique, this makes Justin Guitar lessons, short and concise. There is very little wasted time on things that experienced players don’t need. However, it’s more difficult for beginners. Due to music licensing costs, Justin doesn’t provide song tabs for the practice songs recommended in his free lessons. Beginners interested in using the practice songs have to pay for Justin Guitar Tabs (website, $7.99/mo.), use what’s available in the free video, or search for free song tabs on sites like songsterr.com. Songsterr.com is a wonderful free resource, but it’s not intended to provide easy to digest/practice song snippets for guitar practice. It can take a bit of work to find and use the right section of a song that Justin recommended. The speed of the full song is also faster than what beginners can learn with and that can be discouraging.
Conclusion
JustinGuitar.com is one of the best free guitar learning platforms available. It’s the perfect choice for beginners and newcomers to guitar who are unsure about making a big investment in learning guitar. Once beginners are sure that they’re going to stick with guitar. I suggest that you look into Justin’s paid songs. They’re a much more convenient way to learn and practice the songs and timing which are so important to mastering guitar.
The rich video lessons are a great value for experienced guitars are looking to brush up on specific techniques. If you’re looking to brush up on a power chords or relearn something that was long forgotten, Justin Guitar allows a returning guitar player to quickly jump to the technique they’re looking for with a minimum of beginner content.
Take a look at JustinGuitar.com. You won’t regret it.