Guitar Tips Review
Important Update : We’ve been notified that Guitar Tips has been discontinued by Elmore Music.
Guitar Tips is instructor Chris Elmore’s entry into the hotly contested learn-at-home guitar instruction category. In his words, this system was designed to “teach young students how to play a guitar in a fun and interactive way” and more impressively to “teach guitar in just 30 days”. That 30 day claim really piqued our interests. We looked deeper into this offer and found something else equally interesting. That is the course materials are now offered at only $27 for a lifetime membership (down from $47). This could represent an amazing value in the segment if the quality of the course holds up.
The system is brimming with video lessons, audio lessons, and extras. Included were:
- The Guitar Tips learning system that includes 37 Videos samples, 361 Audio samples
- A Songwriting & Production Guide
- 5 Sample Jam tracks with tablature to practice along with
- The Easy Guitar Chord Dictionary
- The Scale Tool scale generation software
- A sample of “Guitar Leads” which is Elmore music’s Intermediate to Advanced lessons
- A treasure trove of included extras & tools
We ordered the course and were quickly sent a download link and instructions. We noted that Guitar Tips is offered for both PC and Macintosh computers. We downloaded and installed the PC version. Both PC and Mac versions of the software run in your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Opera). It’s important to have the Adobe flash player installed in your browser as the audio clips are all in this format.
FEATURES:
Course Organization
Guitar Tips has a straightforward layout. The main course is presented all on one page in Outline format. This program walks the student through from beginner to intermediate guitar player. All of the important bases are touched along the way such as guitar handling, tuning, string types, string notes, major, minor, barre, and power chords. From there students will find a full unit devoted to strumming. This lays the foundation for comfortable rhythmic playing that builds poise and confidence. Up next are scales, and finally lead techniques.
Video clips were generously sprinkled throughout the course. Clip size was a little on the small side. Still the clips featured multiple camera angles, close-ups, and graphics that really helped to clarify and instruct. We never were at loss to understand a technique whenever the video clips were present.
Audio clips were also used to great effect in everything from string tuning, to ear-training, to the nicely produced Jam along tracks. We found just enough multimedia in Guitar Tips to help the course along, but not distract the student’s focus from the guitar itself.
The standard lesson format portion of Guitar Tips represents roughly 6 months of intensive private guitar lessons. Since it is a downloadable course, students are free to practice wherever their computer is present. This is an ideal course to store on a laptop to rehearse and play whenever time permits.
There is also a “30 Day Plan” linked from the main page which forgoes in-depth instruction in guitar tuning, music reading, lead techniques and strumming. Instead the 30 Day Plan gets the student deep into learning chords as fast as possible so that by the 30th day, students can play all the important classic chords, can perform basic effective strumming, knows basic major and minor scales, strumming, harmonics, blues riffs, and techniques like Hammer-on’s, pull offs, string bending and sliding, and some flashy lead licks.
Lesson Format
The lessons are in HTML format. This means that they extract to a folder on your computer and are launched in your web browser. Since most people know how to work a web browser there is little to no learning curve with software. This course works for both PCs and Macs and we had no trouble getting it to work on both our test computers.
Video is in Apple QuickTime (.mov) format so your browser should have the QuickTime plug-in or VLC player installed. Audio is in the Adobe Flash format so if you can watch a YouTube video, you can play the audio clips included with Guitar Tips.
Community
There is no online community available for Guitar Tips.
Extra Tools & Features
Guitar Tips includes many extras that bolster this value added program. Including:
- 5 Jam Tracks
- Easy Chord Dictionary Software
- Guitar Scale Tool Generation Software
- 50 Ways to Improve Your Playing Guide
- The Writing & Producing Guide
- Fret Pro. Software that teaches all the notes on the neck of a guitar
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15 additional guides to improve your playing
- A guide to Effective Practice Strategies
- A guide to finger strengthening
- A guide to achieving great tone
- A guide to reducing feedback
- An ear training guide
- A finger speed module
- A guide to translating emotion into songs
- Tips on music reading, and modes
- A guide to creating your own solo
- A Riff practice module with audio samples
- More
- The Elmore Music Toolbar
- A 14 day free trial to “The Ultimate Guitarist Learning Center”
Support
We were able to locate product support via phone, fax and email. Keep in mind that Elmore is located in Australia so adjust your support request timing accordingly
Ordering Information
Guitar Tips can be ordered at any time directly from their website for only $27. We found credit card processing to be straightforward and we received access to download the system immediately.
Guitar Tips has a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee. If you don’t “love any part of the system” you may request a refund of the full purchase price.
Conclusion
Guitar Tips is a fine showing from Elmore music. Guitar Tips promises to teach anyone to play guitar in 30 days. Instructor Chris Elmore focuses on ear training, chords, and a few scales can advance any novice into someone that can strum out a few tunes for friends and family in less time than it takes to learn to drive. Mr. Elmore’s focus on what skills matter most would be lost if he didn’t know how to present them in an effective manner. The Guitar Tips course also nails this. Its no-frills approach eschews the flash of some of the more advanced courses. This works beautifully as the guitar student is free from any distraction might keep them from practice. In this case, less is indeed more.
In the world of music instruction $27 isn’t a lot of money. That much would get about 30 minutes worth of instruction with a private tutor. Instead Guitar Tips can turn a guitar student into a player in 30 days, and player into a musician with the additional materials (roughly another 5 months worth). This includes the excellent, free “50 Ways to Improve Your Playing” guide. Elmore music’s Guitar Tips constitutes a serious value in our minds. Guitar Tips is a decent entry for the begginer guitarist on a budget.