Over the past few years, there have been a number of new entries into the online video guitar lessons business. There’s nothing that compares to having a live, one-on-one teacher, but online videos can serve as a nice supplement, or, in some cases, a good alternative when no local teachers are accessible.
Infinite Guitar is one of the more recent entries in the online guitar video sites, launching this past March. Founded by Sean Conklin, Infinite Guitar currently provides video lessons by Conklin, Rick Graham, Richard Lundmark, Mike Edwin, Pavel Denisjuk, and Robert Mussatti. Lessons are divided up into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced lessons, or you can access lessons by style. Many styles are covered, including Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, Classical, Funk, Fusion, and even Country. You can sample the site by signing up to get 10 free lessons and if you like what you see, site membership is available from $8.25 to $10.95 per month. Membership gives you access to all 587 lessons, as well as premium member forums and direct access to the instructors.
My first reaction when looking at the Infinite Guitar Web site is that it doesn’t look quite as polished as some of the other online video guitar lesson sites that launched several years ago. However, when looking for online guitar lessons, I’m more interested in the content than the presentation, so the lack of a more polished feel wasn’t all that much of a concern for me. That being said, the Infinite Guitar site looks professional and is easy to navigate. On to the content!
An online video guitar lesson site lives or dies by the quality of the lessons, and this is where Infinite Guitar does a very good job. The videos are high quality and well thought out. Lessons are shown in both full-speed and slow-speed versions allowing the viewer to hear how the music should sound in full speed and then work their way up to that. Close-up video is shot of the instructor’s hands during the lesson, so you really get to see what the instructors are showing you. Tablature is available for each lesson, which you can print out and refer to later.
In addition to teaching individual styles, Infinite Guitar offers lessons on Music Theory, including scales and chords. There is also a Chord Finder available on the site, which you can use to view and hear chord shapes.
Although the site boasts a number of different styles, there are currently more metal and rock lessons available than other styles. I believe that there is something to be learned from all styles of music, so I wasn’t bothered by the bias towards rock and metal. However, if you’re looking for a large number of classical guitar lessons, you might be somewhat disappointed in Infinite Guitar’s selection. Conklin did let me know that they are just getting started with the site, so expect many new lessons and instructors added to the site in the future.
Some of the lessons on the site are for songs written by the instructors. For example, Sean Conklin has a number of lessons featuring songs that he has written. Backing tracks are available for the songs, which you can use when learning the song. Currently, the backing tracks do not appear to be downloadable. I understand why Infinite Guitar might not want the backing tracks to be downloadable, but it would be nice to be able to refer to the backing tracks later, even if I were no longer a member. However, the fact that there are backing tracks available is a nice touch.
Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of both the videos and instruction available on Infinite Guitar. And, they are currently one of the cheapest online video guitar sites on the Internet, so you get a great value for the money. If you’re looking at online guitar video lessons, I recommend you take a look at Infinite Guitar and see if what they offer is what you’re looking for. Here’s a sampling of what Infinite Guitar offers:
Did you see that redish and orange guitar with ‘f’ holes at 1:30 of the video. That’s one hot axe brother! Thanks for sharing!
It looks like that guitar is built for speed!
One of the first problems beginning guitar players run into is how to sit with the guitar. The obvious choices are either on your left leg or on your right leg. Not so obvious is that whichever leg you choose, the guitar has to be raised a little, with the neck angled slightly up.