For the purposes of this review, Guitareo granted us full access to their online lessons platform.
Guitareo is an online resource for learning the guitar. It contains an absolute wealth of information for someone wanting to pick up the electric or acoustic guitar and get playing. There’s a massive collection of videos aimed at beginners, teaching you everything from how to hold a guitar and how to strum it, to how to prepare properly for going into the studio to record.
Guitareo at a glance
Price: $15 per month, $127 annually
Free trial: 30 days with exclusive Guitar World link
Key Features: Loads of videos, great presenters, different sections for guitar method, lessons and courses, teaches you 500 songs in 5 days, live videos
Visit: Guitareo
If you’re starting from the very beginning, Guitareo covers the absolute basics, and it does so without being patronising, or boring. Whilst it is aimed at beginners (though experienced players would also learn from the more advanced videos), it’s not aimed solely at younger players – it’s well suited to aspiring guitarists of any age. Because it’s done through videos, you can skip through any stuff that you might already know, so you don’t have to sit there and waste time.
We also like that all the lessons are broken down into bite size videos. Most of them are under 15 minutes, so if you don’t have loads of time to dedicate to learning the guitar, you can work your way through these online guitar lessons and still feel like you’re making progress.
Guitareo review: the content
There are various different sections within Guitareo. You’ve got a guitar method section that teaches you the basics of rhythm, chords, guitar anatomy and more. Working through these will really help give you a good understanding of the basics needed to be able to play the guitar confidently.
There’s also a lessons section, containing step-by-step beginner guitar lessons. These lessons also have goals – your first one is ‘play a song in under an hour’, and it’s made fun. Sometimes, these ‘fun’ exercises can be a little cheesy, however Guitareo manages to pull it off without being too gimmicky – you’re genuinely learning the core information that will get you playing the guitar quickly.
There are also lessons dedicated to lead playing, riffs, scales, theory – even closer looks into certain genres. If you want to go deep into learning guitar, Guitareo has you covered.
The only thing, upon first logging in, that might overwhelm a complete beginner is all the choice. Whilst the user interface of Guitareo is generally good, someone who doesn’t know where to start might find all these options a little intimidating.
The different sections of the website cover a variety of different things, so alongside videos that teach you the fundamentals and how to actually play the guitar, you’ve got courses that cover things like open tunings, how to loop, ear training and more. If there’s a specific area that you’d like to look at, it’s likely that Guitareo covers it!
Guitareo review: the tutors
The Guitareo videos are presented by a handful of likeable guitarists, including well-known YouTuber Rob Scallon. A feature we liked is that you can focus on the lessons and methods presented by a particular presenter, if you find their way of teaching or just their personality more preferable to the others.
There’s constantly new content being added to Guitareo, too. So if you’ve completed all the lessons, there’s more stuff regularly uploaded that delves deeper into particular artists, or gives you a handful of useful little tricks you can incorporate into your playing. Unlike a book where once you’ve finished, you either move on to the next one or go it alone, Guitareo is always evolving and helping you along the way.
Guitareo is obviously based around videos teaching you how to play guitar, so you don’t get the back and forth interaction like you would with one-to-one lessons. If there’s a downside to this website, then that’s it – but that’s just the nature of online learning (we go into greater depth covering online vs face-to-face lessons here). That said, the videos are personable and you do feel like they’re talking directly to you.
Guitareo review: Conclusion
Guitareo is a great online resource for learning how to play guitar. It teaches you in a fun way, it keeps it interesting, and you can select exactly the parts that you want to focus in on. There’s a massive range of material on there and it’s regularly updated, so you’ll never be bored or stuck for something to learn.
