Inside you’ll learn...

• What are our 'Top 10 Sites For Free Guitar Lessons' for learning to play some great songs.
• Where to find The 'Top 10' Guitar Sites For Beginners – there’s some great material (and I don’t mean YouTube!).
• Which are the best value sites Intermediate Guitarists? (the No1 site has loads of free stuff)
• Where are the best sites for more advanced playing tips and techniques?(with some great high quality videos)

This FREE REPORT will literally save you hours, and hours, of frustrated searching. And, save you from wasting hundreds of dollars on useless PLay Guitar products.

And also – ‘Guitar Secrets revealed’...

What about all those products promising to make you a ‘Guitar Hero in a weekend’? Save your money! We’ve bought them, tested them, and can reveal what’s actually inside!

Which guitar lessons are a rip off?, and which ones offer genuine great value for money? Our in depth Site Analyzer reveals the hero’s, and crushes the zero’s, of play and learn Guitar web sites and products.

Just use your first name and valid email as your password - then click the “Download FREE Report” button.

The 'Top 100 Guitar Web sites' Research Report
From Jon Henderson
Researcher, and struggling guitarist

There are absolutely ‘No Guitar Secrets’ in this research report. No hidden tricks or techniques, and no hype or BS.

This Free Research Report contains the data, and analysis, from careful in-depth researching, of the TOP 100 web sites offering ‘learn guitar’ products, Guitar Lessons, and services. This has then been condensed, or 'Crunched', into simple easy to digest 'Top 10' Summary Reports.

So stop searching, and start learning. Within the next 5 minutes, you could save yourself hours of valuable time, and hundreds and wasted dollars. I should know, because I’ve done it.

But if you must, then go ahead, start searching. You may have already gone to Google and typed in ‘Play Guitar’, ‘Free Guitar Lessons’, or something similar. The ‘Play Guitar’ search alone brings up 17.4 million results in Google! We did that.

So what do you do next?

Well like most people (including us) l guess the best place to start is at No1. But there’s so much choice, and much of what’s out there may not be what you’re looking for. And even when you find something that looks good, can you really tell what you’re getting for your money?

And also how do you know if this is good value? Or maybe there’s something even better buried deep in Google, that you’re just never going to get to (we found some real gems!)

It can be a tedious, frustrating, and expensive process. We certainly found that out! So don’t waste your hard earned cash experimenting with products and services that just aren’t any good. Leave that to us.

Within a matter of a few minutes of downloading this report, you’ll be able to identify the right sites for you, whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or even expert. Or, if you’re looking for advice, lessons, tricks and techniques, or just want to play some great songs - the best sites will be clearly set out for you, including hyperlinks to take you there.

From our research data, we’ve drawn up a Top 5 performers in the following categories;

– the Top 5 Guitar products for beginner guitarists
– the Top 5 Guitar products for intermediates/advanced guitarists
– the Top 5 sites with FREE Guitar Lessons
– the Top 5 ‘Complete waste of time' sites
– And finally, just the 5 Overall Top Scoring sites

So whilst you WON’T find any ‘Miracle Guitar Secrets’, or be able to ‘Learn Guitar in a Weekend’ from this report, you will definitely find some real hidden treasures. And more importantly for you, quickly and easily find the best products and sites out there.

So go ahead and grab your FREE copy of this report, by entering your First Name, and Email Address, in the boxes provided, and click the ‘Download’ button.

Note:
This is version 1.0 of the ‘Top 100 Learn & Play Guitar’ research report.

Although this was compiled in June 2008, it will need to be regularly updated, as new products come on the market, and as existing ones are upgraded and improved.

By downloading the report you will automatically be kept up to date with the latest version. In addition to this I would like to extend my research, by including user reviews or other comments and input from readers of this report who have actually spent some time working with some of these learn guitar products. You can always email me with any feedback at editor@whichguitarsite.com.

Creating the report
Within Version 1.0 of the report, we’re currently at exactly 100 different web sites offering online guitar tuition of one type or another. In the main, they all have one (or two) things in common.

Without doubt there are some genuinely great products out there, but there are equally many rubbish products out there too.

I’ve personally spent hours and hours looking through these products, in fact buying a quite a few of them, and seeing exactly what’s inside. Some of this is surprising good, and as you’d expect, conversely some is just plain terrible.

In fact there lies one of the great problems with these products, in most cases you cannot actually experience the product before you buy. And whilst most offer Money Back Guarantees, wouldn’t it be better just to see the product in some shape or form before you buy.

I’m probably being rather skeptical, but why would someone offering you a product with some great claims, but not actually let you see the product before parting with your money. The cynic in me says that it’s because once you see it, the game’s over, and you’ll actually see it for what it is.

OK, so why am I doing this? It’s a good question. You know when you start out on something with a very simple idea, and then after a while you look back and think what am I doing! Well I’m there.

I started out on this journey about six months ago, having just battled away for a few weeks learning a song I’d seen on uTube. I get like that every few months or so, having seen the guitar just standing around in the corner of the room, waiting to be played.

Anyway, I’ve sort of got beyond the basics, but struggled to ever get a real sense of achievement out of my guitar playing.

Don’t get me wrong, I am keen, it’s just that with work and family pressures, the time for a bit of self indulgent guitar playing is somewhat restricted. But I really do enjoy it when l get stuck in, but as with most things, I’m sort of looking for a bit of a quick fix. It’s that bit of buzz you get when you start playing some thing that really comes together. It’s great. I just want more of that, and less of the hard grind.

Anyway, that’s what started me on this quest to find the best in terms of online guitar tuition.

Well how do you define best?

It’s difficult. Obviously what I define as best, may probably be totally different from how you would see it. So clearly, in order to carry out some analysis on this, I needed to be more objective in my evaluation of products and web sites. And that’s what I’ve done.

Our 'Site Analyzer' allows us to evaluate web sites, and guitar products, on many different criteria as detailed below. In many cases these criteria are quantitative and objective – for example; Is the product aimed at beginner, intermediate or advanced? How much does it cost? What styles of music are taught? Does it come with a guarantee? Etc. Then there are some more subjective and qualitative types of measures, such as; Does this offer good value for money? Is the teaching of a high quality? Etc.

By trying to weight and balance these criteria, I’ve aimed to be able to sore the products and therefore produce an initial ranking.

Once I’ve identified the top scorers, l’ve then looked at the offerings in more detail, and in quite a few cases actually purchase the products. Although i‘ve had to leave the evaluation of the more advanced level products to my mates who are in bands, and play professionally.

The 10 evaluation and scoring criteria for learning guitar products

1. Is the site an actual web site, or a blog?
2. What is the offering?
3. Is it an online product, or offline (CD, or DVD)?
4. How much does it cost?
5. What music styles/genres are taught?
6. What level of musician is it aimed at?
7. What is the focus of the teaching?
8. What is the quality teaching support material?
9. What is the quantity of lessons available?
10. Are there any value added bonuses?

In addition to these criteria, l also couldn’t resist putting in my own views, so there’s a space for ‘Editors comment’

Now some of these questions can be answered very simply with a Yes, or No, and others can be broken down into a list of options. But some of the questions relating to quality and value needed to be broken down a little further.

Also in order to score and rank the sites, l needed to come up with a system that could be applied evenly across all sites reviewed, and come up with an overall score at the end.

So here’s the breakdown of how the scores are allocated through questions 8,9 and 10, and how they combine with the ‘Editors score’ and ‘Value score’ to create a overall site/product score.

Just one additional thing to mention here. The purpose of all this is to try and evaluate which product or offering offers the best value. This report is not about trying to find the cheapest product, but the one that will most likely provide the best quality and most appropriate learning platform.

What is the quality or teaching support material?
Well, if you’re looking to find a good teaching resource online, then the quality of teaching support materials is very important. Most of the best site are now using high quality video, as well as tab and chord support material. Therefore the following point system has been used:
• Written material – 1-4 points
• Audio material – 5-8 points
• Poor quality video – 9-12 points
• Medium quality video – 13-16 points
• High quality, multi camera video – 17-20 points

What is the quantity of lessons available?
Now whilst this is not a key criteria in terms of quality, it is important to know that there is enough material to keep you interested, and to help you as you progress and your needs change. This is not an absolute score, but a relative one. Having studies so many web sites we came to the following scoring
• Minimal number of general lessons – 1-4 points
• Average number of general lessons – 5-8 points
• Average number of lessons, with either genre or skill focus – 9-12 points
• Good number of lessons, with either genre or skill focus – 13-16 points
• Large selection of lessons, with broader focus on either genres or skill levels – 17-20 points

Are there any value added bonuses?
Whilst the quality and quantity of teaching are important, there are also many other aspects to a great quality product. Before you invest your hard earned cash in a guitar teaching product, or service, its good to know what else you’ll get. For many people, things like forums, chats, and Q&A sessions are equally as valuable in terms of learning, and motivation, as the lessons themselves. Also it’s good to know there are some Guarantees attached to the product. Therefore to score this section we’ve given the following ‘value added’ elements an individual score of 4 points, which works as a cumulative total. So if a site offers both a Forum, and a Guarantee, they score the cumulative total of 8 points.
• Forum – 4 points
• Video Q&A sessions – 4 points
• Product previews – 4 points
• Guarantee – 4 points
• Free downloads – 4 points

The Editors score
Now here we do get a bit more subjective, and l apologies in advance if I’ve been a bit biased in my scoring. But the scores l’ve allocated are based on my judgement having spent many, many hours looking at web site and guitar products. The actual score is a reflection, and summary, of how good l think they are in terms of engaging an audience, making the lessons clear and easy to follow, delivering results. It’s personal, I know, but it’s also clearly identified within the report, so you can just ignore my comments if you like.

And finally ‘Value’
Whilst the term ‘value’ is quite abstract, I’ve tried to make this more quantifiable in terms of scoring. In the end it’s actually a combination of the following factors: Price, Quality of lesson media, Quantity of lessons, and the elements of Value Added as outlined above. This, as with the Editors score, is subjective to a certain degree, however given the more specific measures outlined above, it’s more a case of balancing those against the price.

It breaks down as follows:
• Poor 1-4 points
• Average 5-8 points
• Good 9-12 points
• Very good 13-16 points
• Excellent 17-20 points

The total score
On the face of it, what could be simpler. Just add up all the scores and find out who’s the winner. But it’s not as simple as that, and if it was, then the report may be of limited use. The reason for this, as l mentioned at the beginning, is that what’s the best for one person, may be a waste of time for another.

The real value of the data we now have, is that we can look at it from many different perspectives. For example:
• Which are the highest scoring sites for beginner guitarists?
• What site is the best in terms of free content?
• or even, What is the best scoring site for intermediate, rock guitarists, who want to learn more theory?

Within these summary reports, we’ll go into a little more detail on why these are the top 5. To make this clearer and easier to digest, we’ve developed a few icons to help navigate your way through the information.

Conclusions
It’s difficult to draw specific conclusions when everyone will look at this report from a slightly different perspective. In the end, none of this is black and white. We’re not dealing with absolutes, but trying to at least begin to sort out the ‘wheat from the chaff’ as the saying goes.

In the end, you generally get what you pay for, but also you need to know what you want. That said, there’s a great deal of free stuff out there that may be just right for you.

What’s next?
A piece of research like this is never complete. For a start, things on the web change very rapidly. And secondly, so much more could still be added. At some point I’d like to have this on a proper content managed database driven site where it could be updated more or less continually, and also readers could add comments and feedback on personal experiences of the products. That would be so cool!

There’s a blog.
I’m looking to build up more detailed analyses of the top products, and post them to the blog to allow readers to add comments. Also this will be a good forum to decide what else we could add in to the report that would make it better.

Ooops, sorry if we’ve offended anyone
The contents of this report have been put together to hopefully provide a guide for guitarists who are looking for guitar tuition on the web. The research methodologies and criteria have been developed to try and provide a level and open field for evaluation of all the web sites included.

We sincerely apologies if we have in any way misrepresented any web site, or offended any site owners. We are open to receiving comments and feedback if you feel we have not scored a site fairly. Please visit the blog site for contact details www.whichguitarsite.com/blog