Truefire Review A Haven For Guitarists Who Love To Explore Guitar

Emily Johnson

-Mar 12, 2026, 10:53 AM

truefire review a haven for guitarists who love to explore guitar

TrueFire offers a smorgasbord of online guitar tuition that’s suitable for beginners and lifelong learners alike. From blues to flamenco, there's lots for everyone. We have questions about the lacklustre song library, but there's plenty elsewhere on the site to keep most players busy. Covers niche and specific aspects of the instrument In-depth courses for virtually every guitar genre Platform is a little messy due to size and diversity of content

You can trust Guitar World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing guitar products so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. Like many of you, I started out in my teens, learning from a teacher, books, and DVDs. How things have changed 🙂 I play guitar as a hobby, and have basically been stuck at the upper-intermediate level for decades. I tried other means of advancing, which didn't work out that well for me.

Finally, after all this time, I decided to give TrueFire a try to help me break out of my multi-decade rut. That was about a year ago. So in this review, I want to share my experiences with TrueFire as an intermediate player, and whether it's worth investing in for guitarists looking to take their playing to the next level. And I'm not just talking about investing money, but rather your time, as I think it's much more valuable than the $12 you end up paying per month. Now, I'll be upfront - TrueFire isn't perfect, and it may not be the best fit for everyone. But for me, it's been a valuable tool on my renewed guitar journey.

As a guitar teacher of 20+ years, I've seen my fair share of online lesson platforms come and go. One of the sites that stuck around is TrueFire.com. 52,000? Lessons from world-renowned artists like Steve Vai and Tommy Emmanuel? Sounds impressive... So for the last year or so, I've been using Truefire regularly for many of my practice sessions.

I dove into the vast lesson universe of TrueFire, completed a few courses, tried all the features, and so on. In this no-holds-barred review, I'll give you an insider's perspective on what works, and reveal what doesn't. TrueFire has been teaching guitar since 1991. It started with VHS tapes and transferred to online lessons in the 2010s. TrueFire also owns ArtistWorks.com, and acquired Jamplay.com in 2022 as well, adding all of its lessons to the TrueFire library. In this in-depth review of TrueFire, we’re going to see how this guitar training subscription program stacks up to the competition.

We’ll go over what’s covered in the course, what it’s like to go through lessons and whether it’s actually the best option to learn how to play the guitar correctly. If you’d like to see our entire list of rankings for best way to learn guitar, check out our guitar class buyers guide for the full take on the top online guitar lessons. Should You Subscribe: If you’re an absolute beginner, then NO, DON’T go with TrueFire. That’s not something other reviews will tell you. There are better options out there for complete beginners. Author: Bobby Kittleberger4 Comments01/27/2026Filed Under: Online Guitar Lessons, Reviews

Advanced, unique, and niche guitar material is TrueFire's strong suit, plus a vast catalog of material that has now absorbed JamPlay's courses. They also get major kudos for allowing single-course downloads for a one-time fee. Back in 1999 TrueFire was started as a self-publishing platform for musicians and music teachers, bearing almost zero resemblance to the guitar lesson juggernaut it is today. TrueFire boasts a subscribing membership roster of over a million people along with nearly 1.5 million visits to their site every month. By shear volume of content alone, they're one of the most (if not the most) comprehensive guitar lesson resource on the internet. They house over 33,000 total lessons spread over 700 courses, which is the single largest online guitar lesson repository in existence, eclipsing even the Guitar Tricks lessons database.

While our review can't possibly cover all the content, we will dig into the interior of a full membership and show you exactly what kind of benefits are available to paying customers, focusing on... This review is less about a grade and more about showing you what you can expect from a TrueFire membership, while illustrating what makes the program unique and where its strengths and weaknesses can... Once you have that information, you can make an informed decision about whether or not it will work for you in your context. by Nick Stockton February 10, 2025, 6:36 pm Studies show that up to 16 million people, or 7% of the US population, picked up a guitar for the first time during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic. With in-person lessons largely off the table, the online lessons market exploded.

There are more options now than ever before for beginning guitar players just starting out on their guitar journey. That's great and all—but where does that leave the rest of us, the intermediate and advanced guitar players who are yearning for new, challenging content to bolster our repertoires and keep our creativity stimulated? That's where TrueFire comes in. Players seeking intermediate and advanced online lessons may find just what they're looking for in TrueFire's massive vault of online content. I'm a musician with over 20 years of experience playing and teaching guitar. While I think in-person lessons are generally the best way to learn guitar, that's not always an option—they're pricey, for one thing, and it can be really hard to find a reliable instructor in...

I set out on a mission to find the best online guitar lessons out there so people who don't have access to in-person instruction can still have a chance to learn how to play... In this review, I'll help you determine whether TrueFire would be a good choice for your needs. Together, we'll examine its curriculum, content structure, and more to hopefully give you a good idea of what to expect. I'll also go over a few alternatives to TrueFire in case you think there might be a better online guitar lessons platform for you. Through these times of great advancements in technology, online guitar websites have also been developing massively. From YouTube videos, Fender Play, Yousician, and GuitarTricks, there is an overwhelming amount of resources to choose from.

Many times it’s just too much to choose from, which can discourage students from learning the guitar. *This review was conducted by signing up to TrueFire’s free 2-week full access. TrueFire is the single biggest resource for guitar players, and they have a lifetime’s worth of lessons accumulated in a single website. They have official courses from some of the most legendary guitarists and the hottest guitarists in the industry. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. However, this does not influence our evaluations.

The guitar has got to be one of the coolest instruments of all time. A central part of modern music, it’s no wonder everybody seems to want to learn it. And of the sites offering guitar lessons, TrueFire massively stands out. TrueFire offers hundreds of courses, aimed at all genres and styles of learning, taught by leading instrumentalists from around the world. This is exciting, but the scope of the site makes it difficult to know whether or not this is the right learning tool for you. I’ve been fascinated by the guitar for ages but, aside from a few lessons in school, I’ve never found the time to truly learn it.

So, I’ve spent some time properly exploring everything TrueFire has to offer. Like many of you, I started out in my teens, learning from a teacher, books, and DVDs. How things have changed I play guitar as a hobby, and have basically been stuck at the upper-intermediate level for decades. I tried other means of advancing, which didn’t work out that well for me. Finally, after all this time, I decided to give TrueFire a try to help me break out of my multi-decade rut.

That was about a year ago. So in this review, I want to share my experiences with TrueFire as an intermediate player, and whether it’s worth investing in for guitarists looking to take their playing to the next level. And I’m not just talking about investing money, but rather your time, as I think it’s much more valuable than the $12 you end up paying per month. Now, I’ll be upfront – TrueFire isn’t perfect, and it may not be the best fit for everyone. But for me, it’s been a valuable tool on my renewed guitar journey. TrueFire is among the biggest names in the online guitar and bass learning section.

With over 30 years of work put into developing a platform with over 50,000 lessons taught by more than 600 tutors from various backgrounds, TrueFire has remained steadfast in making guitar-playing dreams come true. As a systematic and dependable learning platform for budding guitar and bass players, TrueFire has gone above and beyond to encompass the wide variety of genres and styles within the guitar ecosystem. In this TrueFire review, I’ve explored the platform in-depth to showcase all its highlights and shortcomings, helping you determine if it’s the right learning platform for you! The True Fire App is designed to be used on all your devices.

Truefire Review A Haven For Guitarists Who Love To Explore Guitar

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