I can give you my opinion of Learn & Master, after working with my two boys, helping them through this course. Overall, a very good program. They have learned quite a bit in a short amount of time and I can see them getting better everytime we have a "lesson."
We usually sit down in the tv room, all three of us with our guitars. I put on the DVD for the session and we work on the session together. I stop it and go over/help them with certain parts. Our practice time is right about a 1/2 hour, which isn't enough time to get through a whole session - we split the sessions into manageable pieces for the daily practice.
One weird thing - about two weeks after we got the course, we get an email upselling us for more in depth DVDs for each session. Cost =$50 more. So, I pop for the extra DVDs which are much better (more detailed) than the original course. I like the new DVDs and think they were worth the extra $50, but something felt wrong, like I was being played for the extra DVDs. Why weren't they part of the package I bought?
Can't tel you anything about the other course - haven't seen it.
So now that some of you have had the time to try it out, what's your opinion? I'm thinking about trying one of the two that have been mentioned in this thread but it would be helpful if someone has an updated opinion after using them for awhile.
Thanks.They're both different animals. Learn & Master Guitar will teach you how to play from the ground up. It's technique-driven. Upon completing the course(which will take roughly 1 year at a steady moderate pace) you'll be able to tackle just about anything in terms of taking on new challenges. I'm not saying you'll instantly be able to master anything, but rather you will have accumulated a solid playing foundation that will serve you well as you explore new material and techniques. My only real criticism of L&MG is that some of the music can be fairly mundane. All of the songs are drawn from the public domain, which was done in an effort to keep cost down(relatively speaking).
Absolutely Understand Guitar will teach you everything you need to know about music theory as it relates to guitar. If you've ever struggled to learn the stuff, this is the course for you. It's not technique-driven like L&MG, but what you learn here will be equally valuable, if not more. I own them both, and that's what I recommend. If you can only get one and you really need to work on your playing, get L&MG and then AUG sometime in the future. If you're a decent player already, AUG will be the better option.
