In this ArtistWorks review, we’ll dive into their guitar lesson platform, features, songs, and more to see if this guitar training website is the right course for you.
ArtistWorks is available to musicians worldwide since 2008. When David Butler (an awesome guy who worked in computers and technology business) decided to take his Jazz guitar playing to a higher level, came up with an awesome idea – an online platform that will allow musicians to learn from video lessons, and then get personal feedback from the instructors that made the lessons.
ArtistWorks has over 5,000 lesson videos and these are not only lessons for guitar – you can get lessons for a large number of other instruments – drums, bass, piano, banjo, fiddle, harmonica, dobro, mandolin, woodwind instruments, string instruments, brass, percussion, etc…
ArtistWorks Website Format
Contents
At first sight, ArtistWorks might look a bit complicated, but after going to the site a few times, you’ll easily be able to navigate it.
This is how the site works: You take a “professional” lesson, you practice until you can play the thing, and then you make a video of you, playing the given task – then you upload it to the site. Then the instructor will watch the lesson, and give you a video answer on what parts you should pay more attention, and how to do that. This is the plan that is mostly recommended to take on ArtistWorks.
However, if you choose the plan (the cheaper one) that doesn’t allow you to get a taste of your instructor’s personal feedback, you can still watch all the videos from the other students, and the answers that the instructor gave them. That’s pretty neat, right?
ArtistWorks Guitar Courses
ArtistWorks lesson platform consists of courses with tons of video lessons.
At ArtistWorks, as we mentioned in the intro, there are courses for a lot of instruments. TONS of instruments. This is the place for you if you want access to lessons on multiple different instruments. The have courses on:
- Electric & Acoustic & Classical Guitar
- Electric & Upright Bass
- Classical, Jazz, &Popular Piano
- Mandolin
- Fiddle
- Vocal
- Woodwind Instruments
- Brass Instruments
- Drums and Percussion
All of these courses and lessons are following the same step-by-step order – follow the lessons strictly, and of course practice, and you will be a better musician in a very short amount of time.
Types of Guitar Lessons
We concentrate mostly on guitarists, so that’s why we are going to focus on the guitar courses and lessons at ArtistWorks in this article.
At ArtistWorks there are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced courses and lessons for these guitar playing styles:
Electric Guitar Styles
- Rock
- Blues
- Country
- Jazz
- Fingerstyle
- Jazz Improv
Acoustic Guitar Styles
- Flatpick
- Classical
- Dobro & Lap Steel
The list of song lessons at ArtistWorks is limited – there are some, but their number is so small that they aren’t really worth mentioning. ArtistWorks is a platform mainly focused to teach its students techniques and styles.
Which we must agree that, it is a lot more important to a guitar student than taking note-for-note song lessons. If you want to learn specific guitar techniques, ArtistWorks has the songs and lessons you need.
Video Lessons
At ArtistWorks the Video Player is rather a simple one, and one that isn’t loaded with fancy features – they just have a looping option, and an option to increase or decrease the video resolution. The videos give the student an in-depth insight into the technique that they are about to learn.
A lot of the lessons also contain a slowed down parts of the phrases, so the student can see what’s happening with the fingers on the frets. Also, with every video lesson, you’ll get Tablature and Notation – which is of course, great. The videos guitar lesson at ArtistWorks are usually short ones – so you can watch it, learn it, practice, and move to the one that follows.
Guitar Instructors
At ArtistWorks when it comes to guitar instructors, you will encounter quality over quantity. There are only nine people teaching guitar at ArtistWorks, and they all have big names in the music and music education world.
These are the instructors and the guitar styles they teach.
Electric Guitar Teachers
- Paul Gilbert: Rock
- Dave Stryker: Jazz
- Keith Wyatt: Blues
- Martin Taylor: Fingerstyle
- Guthrie Trapp: Country
- Chuck Loeb: Improv
Acoustic Guitar Teachers
- Bryan Sutton: Flatpicking
- Jason Vieaux: Classical
- Andy Hall: Dobro and Lap Steel
If you haven’t heard of these (fantastic if I may say) guitar players, just Google their names and see who they are. They are big names in the guitar playing world.
Songs, Backing Tracks, & Guitar Genres
At ArtistWorks there are no song lessons like you would find on other guitar-teaching platforms. So, if you bought a guitar, and you just want to learn a few songs to grab the attention of your friends, ArtistWorks is not the place where you’ll learn those. However, if you actually want to learn guitar playing, ArtistWorks offers high-quality study materials and instructors that have made their names big in the music world.
ArtistWorks has guitar lessons that cover most of the popular guitar playing styles:
- Acoustic
- Blues
- Classical
- Country
- Fingerstyle
- Flatpick
- Jazz
- Rock
ArtistWorks also offers high-quality backing tracks in every style that is taught on the platform. They are downloadable and have a speed option to increase or decrease the playback speed. Plus, they all come with tabs or notation.
ArtistWork Price & Costs
There are three subscription plans available at ArtistWorks: three-month plan, six-month plan, and an Annual plan.
3 Month Plan
The three-month plan costs $105. It includes:
- Unlimited Access to Music Lessons
- 5 Video Lesson Submissions to Teacher
- Limited Video Exchange Library Access
- Music Theory Workshop
6 Month Plan
The Six-Month Plan costs $179. It includes
- Unlimited Access to Music Lessons
- Limited Video Exchange Library Access
- 12 Video Lesson Submissions to Teacher
- Music Theory Workshop
- 25 Backing Tracks for Different Instruments
Annual Plan
The Annual Plan costs $279. It includes:
- Unlimited Access to Music Lessons
- Unlimited Video Exchange Library Access
- Unlimited Video Lesson Submissions to Teacher
- Music Theory Workshop
- Unlimited Backing Track Access for Different Instruments
- “AW Live!” Monthly Broadcast
- VIP Bonus ArtistWorks Content
Extra Features
This platform offers a lot of extra features too: “Shoutbox” (chat room), a blog (with interesting articles focused on guitar, instruments, and music), a Forum (where the instructors engage too), and a Facebook Community Group with more than 70.000 members.
The thing that grabs most of the musicians that subscribe to ArtistWorks is the Video Exchange feature, which we all must agree that is a great one – it comes very close to having one-on-one lessons, which is way better than just watching video lessons.
At ArtistWorks you can get suggestions on how to improve by the instructor himself – that’s what makes ArtistWorks stand out from the other platforms.
Recommendation
ArtistWorks is a great online platform for learning guitar and other instruments. The Video Exchange feature that this platform offers is definitely a genius idea. Also, at ArtistWorks the instructors are awesome musicians and educators.
We recommend ArtistWorks to musicians that really want to know how to play their instrument, and not just learn a few songs on the guitar.
