In this Fender Play review, we will check out Fender’s online guitar lesson platform, features, and songs to see if this is the guitar training course you need to get.
We all know what Fender means in the music history – they’ve made the electric guitar a household item, and changed the music forever!
Now, since 2017, they even have an online platform for learning guitar – FenderPlay. Fender Play is the kind of platform that specializes in teaching complete beginners at playing guitar all the basic stuff – and yeah, they are pretty good at it.
If you are an intermediate guitar player or even an experienced guitarist, this site will not suit your needs, but if you just bought your first guitar, maybe Fender Play is the right platform to go to. Fender also has bass lessons and courses and ukulele too.
Let’s check it out!
FenderPlay Website Format
Contents
Fender Play’s site is designed in a no-nonsense fashion, everything is clear and catchy to the eye, the design is beautiful and user-friendly – just like an online guitar lessons site should be.
As soon as you enter the site, you will see the Dropdown Menu with these tabs:
- Guitar
- Bass
- Ukulele
- Songs
- Toolkit
- Articles
- Support
With a click on the Guitar tab, for example, you will be presented with the sections that they contain, which are basically “Songs&Riffs” and “Skills” Courses and Lessons set in different categories.
Pick a course you want to take, grab your guitar, and start learning!
Fender Guitar Courses
Right from the get-go, you can pick the instrument (or “path” as FenderPlay calls it) that you want to learn. They have a Fender Play path for acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, and ukulele.
When you choose Electric Guitar or Acoustic Guitar, you can then choose your style: Rock, Pop, Folk, Blues, or Country.
Every path is laid out in five levels, and to finish each level you have to go through the given technique and song courses.
Each course is divided into several video guitar lessons, that contain video of the instructor, and additional information like chords, tabs, etc. When you finish all the five levels, you can consider yourself to be an “intermediate” player.
Types of Guitar Lessons
As we mentioned earlier, Fender Play specializes in teaching beginners their first steps into the guitar world. Unfortunately, there are not too many courses for intermediate and experienced players.
However, we strongly believe that complete beginners can benefit from this site, as it has a good pathway for teaching – it is laid out in paths that take you step-by-step to leveling up as a beginner.
Fender Play has a lot of interesting songs covered with guitar lessons – you can find some that interest you, that’s for sure. Still, the song lesson list on Fender Play is really small compared to other sites that teach guitar. At FenderPlay you can learn how to play a bunch of different styles like Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, and Country Music.
Video Lessons
The videos at Fender Play are filmed in dedicated studios for the job (they look awesome), they are recorded with a multiple-camera setup, in HD (4K) quality.
However, the video player is not the best one that can be found on guitar learning platforms – it has just 10 seconds of Rewind/Forward option, a Volume fader, and a Full-screen button – that’s it. Unlike the video players of some of the other platforms that we reviewed, which have a looping feature, and changing the speed-rate option, the video player at FenderPlay is a bit limited.
A good thing though is all Fender videos can be played on your iOs or Android device – FenderPlay has a dedicated app for that.
Fender Guitar Instructors
At this very moment, Fender Play has 19 different guitar instructors and all of them are professionals in the music industry, or have long careers as guitar instructors.
Many of them have been working as a sideman to big acts in the music industry, have been studio musicians or similar, and while you won’t find any big names (like you can find on some of the other platforms), they are all pretty darn good at the job they are doing at FenderPlay.
Some of them even have degrees in prestigious music academies. All the instructors at FenderPlay are friendly and positive – which is a must when it comes to guitar teachers.
Songs, Backing Tracks, & Guitar Genres
We have already mentioned that Fender Play is mostly dedicated to beginners – that’s why their song lesson list is full of songs that you as a beginner can find challenging.
There’s tons of interesting songs that you can learn at FenderPlay. However, the list of song lessons is far from a big one, it is rather limited when compared to the other platforms we are reviewing.
We also have to say that not every song lesson is full note-for-note song lessons – instead, some of them are teaching just a certain part, like a popular riff or lick from a song.
Fender does offer some guitar backing tracks, but it appears to be limited – still, the backing tracks that they offer are of amazing quality.
As for genres, FenderPlay covers the basics of Rock, Pop, Folk, Blues, and Country music.
Fender Play Price / Costs
A month at FenderPlay will set you back $9.99, while the annual plan will set you back $89.99, which saves you some cash in the long run. Also, if you are not sure whether this platform will suit your needs, FenderPlay offers a 14-day Free Trial. For Military Troops and Students, there is also a 20% discount for the annual plan.
Fender Features
We can’t blame FenderPlay for having a lot less learning materials than the other popular genres because this platform exists only a few years. Still, when it comes to the Extra Features, Fender Play knows how to make a platform to be a useful and engaging one.
At Fender Play you’ll find Articles section that covers all sorts of News and interesting content concerning guitars and guitar playing. They also have a guitar player’s toolkit that gives you access to the Fender Tune App, and the Fender Tone app – these two are both iOs and Android compatible.
There is also the Online Tuner, which is of course, great. Also, the whole Fender Play site is mobile-friendly, which means you watch your guitar lessons on your phone (iOs or Android) wherever you want to. Fender Play also has beginner courses in Music Theory, Guitar Glossary, Chord Diagrams, etc…
Recommendation
If you are a complete beginner, and you’ve just bought your first guitar, we kindly recommend you to check out FenderPlay – they’re instructors are friendly, the site is very easy to use, it is cheaper than the others, and if you practice you can become an intermediate player in very fast time.
However, Fender Play is a bit short in lessons and courses for intermediate and advanced players, so if you are one of those that already know the basics of playing guitar, Fender Play is not for you.
