# TrueFire vs LickLibrary vs JTC Guitar?



## GoldDragon (May 14, 2020)

Does anyone have experience with each of these?

I have bought some individual packages from JTC and have some LL videos. Yesterday I checked out Truefire, 30 day free trial. Why didn't I find this before!?

These are my impressions of each:

Truefire- $30/mo - Large focus on chord/rhythm/jazz courses. "Name" instructors. Instruction courses have highest quality split screen views. Very little metal and soloing.

JTC- $20/mo - Focus on shred and fusion soloing. The packages I bought were not instructional, just had demonstration videos and tab. A little disappointed.

LickLibrary- $15/mo - Focus on songs and styles, perhaps more beginner oriented. Seems like alot of LL videos are on DVD and not available through the web service. However, that said I have some of the DVDs which are full of instruction and gave good results.

I think I will sub to Truefire after the 30 day trial. Looking to expand my chord/rhythm capabilities. Are there any other services I should know about?


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## HungryGuitarStudent (May 15, 2020)

I bought 20 Epic Metal Licks and 20 Metal licks from JTC 4 years ago. Great content: tabs, videos, backing tracks. It really helped me “steal” Paul Wardingham ideas as well as improve my technique.

If you find a guitarist you like on JTC, then go for it.

Sidenote: you have to check at what level a package is destined for. The Wardimgham packages I bought were advanced if I recall correctly. So they assume technical proficiency and that with tabs and a video you’ll figure it out.


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## GoldDragon (May 15, 2020)

HungryGuitarStudent said:


> I bought 20 Epic Metal Licks and 20 Metal licks from JTC 4 years ago. Great content: tabs, videos, backing tracks. It really helped me “steal” Paul Wardingham ideas as well as improve my technique.
> 
> If you find a guitarist you like on JTC, then go for it.
> 
> Sidenote: you have to check at what level a package is destined for. The Wardimgham packages I bought were advanced if I recall correctly. So they assume technical proficiency and that with tabs and a video you’ll figure it out.



Wow. Paul Wardinghams 20 Epic Metal Licks is one of the ones I own. 

I learned some of the licks, but the disappointment with this package was that there wasn't a demonstration solo to learn. The licks appear to be from him loop recording over the backing and isolating some of the best bits. I know they didn't advertise it had a solo.... but I like learning complete pieces of music.

The backing track is great though.


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## USMarine75 (May 15, 2020)

I have the monthly JTC subscription. Very easy to use GUI with tons of new material.

I still enjoy GuitarMasterClass too, not sure why they get no love.


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## HungryGuitarStudent (May 15, 2020)

@GoldDragon : what do you mean by "chord/rhythm capabilities"? What are your objectives?

There is another site (that I haven't explored) but that has a decent list of teachers, JamPlay (Aaron Marshall, Tosin Abasi, Mark Lettieri, etc.): https://www.jamplay.com/guitar-teachers

Disclaimer: it may be crap, as I said, haven't tried any of their lessons.



GoldDragon said:


> Wow. Paul Wardinghams 20 Epic Metal Licks is one of the ones I own.
> 
> I learned some of the licks, but the disappointment with this package was that there wasn't a demonstration solo to learn. The licks appear to be from him loop recording over the backing and isolating some of the best bits. I know they didn't advertise it had a solo.... but I like learning complete pieces of music.
> 
> The backing track is great though.



I hear you, I also like learning complete pieces of music, but I have no problem with short licks that practice a specific technical aspect. Same for theoretical aspects demonstrated in a short etude. It really depends on your objectives.

I mention the following on the off chance you didn't know: Paul W. has plenty of full song tabs (and backing tracks) on JTC and on his website.


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## GoldDragon (May 15, 2020)

HungryGuitarStudent said:


> @GoldDragon : what do you mean by "chord/rhythm capabilities"? What are your objectives?
> .



I'm not a very good rhythm player. I spend 90% of my time soloing and the other 10% chugging thrash and metal rhythms. I can basically memorize and perform any song (even very complex ones), but when it comes to jamming out simple chord progressions and making them interesting, I don't have alot to work with.

I know all the open chords, harmonized scale chords, modal theory, first inversion bar chords, and I've studied other inversions (learned some jazz standards), can arpeggiate chords with fingerpicking or pick, but I need to develop facility in playing different inversions and expand my chord, progression, style, and embellishment vocabulary so that I sound good when the distortion is not on.

Truefire has some good courses in the rock/ jazz-blues genre that should help with this.


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## projectjetfire (May 16, 2020)

Im going throw Riffhard.com into the mix here too. If its metal stuff you're into but you cant see where else to go with it (or in my case, think you know metal playing when really I know naff all) this is a great site. Pushes your level of down picking playing up a notch or two for sure. Im not a Monuments fan boi but like a few songs that I like, sure. Some of the material focuses on Monuments songs but its been really good. Very active FB group for members only and a laid out weekly schedule to do so you dont get stagnant.


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## GoldDragon (May 18, 2020)

I also want to mention, I've bought some lessons from Andy James website and they are absolutely worth it. He performs, instructs. there is pdf tab and guitar pro tab.


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## Nicki (May 19, 2020)

There's also College of Metal which was created by Isaac Delahaye of Epica. It's still in its infancy, so it's mostly Epica stuff, but there is Eluvietie on there as well.

I'll chime in about Lick Library. I have a couple DVDs and what I hate about them most is there's no tab book included. Maybe they changed that since I bought them, but I just don't bother with those videos because of it.

There's also RockHouseMethod which has videos from guys like Rusty Cooley, Jeff Loomis, Alexi Laiho, Buz McGrath and a bunch of others.


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## GoldDragon (May 21, 2020)

Nicki said:


> There's also RockHouseMethod which has videos from guys like Rusty Cooley, Jeff Loomis, Alexi Laiho, Buz McGrath and a bunch of others.



I have Rusty Cooleys old Arpeggio Madness DVD set. Its kinda a disorganized mess, never got anything useful out of it. I dont think it has any backing tracks, its just a compendium of different sweep arpeggio forms. I should probably look at it again.


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## Nicki (May 25, 2020)

GoldDragon said:


> I have Rusty Cooleys old Arpeggio Madness DVD set. Its kinda a disorganized mess, never got anything useful out of it. I dont think it has any backing tracks, its just a compendium of different sweep arpeggio forms. I should probably look at it again.


I have his Fretboard Autopsy DVDs. They're decent, but he does a poor job of explaining mechanics. It's really hard to piece together the different things. I honestly never got passed the initial parts of just learning the shapes of the modes because he teaches it like "here's the shape slow" then plays it, then "here's the shape fast" and plays it at a speed that just isn't practical for learning purposes.

Buz McGrath's DVD is mostly teaching technique using passages from Unearth songs. The most useful lesson in the whole set is the sweeping passage from the intro of "My Will Be Done", but beyond that, it's just "Here's how to play this solo from this Unearth Song".

I also have Jeff Loomis' DVDs from RHM, but have never gone through them. Probably will after I'm done going through a Musician's Institute book.

Edit: Oh, and I'll mention that I also have DVDs from Guitar World, but those are just compilations of the exercises they put in their magazines.


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