I'd been playing guitar for a few months before I bought Guitar Coach, so I initially thought I was too advanced for the beginning lessons, but the more advanced lessons were quite challenging and as I progressed, I found myself referring back to the earlier lessons to ensure my technique was correct. By the end of the course - there are five levels each consisting of a series of lessons to develop different aspects of your playing - I found I really did need to have a good technique to have any hope of mastering one of the more difficult pieces (a rollicking version of La Bamba).

The product is really easy to use, advances at a nice rate and has great videos to ensure you are doing things correctly along the way. My main gripe with the videos is that you find yourself continually clicking on the mouse to rewind and play again (I notice this problem has been overcome in the Guitar Coach Intermediate version with a loop option). So in this regard a new release of the product to fix the issue would be most welcome. One of the best features is the variety of songs and styles that are provided across all of the lessons.

A possible downside for the purists is that all of the material is presented in TAB format, and there is little music theory presented. I would argue that adding this material could be at the expense of a beginner's enjoyment, which seems to be a real focus. I must admit that I am at the stage where I'd like to have a few different scales and theory elements to work into a more regimented practice routine, but hey, I can always buy a book or even better, get myself a human coach ($$$). For value, I'd say Guitar Coach is the real deal.

"Building Blocks Method of Learning Guitar", I have Guitar Coach and Intermediate Guitar coach and find both to be excellent learning tools. I have several video lessons, and a shelves full of books on how to play guitar. I have found that I am making the most progress with Charanga (Guitar Coach) CDs over everything else I've tried, not to mention I'm having a lot of fun in the process!

Thanks to Charanga for the effort they put into making such a fantastic product!

"Great For Beginners", I am a beginner. The videos on the disk help to show you how to play what they are teaching. It allows you to skip around, so if you prefer to learn a certain chord or style, you can jump to it. I had no problems loading it or learning to use it. Very user friendly, with little need for a manual.

"Made no sense", My daughter and I decided to learn how to play the guitar. The Guitar coach software was delivered to my office, and I made a special trip home so she could install it and begin using it later that day. When I got home later that day, I asked her how she liked the software, and she just shrugged. After trying to figure it out, I knew why. The very first lesson made no sense to someone new, the videos are very simple and short, they seem to just skip some fundamental lessons in fingering, what frets are, etc. Our overall impression is that the software just simply makes no sense, isn't at all useful, and probably took about three hours to make. It just seems to be various bits and pieces of guitar method thrown together. And, in just you case you think we may just not have any musical knowledge, I play a sax and sing in three groups and my daughter plays the piano and sings in an advanced ensemble at school. And of course, once you open the package you can't return it to [Amazon.com], so you may want to be sure you try this product some other way before buying it.