I recently got a chance to try out JamPlay, and I am thoroughly impressed by the site. For those who haven’t heard of it yet, JamPlay is a guitar membership site that offers high quality video guitar lessons with a variety of instructors. The site hosts a wide variety of content (more than 20,000 minutes worth) and you’ll find all the lessons you need to learn and master the guitar. Let me go into some of the pros and cons of the site in this JamPlay review.

JamPlay divides its lessons into three phases. Phase 1 is for beginners while intermediate and advanced guitar learners may want to jump in at Phase 2 and 3. Phase 2 focuses more on specific genres and styles of guitar while Phase 3 is centered around learning to play actual songs. In Phase 1 you will the guitar basics and fundamentals. The lessons start of assuming that you have no previous experience, so absolute beginners can start off here. After the first couple of lessons, you will understand how the guitar works, and how to play your guitar properly. Once you’ve advanced past the very basics, you’ll then start learning other beginning guitar essentials including proper posture, basic chords, strumming techniques, scales and much more. All in all, the beginner lessons do an excellent job of setting you up for the future phases.

Each of the video lessons are filmed in HD, so the quality is excellent. Most lessons are around 40 minutes in length and are divided into chapters for easy navigation. If you ever want to repeat any part of a lesson, it is quite easy to move back and forth. The lessons also include useful supplementary material that you can review after each lesson, and there is a place for you keep your own notes to refer to at a future time. You can also manually track your own progress on each lesson. This integrates with the Progress Report feature of the site which tells you at a glance which lessons you’ve started, mastered, and still need to work on. This is a nice way to make sure you stay disciplined with your guitar learning.

One unique aspect of the JamPlay site is that the instructors have filmed their own sets of lessons independently. Since everyone’s learning style is different, it is great to have to choice to find a teacher who’s teaching style is compatible with your way of learning. I recommend before start out, to browse through the first couple of lessons from each teacher and find the instructor that appeals to you the most. It is also possible to mix and match and if that works well for you. JamPlay has an impressive stable of 30 experienced guitar instructors. A few of them have over 30 years of guitar teaching experience so they definitely know how to teach you properly.

The other part of what makes JamPlay unique are its social networking features. You can make your own profile, share your interests like favorite bands and make new friends on the site. By participating in the JamPlay community, you will feel a lot more involved and will help your motivation for learning. The site also includes a very active forum, where you can get answers to your questions or just plain hang out. There’s also a daily webcam sessions with a particular JamPlay teacher which allows you to interact with the instructor over streaming video in a group chat environment. This is a really fun feature that I don’t think any other site offers.

Compared to a similar guitar membership site like Guitar Tricks, JamPlay does cost a little more per month ($19.95 to $12.95). However, the monthly fee is still quite modest, compared to what you would pay for private guitar lessons. Another downside with JamPlay is that you have the be online with a good broadband connection to enjoy the best possible experience. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to download the videos to your computer for offline viewing.

If you are serious about learning to play the guitar and enjoy the idea of being part of a guitar learning community, you should definitely give JamPlay a serious look. At least check out the free lessons they offer on the site to see if you like it. JamPlay suitable for guitar learners of all levels, and it’s definitely a fun and enjoyable way to learn the guitar.

If you are trying to learn guitar online, Guitar Tricks is one of those sites you need to check out. Guitar Tricks has been producing video guitar lessons for more than 10 years and was one of the first guitar membership sites to offer online video. The site hosts more than three thousand online guitar lessons taught by 45 different expert guitar instructors. Whether you are a beginner or expert, Guitar Tricks has lessons suitable for you.

High Quality Video Guitar Lessons

For beginning guitar learners, Guitar Tricks has created a Guitar Fundamentals learning program. The course is split into two parts and when you have completed this self paced course, you will be able to read music, play chords and understand basic song structure. You are then ready to tackle the Intermediate lessons where you will learn how to play different styles of guitar, like blues country and rock. All the different techniques are demonstrated to you and you will learn many guitar tips and techniques that will make you a better guitar player. Once you have reached a more advanced level you then have the ability and the freedom to learn any of the guitar styles and techniques that you are interested in.

Guitar Tricks offers several different lesson formats. They have short licks, multi-part tutorials and full blown courses. All the videos are in beautiful HD format and the quality is quite amazing. With so many lessons, you might think it would be hard to find what you want. However, Guitar Tricks allows you to search lessons by topic or even by artist style. If you want to play like Jimi Hendrix then go look him up!. Also, if you have a favorite Guitar Tricks instructor, you can search by their name as well and bring up all the lessons they teach. Although all the content is available online, each of the video guitar lessons can be also be downloaded right to your computer. The provided video player allows you to loop through specific sections of a video which is great for practice.

In addition to the diverse selection of lessons, there are a couple of other important parts of the Guitar Tricks site as well. First the Guitar Tricks community is really excellent and the forums are a great place to get your questions answered. There are thousands of members, and the content that is archived there is amazing. The other thing I really liked was the Guitar Tricks Jam Station. The Jam Station allows you to simulate playing along with a real band. It is a really useful learning tool and with more than 150 tracks and counting, you will always have something new to practice to.

All in all, Guitar Tricks is an excellent membership site suitable for guitar players of all levels. If you are curious to see what the lessons are like, check out the video guitar lessons that Guitar Tricks has let me post on the site. Plus, if you sign up for their free membership, you will get access to 24 more free lessons to get you started. Once you have sampled all the content, a Guitar Tricks membership will cost you just $14.95 a month. If you have seen the price of private guitar lessons, you know this price is a steal. If you are truly serious about teaching yourself the guitar, then do yourself a favor and check out Guitar Tricks today.

Pros
+ Enormous library of video guitar lessons
+ Wide variety of instructors to pick from
+ Free trial video guitar lessons let you test before you join

Cons
- Some of the older lessons aren’t in HD

The Learn and Master Guitar course is the top selling guitar learning course in the market today, and has been for the past several years. In this Learn and Master Guitar review, I will share why I feel it’s the best guitar course I’ve tested, hands down. While it is the most expensive course I have bought, it is a worthy investment for anyone serious about learning to play the guitar.

Learn And Master Guitar Creator Steve Krenz

Learn and Master Guitar is taught by Steve Krenz, who is a trained musician with an advanced degree in music and many years of professional playing experience. The entire course consists of 20 high quality DVDs, 5 Jam Along CDS, a 108 page workbook and a wide variety of supplementary material. Customers will also get access to the online forum where Steve is actually an active member and will answer your questions.

I was very impressed by the entire Learn and Master Guitar package as all the material is very well thought out and professional done. The DVD video lessons are very watchable and the step by step instruction is very easy to understand and follow. Steve does an excellent job explaining and demonstrating the relevant topics that he is going over. Learn and Master Guitar is well suited for guitar players of any level, as it starts from the very basics and ends with some very advanced techniques. Along the way, you’ll learn the necessary guitar fundamentals, basic chords, various strumming methods, how to read music, master guitar scales, and much more.

My favorite part of the Learn And Master course are the Jam Along CDs. These allow you to practice playing the guitar along with a real band. You get to play the same songs that you learned in the lessons, but it is actually a lot more fun to play. For your convenience, the Jam Along tracks can be played at different speeds (slow, medium, and fast) which allows you to increase the pace as your guitar skills improve. I’ve noticed a great improvement in my timing after using the Jam Along CDs and they are really a great way to practice.

When you aren’t in a convenient place to watch the video lessons, you still have access to all of the Learn and Master Guitar printed materials. The included workbook gives you access to all the songs and lessons that you see on the videos. It’s another way to practice and is a good change of pace to the video lessons.

Finally, I think you will really enjoy the online content as well. The online forums are very active and if you ever have any questions, this is the place to go. Like I mentioned earlier, you will see Steve Krenz on the forums all the time, and it’s a great way to tap into his wealth of guitar knowledge. Learn and Master Guitar comes with a full, 60-day money back guarantee so you are protected if you don’t happen to like the course. However, I personally loved using the Learn and Master Guitar system and I highly recommend it as the best way to learn to play the guitar.

Visit the Learn and Master Guitar Website

Jamorama is a great choice for teaching you how to play guitar effectively. It is a very comprehensive course that contains everything you need to learn to play the guitar. Jamorama is ideal for beginners as it starts teaching you the very basics, but by the end of the course you’ll be playing at a near advanced level. The creator of the Jamorama course is Ben Edwards and for those who may not know, Ben actually played in a successful band in Australia called “Degreesk” which toured internationally. Ben is a great guitar teacher and you will be learning the guitar using his step by step method. His style of teaching is very easy to follow and you won’t get frustrated by the pacing.

Jamorama Creator Ben Edwards

I like the fact that Jamorama lets you download the lessons as you go, or all at once if you like. This lets you practice with Jamorama whenever and wherever you want. The included video lessons are high quality and they were really helpful to me to hear and see exactly what I needed to be doing. Unlike other guitar courses, the guitar playing drills aren’t boring and repetive and Ben does a good job of making them fun to play.

My favorite aspect of Jamorama are probably the Jam Tracks. You get 26 different Jam Tracks and they are ideal for helping you practice your strumming, chord changes, and develop good rhythm habits. The included software games are also pretty good. They teach you how to read music, recognize chords, and transcribe songs from the radio. Plus, they are quite fun as well.

What you will get in the Jamorama package:

• 2 Ebooks, Jamorama Beginners and Jamorama Advanced.
• 12 months worth of lessons
• 148 video lessons and exercies
• 26 Jamorama Jam tracks
• Bonus GuitEarIt – Ear training Game (value $49)
• Bonus Jayde Musica Pro
• Bonus Guitar Tuner Pro
• Bonus Jamorama Metronome

Jamorama is the perfect guitar learning course for the beginner guitar player. It contains everything you need to start learning the guitar right away. Once you’ve completed the Jamorama course, you will be able to play all the popular songs of any music genre like a professional using proper guitar playing techniques. At only $39.95, Jamorama is a great price for anyone on a budget. Ben is also so confident in Jamorama that he even offers a 60 day, 100% money back guarantee. So if you are really serious about learning the guitar, you really have no reason not to check Jamorama out.

Buy Jamorama And Learn Guitar Like A Pro