Here’s an inside look at my copy of Jamorama’s guitar software.

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Requirements

• Just a guitar. Seriously -- Jamorama starts at the beginning.

Suited For

• Newbies. Either you’ve never touched a guitar before, or you know a handful of chords already but want to know more.

The Good

• Starts at the beginning. You can be a stone cold newbie, never touched a guitar or read a note of music before, and Jamorama will get you started.
• Exceptionally thorough in describing things. For example, chords are shown using sheet music, tab, pictures, diagrams AND videos. All methods are used, almost exhaustively, each time, so you basically have no excuse if you still don’t get it.
• Video examples include: strumming pattern, metronome, timing, separate shots of both hands, chord names AND an animated fretboard that changes fingerings along with you.
• Covers chords (all common types), strumming, reading music and tab.
• Software is pretty easy to use. Compatible with both Mac and PC.
• Good members site, with a very responsive support staff (my question was resolved within an hour by email).
• 56 Day satisfaction guarantee. Try it, if you don’t like it, you can easily get a refund within 8 weeks.
• Physical option is available for those who prefer hard copies and don’t like learning on the computer.

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The Bad

• Doesn’t really deal with the theory aspect of the guitar (remember -- this is my opinionated review, and in my opinion theory is an important part of learning any instrument). Jamorama will tell you how and what to play, but doesn’t really get into the why.

Conclusions

Overall I’d have to say that Jamorama is a fairly strong guitar course for beginners. If you’ve never taken any previous lessons, then this would be a good place to start. Jamorama will introduce you to the guitar, to music, and to the chords and strumming patterns you’ll need before going to the next level.

It is important for me to mention that Jamorama will not make you a rockstar. It doesn’t deal with scales or any form of soloing; however I don’t think that was ever the intention with this product either. They’ve identified the goal as teaching a solid base of chords, reading music and tab, and working with the chords. If you want to go further with the guitar, you’ll likely need to pickup something else after Jamorama; however keep in mind that even with traditional lessons (with a guitar teacher), you need to keep on coming back to learn new things as you get better, and occasionally even switch to a more advanced teacher. The fact that this deals only with the basics does not make it less of a course; because it deals with the basics very well.

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Here’s a sneak peak review video I did for Playing Through The Blues by Griff Hamlin:

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Playing Through The Blues, by Griff Hamlin, is a solid course that will teach you how to play the blues guitar. I’ve looked through the course extensively, and below (and in the video above) you’ll see my observations.

Requirements:

• You must have a good handle on all the basic chords. Barre chords, all the open chords, major, minor, diminished, and seventh chords are a good start.
• You must understand and be comfortable with reading and using tablature or musical notation (staff). All the sample solos, licks and riffs are notated using both of these methods, although there are also video examples for nearly everything which help a lot.

The Good:

• Griff gives examples for everything, both audio and video.
• Everything is notated so you can follow along with tab or sheet music style.
• Griff uses “boxes” to describe different scale patterns which gives him an effective way to refer to different patterns during the lessons.
• Lots of sample riffs and licks to give you ideas
• Several sample solos complete with video tutorial, notation, audio examples, and jam tracks. Being able to play solos of this caliber is basically the goal of the program.
• Several famous blues songs broken down in fine detail. Griff shows you how to play them using the techniques the “masters” used (BB King etc)
• Members only blog where Griff personally answers questions related to the course
• 56 Day Guarantee on the product: if you’re not happy, you get your money back

The Bad:

• No DVD option so you have to download everything (not a big deal, but it might affect the odd person or two).
• Not much emphasis on theory, which in my opinion is critical to understanding the guitar, and how to play it. However, he does give you what you need to know, even if he doesn’t always explain why or how, from a theory perspective. I realize some of you actually view this as a positive, but hey — I’m the one doing the review! =)

Conclusions:

If you’re familiar with chords and tab, and want to learn blues guitar, then this is likely a good course for you. I would rate this course as good for most beginners, and even some intermediate players. However, if you’re already comfortable composing your own solos in major, minor and pentatonic scale patterns, then you probably won’t learn a whole lot beyond the specific riffs and solos that Griff teaches (which are nonetheless handy ones to have in your toolbelt).

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