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First, a little bit about me

I’ve been playing guitar for about 2.4 years. I’m starting out on violin. I owned a mini keyboard since I was a kid, and have had a crack at it too. However, I’ve not taken any formal lessons on the keyboard, but I am planning on doing so, and I have indeed read method books on keyboard/piano techniques.

A fact you will hear about all the three instruments

“It will take you a few months/years to learn, but a lifetime to master…”

That’s not just true for any instrument there is, but also for games like Chess. So, it’s nothing new.

If all the instruments take so long to master, then how can one of them be tougher than the other? Or is it just an illusion?

The answer lies in “instant gratification”

Instant gratification? What’s that? To explain, let’s start with the simplest looking instrument amongst the three. The keyboard.

The reason I chose the keyboard is because you can give it to a child, and the child can start playing meaningful tunes within an evening.

The child most problably will have a lot of problems getting a nice note to sound on the guitar. So, playing a series of notes (the melody) in a nice legato fashion is out of question. Chords are out of the equation, at least for the evening.

Now, what about the violin? The child might not even master holding the bow in an evening. Even I won’t be able to, as a matter of fact. It takes practice and time to get a hang of it – to get it naturally. We haven’t even gone to the hard part of putting the violin in proper playing position, and playing at least a single meaningful note.

So, is violin the hardest? No!!!

When the child plays a simple (or even complex) melody on a keyboard easily, he isn’t using all of the techniques properly. There is a very specific way in which you have to keep your hands and fingers, and the child might not be doing that.

And, you have to play with both of your hands, if you ever want to reach the true potential of the instrument. The left hand gives the underlying base or rhythm, and the right hand gives the melody or again a rhythm. In short, the left hand plays in the bass clef while the right hand plays in the treble clef.

It’s difficult to get the co-ordination right. It’s difficult reading two lines of music and playing them correctly, in tempo and smoothly.

Not just that. In a piano or higher end keyboards, you add dynamics (volume of your notes) by choosing whether to press the keys harder or softer. You have to have good finger independence to make sure you don’t accidently press any key, for it will sound horrible.

And of course, you should be able to play the chords comfortably. It’s all simple if you follow the right technique, but it’s not easy. Remember, by saying simple, I mean simple as in to understand. By saying it’s not easy, I’m implying that it does take work (as in no easy money).

And there are loads of other things which even I have not begun to explore…

And what about the guitar?

Sore hands and fingers. The picking hand not striking the right string. You’re not able to get a smooth melody line, for it all sounds very detached. You have to keep looking at both your left and right hand to make sure that they’re at the right position. All these are the problems faced by a beginning guitarist.

Chords, and thus chord changes are even more difficult. Strumming a chord properly (the right hand technique) is also tricky. The up-strum is what takes some time to get a knack of.

And don’t get me started on the ‘Dreaded F Chord.’ It takes a while to get hang of. Some people get it right at first. I had no problems with the full barre F chord, but a lot of problems with the 4-string ‘mini’ version.

And there are a lot of strumming techniques like muting, dead strokes, accents and chord variants that are needed to give a really great, full-sounding rhythm. Even I’m not yet capable of that, and it might take some time to get there.

Many argue that there are a lot more guitarists that violinsts, which should imply that violin is more difficult than guitar. But they don’t realize that the majority of hobbyist guitarists would never have enough skill to become a session guitarist, for most of them can’t even sight read.

Finally, the violin

The violin requires a lot of learning even before you play a single note. This comes in the form of holding the bow properly, holding the violin properly, and having a good posture. After all that, you get to make your first bow stroke, that too only in the middle portion of the bow. You have no begun fretting any notes so far either.

After good amount of practice, you will get a hang of it, and will become better.

The one difficult thing in violin that everyone claims is vibrato. Violin allows one thing that the other two instruments don’t, that is sustaining a note. However, if you sustain a note without a vibrato, it sounds pretty horrible. With vibrato, the sustain feels natural. A person not so inclined towards music might not even “hear the vibrato” as such, but will find the sound pleasing.

So, is vibrato that difficult? Yes. But not just in violin. A good vibrato technique is quite difficult to master even on a guitar. Great guitarists have their own signature vibrato techniques. It might take you a year to get a good vibrato with all of your fingers, both on a guitar and a violin.

The only difference with violin is that vibrato crops up much more early. Since sustained notes is the primary feature of violin, you need to master vibrato in order to use it. With guitar, you can play a lot of great music without knowing about vibrato. But you can add a lot of color to the music once you learn it.

In the end… what’s the verdict?

All the three instruments pose specific challenges. Some crop up early on, while some occur later. But it takes a lifetime of effort to master any of them.

All the instruments have some special features that differentiates it from the others. To use those special features, you need to develop special techniques unique to that instrument. That’s the reason you can’t compare the skills required to play two different instruments, for they’re different all together.

Which instrument to learn, then?

Listen to music from each of the instrument. Which one of it do you like? If you’re a huge Eric Clapton fan, then you might go with the guitar. For more classically oriented people, violin might be a great choice. Keyboard/Piano works for both types of music.

Your job is to find out which instrument will help you play the songs/music you like the most, and then learn that instrument! There is nothing wrong is learning multiple instruments.

G Chord Normal Variation

G Chord Rock Variation

There are two chord diagrams that you see to the left. One is the normal G, and the other one is often called the ‘rock G’. After you read this, you’ll know why each of them is called the way they are, and what’s causes the subtle difference in the sound.

If you’ve never seen a chord diagram, here’s a quick info on how to read it.

1. The horizontal lines in the diagram are frets, while the vertical lines are strings. The number of strings is, of course, six. There is no limit as to how many frets you can show in the diagram, but it’s normally restricted to 5
2. Towards the top left, you’ll see the number ’1′. This indicates the fret number. This is useful when you don’t have the notes in the first position and would like to display on which fret the representation starts.
3. The vertical line to the right is the thinnest string while the leftmost one is the thickest string.
4. The black dots that you see on the strings are where your fingers go. Normally, the dots would also enclose a number, telling you which finger belongs there. This chord diagram doesn’t have it.
5. Strings to be played open are marked with ‘O’ at the top.
6. Strings not to be played or muted are similarly marked with an ‘X’.
7. Chord diagrams normally don’t include the notes that you’re playing (which I’ve added to the two G chord diagrams)

According to music theory, the G Major chord should contain the notes G, B and D. G is called the root. The chord derives its name from the root.

The B is called the 3rd. In this case, it’s the Major Third, thus making this G chord a major chord. This note is responsible for giving the ‘happy feeling’ to the entire chord.

The D is the 5th. Now, I won’t go into detail as to why they’re called root, 3rd and 5th. We’ll save that for another post. However, now you will know how the two G chords potrayed above are different.

A guitar has six strings. Usually, the thinnest 3 strings are called treble strings, and the rest of the 3 strings are called bass strings. In the chord diagram, I’ve written the note that each string plays below each string.

You’ll see that the first normal form of G chord has two B notes, one in treble (2nd string) and one in the bass (5th string). The treble note, being in a higher register, is clearly heard, and the happy feeling is communicated.

However, the rock G version replaces the B note in the treble with a D note. Thus, you only have the third in the bass clef. Even though the chord still sounds happy, it sound of the B note in the bass clef isn’t as bright.

A chord that contains only the root and the fifth is called a power chord. It’s usually used in rock and metal, and doesn’t have a happy or sad feeling. Since the rock G version has all the notes of the treble clef as either the root or the fifth, it doesn’t sound as brightly happy as the normal G.

If you mute the note B in the 5th string too, then that G chord can be officially called G5, or the G Power Chord.

So, whenever you stumble upon a chord diagram, try figuring out the notes played by each string. If you happen to know some music theory, find out the degrees of the scale to which each note corresponds. It’ll not only improve your theory knowledge, but also tell you why certain variations of a chord sound the way they do.

First, let me tell you something about myself. I’ve been playing guitar for a little more than one and a half years. I bought Jamorama a few days after I bought my first guitar.

I’ve since learned various aspects of guitar learning from various sources. My primary source being a local guitar institute which I joined a few months after I bought Jamorama.

So, with a fair degree of accuracy, I know the pros and pitfalls of various guitar teaching methods. Of course, going to a private instructor is always recommended. That’s even mentioned in the Jamorama book. However, that’s not always possible or feasible. That’s why you have courses like Jamorama.

Whenever I link to Jamorama on this page, I do it via my affiliate link. It means that if you buy Jamorama going through my link, I earn a few bucks (at no extra cost to you). I’ve written a lot about Jamorama below. If you find it helpful, and have decided that Jamorama is right for you, then you can support this site by buying via my affiliate link.

Why did I write this?

There are a lot of Jamorama reviews online. However, none of them give the details that a person considering Jamorama would need. They miss out on a lot of things. And that be frustrating for people like you, who’re looking out for a page that’ll list out what you want.

That’s why I’ve written about Jamorama in great detail. You normally would only want a specific piece of information before you decide whether Jamorama is right for you or not. For that reason, I’ve created a Table of Contents below. You can click on the parts that interest you. Or you could read the entire thing. I hope you find this page useful!

Table of Contents

1. Who is Jamorama for?
2. Is it safe ordering from Jamorama’s site?
3. In how much time would I learn guitar?
4. What is Jamorama’s format?
5. What’s included in Jamorama?
   1. Beginner’s book
   2. Advanced book
   3. Acoustic focus lessons
   4. Chord kit
   5. Learning techniques book
   6. Tuning guide
   7. Guitar tuner software
   8. Ear training software
   9. Musical notation training software
   10. Metronome software
6. Jamorama’s teaching method
   1. Supplemental videos
   2. Chords
   3. Individual notes
   4. Scales & music theory
   5. Jam-along tracks
   6. Chord progressions
   7. Strumming patterns
7. Where Jamorama can’t help
   1. Motivation
   2. Proper technique
   3. Time management
8. Conclusion

Who is Jamorama for?

Jamorama, like any other online course you’ll find, is a self-learning course. You use it to learn at your own pace. So, you need to have a lot of determination to go through the entire course.

The Jamorama course is quite large. It’ll take you around a year to decently play what’s in there (if you’re just starting out). Mastering those materials will take even more time.

While you’re going through the course, there is no one, no teacher or friend to push you to keep going. Guitar learning is hard. It won’t come in a day. So there is a good chance that you’d lose motivation. But you shouldn’t.

You need to have the determination to continue on with the course, and to keep on practicing the parts you’re not getting. If you’re really passionate about guitar, then you’re good to go. However, if you’re merely learning guitar to show off, then I don’t think this course can help you.

One last thing to remember is that once you buy this course (or any other course), don’t keep on jumping “between courses.” Just stick with one course and follow it through the end. Focus is really important to make any decent progress.

Is it safe ordering from Jamorama’s site?

This question comes up pretty often. There are a lot of untrustworthy sites on the internet, and you just can’t take the risk of giving out your payment details to some random site.

However, the payments for Jamorama are handled by an independent, well-known and reputable company known as Clickbank. The Jamorama guys can never see your payment information, for it is processed by Clickbank instead. And your payment information is sent over a secure SSL-enabled connection, which means that it is encrypted, and can only be decrypted by Clickbank. So, no one can tap into your connection and steal the payment information.

Also, the 60 day moneyback guarantee provided by Jamorama is enforced by Clickbank. If you’re not happy with Jamorama, you can request Jamorama for a refund, and they’ll happily refund your money. However, let’s assume a hypothetical situation wherein Jamorama refuses to refund your money (this is never gonna happen), then you can always contact Clickbank directly for your refund. In short, your investment is safe.

In how much time would I learn guitar?

When you just start learning guitar, it’ll appear as if you’re not making progress. Your hands hurt. And even after days of practice, you’re playing the same way as you did when you started.

There’s nothing wrong going on over here. It’ll take some time for your fingers to stretch out, and the muslces to develop and gain strength. You are improving, but it won’t be noticable to you.

Within a month, you will be able to strum several chords cleanly (that is, without buzzing). You will also be able to switch between chords. Switching between chords is hard, so it’ll still be buzzy.

However, you should finish one exercise decently and move forward. After finishing some more exercises, come back to the first one and review it. Now, you’ll be playing it much better. Remember, never get stuck on just on exercise. Do your best, then move on. You can always review later.

Within a few months, your hands will get comfortable with the stretch and motion required while playing guitar. You will gain the real fluency in a year’s time. I know, one year sounds like a long time. But with Jamorama, you’ll start playing along with jam-tracks after learning just two chords and the switching between them.

What that means is, in your entire “learning journey”, you will also be playing. You will be able to play stuff within your skill-set. And when you’re learning, you’re merely expanding that skill-set. Playing is as important as practicing.

Looking at Jamorama’s size, it’s designed to be kind of a 1 year (or more!) course. So it’ll take you that much time to go through it and master every aspect of it.

What is Jamorama’s format?

Jamorama is primarily in text form, i.e. a PDF e-book. The PDF file can be viewed using Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader, which you may already have installed. The book has a lot of pictures inside wherever necessary, and things are explained succintly.

Each exercise has a corresponding supplementary video associated with it. The video is in .MOV format, and you’ll require the free QuickTime player from Apple to view them. For example, if you’ve been taught the A chord, you’ll also have a video showing you how the playing of that chord looks like. The same thing is valid when you’re learning a new strumming pattern or progression.

The bonus software that come along with Jamorama would work with both PC and a Mac.

The Jam-tracks are in .MP3 format, which is supported by almost all music players in all platforms.

What’s included in Jamorama?

I’ve listed everything that you get with Jamorama. Instead of creating a random list of things that you can very well find out on Jamorama’s homepage itself, I thought I’d write about each of the things in detail. So here they are…

Beginner’s book

This is the book where you start. It has about 96 pages in total, 54 supplemental videos and 16 Jam-Tracks to start rocking-along.

The book starts with showing you how to use the book, what the various symbols mean and other such stuff. Then, you’re introduced to the various parts of an acoustic and electric guitar. That’s something you should know, especially when communicating with others about guitar, or even when going out and buying a new one.

Then, you’re taught how to hold the guitar, i.e., the three positions: Classical, Casual and Standing.

And then, the important part, which is the hand position. Along with the notes mentioned, pictures do speak a thousand words! Also, you’ll learn how to hold the pick.

All these information may sound basic, but are utterly important. Even a small mistake in technique can give you a lot of grief later on (I’ve faced this!).

Then, you’re taught how Jamorama’s chord diagram representation works. And you go on to learn your first chord, the A chord, soon followed by the D chord. You have videos showing how the chords are played, as well as how the all-downstrum pattern is played.

In Lesson 2, you’re introduced to guitar tablature (the way most people share guitar notes on the internet). It is soon followed by a A-D chord progression. Now, you’ll hit your first hurdle. Chord changes are difficult to nail down. So, you’ll need to give it some time.

After you have your change sounding at least decent, you can try your hand at the jam along track. You’re giving the rhythm (the A-D progression) while the jam track has the lead and supporting drums.

In this way, you’re introduced to various chords, chord progressions, strumming patterns and individual notes. You then get to test your skills by playing along with the jam tracks.

The first book ends by teaching you about the 7th chords (and blues progressions), bass note picking rhythm, suspended chords and the C major scale. You cover a hell lot of ground in here.

I remember when I started learning guitar, I’d load up a random supplementary video from Jamorama, and be amazed the incredible sound produced. I’d think, “If I could also do it…” Now, I can. And so will you.

Advanced book

The second book in the series. Completing the beginners book should give you enough skills to play many songs. Remember, when you just start the beginners book, you’ll have a lot of problems with the stretching and changing. But as you learn new chords, things become easier. So, latter part of the beginners book should come on much easier on you.

However, the second road block you’ll hit is the Advanced book. It is 151 pages long! It has 94 supplementary videos. However, it has only 10 jam tracks. This alone should give you some idea about the amount of grounds this book covers.

The book begins by reiterating the legends used all over the book. It starts off with the Dmin chord. This chord looks easy, but it has a weird stretch. It’ll take some time to nail this one down, and even more time to master changing to the Dmin chord from some other chord.

You then have a beautiful chord progress to try out once you nail this one down. Of course, both the chord and the progression have associated video for you to watch.

Then you dwell into bass note runs. Lesson 2,3 cover Major 7th chords, some cool progressions and the first two jam tracks to try out your guitar wizardry. Of course, you also learn about notes in the first position on the music stave.

After completing more chords and some new strumming patterns and progressions in the next two chapters, you hit the roadblock I was talking about. They’re called, Barre Chords. It’ll take some time to nail them down. However, they’re immensely powerful skill to add to your arsenal. Most of the “good” songs you encounter will require barre chords.

The good thing about barre chords are that switching between barre chords is easy. It’s not like open chord switching wherein all of the fingers have to be abruptly relocated.

And damn, barre chords start on page 35. And we have 151 pages. In the further pages (in no particular order), you learn the various types of barre chords. You learn about percussive strumming, deadening, palm muting, progression concepts, advanced rhythm techniques and reggae strum. You also learn about scales and key signatures. Remember, theory is also important.

At the very end of the book, you have a supplementary chord reference. It’s not required, for Jamorama now gives a separate chord book, which is more detailed and provides more information.

Acoustic focus lessons

The Acoustic Focus Lessons book is kind of an extension module. It is internally subdivided into two books.

The first book gives you 16 more acoustic jam tracks to jam along with. Book two provides you with 10 more jam tracks, as well as a small lesson on finger picking. The last 2 jam tracks of the second book are for the finger picking style taught. You have 5 more videos assisting in the finger picking lessons. The “book” part, of course, includes the tablature for your portion of the jam tracks.

Overall, it’s kind of a book you might want to come to when you’re in a mood of playing some, and you want something other than the jam tracks in the beginner’s and advanced books.

Chord kit

This is a huge PDF (76 pages) filled with chords. The chords are categorized into Majors, Minors, Dominant 7ths etc. You just have to click on a chord in the index to be taken to it.

And that’s not it. For each chord, you see a real guitar fretboard pictured, with markings showing which finger goes where. And then, you have another picture wherein the chord is actually fretted by someone, so that you can examine the hand/finger position.

Also, for each chord, you’re also shown the different ways you can play it, i.e. variations of the chord.

Then, you have suggestions for chord progressions that use the chord you’re currently looking at. You’re also given the style of each of the chord progressions mentioned, i.e. Rock, Reggae etc.

This colored book is any day better than looking at those dull chord boxes.

Learning techniques book

This is a small (around 14 pages) book on how to learn. Over the course of you learning new things from Jamorama, you’ll often feel overwhelmed.

You may be frustrated that you’re not getting the G chord perfectly. Then you’ll start thinking, “What should I do? Practice the G chord, or practice that cool progression that I could play fairly decently. Or should I move on to the next chapter?”

Learning guitar is all about following three steps:

1. Learning something new: Includes learning new chords, scales, patterns and techniques.
2. Working on problem areas: Working on areas that you’re not very good at. It may be a chord change you’re just not getting.
3. Revision: Practicing and playing the parts you do fairly well, and make them as close to perfect as possible.

You have to keep on doing those three things. You can’t be hasty and learn bad habits that become very difficult to get rid of.

The learning techniques book goes into detail of breaking down your lessons, how your muscle memory works, and gives you a practice guideline to follow.

Having the necessary study materials for learning guitar is not enough. You even got to know how you should go about learning guitar. This should be amongst the first books you read before diving into the Jamorama course.

Tuning guide

It starts with telling you a thing or two about new strings, and how to get them worked out. Then, you’re told about the notes to which the open strings of guitar are tuned to, as well as their position on the music staff.

Then you’re introduced to the few methods of tuning like using an Electronic Tuner, Tuning to Another Guitar, and Tuning a Guitar to Itself.

Even if you use an electronic tuner (which I highly recommend), you should still study the chapter on tuning the guitar to itself. This will speak a lot about how the notes on one string are tuned in relation to the adjacent strings.

It’s always recommended that you tune your guitar everytime you pick it up to play. Over time, you’ll recognize the sounds and associate them mentally with their note and chord names. You don’t want to do this with a guitar that is not in tune. It’ll affect your ear training.

Guitar tuner software

This is a software that plays the notes that your guitar should be tuned to. You click a string, and the sound of that string is played through your computer’s speaker. You then attempt to get your guitar to sound as close as possible to this “reference sound.”

I found it very difficult to be able to tune it this way. I still recommend getting an electronic tuner.

Ear training software

Jamorama comes with a bonus ear training software called ‘GuitEarIt.’ During each ‘level’, it’ll play a chord progression, and you’ll have to pick which progression it played from the 4 options it provides.

After each set of questions, you go to the next level. You’re given a ‘level code’ which you can enter in order to resume playing the level you were at.

I don’t think you’ll find this software very useful in the beginning itself. I strongly believe that you should be able to play the chords first and then train your ears to listen for them. Since it’ll take some while for you to play the chords clearly, you can defer ear training until you reach a certain playing level.

Musical notation training software

Jamorama includes another bonus software known as Jayde Musica Pro. Normally, guitarists read tablature, not the standard musical notation. That’s how songs are shared all over internet.

However, to be a complete guitarist (and musician), you should even know the staff notation.

In this software, notes randomly travel from right to left of the screen. You have to find out what note it is before it reaches the far left of the screen.

This software will be very useful since the notes that come up are random. So, you can easily practice memorizing all the notes and their position on the staff.

However, this software won’t make you proficient in sight reading, i.e. playing guitar while reading from sheet music (written in staff notation). For that, you have to buy a music book written entirely in staff notation and practice it.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to do it now. Jamorama does tell you the notes and their staff positions in the course. But it doesn’t force you to read staff notation. Once you’re comfortable playing guitar, you can buy some method books like that of Mel Bay, Hal Leonard and start practicing them.

The ‘musical pieces’ in those books will be classical in nature, and its complexity will increase as you proceed. Sight reading is a very important skill that you have to learn at some point of your guitar adventure (preferably as soon as possible).

Metronome software

Since we have a tuner, we’ll surely have a metronome to “complete the picture.” The metronome software is just a simple metronome. You set the speed and it makes a clicking sound on every beat.

For those of you who don’t know what a metronome is, it’s a device that makes a clicking sound at a particular frequency you set. You may set it as 80 beats per minute, in which case it’ll make a sound evenly 80 times a minute. This acts as a reference timer for you. It helps you play evenly at the right tempo.

It can also glaringly point out any timing errors you make. If your ‘downbeat’ didn’t coincide with that of the metronome, then your timing is off.

I normally tap my foot to keep a sense of timing, since that’s how I learned it. Even you should start practicing ‘foot-tapping’ early on. The reason you need to start early on is because your foot needs to tap at an even pace regardless of what your hands are playing. If you start doing it very late, then you’ll find that your foot is just tapping to the notes you’re playing, and not evenly at a particular pace.

The tempo of all the songs are also specified in beats per minute. So, if you’re practicing a particular song, find out its tempo and set it on your metronome. Then, tap your foot along with the metronome.

One last thing. Many of the tuners have metronomes too. Get a tuner that also has a metronome, and use only that. It’s much easier and convenient to use than Jamorama’s metronome software. Of course, you can use Jamorama’s metronome until you buy a Tuner+Metronome.

Jamorama’s teaching method

All right. Now that you know what Jamorama includes, let’s look at how Jamorama teaches you new chords/scales/techniques and other stuff. This way, you’ll know if the process will work for you. Most of the online courses teach these things almost the same way as Jamorama does. Of course, exceptions are video lectures, since their content is related to the instruction who is teaching. He may add some personal touches.

If you want to be absolutely sure if Jamorama is for you, then this section will help you decide. Remember, you do have to work hard. And another thing, it will take time. No who likes hearing that? No one! But you have to live with it!

Supplemental videos

Looking at long videos can get boring. Yes, 100+ hours of guitar instruction at bargain price does seem good. But, can you really dedicate that many hours?

So, it’s a good thing that the Jamorama guys created the whole course in a colorful text format, and only added videos where you’d need them.

When you’re taught the ‘A Chord’ for example, you’re shown pictures of the fretboard showing how the notes have to be fretted. Along with that, you have a supplemental video wherein someone plays it for you.

The same goes for any strumming pattern, progression or any exercise.

And the format of the video is absolutely great! You are only shown the part of the fretboard where the exercise will be played, and then another section shows the strumming hand. Yet another section shows a pictorial representation of the fretboard, with the notes that are currently being played. As the chords are changed, these notes also move around to reflect that!

You’re also shown the strumming pattern on the screen whenever you’re looking at a video that demonstrates a chord progression or strumming pattern.

You can actually view a demo video on Jamorama’s site, if I’m not wrong. I really think that the design of the videos is quite concise and ingenious.

The format of the videos are .MOV file. So, they should play fine on both PC and a Mac. On a PC, you’ll need to install Apple’s QuickTime player (which is free).

Chords

When starting with a new chord, you’re shown two pictures. Both of them contain the real guitar fretboard. One diagram gives a marking as to which finger goes where, and the second diagram shows a hand that is fretting that particular chord. This is so that you know how the hand looks with the chord is properly fretted.

Apart from the name of the chord, you’re given the notes that are included in the chord. So, Jamorama also blends in music theory along with practical learning. It is very important to know music theory too. If you can, just memorize the notes that each chord contains for now. You’ll understand the significance as you learn more of music theory.

The Advanced book dwells more into theory. Along with the information above, it shows you how the chord is constructed from a scale (theory-wise). After you learn this part, the chords that you learned in the beginners book will make more sense.

Of course, you also have the supplementary videos showing you how the chords are played. However, I’ve covered that already in the Supplemental videos section above.

Individual notes

You don’t just strum chords in guitar. You also play lead, i.e., single notes to create melody. The chapter 3 of beginner’s book tells you a thing or two about the types of notes, and the musical stave. It shows you the position of those notes in the stave. And it also tells you about the time signature.

But don’t worry! Jamorama uses only tablature for its Jam Tracks and exercises. You don’t have to worry about reading music. But this is important information nonetheless.

Then, you’re taught where these notes are actually situated on your guitar. Your cover it string by string. In chapter 3, you cover the notes on the first two strings.

Once you know the notes that are on the strings, try finding out the notes that you’re playing in a chord. Are those notes the same as what the theory demanded? What if you accidentally mute a string in a chord? Will the chord sound bad, or it wouldn’t make a difference? Find out for yourself!

Scales & music theory

You’ve already started learning music theory when you learn new chords and the individual notes on the guitar. However, there is one more thing that needs to be added. Scales.

For some reason, many people are afraid of scales. They think it’s a useless piece of junk. However, when you learn scales, you’ll find out why a particular song sounds the way it does. And you can understand what makes something sad, happy or mysterious. Of course, it’ll require more musical theory knowledge than just some basic scales. But you’ll get there.

Jamorama starts scales towards the end of the beginners book. It starts of with the C major scale. Then you have a Jam Track specifically dedicated to make your master your C major scale. That’s all with scales in the beginners book.

The advanced book uses scales to show you how chords are constructed from them. It then teaches you some more major scales. Eventually, you also learn the minor scale. You’re shown how the minor scale is different from the major scale.

The knowledge of scales comes in very handy when you’re playing lead. People who can make up solos at a moment’s notice can do so because they know which notes will sound good. With a little creativity and knowledge of scales, you can start writing up your own simple licks.

Jam-along tracks

Guitar playing can get very dry if you’re just playing alone. Even if you’re playing a great guitar solo, it’ll sound horrible without rhythm, drums and bass. These are the things that give context to your solo.

To keep your enthusiasm high, Jamorama has included 26 jam tracks (16 in the beginners course, and 10 in the advanced course). When you learn something new, say a progression or anything that warrants trying out that skill, you stumble on to a jam track. Here, you have bass, drums and rhythm (or lead if you’re the one who is playing rhythm). These instruments play in the background while you play your part.

Jamorama includes two files for each jam track. One is the part with the guitar (for you to listen and learn), and the other is the one with guitar muted (for you to play along with). And the tablature for your part is displayed in the book.

Instead of trying to find friends who’ll play along with you, jam along tracks is an excellent way to get the feeling of playing with others. I personally found that even though I could play well alone, I became tensed when playing along with others (or the jam tracks). Because now, you have to play perfectly. Any errors you make would be easily noticable.

Also, you have to play at the right tempo consistently. Strumming the same sequence of chords for a while also takes a lot of stamina.

That’s the good thing about jam tracks. You improve your stamina and you also learn to play in tempo.

There is one thing to remember before trying out the jam tracks. You have to ensure that your guitar is in tune. An electronic tuner is recommended. It’s necessary because your guitar should be in tune with respect to the other instruments in the jam track. Or else, believe me, it sounds really horrible.

Chord progressions

Chords alone don’t make a song. Enter chord progressions. A chord progression is simply a sequence of chords that sound good together.

I mentioned in the Chord kit section that Jamorama’s chord kit gives a lot of suggestions about chord progressions. Well, you don’t have to refer to that for now.

However, progressions decide what kind of music is played. A progression can be that of rock, or blues or maybe jazz.

Jamorama introduces new chord progressions using guitar tablature. It doesn’t tell you the “genre” of it, though. Also, the name of the chord is written on the top of the tablature. So, you don’t have to read each string in the tablature to figure out what chord it is.

You then have a supplementary video showing the progression being played. I always used to open and view random videos of chord progressions, trying to see which one sounded cool. Then, I would jump to that section in the Jamorama book and learn the progression. In my beginning days, I would struggle to get it as smooth as the video.

Changing chords is not easy at first. So, you’ll require a lot of patience. Practice it slowly. Watch every movement of your fingers. Don’t try to speed up too soon, or else you may develop some bad habits that might be hard to get rid of.

Strumming patterns

With all progressions, a strumming pattern is specified on the top. You’re supposed to use this strumming pattern with the progression. In your entire journey through the two books, you’ll come across various kinds of cool and complex strumming patterns.

You may be able to play the progression, but the strumming pattern may be giving you difficulties. In such cases, deaden all strings with your left hand (so that you don’t hear anything), and just practice the strumming pattern on your guitar. Then try it with a chord.

And only then, try it slowly with chord changes. Eventually, you’ll be able to play in tempo.

Where Jamorama can’t help

Jamorama helps you with a lot of stuff. That long read above should convey that very well. However, there are certain things with which Jamorama, or any other digital “course”, will not be able to help you.

Motivation

You have the entire course lying besides you. However, you’re the one who has to open it, read it and practice it. No one else is going to do it for you.

And the first few weeks (or months) of guitar can be extremely frustrating. Chords will give you trouble. Once you overcome that, chord changes will be your next nightmare.

Your fingers will hurt. Whenever you play, it’ll sound horrible.

But listen! It’s all a part of learning! I had to go through it. Everyone has to go through it. Whenever you’re learning something new, you’ll feel resistance.

Remember, you only have to “learn it” once. And then, the skill will be with you forever. Even great guitarists like Steve Vai have 10 hours workout (practicing for 10 hours!) a day. Even they have to struggle to nail down new nuances.

So, Jamorama won’t motivate you into not giving up. You can, of course, visit their forums for some tips or problem areas, and people will come up with suggestions and solutions.

Jamorama is ultimately just a bunch of PDFs, MOVs and MP3s. It’s not a real human being who understands your pain and can make you keep going. The Jamorama guys have tried their best to keep your motivations high through the use of jam tracks.

Proper technique

When it comes to guitar learning, nothing beats a personal teacher. Everyone is different, and so are their fingers.

Some people might nail down the F chord in the first attempt, while some might spend weeks wrecking their fingers through it (like I did!).

When you’re not getting it, what do you do? Jamorama won’t tell you that. However, a personal teacher can look and suggest you improvement in your technique. He can do that because he has so much experience. He has seen so many students learning. So he can easily point out common problems and their remedies.

However, it’s impossible to put all those information in written form. That’s why you don’t find it in Jamorama or any other course. There are just too many parameters to worry about.

If you’re not getting something, the best thing to do would be to post in the Jamorama forums. Or even better, you could join some other guitar forum online and ask for help there. That way, you’d be putting your message across proficient guitarists who might not own Jamorama.

Time management

Even though the Advanced learning techniques book shows you how to practice, but it’s up to you to sketch out a practice schedule for yourself. It’s also up to you how to progress through the Jamorama course.

If you go to an institute, you already have a fixed time alloted for that. And you also have “homeworks” that you need to practice. So, you can’t escape practicing.

However, with any home study course intended to be studied at your own pace, you may become bored, lose enthusiasm, and thus not practice at all. If you don’t practice, you won’t improve!

Even if you can practice 15 minutes to half an hour a day, you’ll still make progress. It’s much better than just practicing for three hours on one day of the week. Your practice schedule should be evenly distributed over every day of the week.

Conclusion

Well, that was a very long read. I hope you found all the information that you want.

If you’ve decided on purchasing Jamorama, you can do it via my link. That would be highly appreciated, since it’d support this website.

I sincerely hope you have a great guitar journey ahead!

Some of the reputable software, which you may already have heard about, include Reason, FLStudio and Apple’s GarageBand (this one’s only for Mac). However, all of these software have a high price tag attached to them (expect GarageBand, which comes free with Mac).

The interface of all of these software are almost identical, as they all use the same universal method for taking inputs from the user. What differs is the sample quality and the number of samples you get. Also, certain software allow more fine-tuning that others don’t.

DUBturbo is a marvelous software to create your own beats. Instead of boring you with long paragraphs, let me paraphrase all of its features here:

• 16-Track Sequencer
• 10 Pad Drum Machine
• 4 Octave Keyboard
• 4 Premium Sample Packs
• Training Videos on How to Produce Hits in Minutes
• 60 Day Money-back Guarantee
• And a lot more…

It is a cool synthesizer, at least for its low price.

You can try out DUBturbo’s online demo. And you can also take a look at some great testimonials on their site. Also, they’re currently running a 75% off promotion.

*This post is an advertisement for DUBturbo*

The Jamorama guys are offering a New Year Discount, just like the ones you normally see in your local stores. Click here to visit their New Year’s Discount page. You can get your hands on this course for $30 (well, $29.95 technically). When I bought Jamorama, the site was not as polished. However, they updated a lot of stuff last year, and so came increased pricing. Before their Christmas or New Year special, Jamorama used to sell for a discounted price of $50. I don’t know about after this promotion, though.

However, I’m pretty sure that you’ll have at least $30 to spare for your guitar future. If you don’t want to go to a teacher, and don’t like to read classical texts on guitar (especially if you get bored by classical songs, and prefer modern songs that you like), then Jamorama is a great buy.

It’ll take you quite a while to complete the entire course (that much material in it). Maybe a year, or a year and a half, or even two.

The course is maily in text format (PDF file), which I like, because I can easily scan the material present and find stuff I want. I find long videos very boring. Many people can’t afford to spend an hour listening to a video lecture, and then also finding time to practice what they learned.

Jamorama comes with video supplements that demonstrate all the exercises. So, you can see videos of the exercises to see how it’s done.

In short, Jamorama covers a lot of chord progressions, strumming patterns and also includes cool Jam Tracks to play along with.

So, click here to start mastering guitar from 2011.

There was a singer, and three guitarists (lead, bass, rythm) in each “band” or “team.” While everyone was marvelling at the superb music, I was observing the guitarists’ hands, and trying to figure out exactly what they were playing.

“That seems easy”, I said to my friend. “Nah, it looks tough”, he replied. Apparently, the guitarists were mostly playing only one chord/rythm quite repeatedly. And I assured my friend that he could play the guitar too.

Of course, he started talking about the dexterity one needs to have. According to him, even eternity is too little a time to learn guitar. Damn.

And you must be thinking what this has to do with your question of just how long it takes to learn guitar

Initially, guitar seems to be intimidating. You can’t form a single chord. Your hand hurts, and you have lost all the enthusiasm of learning.

This happens with most of the beginners. Remember, your hands are not yet used to the “stretching” guitar playing needs. You’re also not used to applying force with your fingertips. Your fingers don’t obey you, and just go to random places. They just don’t help you form the chord you want!

Well, that’s how everything begins. Believe me, it took me one week to play my first chord properly. By properly, I mean I was able to form the chord instantly and play it without accidently muting strings. When starting, you’d take a couple of seconds to get your finger position right, and hopefully play the chord right.

However, after you’ve done some stretchy chord right (like D or G), then the rest would be quite easy. You can just look at the chord diagram of a new chord, form the chord, and strum! You’ve played the chord!

Now comes the part of changing between chords. It could take upto a month (and more) to gain a good knack for chord changes. Initially, while changing chords, your hands would be in a lot of tension. But slowly, you’re fingers become calm, and you can easily switch between chords.

Within a few months, you should be able to play a lot of chords and switch between them. At the same time, you would have learned several strumming techniques and patterns. Also, you would have learned picking individual notes (although stuff like alternate picking still take a lot of practice).

Within around 2 to 3 months, you should be able to play some songs. And you’ve learned guitar at this point. What comes next is “mastery.” Even the most seasoned guitarists learn and practice new stuff. And that’s true with any profession.

What all this means is, you’d be able to play decent guitar within about 3 months of dedicated learning. However, your learning process never halts. You just keep on getting better and better. The problem with many amateur guitarists is that they give up too soon.

Start today, and you’ll be a good play within a couple of months from now. What are you waiting for?

If you try playing the guitar alone, it may seem dull. Now, let’s boost up your enthusiasm and level of fun.

While playing any song, there is one little important thing that makes the song lively… beats.

Jamming along with a drummer is not just more fun, but will eventually make you a better guitar player. You can either be a beginner or pro guitar player, or a bass player.

Now, you don’t need to bring home a drummer to jam along with you. In this world of computers and software, everything is virtually at your fingertips.

QuickBeat is one such application. It’s a software that works on both PC and Mac, and turns your computer into a drummer.

It has support for various styles like Rock, Blues, Country, Folk etc.

You might even have a favorite solo you might want to ultimately play. However, this path has a lot of roadblocks. That’s why many people starting out with guitar give up easily. It’s because they realize they can never play like their favorite stars, or so do they think.

When you learn a new chord, or anything else for that matter, you want to immediately put it to use. You don’t want to dwell into infinite theory. You want to know right now the things that will help you play your favorite song.

What many newcomers do is, learn a few basic stuff (like basic theory and a few chords), and off they go to download their favorite song’s TAB. They even watch plenty of YouTube videos explaining how to play a song. The resources are good, but you’re not ready for it, quite yet.

These songs often require things you haven’t learned yet. What happens is you learn what you don’t know half-heartedly, trying desperately to play that favorite song of yours, and then get stuck in the middle of nowhere. You might not know what scales are, and you might still be insisting on playing a song that requires its knowledge.

What to do?

First of all, jamming is a must! It helps you put your skills to use, and motivates you. If you learn just the D and A chord, you’d definitely want to play something melodious that uses only those two chords.

And that is what you should do. Find something that requires only the knowledge you have, and practice it.

The problem is, you might have a tough time finding a resource that will tell you what you should play based on your current knowledge.

If you learned a few chords, your best bet might be to master chord progressions. They sound great, and are the foundations of rythm guitar.

You may also ask others in guitar forums on what you should be playing. Personalized advice is the key to quick learning.

For example, in a downloadable course called Jamorama, you are given various Jam Tracks. Once you learn something, you try it out with your “virtual band.”

First, you’ll play the Jam Track with the guitar part present. So, you’ll know how you should play your part. You’ll of course, have the TAB of what you’re supposed to play with you.

Then, you play the Jam Track with guitar part muted. And you play that part. This is such a cool experience! You’ll have plenty of tracks to jam along with, trying out your new skills.

The problem is, Jamorama isn’t free. However, it doesn’t cost much (since it is downloadable.) I’m finding this thing quite useful. You might want to check out if it’s right for you.

Have a happy time jamming!

Now, learning guitar takes time and effort. However, if you learn to enjoy the learning process, you’d make good progress. There are times when you’d learn something fast, or sometimes, you’d get stuck on something for a long time. Never give up! That’s why you should NEVER compare your progress with someone else’s.

All right, let’s begin. Below is the Table of Contents for this article. You can jump to a section of your choice or read this post from top to bottom (recommended).

Table of Contents

1. Buying a Guitar (If you don’t have one yet)
2. Cultivating The Right Mindset For Learning Guitar
3. Choosing a Guitar Learning Resource
4. Practice Time Table
5. Conclusion

Buying a Guitar (If you don’t have one yet)

I’ve included this for people who don’t have a guitar yet. Even though it might seem as if buying guitar is as easy as walking into a shop and ordering one, it is not.

Many beginners opt for cheap guitar, since they aren’t sure if they’ll stick with playing guitar. There are many problems with these guitars. First is the high action (distance between the strings and the fretboard.) Action should be optimum (neither very high nor very low). High action means it’d take a lot of effort to finger a string, and it’d hurt your hands a lot. At the end of the day, you’ll just throw the guitar away and give up your dream of learning guitar.

Secondly, a cheap guitar may not sound good. When you hear someone else (both offline and online) playing guitar, you might think why your guitar doesn’t sound like his/her. This is more than enough to demotivate someone new. Remember, certain guitars are expensive for a reason.

So, go with a decent guitar. Now, should you get an Acoustic or an Electric guitar? That depends.

Acoustic guitars are larger in size due to the sound hole. Electric guitars are smaller, and are usually easy to fret (finger different chords) for beginners.

It primarily comes to your taste. If you like rock and roll, you can go with an Electric guitar. However, it can cost a lot more than an Acoustic, since you also need essential accessories with it.

I’d suggest going with a decent Acoustic guitar. Practice with it for a good few months. Then, you can choose your future course of action, depending on your progress and dedication.

Now, for details on what guitar to get once you’re in a music store, I’d recommend reading the site below:

How to Buy a Guitar

Remember: Steer clear of cheap guitars.

Cultivating The Right Mindset For Learning Guitar

Instead of jumping right into the resources which will help you with your guitar playing journey immediately, I want to talk about the right mindset you should be in. Few other sites do this, and it is necessary for you to know this.

First of all, guitar playing takes months of good practice. You never “reach,” you always keep on “travelling.” What this means is that you should aim at improving everyday. Even the best guitar players do. There is no destination.

There can be times when you’d learn something really hard. You’d think to yourself, “Now that I’ve mastered something this hard, I can carry on with the easy journey that lies ahead.” However, you stumble onto a bigger block this time.

This demotivates mostly everyone. There is another factor responsible for demotivating beginners, but I talk about it in the next section, since it has nothing to do with your mindset.

You learn chords. Then, you realize that chord changes are even tougher. Then, you realize that you need to learn a lot more to play your favorite song. This cycle continues.

However, realize that even the simplest thing you learn has applications. You just need to practice the right application for the thing you’ve learned, rather than trying to force on something else. There is a guitar resource that helps you do this, which I talk about in the next section.

Choosing a Guitar Learning Resource

What many people do after learning guitar is randomly visiting websites on the internet and learning random things about guitar. Due to this, they neither make systematic progress nor can they measure their progress. Their whole learning process becomes a mess. It’s not their fault, but the fault of many other sites which are not complete resources.

This also demotivates people. It’s not because of their inability, but rather the inability of their resources that is causing the problem.

The primary idea is to pick on resource, and stick with it. If you choose to learn with a guitar teacher, do what he tells you to. Don’t keep on switching between resources. That’s bad because you’d be only going round and round.

I’m assuming you want to learn guitar on your own and don’t have access to a teacher. I’ve listed two good resources below. There are more, but why unnecessarily overwhelm you with infinite choices?

1. FREE: Justin Guitar

   This is THE wonderful free resource for guitar learning. It’s basically tons of great videos by a guy named Justin, who’d take you from a beginner to a great guitar player. No wonder he has a lot of fans.

2. PAID: Jamorama

   This is a paid product. I own this thing and it is very good. It’s basically a book (actually, a bunch of books) supported by videos. It also includes a lot of additional resources (like tuning software, tuning guide, learning guide and some other tools.) The great thing about it is that you can learn two chords (and changing between them) and start jamming with the various jam tracks that comes with it.

I use both of the above resources. Jamorama gives me a complete view of everything I need to learn in guitar. Also, it helps me keep my motivation high by providing excellent jam tracks and exercises.

On the other hand, Justin Guitar provides some cool techniques of his own. I’d recommend paying special attention to his “1 Minute Chord Changing” exercises. For me, these two things complement each other in a great way.

There are other good resources like JamPlay etc, but you need only these two (or even any one of them) to become a good player. Don’t keep on snatching resource after resource hoping that you’ll find the secret of “easy learning” in them, you won’t.

Practice Time Table

Once you start learning, you need to give guitar some serious practice. For everything new you learn, you need to give it a good practice in order to master it.

Most of us have more free time during the weekends. However, I practice for at least 10 minutes during the weekdays (or even more if I get time.) Sometime, I miss on the weekday schedule.

During the weekends, I practice for more time (obviously) and it is the time when I learn new things. In short, I learn something new during the weekends and practice it, and use the weekday schedule to master what I’ve learned.

It is recommended that you write down your progress in a dairy or something. This way, you can measure the progress you’re making with time.

Conclusion

Finally, join a guitar forum, or watch other newcomers playing guitar in sites like YouTube. This way, you would know about the common problems newcomers are facing, and their solutions. You can also ask about the problems you’re facing in the forums and get replies from experienced people.

Anyway, good luck with your guitar journey.