Learning guitar with Jamorama

What is Jamorama?

Jamorama is a digitally downloadable information product. It takes people who have just started learning to play guitar, or even people who have never picked up the instrument, and guides them through their first chords and their first songs.

Jamorama provides structured learning. That is to say, there are a coherent set of exercises, that each flow on from the last, which take you from your starting point of never having played guitar, or perhaps only knowing a few chords, and take you all the way through the beginner phase to an end point where you can start to describe yourself as an intermediate level guitar player.

What is in Jamorama?

The Jamorama material can be divided into 2 parts - the core guitar instruction program, and all of the bonus material sold along with it.

The core program

The core program includes ebooks, video files, and audio jam tracks. The ebooks are the main part of this program. There are 2 of them - one for complete beginners, and another one to start when you've finished the first one. The ebooks take you through each lesson one at a time. Interspersed through the lessons are little "interest", "philosophy", "warning" and "hot tip" sections which break up wll the practical work with interesting trivia, helpful points of advice, cautions against developing bad habits that might hold you back later and some more general ideas about playing.

Each lesson is then demonstrated on the video files included in Jamorama. These video files have a close-up of what each hand is doing, as well as a small diagram in the corner of what the fingering hand is doing. This diagram is especially helpful, as any guitarist knows that simply watching somebody play is not always the clearest guide to what they are doing, as you can't always see whether or not a finger is actually fretting a string, or is just held above it or muting it.

The audio tracks then give you some musical accompaniments to practice what you have been learning. They are in a variety of styles. There is a strong drum beat on each of them, which is great because it helps you get used to playing to a steady beat.

The bonus material

Jamorama is sold with a large number of extras to help you along with your playing.

The Jamorama Metronome is a great little addition. A metronome is a device that musicians use to help them practice - it creates a clicking sound at steady time intervals, and can be adjusted to make the sound at different tempos. The Jamorama Metronome is a software program that has the look and feel of a traditional metronome, and can operate from 45 bpm all the way up to 208bpm.

Jamorama has two interactive "games" included as bonus material. GuitEarIt! is an ear training game, that challenges you to recognise intervals and chords common in popular music. It starts off easy and gets more difficult as you go along. Jayde Musica Pro is a music reading game, which challenges you to read standard notation. A lot of guitarists never use standard notation, and instead just rely on guitar tablature. The Jamorama program itself is written all in tablature, so the inclusion of this game is a little strange. Nevertheless, if you do want to learn to read standard notation, this is a fun way to go about it.

The Guitar Tuner Pro software and the How To Tune Your Guitar ebook both help you to tune your guitar.  This is pretty straightforward.  Neither are really a satisfactory replacement for a good electronic tuner, but will help nevertheless help you get by if you lack one.

The Jamorama Chord Kit is a reference style resource showing you how to play all sorts of chords, and also suggesting different chord progressions to try.  It is a worthwhile learning tool for once you have finished the core program, or if you just want something less structured to play around with.