Normally, I'm fairly skeptical when it comes to software, e-books and videos that claim to be able to turn you into a Guitar God over the course of one weekend. For good, reason, too. You see, I'm a huge fan of Yngwie Malmsteen (in case you don't know who he is, Yngwie is rated one of the fastest guitar players alive and often seen as the father of the Neo-Classical metal genre. Google him.) so when I saw his instructional video lying on a shelf at a local guitar shop a couple of years ago I almost crapped in my pants. This was it, I told myself, this was the instructional video I needed to transform myself into a hand-banging rock star. Long story short, the video sucked. Big time. He whizzed past riff after riff without explaining the fundamentals or even showing how he was doing what he was in slow motion. To say the least, the video was underwhelming. That's when I realized there's a world of a difference between a good guitar player and a good guitar teacher.
Then I came across the Jamorama Guitar Learning Package several weeks ago. Initially, I was worried that this might turn out to be a repeat of Yngwie's instructional video, but at $40 for the whole package, it was simply too cheap not try. I've had guitar classes at $10 per hour, so I figured if there was more than 4 hours worth of content I'd get my money's worth back. And boy was I pleasantly surprised. With more than 100 videos filmed at multiple camera angles and some 200 plus pages of lessons, its the kind of value one could only dream of. It took me several weeks to go through all the material so needless to say, you get your money's worth with this one.
The star of the Jamorama Guitar Package, Ben Edwards, might not be as famous as Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, but he is one heck of a teacher. He breaks down all the information into digestible bits so that the viewer doesn't feel overwhelmed or lost. But there's no lack of depth, either. Ben goes into details about hammer-ons, pull offs, transposing keys, percussive strum, deadening, vibrato, palm muting more. Personally, I found his lesson on scales to be particularly useful. Many guitar teachers like to make students to learn scales without really explaining the connection between scales and overall song structures. Ben does this nicely, covering major, minor and blues scales and how it applies to soloing and such.
The best feature of the Jamorama Package is the 26 bundled "jam tracks" with allows the user to play some songs with live bass, drums and keyboard backing (a lot of other guitar-teaching software use computer-generated backing tracks which just don't cut it). Ben believes that the best way to learn for a beginner is to start jamming along with other instruments as soon as possible, and I wholeheartly agree. I consider myself an intermediate-level player. But still there were still a lot of cool new tricks I learnt from this package.
Pros:
- Professionally-made videos with multiple camera angles clear narration.
- User-friendly interface; easy navigation
- A lot of very practical advice, coming from an experienced musician
- Definitely a bargain
Cons: - Some extra software (such as metronome and tuner) not particularly useful - Doesn't come bundled with a Fender Strat ;)
The Bottom Line: The Jamorama Guitar Learning Package is perfect for aspiring guitars and guitarists in the intermediate stage looking to brush up their skills. I spent quite a bit of money on guitar teachers in the past and I have to say none of them come even close in terms of value that the Jamorama package offers. Overall, highly recommended. You won't be disappointed.
