Anyay, I’ve been getting questions like should you go to a music academy, or look for a private teacher, or try group lessons, or learn on your own by buying a course, and if so which one?

Dealing with all these questions will probably take more than one post, which I’ll definitely address in the next few weeks — promise!

Since I’ve gotten a number of questions about the Jamorama products, I thought I’d take a minute and talk about this course. I own a copy of both the Jamorama Guitar Lessons and the Jamorama Lead Guitar program, but I’m just going to talk about the Jamorama Lead Guitar lessons.

I could just say that the Jamorama Lead Guitar program is just a damn solid set of lessons and leave it at that. But as a former band member and music instructor, I really can’t resist the urge to turn the spotlight on a few aspects that are worth mentioning.

Best Aspects of the Jamorama Lead Guitar Lessons

1- The Jamorama Lead Guitar instructional methodology is first-rate. By "instructional methodology" I mean how the lessons are presented, the whole teaching system, whether they teach certain concepts and techniques at the right time and so on.

The way they present this stuff is really good, with everything chunked down into bite-size portions so you master ONE aspect of lead guitar at a time. Very important.

2 - The video lessons are well done, probably couldn’t do it better myself. They’re very step-by-step and you actually HEAR and SEE how the music should be played. 

This is crucial because it trains your ear and your hand at the same time.  When you’re able to hear exactly what each piece you are learning sounds like — when played correctly — you have a solid foundation for developing a really sweet sound of your own.

Also the instructor, Ben Edwards, is an excellent musician — someone you can model yourself after. I can’t find any flaws in his technique, and he really emphasizes teaching you the RIGHT way to do things. As you know I am big on this aspect because un-learning bad guitar playing habits is really hard. You can learn the correct way watching Ben.

3 - The video lessons are professionally recorded and edited. No amateur hour, "filmed in a garage" stuff, which is a pet peeve of mine. I think this is a big reason why so many people have found these lessons so easy to follow.

4 - They make a big point of learning the right way to practice. I can’t over-emphasize the importance of this! Because there’s definitely a right and a wrong way to practice the guitar, and if you practice the wrong way then it will take MUCH longer to learn new material. 

Practice the right way (the way Ben teaches you in Jamorama) and you will master any new songs much more quickly, plus in my opinion you’re much less likely to form bad guitar playing habits. 

5 - Okay, this is huge, and as far as I know, you won’t see this offered with any other guitar lesson program - GuitarEarIt. This computer game is included, it’s known as "GuitarEarIt" and it teaches you how to play music by ear. Now I’m NOT saying you should not learn to read music - you should, for about a dozen reasons I won’t go into at the moment.

But the thing is, if you’re in a band and you play in clubs, at weddings, etc. someone always requests a cover of some song that’s popular at the moment.  Well in my experience, being able to play by ear cuts down the time you will spend learning new songs, and it also makes remembering them much easier. Trust me on this.

6 - "Jayde Musica." Now about learning to read music, as I said that’s a whole other subject… but the thing is you really need to do that, it will enrich your playing and open up a lot of avenues to you.  Jamorama offers another game called "Jayde Musica" which is a big help for learning how to read music. It makes it easy and intuitive and fun. (Highly recommended for younger kids and teens.)

7 - Advanced techniques — for example learning half, whole and ghost bends – are presented in the same simple, easy-to-follow format as the rest of the course. Some courses tend to lose you once they get to the advanced stuff, but not this one.

Just another reason I feel you can move through this course about as fast, maybe even faster than learning how to play lead guitar in weekly lessons with an instructor, assuming you have the aptitude and desire and are willing to practice.

8 - Sneaky tricks! In Jamorama they teach a very cool technique devised by a university psychologist that trains your fingers to place themselves automatically in the right positions when playing chord shifts and riffs. With this technique I estimate that the average student can master this in about a third of the time it would normally take.

9 - Comes with a bunch of music tracks (29 in total) that you can jam along with — very good for private practice time.

10 - It includes a nice digital metronome and guitar tuning program. I really like this because having these tools handy means you’re more likely to USE them. It’s crucial to get into the habit of tuning your guitar before you start to play and between songs, and the program basically makes it easier to develop an ear for being in tune. 

And ESPECIALLY if you play in a band, keeping a steady, even tempo… Well I can’t over-emphasize the importance of this! Next time you go to a club or even a big-name rock concert, notice how often a band will speed up as they go through a song. A lot of times they’ll be playing much faster by the end — and trust me, that’s usually NOT intentional.  It’s easy to blame it on the drummer, but often it’s a subtle problem shared by ALL members of the band.

Learning with a metronome will help train you NOT to be so prone to this common problem!

11 - Jamorama has a really nice private customer area which has a forum, where you can ask questions and share tips with other guitar players.

12 - You get a 60 day money-back guarantee, too.

The only downside to Jamorama is you better have plenty of empty hard drive space on your computer - there’s a LOT of material to download.  What’s nice is everything is downloaded through a nice neat little desktop application which displays all the lessons. If you don’t have the hard drive space, you can order the entire course on DVDs and books, but that’s a lot more expensive. Still, it’s nice that they offer that option.

Anyway, I decided to do this detailed rundown of Jamorama Lead Guitar because it’s really a good solid way to learn proper lead guitar technique on your own.

Also I thought this review would be helpful because not everyone can afford private instruction. I’ve known people who have anxiety about music lessons. Some people also just really busy and need to be able to fit their "guitar time" in at odd hours.

Also I think Jamorama Lead Guitar (as well as the Jamorama Basic Guitar course) is excellent for kids or teens who are home schooling, and don’t have the opportunity to take music lessons or join a band.

For all those people, I would suggest trying the Jamorama lead guitar lessons.  The instruction is reputable, and of course you can learn at your own convenience (which really helps if you’ve got a full time job or the home schooling situation).