The Goal Of This Course:
According to Ben Edwards, the author of Jamorama, is to learn to play virtually any guitar song you hear. Whether you want to start a band, perform at clubs, write your own original songs, or just become a great guitarist. No matter what level you are at now, beginner, intermediate or advanced.
Who Will Benefit Most From This Program?
Beginner through intermediate students that are at least 8 years old, have access to a computer and wish to learn electric or acoustic guitar.
About The Author
In Ben Edwards own words; I am a highly respected guitar teacher. I am the former lead guitarist for DegreesK, who I toured with internationally. Before joining the band I gained a Bachelor of Education. My passion for teaching others, especially guitar, sparked me to develop Jamorama.
The Parts of This Course
4 Downloadable eBooks; book one is for beginners, book two is for intermediate level students, book three is for advance students and the final book is about tuning. The books are well written, logical and thorough with an abundance of clear illustrations and photos.
Peppered through out the books are icons that indicate when there is a play along Jamtrack or an audio/video example to view for clarification of the written word. Just click an icon and those learning aids smoothly pop into the screen.
148 short videos with sound to illustrate each lesson. These short audio/video illustrations are well produced with split screens showing the right hand and left hand separately as well as other illustrations without fingers blocking the view. These videos make learning a new technique or chord so much easier than static photos alone. Though, I do wish the screen size was a little bigger.
Jamtracks are audio-only files for essential practicing with a backup band. This part was my favorite. Just plain fun!
The Jamorama Bonus Software
Guitar Tuner Pro - is a software program that provides a proper tone for each string of the guitar. Standard tuning, alternate tunings for 6,7 and 12 string guitars as well as several Bass guitar tunings are part of this nice little program.
Guitar Ear It - is a clever software game designed to teach you to recognize the sound of a chord and match it to its name (Am, B, C#, etc.). It also teaches how to recognize simple chord progressions.
Metronome - is a program that is designed to give a steady beat to develop solid timing and rhythm while practicing. Tempos of 40 beats per minute (bpm) to 208 bpm are available.
Jayde Musica Pro - is an innovative software game that is designed to develop your ability to quickly identify the pitch of a note with its musical symbol and letter name.
The Negatives:
The video samples, while clear and well produced, could be a little bigger.
The only significant weakness is that this is basically a written program with audio and video snippets instead of an all video program with a supporting book. However, the author Ben Edwards, has done a masterful job of enhancing each written lesson with well produced photos, diagrams, audio, video and play along jam tracks.
