Jamplay Full Review – Have you ever felt stuck in learning how to play guitar?

It’s probably been months or years of practicing but you realize that your improvement is not that significant. You end up placing your guitar somewhere in a corner till it gets dusty and worn-out without touch.

Anyway, if you’re a self-taught learner, I’m sure you can relate better.

Well, I’m not undermining self-taught guitarists / musicians in this matter. In fact there are lots of them who can play guitar amazingly. And one of them is my favorite; Tash Sultana, she’s beyond amazing.

Watching her performance videos almost makes me think that some people were just born shredding guitars, and some just suck at it.

But no, everybody, without exception, has to constantly spend time to practice in order to be great. What’s rather different is the pace of each person needs to spend. Some can get through faster and some are slower. That’s OK, at the end of the day with the right motivation and persistence; everybody can shred together happily.

And you know what, I’ve figured that Tash has started to learn guitar since she was 3 years old.

Source: Pixabay.com

In addition of having the right motivation and persistence, there is one thing that I’m personally facing as a self-taught learner: I couldn’t seem to find the best method on internet, considering it’s my primer source of learning. I feel like they are giving me another dot instead of helping me connecting the dots.

Finding the best method to teach ourselves how to play is crucial; like knowing where to begin and where to go next. Otherwise we’re just going nowhere with overarching dots of knowledge.

Thankfully, not too long ago I’ve found an online guitar course called JamPlay.

Do you wonder how it works?

Stay tuned!

A Glimpse of the JamPlay Company and People behind the Desk

JamPlay is an online guitar lessons established in Beavercreek, Ohio — 2006, co-founded by Kevin Wimer, Jeff Booth, and Chris Dawson. Once you signed up, you can take a look at each of the staffs’ detailed profiles, except for Kevin Wimer (I don’t know why).

They have 9 other staffs who work on their specializations like video editing, audio engineering, customer service, marketing and so on; they make the operating system as good as possible.

All of these people (co-founders or staffs) are music enthusiasts themselves, most of them are guitar players as well; and with their shtick in web developing they started to bring guitar lesson accessible through internet.

JamPlay is designed as an alternative source of learning guitar, with which you can still make time to learn on busy schedule. And the price?  It’s cheaper.

Not only that,

They also featured 144 competent teachers, divided in 3 categories: 45 acoustic guitar teachers, 77 electric guitar teachers, and 22 bass teachers.

There’s more!

Artist series is here too!

All of these people work together to help people like us learning guitar in a better way. As quoted from Jeff Booth’s JamPLay profile, he said…

“… I decided to launch JamPlay, we wanted a better way to learn, we wanted to use ourskills for something worthwhile…”

 

And after a week of trying it out, I’d say that they’ve succeeded.

Why JamPlay?

Here are few things that you may consider before buying JamPlay:

• The Price

Let's compared JamPlay with general per hour guitar lesson fee. I've done a research on this, and the price varied from $ 20 to $ 70. Assume that it was $ 20 and generally people would take at least 4 hours a month. So it's 80 bucks. Meanwhile, with Jamplay you only need to pay approximately $ 19 / month and get 25% OFF HERE

• 100% Money Back Guarantee 

Risk free within 30 days money back guarantee; without any question asked. Let JamPlay know if you don't like the service and want your money back by simply call them or drop them an email at support@jamplay.com.

“if you don't enjoy our service, then we don't want your money.” – JamPlay.

 

• Usability  

You use JamPlay at anywhere, anytime, and as much as possible. JamPlay is also accessible in many apps like Iphone, Ipad, and android. Isn't it great to have a guitar lesson as easy as reaching your phone out of your pocket?

• Video Quality and Lesson Practicality

The type of lesson that you'll receive is video-based lesson. And the quality of the videos here, i'd say, are great. You can adjust the quality from low to super and 720p. The lesson video is taken from 4 different angles so you can study the guitar and hand positions clearer: student view, strum hand view, dialog view, and first person view. 

Can't keep up with the videos?

No problem, you can click on supplementary materials and trace down the lesson video with written tabs and chords diagrams.

• Featured by Hundreds of Experienced Teachers

You may not run out of teachers here. There are a bunch of choices available but to be sure each of the teacher will help you improvised by giving you a lot of Ah-Ha moments.

JamPlay, Is It or Is It Not Made for Beginner?

I saw a comment on Jamplay official site review which says that JamPlay is not made for beginners.

Are you kidding me?

Since I signed myself up, beginner is warmly welcomed here.  There are indeed lots of choices in the beginner’s phase (in all of the phases actually); and patience is required here in order to find the best teacher that suits you. If I may recommend; go to Jessica Baron’s lessons.

The comment also says that the supplemental material is not explained anywhere on the site. But I found it in David Isaac’s lessons. He explains how to read tabs. I’d suggest you to go check on David Isaacs’ lesson ‘cause being able to read music/tabs is important in learning how to play guitar.

One thing I like about JamPlay is that they try to be as responsive as possible. The customer service is really doing the job; they answer most (if not all) of users’ complaints. See how Jamplay responds to above complaint, below:

Along with users’ complaints, there are also users who are happy with the service (they came in a higher numbers). I sum up some for you:

Mark Collings

Just signed up for a month to try it out. So far in 1 hour of beginner lessons I have been very impressed and feel I have learnt some valuable tips that 3 months of private lessons and using another online subscription site have not taught me. Hoping the rest of the month goes as well as the first hour. If so I will be signed up for the year.

Gregory

I’ve been a member for four years and I have learned tremendous amount of theory and techniques. If you’re serious to become a great musician, you need a JamPlay!

Chris Conley

I am revising my initial review after getting a response back ffrom Jamplay that they could sent the content I’m not able to download for a fee they offered to extend my subscription 3 months due to getting off on the wrong foot.

JamPlay Package Filled with More Than I’ve Expected

I’m shooked looking at the dashboard; I keep finding gems placed here and there.

I give you a screenshot of how the display looks like:

Screenshot of My Purchase

There are a lot of places that you can explore, but first let’s focus on our major purpose of getting into this online course:

The Guitar Lessons

Jamplay provides 4 phases of lessons, which are:

• Beginner

Most of beginners’ problem is that they are rushing without having stepped on the right foundation. JamPlay collaborated with experienced teachers in both acoustic and electric guitar may help you to have a solid foundation before you can shred on your own.

• Genres & Skills

This is the phase where you can get the most of it. JamPlay provides you with 20 different genres. They are: Pop, Fingerstyle, Blues, Metal, Hawaiian, Bluegrass, Rock, Celtic, Classical, Country, Jazz, Surf, Funk, Flamenco, R&B, Reggae, Brazilian, Gospel, Rock acoustic.

Altogether with 11 skill developments that you can learn: Speed & Techniques, Helpers & Tips, Singing, Reading music, Lead, Improvisation, 12 Strings, Rhythm, Ear training, Studio, Instrument care & Maintenance.  

• Songs

Phase 3 gives you chances to utilize your skill that you’ve developed through the 2 previous phases. You can play songs from many singers / musicians / bands, like: The Beatles, Nirvana, The Runaways, Megadeth, Goo Goo Dolls, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and many more.

Unfortunately, JamPlay is a little outdated on their song lists. And I can’t believe they don’t have songs from Paramore and Avenged Sevenfold.

• Song Writing

JamPlay is not stopping on teaching how to play existed songs but they also teaching you how to make your original songs.

Additional Courses

Never miss JamPlay additional courses:

• Live Courses

You can have more learning materials with more varied live-lessons that you can follow through. Don’t worry; you’ll never miss a single live lesson ‘cause if you did you can simply go to archives.

• Artist Series

The featuring lessons enable you to learn from your maybe-listed favorite artist. I can’t wait to start my artist series course. I saw Lita Ford a former guitarist of a well-known band The Runaways in 70s-80s is joining as well!

Other Advantageous Knick-Knacks from JamPlay

• Lick and riffs library

This library provides you with a bunch of cool licks and riffs videos. You can also filter the lists by type; rhythm or lead; genres, and skills; starting from easy to hard.

• Metronome

Learn guitar using metronome prepares you to jam with others. It helps you to get on the right beat.

• Guitar and bass tuner

Tuning guitar by ears takes practice but if you can’t do that yet it’s not a problem here. You can use this up.

• JamTracks

You can refine your lead guitar ability by using Jamtracks ‘cause it has a bunch of backing tracks from various genres which will make you feel like you're jamming with another guitar player.

Source: Pexels.com

• Chord and scale library

Enhance your guitar vocabulary with a lot of chords and scales widespread here.

Have More with Little Upgrades

• Offline Videos

Wanting to download your favorite lessons and own it forever?

JamPlay enables you to have that opportunity by adding few more bucks depend on your desired quantity.

• Bass Lessons

Okay now let’s assume that we had all mastered the guitar lesson section, then what next?

You can upgrade your musical ability by learning bass, and you don’t have to look for other online courses to do that, ‘cause you can activate that in your JamPlay Guitar membership with a few more easy steps.

I Blew the Dust on My Guitar and You Should Too

I was 15-ish when my brother got his first guitar and the idea of playing guitar mesmerized me. Sadly, my brother refused to teach me so I figured out myself. I started tutoring myself guitar from a book.

I can’t recall what the book was about. But I have mastered the family of C major open chords at that time without anybody’s help. I played a song on my brother’s guitar and he's shooked that I could play a song in C major chords (to be honest I did the chord progression myself), he said I was good.

I was content, a bit cocky… and unfortunately my guitar skill went downhill right after that.

The Epoch of Internet

In the era of internet, I got the urge to play guitar (again). With more accessible source I was hoping this time I can be great, I even bought my own guitar; it’s Cort acoustic-electric, model: AD810E-OP.

My Cort Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Have my skill increased after I had a guitar on my own?

— Not even close. In fact, I still suck at it. Bunch of theories confuse me. I feel like they only throw jumbling information about guitar in the giant void and  end up being lazy. I wasn’t training my ears anymore when I play songs; instead relying too much on already found-chord-progression songs in internet.

Why didn’t I get an actual guitar class, you may ask?

‘Cause it costs a lot and I have other more important bills to pay.

I still believe that people can teach themselves anything and internet is still a helpful tool to do that. Other than that looking for real expert teacher is not that easy. My cousin for instance, she took an 1 on 1 section with a guitar teacher and I don’t think she got what she deserves.

Jamming with JamPlay

It was also internet who introduces me with JamPlay. I know, I have to pay monthly but it’s still cheaper and more advantageous compared to attending guitar class. With JamPlay I can study for hours and hours every day. Guitar class, on the other hand; an hour per meeting, 4 meetings per month and it costs higher (if not much higher).

I consider myself in vague line between beginner and intermediate. Or maybe I’m simply out of the spectrum. So, I decided to start over.

Here’s a tape of me playing guitar before starting any course on JamPlay. My knowledge on playing guitar is pretty much about open chords and mostly I play on C (C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am- rarely used: Bdim).

It is indeed tiring to find the best JamPlay lesson that suits you since they have many. But if you’re a complete beginner (never touch guitar before), I recommend you to check out Jessica Barron’s courses. She even gives ‘yoga guitar’ so your hands wouldn’t hurt that much.

I have a tip for you: Don’t be indecisive and make sure that you know what you are aiming to do through this course otherwise it will be such a waste.  

I personally prefer rock music with a bit of blues and I wanted to play rhythm and melody altogether. So, I pretty much skimming through courses until I find the best that suit my goal. And the answer to my search is Lisa Pursell, you can find her on beginner electric guitar course.

I can keep up with the lesson quite well even my guitar is acoustic, as long as there’s no Wah Wah effect and sophisticated guitar gears required.

The Ah-Ha Moment

As this guitar online lesson said that it will give you the Ah-Ha moment; I’ve experienced it too. Mine was when Lisa Pursell explains about the basic Triad. I’ve been using the concept the whole time but I didn’t know what it was.

Take an example of D major open chords, the chord’s formula consists of three notes (triad): 1,3,5 = D, F#, A which you can play along the fretboard  to give more harmonization on your guitar play.

Most of beginner guitar player is familiar with the shape of D major open chord by placing index finger on the third string second fret (A note); middle finger on the first string second fret ( F# note), and lastly ring finger on the second string third fret (D note)

D Major Open Chord

If you want to explore every note on fretboard, you can play along with Jamplay Guitar Chord Finder for free HERE.

JamPlay Chord Finder: D Major Open Chord

The beauty of guitar is that it has an open ended possibility to find the same notes in other different places on the fretboard; therefore it creates form variations and it enriches the sounds. Below is another form of D major Triad; you can see that the formula is not changed though the shape is different, it's still consists of 1,3,5 = D, F#, A.

Another Form of D Major Triad

My Progress so Far…

After I went along back and forth to some lessons on the beginner section for a week, I feel like I’m capable to build the bridge between my existed knowledge of playing guitar with the right guitar theory. There are still a lot of homeworks left to do, but I’m very positive about this online guitar lesson.

The Result…

I tried to do the chord progression in a song without cheating, and I think I did it. I find the chords and play it with a tiny bit of the intro melody by solely listening to the actual song. The song is from Avenged Sevenfold: Dear God.

PS: I also used a little bit of hybrid picking technique together with hammer on, pull off that Lisa Pursell and Jessica Baron have taught me.

Root: G, most of the song (verses and chorus) played on G, D, Em, Bm, C going back to G and so forth…

I can’t wait to go on the next phase; Genres and Skills, and learn how to rock. But I don’t want to rush; last time I did it and it didn’t work.

Now, what about you? Do you want to start jamming?

Here's Where to Begin

One step closer to start your lesson by visiting JamPlay's official website and seize the opportunity to have a month jamming free.

Once you've signed up you can unleash all of the worthwhile JamPlay online guitar lessons.

Verdict and Conclusion

I totally recommend JamPlay online guitar lesson for you. They have 4 clear phases of learning; starting from the beginning to the phase where you can make an EP. They have a good quality lesson videos supplemented with written tabs and chord diagrams. Put it to another way: Jamplay has the whole package.

It’s a home-based learning site.  You can study at your own leisure at many hours as you want for only $ 14.96 on your first month. There's an option to own the course permanently with few extra bucks which still considered cheaper than four hours/week meeting with a guitar teacher.

Not only that, they also provides addition with artist series which you can dig up more information in playing techniques and cool riffs from your favorite artist.

Live section is in the house too, and you don’t have to be worried of missing a session ‘cause all of them are archived.

However, if you don’t think that JamPlay is working for you. You can always seize the 30 days return policy in quite easy way. You can either call them or send them email at support@jamplay.com. For more information you can click Contact on your JamPlay dashboard.

But before that happen you can first of all seize a rare opportunity to try JamPlay for 30 days for FREE.