I thought I’d give you an update on where I am in my own personal guitar journey, a little over two months after I got started learning with Jamorama.

I’ve been practising for around an hour a day and can now play around fifteen open chords (chords where at least one string is left open). They are:

• A Major
• C Major
• D Major
• E Major
• G Major
• A Minor
• D Minor
• E Minor
• A7
• B7
• C7
• D7
• E7
• G7

I can also play the F Major chord, however my fingers occasionally have trouble getting it because it requires holding down two strings with one finger.

Knowing these chords have allowed my to learn a handful of songs, which I can now play through from start to finish without any screw-ups. Some of these songs are:

• Wild Thing – Troggs
• Blowin in the Wind – Bob Dylan
• Breakfast at Tiffanys – Deep Blue Something
• Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Love is All Around – Troggs
• Ballad of John & Yoko – Beatles

I’m also in the process of learning Blackbird by The Beatles, which doesn’t use chords but instead requires finger-picking individual notes.

Of course, Jamorama also comes with a selection of Jam Tracks for you to practise playing with other instruments and I’m proud to say that I can now play all of the songs from the first book.

I’m now on Book 2 (Intermediate) and although I’m making progress, it’s going a little slower than Book 1 (Beginners) did. Barre chords are quite difficult to do because you have to hold down your index finger over all the strings on a fret, which requires quite a bit of strength. I’m getting better at it each day but unfortunately I think I need to strengthen the muscles in my finger, which isn’t going to happen overnight no matter how hard I practise!

On the whole, Jamorama has made the experience very enjoyable from the start. The kids and I often spend time having a singalong with me on guitar and we have great fun doing so. I also enjoy playing on my own as I find it exceedingly therapeutic

So, I can’t recommend Jamorama highly enough – if you want to learn guitar quickly, easily and enjoyably then this is the course to choose.

Danny

P.S. Check out my review of Jamarama here.

In this post I’m going to share with you a brief overview of the first of the first four Jamorama lessons and by the end you’ll know three chords and be able to play your first song (even if you’ve never played guitar before).

Although the steps are easy, you will need to practise for a little over a week before you can get everything sounding perfect (this is how long it took me, but you may be able to do it quicker). Set aside an hour a day and leave your guitar somewhere close by throughout the week so that if you find yourself with a spare five minutes, you can pick it up and practise.

Step 1: The A Major Chord

Your first objective is to learn the A Major chord. The video below shows you how to do this:

The neck of your guitar is divided into what are called ‘frets’, each separated by a metal bar. The fret that is furthest away is the first fret, the next closest is the second fret, then the third fret etc.

Your guitar will (most probably) have six strings. As you hold the guitar, the bottom string (closest to your knee) is the first string, the next one up is the second string, then the third string etc.

To play the A Major chord, place the first finger (index finger) of your left hand on the fourth string up in the second fret, your second finger on the third string in the second fret and your third finger on the second string in the second fret. Then strum downwards from the fifth string so that strings 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 ring (it’s not a big deal if you accidentally hit the sixth string, but try not to).

Strum the A Major chord to the rhythm of 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 (strumming each time you say a number).

After doing this a few times, take your left hand off the neck of the guitar and then try to replace it in exactly the same place and play the A Major chord again. It will take several attempts before you can do this. Then try to speed up the time it takes you play the chord from not touching the neck. When you can do it within two seconds, move on to Step 2.

NOTE: You will probably notice that the tips of your fingers are beginning to get sore and hurt a little from pressing down on the strings. When I started out, I got a little worried and thought I’d destroyed the nerve endings in my fingers but was assured by a guitar-playing friend that this was normal and over a period of a few weeks, the skin on the tips of my fingers became harder and it no longer hurt to play.

Step 2: The D Major Chord

Your next task is to learn the D Major chord. Check out the video below to see how it’s done:

For this chord, the first finger is placed on the third string of the second fret, the second finger on the first string of the second fret and the third finger on the second string of the third fret. Only the first four strings should be played (downwards from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1).

Again, practice counting and strumming to 1,2,3,4 and going from not touching the guitar with your left hand to playing the D Major chord.

When you can do this well, practice switching between the D Major and A Major chords. Count 1, 2, 3, 4 and on 1 and two strum the A Major chord and and 3 and 4 play the D Major chord. Count very slowly at first and as you come more accustomed to the switch, speed it up.

When you can switch between the two easily in one second or less, move on to step 3.

Step 3: The E Major Chord

The E Major chord is played like this:

Your first finger plays holds down the third string in the first fret, your second finger holds down the fifth string in the second fret and your third finger holds down the fourth string in the second fret. All six strings should be strummed.

Again, count 1, 2, 3, 4 as you strum and then practice speeding up the time it takes you to strum the E Major chord from left hand resting on your knee.

Next, practise switching between A Major and E Major by strumming A Major on counts 1 and 2, then E  Major on counts 3 and 4.

Then, practise switching between D Major and E Major by strumming D Major on counts 1 and 2 and E Major on counts 3 and 4.

Finally, practise switching between all three chords by counting to 8 and playing:

• A Major on counts 1 and 2
• D Major on counts 3 and 4
• E Major on counts 5 and 6
• D Major on counts 7 and 8

When you can do this, move onto step 4.

Step 4: Your First Song on Guitar

In this final step, you’re going to learn to play Wild Thing by The Troggs, which uses only the three chords you’ve just learned.

Check out the videos on this page to learn how to play the song.

The first video tells you how to do it and the second video plays the original version of Wild Thing for you to strum along to.

For further lessons, check out Jamorama (it is what I used to learn to play guitar) and check out my review of it here.

As I mention in my Jamorama Review, the first song I learned on guitar was Wild Thing by The Troggs.

I learned to play this after completing Lesson 4 of the Jamorama Beginner’s Guitar Course having learned the chords A Major, D Major and E Major.  Playing this song taught me to switch between these three chords really quickly.

The video below shows you exactly how to play it (courtesy of JustinGuitar.com – check out the website).

And this is the original version of the song, which you can play along to

Jamorama also has some great jam tracks that you can rock along to. When you’re at this stage (i.e. completed Lesson 4) you’ll already be able to play along to three jam tracks.

When I first tried to install the Jamorama software on my computer, it didn’t seem to work.

After clicking jamorama_software.exe, a small progress bar would pop up for a split second and then nothing would happen. I left the computer for an hour but the software didn’t install.

I did a little investigation and found that it was a compatibility issue between the software and the version of Windows I was running (Windows 7).

Fortunately, there’s a very quick fix:

1. Right click on jamorama_setup.exe and select properties

2. On the Compatibility tab, check Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows Vista

When you’ve done the two steps above, double-click jamorama_setup.exe again to launch the installer and it should now work.

Hope this helps

Danny

I thought it would be useful to provide you with specific details of what each lesson in the Jamorama Beginner Guitar Course teaches you so that you’ll have a good idea of what to expect from it.

As I mention in my Jamorama Review, the course is built around two books, which take you from someone without any knowledge of guitar (or music in general) to an intermediate/advanced guitarist.

Each book is divided into a series of lessons, each of which I’ve provided a brief synopsis of below:

Book 1: Beginner Course Level 1 (Beginner)

The Introduction will give you an overview of the guitar, how to sit with it and how to hold it.

Lesson 1 teaches you the chords A Major and D Major and how to strum them.

Lesson 2 explains how to read guitar tabs and provides a jam track to strum along to.

In Lesson 3, you’ll learn the basics of reading traditional music score, how to play a series of single notes on the 1st and 2nd strings and gives you another jam track to pick notes to.

Lesson 4 introduces the E Major chord, builds on your music theory, shows you how to pick notes on the third string and gives you another jam track to play to.

Lesson 5 shows you how to play the G Major and C Major chords, how to pick notes on the fourth string and provides a new jam track to play along with.

In Lesson 6, you’ll learn how to play the A Minor chord and notes on the fifth string as well as teaching you turn around progression and giving you a couple more jam tracks to play to.

Lesson 7 introduces 8th note rhythm patterns, the chromatic scale and the F Major chord.

Lesson 8 explains the dominant 7 chords and shows you how to play the A7, D7 and E7 chords. Again, a jam track is provided for you to practise what you have learned.

Lesson 9 introduces the silent stroke symbol, notes on the sixth string and 2 more jam tracks.

And in Lesson 10, you’ll learn the G7 and C7 chords and be taught two bar rhythms.

Lesson 11 teaches you the B7 chord and how to play Blues in E Major. There’s also a new jam track to practise to.

Lesson 12 builds on your knowledge of music theory and introduces bass note picking.

In Lesson 13, you’ll learn about the 3/4 time signature, more bass picking and have two more jam tracks to rock to.

Lesson 14 goes into detail about suspended chords (Asus, Dsus and Esus chords) and scales (including the Major scale and the C Major scale). Again, there is another jam track for practising.

Finally in Lesson 15, you’ll learn the Asus2 and Dsus2 chords and play along to the last jam track in this book.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD JAMORAMA

Book 2: Beginner Course Level 2 (Intermediate)

Lesson 1 teaches you base note runs and introduces the D minor chord.

In Lesson 2 you’ll learn about the Major 7th chords and how to play the F Major 7th and C Major 7th chords. You’ll also be taught 16th note rhythm patterns.

Lesson 3 will show you A Major 7th, D Major 7th and G Major 7th chords as well as the first position of chromatic notes.

Lesson 4 goes into triplet rhythms and introduces the B Minor chord.

And in Lesson 5, you’ll learn about the A major scale and Major 6 chords (A6 and E6 chords).

Lesson 6 will teach you how to play Barre chords (including the F barre chord and root six barre chord).

Lesson 7 will show you how to do the percussive strum.

Lesson 8 will explain the Root 6 Minor Bar chord.

And Lesson 9 will expand your knowledge of music theory by discussing key signatures and scales.

Lesson 10 explains music rests and the F dominant 7 chord (Root six).

Lesson 11 will teach you how to do an 8th note rest with a strum and how to perform deadening.

Lesson 12 discusses the Major root 5 barre chords and will teach you staccato strumming.

Lesson 13 explains important concepts in chord progression and introduces two 12-bar blues patterns.

In Lesson 14, you’ll learn about the Root 5 minor barre chord and a third 12 bar blues pattern.

Lesson 15 explains palm-muting in detail.

Lesson 16 will teach you advanced rhythm techniques.

And Lesson 17 introduces the Root 5 dominant 7 barre chord and how to play blues in D.

Lesson 18 will teach you how to strum along to Reggae music with the Reggae strum.

Lesson 19  teaches you the Minor scale.

Lesson 20 introduces the Minor 7th chords and teaches you the Fm7chord and Bbm7 chord.

And in Lesson 21, you’ll be taught about the Major 6 barre chords and learn the F6 chord and Bb6 chord.

Lesson 22 explains Power chords and shows you how to play the F power chord and Bb power chord.

Lesson 23 discusses accents and the compound meter.

Lesson 24 teaches the C shape barre chord.

And Lesson 25 goes into detail about Suspended barre chords (including Bbsus2 and  Bbsus4).

Finally, in Lesson 26 you’ll learn the Root 6 and root 5 major 7th barres.

So, if you do decide to learn guitar using Jamorama, you now have idea of how the lessons are structured.

Danny

Just a quick post today to share with you a cool video I found that shows you how to play three popular songs using just three chords; A Major, D Major and E major.

If you’re going through the Jamorama Guitar Course (see my review here), you’ll have learned these three chords by the time you get to lesson 4.

At this stage, it’s important to get lots of practise at switching between these three chords and Jamorama provides a couple of jam tracks so that you can learn this important skill.

Although the jam tracks are great, I found that after a few hours of playing them, I got a little tired of playing the same thing over and over again and so I searched for other tunes I could play with these three basic chords to add a little variation to my guitar practice.

That’s when I discovered the video (below). The guy in the vid will show you how you can play:

• Blowing in the Wind by Bob Dylan
• Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
• I’m a Believer by The Monkees

They’re not 100% true to the original tracks because the musical key has been changed to accommodate the three basic chords but they still sound pretty awesome and will make your guitar practice very enjoyable

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Danny

One of the things that really impressed me about Jamorama is that it not only teaches you how to play guitar but also gives you a solid foundation in music theory.

It does this by introducing you to the concepts of music theory as you go through the guitar lessons such as what the various symbols in sheet music mean (Treble Cleff, Crotchet, Quaver etc.) and many of the guitar tabs are accompanied by the corresponding music score.

These concepts are introduced slowly that you don’t feel too overwhelmed but still feel as though you’re learning something new  - for me, learning music began to feel enjoyable unlike the stuffy music lessons I remember from back in my school days.

As an added bonus, the guys at Jamorama provide a free copy of Jayde Musica Pro with their guitar course.

This is a fun game that teaches you how to read music whilst you’re enjoying yourself. A note or series of notes are played and then their musical notation moves across the screen from right to left. Your task is to click the corresponding note or notes (A, B, C, D, E, F or G) before the score hits the far left of the screen. You have three lives and the more notes you guess right, the more points you get – my eldest son (who is also learning guitar with Jamorama) and I are in a constant battle to get our name’s to the top of the high score table!

As well as the guitar lessons and the opportunity to learn music theory, there’s a lot more to Jamorama (check out my review here) and it’s well worth taking a look at.

Danny

One of the primary reasons that folk like me want to learn to play the guitar is so that we can play some of the hit songs that we adore ourselves.

Although Jamorama (reviewed here) provides some great jam tracks to play along to, copyright issues prevent them from including well-known tunes – the cost of paying royalties to the artists would make the guitar course a bit too expensive.

As I’ve been going through the lessons in Jamorama, I’ve found a few songs that complement the skills I’ve learned and I’d like to share them with you here.

As I get through more of the lessons, I’ll update this post with more songs that you can learn for additional guitar practise.

NOTE: Some of these songs are not played exactly the same as the originals but they still sound good

Songs After Completing Lesson 4

After you’ve completed lesson 4, you will have learned the A Major, D Major and E Major chords. Learning to change between the chords requires quite a bit of practice and will make your fingertips sore but with continued practice your fingers will become stronger.

I found that by playing Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver, I got a lot more enjoyment from my practise and was quickly able to improve the speed at which I switched between the chords. This song is quite well known and uses only the chords you have learned in Jamorama so far.

By lesson 4, you’ll also know how to read guitar tablature, so here’s the guitar tab for Leaving on a Jet Plane and it will also help if you listen to the song (covered by Peter, Paul and Mary) on YouTube as you play.

Another cool song to play is Blowin’ in the Wind by Bob Dylan.  Here’s the tab and here’s the YouTube video (covered by Joan Baez). Again, you only need the A, D and E Major chords.

More to come soon…

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT JAMORAMA

Enjoy,

Danny

Just after Christmas 2011, I decided I wanted to learn how to play guitar, so I purchased a copy of Jamorama, an online guitar tuition course.

Having used it myself, I wanted to provide people that are considering buying it an honest review of the product so that they can make an informed decision before they make the purchase.

So I created this website

Danny