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Founded in 2014, Jamorama is a fairly new online guitar lessons site compared to competitors such as Guitar Tricks, TrueFire, and Justin Guitar, which were founded in 1998, 1991, and 2003 respectively.
In our opinion, Jamorama is one of the best online guitar learning sites for beginner six-string pickers, but is it as good as the esteemed Guitar Tricks?
More importantly, does Jamorama offer advanced players as much value as its competitor? In this Guitar Tricks vs. Jamorama article, we attempt to find out.
Guitar Tricks vs. Jamorama – Feature for Feature Comparison
| Feature | GuitarTricks | Jamorama |
| Ideal For | All | Beginners |
| Price | $19.95/m or $179.99/y | $99.95 (Lifetime) |
| Free Trial Period | 14 Days | Offers Free Membership |
| Money-Back Guarantee | Yes | No |
| Private Online Lessons | Yes | No |
| Active Forum | Yes | Yes |
Guitar Tricks vs. Jamorama – In-Detail Comparison
As per usual, it’s only right that we go over what each platform has to offer for different skill levels so that it’s easier for you to determine which of these two guitar lesson websites suits your best.
Beginner Lessons
Guitar Tricks
Never picked up a guitar in your life, huh? Well, don’t you worry, as Guitar Tricks flaunts an intuitive core learning system that will have you familiarized with your instrument in no time.
The core learning system is geared primarily toward first-time guitar students and those who have recently returned to guitar playing after having left it for a while. The system consists of eight courses that are divided into two sections: Guitar Fundamentals and Style Courses, with each course running from one to eight weeks.
In this section of the article, we’ll touch on the Guitar Fundamentals courses, as they’re the ones geared for complete newbies. As the name suggests, the Guitar Fundamentals courses aim to help students get a solid understanding of guitar playing basics, from how to tune their guitar and identify different strings all the way to playing full major chords.
Firstly, you’ll go through Guitar Fundamentals 1, which teaches you, step by step, how to pick up the guitar properly and how to play major chords. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to play simple chords and melodies, and you’ll be well-informed on rhythm.
Once again, no previous knowledge or experience is needed for you to partake in this course. It has been tested rigorously to ensure smooth and rapid skill building.
After finishing the first course, you move on to Guitar Fundamentals 2, which does an outstanding job of covering scales, basic song structure, minor and major chords, barre chords, and reading music. By the end of this course, you’ll be ready to pursue the musical style of your preference with the aid of thousands of intermediate and advanced guitar courses.
Both Guitar Fundamentals courses are conducted by instructor Lisa McCormick, who, as we stated time and time again, is one of the best guitar instructors we’ve seen. We find it really hard to listen to (and like) guitar instructors who use fancy terminology to get their point across.
Lisa isn’t like that at all. She relies on a simple and intuitive approach to guitar teaching, which makes following her instructions an absolute delight.
The material offered in Guitar Tricks’ beginner lessons is more than enough to keep you busy for weeks, and more than what any in-person instructor can help you learn in an equivalent timeframe.
Jamorama
Want to learn how to play guitar in only ten weeks? With Jamorama, you can! Jamorama is an online guitar lessons platform that specializes in beginner courses.
Their system for beginners consists of two stages that require around ten weeks to be completed. Upon completion, you’ll be a well-rounded guitar player ready to venture into a particular style of music.
In Stage 1 of Jamorama’s beginner’s program, you’ll learn about the basics of guitar playing, from strumming, chords, and how to read chord charts, to simple riffs and licks. This stage lasts around five weeks.
Thereafter, you jump straight into Stage 2, which also takes around five weeks to be completed. In this stage, you pick up where you left off in the first stage, learning more about chords as well as intricate riffs and strumming patterns.
We love how well-structured this course is. Veteran online guitar learning platforms like TrueFire should take a cue from Jamorama on how to present guitar learning material for beginners.
Apart from the Stage 1 and Stage 2 courses, Jamorama has supplementary courses on offer that deal with very specific aspects of guitar playing. For instance, the Lead Guitar for Beginners course deals with scales and lead guitar playing techniques like pull-offs and hammer-ons. Jamorama also offers jam tracks for your convenience.
All things considered, we feel that both Guitar Tricks and Jamorama have a lot to offer in terms of beginner lessons, we’ll simply call it a draw.
Winner: Draw
Intermediate and Advanced Lessons
Guitar Tricks
Most guitar learning platforms aren’t really comprehensive with their offerings. You’ll find ones that offer solid material for beginners but fall short when it comes to advanced lessons, whereas others are just too much for novice guitarists to handle.
Guitar Tricks, per contra, is solid through and through. Its intermediate and advanced courses offer a ton of value. After you’re done with the Guitar Fundamentals courses, you’ll jump into intermediate courses that cover the foundations of three styles of music: blues, rock, and country, with each style divided into two levels.
Blues Style 1 covers everything a future bluesman needs to be aware of, from the 12 bar form and essential rhythms to chord structure and blues chords. You’ll also learn about different guitars, amps, and effects that are essential to achieving the legendary blues sound that has given birth to virtually all genres of music.
In Blues Style 2, you’re introduced to advanced techniques and new scales. You’ll learn how to play in a similar style to some of the most legendary bluesmen that have ever picked up a guitar. The course ends with a brief tour through the regions that have helped shape the sound of the blues. A very inspirational course, all in all.
Headbangers, assemble! We’re about to dive into the world of rock and roll with Guitar Tricks’ Rock Style course. Rock Style 1 covers everything from the roots of rock music in blues music to vital techniques such as power chords and palm-muting. You’ll also be given tips on how to achieve a crunchy, powerful rock tone from your guitar.
Rock Style 2 takes things further by covering advanced lead and rhythm techniques, from pull-offs and hammer-ons to vibrato and string bending. If you’re serious about becoming a rockstar, we highly recommend checking out Guitar Tricks’ ‘Better Rock Musicianship' lesson.
Lastly, if you’re looking to play like the plain to see plainsman Colter Wall or play some honky-tonk flame in the style of Tyler Childers, or if you’re into classic acts like George Jones, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, and Hank Williams, the Country Style course has got you covered.
Keep in mind that each of these style courses is conducted by different instructors. After you’re done with the style course of your preference, you jump into more advanced courses. You also get to enjoy a massive song library of over 700 songs. As said before, Guitar Tricks is solid through and through.
Jamorama
Earlier we said that most guitar learning platforms aren’t comprehensive and tend to drop the ball with either their beginner or advanced courses. Well, Jamorama is one of those platforms.
If you’re an experienced guitarist who’s looking to add more to their bag of tricks, you’ll find Jamorama to be pretty juvenile and scarce with its offerings. This isn’t to say that all of their advanced courses aren’t useful; we personally like their courses on speed picking and fingerstyle picking. But the overall package feels lacking.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to your definition of the word ‘advanced.’ In our dictionary, ‘advanced’ is someone who has plenty of experience under their belt. In another’s dictionary, ‘advanced’ may simply refer to advanced beginners.
And since we’re judging this article from our viewpoint, we just have to say that Jamorama falls short compared to Guitar Tricks in terms of advanced lessons.
Winner: Guitar Tricks
Bass Guitar Lessons
Both Guitar Tricks and Jamorama don’t feature any dedicated lessons for bass guitar playing, which is sad to say considering how popular these two platforms are. If you’re looking for a guitar teaching platform that features extensive bass guitar courses, you ought to check out TrueFire.
Winner: Stalemate
The Detailed Breakdown of Each Platform
By now, you’ve probably formed your own opinion as to which platform is best for you based on your skill set. But to ensure making a well-informed decision, we’re going to break down secondary aspects such as each platform’s song library, user interface, pricing, and more.
Video Player
Guitar Tricks flaunts an excellent video player that’s simple yet packed with neat features. It has an A/B looping feature that enables you to repeat entire tutorials or specific parts of these tutorials, which truly comes in handy when trying to learn a challenging song. It also enables you to adjust playback speed without affecting pitch.
Jamorama also features a simple video player, but it’s not the most advanced. It doesn’t have the A/B looping function that Guitar Tricks has. It doesn’t even have speed controls. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the better video players we’ve assessed.
Winner: Guitar Tricks
User Interface
Both GuitarTricks and Jamorama sport clean and simple interfaces that are easy to navigate. We’ve noticed that virtually all guitar learning platforms avoid all unnecessary frills to help keep students from getting overwhelmed. With that said, we’ll call it a draw.
Winner: Draw
Song Library
Guitar Tricks flaunts one of the vastest song libraries amongst its competitors, featuring over 700 songs, with a promise to add one song or more per week. Jamorama, on the other hand, has a song library that’s so limited it doesn’t count as a ‘library.’ And all of the songs in their so-called library are acoustic-based. Sorry, rockers and metalheads.
Winner: Guitar Tricks
Cost
With Guitar Tricks, there are two payment plans that you can choose from; $19.95/m or $179.99/y. With Jamorama, you can settle for their free yet limited lifetime membership, or you can gain access to all of their content by making a one-time payment of $99.95. Clearly, Jamorama is the winner of this round.
Winner: Jamorama
FAQs
Is Jamorama Any Good?
If you’re a pure beginner, then yes, Jamorama is totally worth it, especially when you take into consideration that it offers a free (limited) membership plan.
Is Guitar Tricks Any Good?
Guitar Tricks is considered by many to be the ultimate online guitar learning platform, so yes, it’s certainly worth it no matter your skill level.
Is Guitar Tricks Free?
No, it’s not. But they do offer a 14-day free trial period, meaning you get to enjoy and assess their content for two weeks without having to pay a single penny.
GuitarTricks vs Jamorama, Final Thoughts
It’s clear to us, as it is probably clear to you, that Guitar Tricks is the winner of this comparison. Jamorama is the new kid on the block, so it still has a lot of progressing to do. We’re confident that in the next few years, it’ll become on par with giants like Guitar Tricks and TrueFire.
To conclude, if you’re an absolute beginner, you’ll find a ton of value in both Jamorama and Guitar Tricks. If you’re an intermediate or advanced guitarist, Guitar Tricks is the way to go.
If you happen to choose Guitar Tricks, we still recommend that you sign up for Jamorama’s free lifetime membership to enjoy their lively community.
Side note, do you want to learn to play guitar songs the easy way? Learn how here – results are guaranteed!