Where every country guitar lesson is fun!

I got really excited when I first came across my next series of lessons, and the enthusiasm has stayed with me ever since. It’s not just the country lessons provided by great teachers like Steve Eulberg and Eve Goldberg, it’s the whole feel of the website, how user friendly it is, the tools and teaching aids provided and so on, and on…:)

I mentioned in an earlier lesson that I was having a great time learning guitar by really studying what I was trying to do, but I also wanted to have some fun with songs and other stuff that were within my skill range, and that’s exactly what Jamplay provided. From day one I was playing Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Okay, it was just two chords, but it was a start and it made learning just that little bit more fun.

The other thing I find so great is the variety of lessons available. For instance, there’s nothing to stop me taking a blues guitar lesson when I feel like it, switching to electric guitar, trying out some jazz and so on. Each style has it’s own instructors, it’s own written lessons and a huge amount of backup material in the form of chord charts, scales, arpeggios and so on. There’s even a tools section that includes a pitch tuner, metronome and backing tracks. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you take advantage of the musical theory modules, but they are so well set out you might even find yourself enjoying them!

The lessons are arranged in three phases. Phase 1 is for complete beginners and you can cheerfully switch between the 24 instructors who all teach pretty much the same basics but in a slightly different way. The acoustic guitar lessons are different, for example, from those for electric guitar. Also included in Phase 1 is a special section of kids’ guitar lessons. If you have children they will love learning from Steve and will be playing a number of songs by the end of it, including ‘Go Tell Aunt Rhody’ and ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed those lessons as well.

Phase 2 deals specifically with various genres, including country and blue grass of course. There are also full courses on finger-picking style, blues, Hawaiian slack key, jazz and rock among others. Members can take any one or all of them. They are all included in the fees, which I’ll talk about later.

Phase 3 deals specifically with learning songs, which range from the very simple ‘The World I Know’ from Collective Soul to Ozzy Osbourne’s darn near impossible ‘Mr.Crowley’. Believe me, they will stretch you.

Everything is internet based, but you can print the written lessons as well as the supplemental content – very handy if you like to have chord charts up on the wall in front of you when you practice. Every day there is also a live question and answer session, on video, with one or other of the instructors where you can ask them to demonstrate something you are finding difficult, resolve a piece of theory for you, or just hang out for an hour or so and play along. All in all, fantastic value for money.

There are a number of ways to pay for the lessons. I have an annual subscription but there’s nothing to stop you paying for just one month and enjoying all the facilities to see how you go with it. What you could do is pay for a month, learn as much as you can from it and then practice what you’ve learned for a week or two before going back for more.

To see full details of all the lessons and the various facilities, click here

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