Find out everything you need to know before you buy with our JamPlay review.
JamPlay’s lessons offer a level of depth unmatched by other guitar learning platforms.
But it’s also missing a lot of the learning aids that make other platforms so accessible.
This means that it’s a great choice for intermediate and advanced players. But beginners may prefer other online lessons to learn to play guitar.
Pros
- Explains things in far more depth than other platforms
- Lessons are structured in a logical way that aids progression
- Excellent tuner
- Good range of payment options
Cons
- Level of depth maybe overwhelming for beginners
- May not be suitable for children
- Lacks screen graphics to aid learning
Score
Lessons: 9
Quality: 7
Tools: 7
Songs: 5
Value for Money: 8
Overall score: 7.2
JamPlay is an excellent online guitar lessons platform. It’s owned by TrueFire Studios, a company which runs several popular online music courses websites.
At first glance, it’s almost identical to Guitar Tricks. But once you start exploring a bit deeper you start finding subtle differences that mean it’s more suited to more advanced players than beginners.
Lessons
I was really impressed with JamPlay’s lessons.
Like most platforms, it begins by asking you to choose a style and an ability level. It then suggests courses for you.
There’s a lot of choice for players of all abilities. As an advanced player, I quickly found several courses that challenged me and taught me something new.
The lessons are also well-structured. It’s pretty clear what each course is aiming to teach you and how it fits with the other courses.
For example, I said that I was an advanced player and chose blues as my style.
JamPlay suggested advanced blues rhythms, followed by an advanced course on blues lead guitar.
This kind of logical, joined up progression is often missing from other electric guitar or acoustic guitar lessons platforms.
The lessons also have a lot of depth. Teachers aren’t afraid to go into detail. For example, I took a music theory lesson that went deep on how different guitar chords are structured.
Once again, this is great for experienced players but perhaps not beginners.
The teachers also seem to have a more relaxed, natural delivery than in some of the other platforms.
Many of the teachers on Fender Play for example, feel a bit wooden.
Beginner lessons are also good. They are thorough and take players through the very basics.
But there are a few downsides. Most of the lessons are just someone talking to the camera.
There’s no on-screen graphics showing tabs or chord boxes.
This can make things difficult. Especially because in some video lessons they don’t even zoom in on the fretboard when explaining how to finger chords.
This can make it a little tricky for beginner players.
Another odd thing – but not necessarily a downside – is JamPlay’s focus on the teachers.
The beginner courses for example, are categorised by teacher – and there are loads!
The choice is overwhelming – especially as you have no idea who any of them are.
Quality
Here’s another way that JamPlay doesn’t do so well.
Although it doesn’t look bad, both Guitar Tricks and Fender Play feel sharper and better produced.
This may put some people off.
But the quality of the lesson content is excellent.
Songs
JamPlay doesn’t have very many songs at all.
In fact, it has so few that they are simply listed on a single page in alphabetical order.
There’s no search function at all!
The song lessons themselves are very good but unfortunately the choice isn’t.
Tools
JamPlay’s tools are pretty good. It includes all of the usual suspects like chord charts, backing tracks, scale diagrams and more.
The star of the show is the chromatic tuner which connects to your device’s microphone for accurate tuning.
It works well and is a great addition for beginners.
Value for Money
JamPlay is a mixed bag when it comes to value for money.
It’s basic monthly package is $19.95, which is pretty good.
Buy a one year package and this goes down to $13.33 per month, which is very cheap.
The one year package also includes a 1-1 consultation – we didn’t try this out but no doubt it’s very useful for improving your playing.
But then there’s a load of additional “toolkits”, some of which aren’t included in the basic or monthly packages.
These are courses, including jam tracks and lessons that focus on a particular style.
Some people may find it frustrating that this isn’t included.
You could spend hundreds of dollars. But then the moment you stop paying you lose the lot.
JamPlay attempts to solve this by introducing ownership credits. These enable you to download lessons so that you own them forever.
The Pro package is $24.99. This gives you a lot more.
It includes tons of ownership credits, access to toolkits and multiple 1-1 consultations. This great value for money.
There’s also a more limited bass membership which is just $9.95 per month or $119.99 per year.
JamPlay is an excellent lessons platform. It offers lots of depth and detail in its lessons.
Guitar Tricks vs JamPlay
I prefer JamPlay to Guitar Tricks. It has more depth to the lessons and more structure to the advanced courses.
But it’s not as simple – there are too many courses and teachers to choose from.
And JamPlay is also not the prettiest-looking platform.
It therefore feels like it’s aimed at older, intermediate or advanced players.
Younger players and beginners may be better off with Guitar Tricks.
JamPlay Vs Fender Play
Once again, JamPlay has much more depth than Fender Play. But this can make things complicated for beginners.
It also looks nowhere near as nice as Fender Play.
I would recommend new players and younger players use Fender Play. Older more advanced players will probably prefer JamPlay.