Smart Music

Learning how to play guitar can be a very fulfilling experience. Some people have a natural talent with music and are self-taught. Of course, this is not always the case. Most people need help when trying to learn any instrument, let alone a guitar. Whether you are just looking for a hobby to fill some time, or really serious about your choice to learn guitar, Jamorama can help.

Jamorama started out in New Zealand in 2003 as a small business encouraging people to learn how to play. Now, years later, they have helped over 200,000 students experience the joy of playing guitar. Using a unique step-by-step instruction course, anyone can learn online.

If you are not sure that Jamorama is right for you, you can try it out for free. This includes a 6 day course that helps beginners learn the basics of guitar and gives a prospective student a taste of how learning through Jamorama is easy and effective.

After trying Jamorama for free, it is then time to sign up. The course is downloadable to your home computer and can be accessed at any time to fit your schedule using only about 15 minutes of your time a day. You have the choice of purchasing a hard copy that is mailed to your home, or just having it download directly from the website.

Some of the skills learned during the course are strumming, palm muting, finger picking, alternative picking and more. Ear training lessons are also offered and will help when recognizing chords so you can teach yourself how to play what you hear. You will also learn required maintenance for your guitar to help keep it in the best shape it can be in and to make sure it sounds great every time you use it. You will learn how to tune your guitar, change strings, clean your guitar, and protect it. You will even become educated about the classic acoustic guitar and the electric guitar which will help when finding the right guitar for your specific needs.

By the end of the course, you should be confident enough about your skills as a musician and fully educated on the basics of your guitar to discuss music and the instrument itself with any seasoned musician.

There is definitely a widespread image in popular culture of male rock musicians being idolised and adored by their many female fans.  This has led to a common presumption amongst people that young men commonly learn the electric guitar just to get girls.

So, just how accurate is this stereotype?  Are the vast majorty of guys who learn guitar doing it solely to meet women?

There's no doubt that a lot more men learn the electric guitar than women.  You don't have to look very far to see it - famous bands, young hopeful bands, regular working musicians who play in cover bands or work as teachers or session artists, on musician's websites, or even just the people browsing music stores or at the counter buying picks and strings - so often there's hardly a woman guitarist in sight.

There's also little doubt that by far the most popular time to start learning electric guitar is in the early teens.  This coincidentally is when boys are first starting to try to date girls.  Before adolescence it's more common to find both boys and girls learning instruments such as the piano or the violin.  It has to be said though that a big reason that there are few very young guitarists is simply because a full scale-length guitar doesn't lend itself very well to the small hands of a young child.

On guitar forums it's common to find threads asking everyone to state their reasons why they started to learn the electric guitar.  Very commonly people will chime in saying "to get chicks" or "to get girls".   There is probably an element of honesty to this, as well as an inevitable sense of parody and flippancy that characterises the majority of online discussions.

All of these things seem to indicate that getting laid is a big motivator for people to learn guitar.  But as the only motivator it's hard to give it much credit.  Playing guitar involves spending hundreds and eventually thousands of dollars on equipment, and devoting countless hours week in, week out to honing your craft.  It's hard to see that anybody could keep doing it for very long, without some love of the instrument in and of itself, as well as a desire to perform and be creative.