JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks – Why One Is Better Than The Other?
In this post I am doing a JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks comparison to determine which one is better for you. We compare the content, price, how each program works and more.
Summary: JamPlay Vs Guitar Tricks
Both of these programs are brilliant for teaching anyone to learn guitar. They are both priced at $19.95 per month.
JamPlay offers more courses, live lessons, genres to learn from, and also teaches you to play Bass Guitar.
Guitar Tricks’ program is easy to use, has a more guided process of teaching, offers more songs to learn, an excellent forum/community, and overall is the better program for beginners in my opinion.
In this post, I will cover the following:
- A breakdown on how both Guitar Tricks and JamPlay work with a course walkthrough and their teaching process
- Highlight key differences between JamPlay and Guitar Tricks
- Compare pricing
- Which one I would choose.
Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission.
Table of Contents
How Do They JamPlay & Guitar Tricks Work?
JamPlay and Guitar Tricks are probably the most well known online guitar lessons currently on the market. They both know very well how to help people learn the guitar.
They each have 1000’s of video lessons for both beginners and advanced guitarists, talented instructors, and also several genres styles to gear your learning towards.
For the sake of this post comparing JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks, I am going to assume most of you reading this are beginners or somewhat novice guitar players.
JamPlay & Guitar Tricks have different approaches to getting you started learning to play the guitar.
The best way I think to describe it is that Guitar Tricks offer a more hand holding type of learning; at the beginning at least compared to JamPlay.
What do I mean by that? Well I will split them up to explain.
JamPlay
Well, when you sign up to JamPlay and head over to Phase 1: For Beginner Lessons. You are presented with several beginner courses to choose from.
Each course as a different instructor, varies in the amount of lessons and overall length of the beginner lesson.
JamPlay (Discounted Offer Here) leaves the user to choose their instructor here for either acoustic or electric guitar. This gives the user the option to find an instructor that they like and find their style of teaching that they like.
Now I do like the option that they are giving people that they can choose an instructor that’s best suited to them personally.
However, this does create the risk of confusing or overwhelming the user, bearing in mind that they could be a complete beginner.
I brought this up in my JamPlay Review, and actually recommended that beginners choose the first instructor Steve Eulberg if they do find themselves getting flustered.
From here users them move into Phase 2: Advanced & Genre Specific Lessons where the user chooses the genre they want to learn.
Click on the genre to reveal more lessons where the user gets to choose their own instructor again or complete all of the courses if they preferred.
Guitar Tricks
Guitar Tricks does this a little differently. Like I mentioned above, Guitar Tricks’ learning method is more guided at the beginning and then allow to user to control what they want to learn.
You can see in the image below, Guitar Tricks teaches what they call their ‘Core Learning System’.
Users will start at Level 1: Guitar Fundamentals where they learn the basics like holding a guitar, start learning cords, how to play simple melodies and timing and rhythm.
One thing I love within Level 1 is that Guitar Tricks will mention the songs you should be able to start playing with the lessons you have learned so far. This is really motivating.
Not only that, if you click on one of the songs recommended, you will be directed to a step by step video guide on how to play this songs chord by chord.
Once Level 1 is complete you will move into Level 2: Guitar Fundamentals. Level 2 will teach you some more advanced techniques.
Level 2 will include lessons on Power Chords, Major Scales, Barre Chords, Minor Scales and also reading music.
Again, you will also get a list of songs you will be capable of playing and Guitar Tricks will give you step by step video tutorials how to play those songs.
Once you complete Level 2 you can then move into more genre specific types of lessons.
This is all just in the Beginner Lesson Stage so these lessons are all beginner friendly. The oinly downside here is that you only have 4 genres to choose from – Blues, Country, Rock & Acoustic.
To be honest as a beginner this doesnt really matter because when you start to learn the basics and can play a few songs, you can dive into more genres.
Guitar Tricks (Free Trial Here) has 12 different music genres for you to choose, with each of them offering a range of lessons from different instructors.
There are also 2 playing levels in each genre; so once you have completed Level 1, you can then move to more advanced techniques with level 2.
I really like this teaching technique and it lets you dial into the exact learning material you want.
Difference Between JamPlay and Guitar Tricks
There’s a number of differences you need to know about when comparing JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks. I will mention these below and go into a little more detail on each.
These Include:
- Guitar Tricks Teaching Process Is Better Than JamPlay
- JamPlay Teaches You Bass Whereas Guitar Trick Does Not
- Guitar Tricks Is Easier To Use
- JamPlay Gives You A Lot More Choice For Lessons & Instructors
- Guitar Tricks Offers Better Songs To Learn
- JamPlay Offers More Genres To Choose from (20+)
- Guitar Tricks Has A Better Forum
- JamPlay Offers Live Steam Lessons
Guitar Tricks Teaching Process Is Better Than JamPlay
When you are a complete beginner, JamPlay’s method can be a little off putting in my opinion. There is too many instrucotrs and lessons to choose from.
It can confuse you and you could spend a few days learning from one instructor, maybe feel they are not right for you and then try another, therefore bouncing from instructor to instructor without following any real structure.
This could slow you down; and its also the reason I recommended in my review of JamPlay that you should just go with the first instructor on the list if you weren’t sure.
JamPlay offers a huge amount of content with over 450 courses; but for a beginner I think its just too much.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that JamPlay offers so much content and you will never run out of video lessons to choose from.
If you are just beginning to learn guitar; you need to be guided a little in the beginning. In my opinion anyway.
Here’s a sample lesson below.
JamPlay Teaches You How To Play Bass
This is probably one the biggest differences between Guitar Tricks and JamPlay for sure.
JamPlay teaches you how to play Bass Guitar the same way that it teaches you to play guitar. You follow the same process I mentioned above in walking you through the program.
Guitar Tricks does not teach any Bass Guitar lessons whatsoever which can be disappointing if you were interested in playing both.
If you are interested in playing both Guitar and Bass, I think JamPlay would be the better choice for you.
Guitar Tricks Is Easier To Use
Guitar Tricks design and navigation is much cleaner and easier to use in my opinion. The site just flows much easier compared to JamPlay.
Click one of the 4 main images above to be directed where you need to go. From there you simple follow the lesson guide step by step.
JamPlay requires you to go in and out of lessons and instructors quiet a lot which can distract you and slow down the whole process of learning.
If you are looking for a program that’s easy to navigate and looks very well, then I would say Guitar Tricks for sure here.
Guitar Tricks Has A Better Song Selection
This is a big one for me. I mentioned this when I reviewed JamPlay. It’s a real pity that the song you can learn with JamPlay or limited and more importantly dated.
Fair enough if you are into some of the golden oldies rock and blues songs from the 70’s and 80’s; but if you want anything some way mordern or commercial, you are not getting it with JamPlay.
Guitar Tricks on the other hand has a very impressive song list to learn from with new songs added regularly.
However the new songs that are added to their list are typically older songs. The latest chart toppers aren’t added there every week; this might be for legal reasons, I don’t know to be honest.
Each song walks you through step by step how that to play that particular song in a detailed tutorial video.
These are great to learn from and since you will also be able to read sheet music using Guitar Tricks, you will have the confidence to go out and find the songs you really want to play.
I also like the different categories Guitar Tricks have for different songs like ‘One Hit Wonders’ & ‘From Movies & TV’ rather than your standard 70’s, 80’s, etc.
If you are looking for an better song choices, Guitar Tricks wins this one hands down.
JamPlay Offers More Genre Specific Lessons
One major difference between JamPlay and Guitar Tricks here the amount of Genres you can learn. Guitar Tricks offers 12 genres to choose from whereas JamPlay offers 20+.
This isn’t a huge thing as Guitar Tricks offer the main genres a lot of them can overlap in playing style a little.
But if you want more genres to learn then Jamplay might be an option for you.
Guitar Tricks Has A Better Forum
One thing I really found was a big difference between JamPlay vs Guitar Tricks was the forums. I like forums; they are useful for getting advice from real people who have experience.
Guitar Tricks has an excellent forum that’s very active with beginner, intermediate and more importantly experienced guitarists.
Experienced members of Guitar Tricks are great for helping beginners especially. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask on the forum.
You’d be surprised at how helpful people can be and also the amount of people who may have a similar issue.
JamPlay on the other hand doesn’t appear to have any forum but it’s more of a Facebook for members. You can reach out to instructors and members individually and send them messages.
JamPlay also has live webcam discussions with its members, so you can submit some questions there if you needed to.
JamPlay Free Live Stream Lessons
Now this one is pretty cool. Once you are a member of JamPlay you can join in on their live stream lessons. This is a really cool feature.
Rather than following a course, it’s nice to see a teacher doing it live right there and then and being involved.
There’s a number of live lesson courses available to jump in on. I have circled a few in the image above.
I like these once you know some of the basics and feel you can follow along. It’s fun, different and makes you realize you are not completely alone in your guitar learning journey.
Guitar Tricks used to offer live stream one to one lessons if you feel you needed some more help; but now they charge for this service, which is understandable I think.
Price Difference: JamPlay Vs Guitar Tricks
Both Guitar Tricks and JamPlay each work as a monthly subscription costing $19.95 per month.
I don’t need to justify the prices here as I have explained above and in also my Guitar Tricks Review and JamPlay Review that amazing value you are getting with these amazing courses.
If you are looking for some value, we do have some discounts available for each of these for you if you wish to use them.
Although both courses cost around $19.95, there’s substantial savings in signing up for annual subscriptions of each program.
However, if I were you I start monthly to make sure one of them is right for you. After you have completed one or two months, then maybe look at upgrading to an annual subscription.
We have offers for both programs. You can get a 14 Day free trial for Guitar Tricks HERE or a discount off your first month/annual subscriptions for JamPlay HERE.
Which Is Better JamPlay or Guitar Tricks?
These are two excellent programs and both of them will no doubt teach you to play the guitar very well right up to an advanced level.
If I was a complete beginner and I had to choose, I would probably choose Guitar Tricks. Here is why I would choose Guitar Tricks instead of JamPlay.
If you are a complete beginner and need some guidance, Guitar Tricks’ program is easier to follow, has a core learning process that works very well, has more songs to learn, and offers a very good free trial to start with before committing to a monthly payment.
I just think JamPlay make it a little more difficult and confusing for beginners as it can be quiet overwhelming with the amount of courses and instructors they allow you to choose from.
Some might see this as a good thing, and in a way it is. But if you just want to begin learning guitar and aren’t too concerned about who is teaching you, then Guitar Tricks is the better choice I feel.
Overall Winner: Guitar Tricks
Disclaimer
Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission.
Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases.
The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.
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