Peter Morales has put a lot of heart and soul into creating what is just about the best blues guitar course online. His aim was to make BluesJamSession the easiest way to learn to play the blues and it shows.

Consisting of 60 blues backing tracks in every style with video lessons and improvisation guides, it is one of the most comprehensive guitar courses you can get. It is jam-packed with quality information, including hundreds of tracks, charts, video lessons AND step-by-step instructions to learn the blues guitar.

Visit the BluesJamSession Website

One thing it is very important to note is that some of the poorer quality guitar lessons online come with very low quality audio lessons, and to be honest, are pretty lousy. As if that wasn’t bad enough some don’t even have video lessons either.

Video is so important nowadays as learning from a book is not as effective for learning blues guitar. I am sure you know what I mean if you’ve bought a sub-standard guitar course before.

Well, that sort of complaint can’t be levelled at Blues Jam Session as it has videos galore and lots of audio tracks in MP3 format too.

Inside of Blue Jams Session you will get:

• Over 60 blues backing tracks.
• Blues scales and chord charts.
• Many hours of video lessons, guides, chords and scale sheets
• Complete 12 Bar Blues Video Series
• Pentatonic Licks and Fills
• Acoustic Blues Finger-Picking
• Crazy Blues Turnaround and Riffs
• Soloing Over Blues and Improvisations
• Bending Tutorials and Exercises
• And lots more beside…

Even if you are pretty much a beginner at playing the guitar, and don’t know how to improvise, the tutorials inside the Blues Jam Sessions will guide you steadily into becoming proficient at playing the blues guitar.

You will find the lessons very straightforward and easy to follow because they are very clear and concise. In fact, after watching the videos for just a few minutes even a guitar novice could be learning improvisations and other techniques.

You will quickly learn a wide range of styles and genres and no matter what kind of guitar you have, these guitar lessons will be suitable for you.

Here’s the negative part.

About the only drawback is that the videos and other files can be very large and might take someone on a slow connection a long time to download to their computer. This is unavoidable as they are done in high quality which is a good thing overall. If this is a problem you can get them as physical CD’s instead.

Why Buy BluesJamSession?

There are some good blues guitar lessons available online but we haven’t seen many other blues jam packages that are as comprehensive as BluesJamSession and at such a low price.

The quality of the jam tracks and videos are probably some of the best that we’ve come across at this price.

It doesn’t matter what style you want to play (Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classical or Funk), even if you are a beginner, an intermediate player or advanced, BluesJamSession will add a new dimension to your guitar playing.

You will also get a lifetime membership giving you access to lots of high grade blues tutorial videos on a wide range of topics, taught by seasoned guitarists.

Visit the BluesJamSession Website

By the way,  if you ever get stuck on one part of the course they have very good customer support to help you out – and quickly too!

Learning the blues can be quite a tough challenge and there are very few guitarists who know the secrets which make it sound special. Griff and his crew have created what I believe is a really thorough, step-by-step method that has actually been used to teach his own guitar students over the last few years.

Playing through the Blues is packed with tons of step-by-step guitar lessons to teach you how to play killer blues guitar solos. You can watch the videos and follow along, which is the best way to learn guitar, rather than reading a book and trying to figure things out for yourself.  

What’s In Playing Through The Blues?

Quite a lot for your money for sure.

The course consists of over 90 minutes of professional video, 120 minutes of high quality on playing lead guitar, Rhythm and Chords Modules, lesson books, and a free members-only blog. I reckon it’s the only instructional package you’ll ever need to learn to play the blues.

The main book gives you all of the scales, techniques, theory, and secrets you will need to play blues guitar. It follows a simple and logical sequence with each chapter building on the one preceding. Following each chapter, you’ll be told specifically what you have to do before moving on to the next chapter. The guitar lessons are broken down into sections so you learn at your own pace, with each lesson building up your guitar skills.

One of the most enjoyable parts is the audio examples and jam tracks. Each audio example comes in two versions – full speed and slow speed,  so you can play along very easily to start with, and pick up speed as you improve.

Is Playing Through The Blues worth it?

Do you believe in the saying “You get what you pay for?” C’mon, how many things have you bought which were not worth the money?

Plenty is my guess.

Like I say, the only downside is that it may be a little more expensive than some other blues guitar courses, but if you take into consideration the top quality materials you are getting, it is great value for money.

Sometimes it’s worth paying a little more for quality because cheap usually means getting something of poor quality, wouldn’t you agree? But with Playing Through The Blues you get quality blues guitar lessons and it won’t cost the earth.

Let’s face it, watching a video of a real guitar player showing you how to play the guitar is worth far more a few sentences and some static pictures in a book. It’s just like having your own private guitar tutor 24/7 but won’t cost you that much.

Playing Through The Blues videos are extremely well presented and the teaching methods are too, in fact everything about them has the stamp of professionalism.

Everything about it oozes professionalism because Griff Hamlin has been playing and teaching for over twenty years. It is one of the best guides out there to help you learn to play the blues.  If you are serious about learning the blues then this is certainly one guitar course you should consider.

As an added  bonus Griff has included a really good book full of turnaround and ending licks. Some of them are pretty basic blues licks, but a couple of them will blow you away.

Playing Through The Blues is a complete program laid out in an easy to use, step-by-step format. And, you get to move through the course at your own pace. You get to learn the blues when you want to.

As you can guess, all in all, I’m very impressed with this course. The testimonials on the website bear witness to its quality. I can safely say it’s a high quality and proven course for learning to play the blues guitar.

Don’t just take my word for it though, take a look for yourself.

Visit the Playing Through The Blues Website

The best thing about Mike’s Express Guitar System is that you will be taught by a proven guitar teacher as well as a guitar player, which is sometimes not the case.

Click here to visit the Express Guitar website!

There’s no doubt it takes a special talent to teach the guitar well and not everyone can do it. Mike has being doing it successfully online for a number of years and has taught lots of happy pupils in that time.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you want to learn to play guitar from someone who has been earning a living from it for over 30 years? Someone who has successfully taught others who have then gone on to play for famous stars?

Mike personally coaches many students every week at his own guitar studio. And from these private lessons he gets to find out what real people are struggling with as they learn to play the guitar. That’s why he knows what the roadblocks are and how to overcome them.

The bottom line is this; there is no way you can teach the skill of playing the guitar if you can’t do it yourself and Mike can!

Some things to look out for when buying a guitar course.

• Make sure the guitar teacher is a professional guitar player. Someone who knows the guitar inside and out, like Mike – not some amateur.
• Make sure they are a professional guitar teacher. Some excellent guitar players don’t have the teaching skills necessary to help other to learn the guitar. Mike knows how to teach as well as play as you can see from the many testimonials he receives from past and present pupils.
• That it gets you playing right away. This will keep the interest going in the early stages when some beginners get bored at the lack of progress and just give up. The Express Guitar System will get you playing the guitar in minutes not days. You’ll make more progress in just a few hours, instead of grinding away for years getting nowhere.
• It shows you how to practise. What you do in practise becomes the way you will eventually play. If you pick up bad practise habits then you will do it wrong from the start. As Mike says, practise doesn’t make perfect, perfect practise makes perfect!
• It teaches you advanced guitar playing techniques that will amaze and delight your audience. You will taught by a REAL, professional Guitar teacher with over 30 years’ experience.

What do you get with the Express Guitar System?

It would be easier to say what you don’t get, there’s just so much in it. In fact it’s better if you just go to Mike’s site to find out right now. It’s got everything that a beginner guitar player needs and is also suitable for more advanced players.

Click here to visit the Express Guitar website!

I am sure you will be amazed at what you get and how little guitar lessons for beginners online can cost.

In fact, with this speed learning system they say you can learn to play guitar in a matter of days, and even get to choose your own teachers! Guitar superstars is such a powerful, cutting edge guitar learning system that it almost forces you to become proficient with the guitar.

No matter what your current guitar skills, from beginner to advanced, or whether you want to learn rock, blues, jazz, classical or metal you will soon be playing it sooner than you ever thought possible.

The bottom line is this…

If you want guitar instructions that will have you playing guitar in days instead of years then with Guitar Super Stars you get a learn guitar video system that really works.

What is so frustrating is that you are trying to learn from the best guitar players but sometimes it just seems like you’ve hit a brick wall in your attempts to improve your guitar skills and techniques.

Learn Guitar Riffs The Easy Way

I am sure everyone learning to play the guitar has heard a top guitar riff that he or she desperately wanted to play. Beginner guitar players have always tried to reproduce their favourite artists’ style, especially when they want to learn cool riffs.

Usually though, the guitar solo is much too fast to follow, making it very difficult to reproduce by listening to it at the normal playing speed.

Let’s face it, with so much going on at once, even trying to pick out the notes in a famous guitar solo makes it very difficult for guitar players to improve their skills. All in all, listening to a piece of music so that you can learn a guitar riff can be very time-consuming if not impossible for some.

How To Slow Down Music?

What anyone who is learning to play guitar would love to have is a way to slow down their favourite guitar solos so they can learn to play those famous riffs.

In fact, there is studio hardware which has been developed to slow down songs so that artists would be able to both track and improve their performance. This keeps the notes at the original pitch even though they are slowed down, but the downside is it is too expensive for us non-rock stars.

These systems will enable you to slow down a guitar solo, but as stated, they are expensive and out of the reach of many people. However, there is a much cheaper and effective alternative to learn popular riffs.

Riffmaster Pro – Slow Down Music Software

Software products such as the award winning Riff Master Pro have managed to put a lot of the hardware used to slow down a guitar solo into a computer software package. It can slow down most music files from 99% down to 20% of the original speed of the song.

RiffMaster Pro is a guitar software application for Windows. RMP will Instantly Slow Down Guitar Solos Without Changing The Pitch! This is the perfect tool for any beginning, intermediate or even advanced guitarist.

It also has a feature-rich interface that allows you to save an already slowed down guitar solo for later training purposes.

This software is also useful for transcribing, working out a difficult riff, helping you learn new guitar techniques while making everything very easy to use and accessible for even a non-technical PC user.

This software is useful for any musician because it not only enables you to slow down a song so you can hear what is being played but also the nuances of how it is being played.

Copy The Guitar Legends

Riff Master Pro has the ability to slow down any guitar solo, from guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, which means you can listen to and practice famous riffs just like a real rock superstar.

You can practice any guitar styles such as blues guitar riffs or any other guitar riffs you want and even use it for other instruments, not just guitar.

Having Riff Master Pro by your side to slow down a guitar solo will finally make it possible for you to learn the best guitar riffs in a much shorter timescale, without all the frustration of trying to do it by ear.

Ear Training For Guitar

One major benefit for a beginner guitar player is that it will help you in training your ear so you can be a better musician. To play guitar well one must train the ear to “hear” the notes.

I am sure any guitarist will benefit from Riff Master Pro, whether a beginner, intermediate or advanced guitar player.

This is a ‘sound better’ tip…

Learn & Master Guitar Secret #2:  The $6 Guitar Tune-up!

One thing I have found as a professional player that NEVER fails to improve a guitar’s sound is… that’s right… put on a new set of strings.

Nothing puts the sparkle and punch back into your sound like a fresh set of strings.  I’ll never forget when I found out how often studio players changed their strings!  I thought, “How do they afford that?”

Well, it’s their gig!  They either show up sounding great or they don’t get called back!

Here are a few tips about guitar strings:

1.  The brand of strings isn’t as important as the fact that they’re new!

Strings come in two kinds – coated and uncoated.  Coated strings are ‘slicker’ feeling when you play them because they have a coating that keeps dirt and oils from tarnishing the strings (and it keeps their tone sounding bright.)  So coated strings sound “new” longer.

From my experience, individual brands don’t demonstrate as much real-world playing difference as the marketing would imply.  I prefer ‘Elixir Polywebs’ because I like the feel of the coating.  But there are other brands that offer coated strings too.

2.  The gauge of strings is important.

Lighter strings are going to be easier to push down though they sound a little ‘smaller’ in tone.  If you’re just beginning, I recommend a lighter guage string set.

Heavier strings will increase your sustain and volume but they’re also harder to push down. Experiment the next couple times you buy new strings to see what works best for you.

3.  Your strings have a “life-cycle.”

Most strings (coated or not) will sound ‘fantastic’ for about the first 4 hours of playing time; then ‘really good’ for about 3 days; after that, you’ll notice the tone beginning to ‘dull’ a bit (depending on how you observe #4 below.)

Coated strings will last a good bit longer (and sound ‘new’ longer) because they stay untarnished. They cost more, but it’s worth it to me.

4.  Wash your hands before you play.

Your hands have oils that you don’t even notice…so strings get ‘gunked up’ and corroded…losing that clear ‘ring.’  Washing your hands before you play minimizes this oil transfer so your strings last longer.

5.  Steve’s Rule of Thumb…

If you can’t remember the last time you changed your strings, then it’s time.

Do yourself (and your listeners) a favor and put a new set of strings on your guitar.  You’ll feel more motivated when your guitar tone is clear and ringy.

by Steve Krenz, Learn & Master Guitar

This first tip is THE most helpful thing I can tell you about learning to play guitar. It can take years off your study time and give you constant motivation to keep at it. It’s very simple. It has nothing to do with how you hold the guitar or your hands. It has nothing to do with which amp you buy or how often you change strings.

Here it is…

Learn & Master Guitar Secret #1: FIND A PLAYING PARTNER! (or a whole group of them!)

Now don’t dismiss this as ‘too simple to be useful.’ Here’s a story for you…

When I was a junior in high school, my friend Arnold invited me to a local Jazz club in San Antonio, where we lived (called the ‘El Rincon’)… A Jazz duo named ‘Small World’ hosted

Sunday night Jam sessions there. Anyone could get up and play.

Every Sunday night the city’s best Jazz players would filter through just for fun and some great music. For several weeks Arnold and I would just sit in the back and have our sodas and watch… until eventually we got up enough courage to play.

Arnold played sax. He was the first to get up the courage to play. The next week I got up and played a couple of songs with the band. I was scared to death (and who knows how bad I sounded)… but they were kind and encouraging to us both.

Week after week, we’d go down and listen. Sometimes we’d play…sometimes we were too shy. I always thought my playing was so bad next to these great players…I’d come home embarrassed, but challenged to sit and practice so I’d be better next time. Almost without me even knowing it, something was happening…

I was getting better.

Quite unexpectedly, one day I got a call from the guitarist in the Jazz duo, saying that she had recommended me for a gig that she couldn’t make!

I was 16 and that was my first professional gig. It was the start of my career and I’ve played professionally from that moment til now. And I can tell you that if it weren’t for Arnold, I would never have had the courage to get up and do that first jam session!

SO…MY ADVICE

My high school band director once said “The better musicians you play with, the better musician you will be.” He’s right.

Don’t shrink back from playing with others…especially if they’re better than you. Besides motivating and challenging you, it’s just a whole bunch of fun!

A neighbor, a co-worker, a group of friends, the music team at church, or a local band are all great choices to start.
Everyone knows someone who plays guitar…and guitarists love to get together and play, so this shouldn’t be hard. I’m telling you, this is worth making a couple phone calls today.

by Steve Krenz, Learn & Master Guitar

Plenty is my guess.

Sometimes it’s worth paying a little more for quality because cheap usually means getting something of poor quality, wouldn’ t you agree?

And, while Learn and Master Guitar is not a cheap guitar course compared to some of lesser quality – what you get is a high quality course suitable for anyone who is serious about learning to play guitar. Everything about it oozes professionalism.

Learn and Master Guitar is packed with tons of step-by-step guitar lessons on DVD and CD, so you can watch the videos and follow along, which is the best way to learn guitar, rather than reading a book and trying to figure things out for yourself.

Let’s face it, watching a video of a real guitar player showing you how to play the guitar is worth far more a few sentences and some static pictures in a book. It’s just like having your own private guitar tutor 24/7 but won’t cost you that much.

Learn and Master Guitar consists of 20 DVDs, 5 CDs (in jam-along style), 100+ page lesson book, and a free online student support site. I reckon it’s the only instructional package you’ll ever need to learn the guitar.

Learn and Master Guitar’s videos are extremely well presented and the teaching methods are too, in fact everything about them has the stamp of professionalism. The guitar lessons are broken down into sections so you learn at your own pace, with each lesson building up your guitar skills.

It is by far the most comprehensive guide out there to help you learn to play the guitar.  If you are serious about learning the guitar then this is the guitar course you should buy.

Like I say, the only downside is that it may be more expensive than other guitar courses, but if you take into consideration the top quality materials you are getting, it is great value for money.

Learn and Master Guitar truly is one of the best investments you will ever make if you want to learn to play guitar. No matter your skill level or age, Learn & Master Guitar can help you in learning to play guitar.All you need to do is practice!

But to learn to play guitar fast requires strong musculature in the hands, fingers and arms. When you are learning how to play guitar, it’s a good idea to warm up first by playing some scales to get you ready to play, just like athletes get their muscles warmed up.

Guitar hand position when playing the guitar is important as the wrists are particularly at risk of strain when fretting the strings and you can develop carpal tunnel syndrome, which is very painful. The straighter your wrists are the better if you want to avoid a sore wrist. Playing with a bent wrist puts a lot of strain on the tendons and can cause tendonitis.

If you get any wrist problems when playing the guitar, stop playing immediately and let your hands rest for the rest of the day.

Learning to play the guitar in a standing position is particularly bad because the angle of the wrist on the fretboard is all wrong and forces you to play with an awkwardly bent wrist just to reach the guitar neck. Sitting down to play is best but in a group that wouldn’t look very cool would it? Whether sitting or standing to play the guitar, holding it somewhere around your stomach area is about right

To see if you are holding the guitar correctly and your wrists not under too much stress, try looking at your posture in a mirror. The straighter you can hold your wrists the better, although this is not always possible when playing the lower strings.

The position of the thumb on the guitar neck can cause wrist strain, so your thumb should be in the center of the neck. If you can see it sticking out then it is too high on the neck and chords will be harder to play. If your thumb is too low on the guitar neck then you will have to bend your wrist more to reach the strings that are higher off the floor.

How hard do you need to press the strings to the fretboard to sound a note?

The simple answer to this is press the strings down to the fret board just hard enough to make the note sound clearly. It you don’t press down hard enough the string will make a buzzing sound on the fret.

You need to press the string firmly but there is no need to press it too hard to make the note sound. In fact, the less pressure you use when fretting the guitar string the better as you will use less effort which will allow you to play faster when needed.

Always make sure your finger is close to the fret and that you only press with the tip of your finger not the flat part. Your fingers should form a smooth curve and be near to the fretboard at all times. If you want to learn to play guitar fast then the nearer they are to the frets the faster you will be able to press down on the note and the faster you will be able to play.

Can you imagine how it would feel to be able to play all of your favorite tunes on your guitar? Think of the enjoyment that would bring. Once you have learned to play the guitar you can even write your own music.

Like most people, I love music – especially music that has a guitar playing in it. In my head, I can still hear all the great guitar solos and riffs from my favorite songs, and the memories they bring back to me. I’ll bet you can too.

In fact, music has always been special to me and I can remember my family having hundreds of vinyl records in our house, with all the latest chart hits. Any music, which had a great guitar sound in it, was played repeatedly until it was burned into my brain forever more.

It’s not surprising then, with an upbringing like mine surrounded by the latest chart hits, my favorite instrument of choice is the guitar. I love it so much that when I grew up I decided to learn how to play it.

Like many kids, I didn’t start learning to play the guitar until my late teens, but I was surprised at the ease of learning it. For someone who doesn’t play an instrument, I would advise him or her to learn the guitar because I found it to be one of the best instruments for a beginning musician.

It’s quite easy to learn the basic chords although your fingers will get sore at first from pressing down the strings, but this will soon pass. The main thing is that within a few weeks, with diligent practice, you can be making nice sounds with it, which make the whole learning experience a lot more fun!

Once you get a few practice sessions under your belt, you will find it hard to put it down! You’ll soon be enjoying your new found skills and feel spurred on to get better and better.

Learning how to play the guitar is also good for your general confidence too, because being good at something you love is always satisfying. And don’t forget the admiration of your family and friends that your new-found skill will bring.

If you practice with a passion and really develop your guitar playing techniques who know what the future will bring? There will always be work for talented musicians but even if you don’t want to play the guitar professionally, you can still have the pleasure of playing to family and friends and bask in the admiration that it brings.

Maybe you would become so good at playing it you ended up in a famous band at the top of the charts. Even if you never become a famous rock star though, just being able to play the guitar well will be a source of great pleasure for you and anyone who listens.

But, like anything that needs to be learned, you need good coaching to succeed and do it well.

There are plenty of guitar teaching methods around – and I have tried quite a few of them – but I firmly believe that you can’t go wrong with Jamorama – The Ultimate Guitar Learning Kit.

Jamorama is simply the BEST way to learn how to play guitar!