Gear Review: Learn to Play Guitar with Jamstar

Jamstar is a guitar-learning app for iOS, android and desktop computer.

Those looking for an interactive approach to learning guitar should check it out. It mainly targets beginner and intermediate players, but does contain more advanced lessons as well.

Upon first entering the program, a prompt will ask how much experience you have and then suggest a lesson to try.

There are plenty of lessons on each level covering everything from learning the strings and warm-up exercises to strumming chords with assortment of well-known songs.

Jamstar tracks your performance by using the mic of your phone, tablet, or pc to pick up the sound of your guitar. It seemed to pick up my acoustic guitar well enough and the sensitivity can be easily adjusted within any current lesson.

A built-in tuner will help guide anyone through the tuning process complete with note recognition, correct way to turn the tuning peg, and a voice guided prompt to let you know when to move to the next string. I found the tuner to be pretty accurate and easy to use.

Jamstar also has a practice mode for each lesson. This gives you 15 seconds to play each note or chord correctly. You also have the choice to slow the piece down and work up speed at your own pace.

The program keeps track of your progress, so you know where you need to improve based on how you did on each lesson. You also have the option to retake a lesson as many times as you want to get a better score. There are leaderboards so you can see how well you rank among other users. The ability to share your progress via Facebook or Twitter is also present.

In the marketplace you can browse the different courses based on playing levels or music genres. Once you have exhausted all of the freebies, additional lessons are just $.99. There are also songs to play along to by a variety of artists including Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Muse and more.

For more info or to try it free check out atjamstar.co