It’s late summer. Whether we like it or not, a new school year is upon us.

While your school days may be in the rear view mirror, it’s still a great time of year to buckle down and finally learn how to play electric guitar. Luckily, there are new tools you’ll find online that make learning how to play electric guitar a little less hard—and a lot more fun.

That’s right, new guitarists. Welcome to the age of the smart amp—your ticket to learning to play electric guitar the best way. It’s a great option for anyone, especially if you want to learn to play guitar by yourself, although we always recommend finding a great teacher to fast track your development.

See, back in the day, beginner guitar amp technology was somewhat simplistic. Just a small speaker, single channel plug-and-go affair that offered a mere few watts of power. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, but if you’ve just begun your 6-string journey, you already know that learning how to play electric guitar ain’t always easy. And in truth, new guitarists can use all the help they can get. (We’re right there with you.)

In recent years, smart technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence have made their way from our mobile phones, cars and refrigerators to—lucky for us—guitar amps. Positive Grid’s Spark 40 and Spark MINI smart guitar amps offer pro-level tone customization and incredibly valuable learning tools at an affordable price. They also look great in your living room (or wherever you decide to jam) and are super easy to use for any budding guitarist.

Spark 40, Spark MINI & Spark Control

Before we dive into all the wonderful reasons why you should learn to play electric guitar with a smart amp, let’s get a quick overview of the Spark series of amps.

The #1 best-selling guitar amp, Spark 40 was introduced in late 2019 and took the guitar scene by storm as a compact home rig that delivers 40 Watts of vivid, spacious sound. You get ultimate on-board control and massively inspiring smart features like all new Smart Jam Live, Auto Chords, 10,000+ tones and more.

Released just a few months ago, Spark MINI is Spark 40’s 10 Watt, battery-powered, portable companion. A mind-blowing tiny powerhouse, it delivers innovative smart guitar playing to-go with multi-dimensional high-quality sound, and all of the same smart features offered by Spark 40. You might call it the biggest smallest rig ever.

Both Spark amps give you access to over 10,000 tones powered by Positive Grid’s award-winning, deeply powerful BIAS tone engine.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into a few reasons why you should learn to play electric guitar with a smart guitar amp.

Smart Jam technology

We weren’t kidding when we said intelligent technology. With Smart Jam, simply start to play and the Spark amp and app work together to learn your style and feel. Then Spark generates authentic bass and drums to accompany you in real time. It’s like your own smart virtual band that’s always ready to play. And if you’ve never jammed with other musicians before, this can be a great way to learn what that’s like. (It’s also incredibly fun!)

Auto Chords

While it’s not the easiest task, learning guitar chords is an essential part of progressing on the instrument. With Spark’s Auto Chords feature, you can choose any song and Spark’s smart app will auto display its guitar chords in real time as you play. There are even easy controls that let you slow down the song’s tempo, and loop a difficult section to learn and master parts. So not only do you learn chords, but it’s a great tool for dissecting your favorite tunes, too.

Voice Command

Say what?! The Spark app responds to your voice commands, allowing you to control it without lifting a finger. You can tell it to stream a rock song or a blues backing track, or even ask for a virtual band to follow along while you play guitar. We know you love metal, but no need to scream—your regular talking voice works just fine.

Bluetooth® Connectivity

Not only are Spark 40 and Spark MINI the perfect smart amps to help you learn to play electric guitar, they’re also perfect for casual music listening. When it’s time for a break from all that learning, simply fire up your favorite tunes, connect Spark to your device, then sit back and listen. And when you’re feeling inspired, simply plug in your guitar and jam right along.

Limitless Tone Creation

Spark gives you access to ToneCloud, a free community jam-packed with over 10,000 presets created by other Spark users, artists and producers. No matter what sound you’re after, it’s there. You also get access to 33 amps and 43 effects, each modeled after famous gear we know and love, allowing you to craft any guitar sound under the sun. Proud of the tone you just crafted? Go ahead and upload it to ToneCloud for other players in the community to find.

Final Thoughts: Why You Should Learn to Play Guitar with a Smart Amp

Learning to play electric guitar can be difficult, but diving in with the help of a smart amp like Spark 40 and Spark MINI will make it an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. And don’t forget, Spark amps will not only help you learn to play electric guitar, but they offer tons of features for acoustic guitar and bass guitar players as well.

Join the smart amp revolution and find out more here.

Spark MINI: You’ve never heard a small amp sound like this.


Spark 40: The smart way to play and jam.