Amazon.com Review: eMedia Guitar Method, Vol. 1 eliminates any excuse you may have for leaving your guitar sitting dormant and dusty in the corner. Designed with the beginner in mind, this software offers more than 150 lessons, including everything from how to hold your guitar to chord progressions and fingerpicking techniques. Plus, the exercises are accompanied by full-motion video, helpful audio advice, and an animated fretboard. Add in a digital metronome, digital recorder, and an automatic tuner, and your rationalizations for not learning are null and void.
After setting aside just a couple of minutes for installation and setup, you're ready to go. Upon launching the software, you're given a complete table of contents, making it easy to access whichever lesson you want to start on. If you've never picked up a guitar, the first few lessons are handy, guiding you through different types of guitars, how to string a guitar, tuning, holding, and finger position. All the language is simple and easy to understand, and before long you're playing your first song.
Two of the nicest features are the animated fretboard and full-motion videos. The video demonstrations are perfect for people who may need to hear things more than once or twice. Want to see just how your fingers should be positioned for that full G chord? Just click and watch as many times as you want. And for learning to play songs, the animated fretboard is great, showing you just which fingers go where and when. And the more than 70 songs included are good, too, ranging among such artists as Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Heart, and the Steve Miller Band.
Teaching yourself to play guitar can be frustrating and boring. Fortunately, eMedia has made learning guitar interesting, uncomplicated, and just plain fun. --Joshua Goldman
Amazon.com Product Description: eMedia Guitar Method, Vol. 1 features 150 comprehensive lessons covering everything from the basics through strumming chords, playing melodies, and fingerpicking. It includes more than 30 videos and three hours of audio from guitar instructor Kevin Garry. Learning guitar is made fun through familiar hit songs by artists like Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, and Steve Miller. This new version includes additional lessons, including chapters on instrument care, chord progressions, and blues songs.
eMedia Guitar Method, Vol. 1 also features an animated fretboard, which displays the fingering for each song and exercise in real time and is adjustable to four separate viewing angles. Multitrack audio gives full band accompaniment on many of the hit songs. New to this version is a multispeed MIDI track option that allows students to practice any song or exercise at whatever tempo they want. The software also offers the option to learn using either tablature or standard music notation. Additional features include a built-in automatic tuner, digital metronome, recorder, and 250-chord dictionary.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Very useful and eMedia will exchange.
In response to a previous review, eMedia will take back their products. I got Guitar Method 2 from a store and it was a little too difficult because I've only been playing for about 2 months. eMedia was very nice and exchanged it for Guitar Method 1. Make sure you do it in 30 days. The program is very helpful and my progress has rapidly accelerated. I'll probably end up getting the second level after all. I also really like Zen and the Art of Guitar for a little inspiration.
Rating: - Product is cheaky
This product doesn't do the justice of teaching guitar well
Rating: - Get's you playing fast!
I've really struggled with guitar books for many months now but I got this CD-ROM for X-mass and I've really made a lot of progress. Having an instructor on call to see first hand how to play a chord or strum is such a plus. You can slow all the songs down to whatever speed you need them, which is also handy. I'll definitely move on to the next level.
Rating: - INCOMPLETE
I got a box with only a songs cd for macintosh. That's all that was in the box. To top it off I don't have a mac. I am running a pentium with windows. This is not good.
Rating: - Excellent Tool
I haven't played in about 10 years. This helped as a refresher course. Great presentation of the material.
- Very useful and eMedia will exchange.
- Product is cheaky
