eMedia Guitar Method, Vol.1 (Ver. 2)

Rating:
Summary: Better than most guitar methods
Review: I appreciated this product more than other guitar methods for 2 reasons. First, for it's ability to show you video clips. Second, for it's ability to allow you to listen to voice tips and play along with a singer and another guitar. I have been trying to teach myself guitar for longer than I would want to admit and this product is the best that I have used. Guitar method manuals just don't cut it compared to emedia's software.

Rating:
Summary: Better than most guitar methods
Review: I appreciated this product more than other guitar methods for 2 reasons. First, for it's ability to show you video clips. Second, for it's ability to allow you to listen to voice tips and play along with a singer and another guitar. I have been trying to teach myself guitar for longer than I would want to admit and this product is the best that I have used. Guitar method manuals just don't cut it compared to emedia's software.

Rating:
Summary: uncool songs, otherwise ok
Review: I bought eMedia Guitar Method, Vol 1 and 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist. For myself I greatly prefer 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist. I thought eMedia was way over priced for what it offered. I guess if you are really struggling with the guitar, can't even finger a C chord after a few weeks of practice and like songs like Michael Rows a Boat Ashore eMedia would be perfect. 99% of the songs they teach I would never care to play. The Chord finder was cool but no songs for most of the chords in the chord finder so I was unsure how to use them. On the other hand I thought 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist was great. I should point out that you really should have a DSL or cable connection to the internet for this book. It comes with nothing but the publisher's website and it has 100's of videos, mp3 and midifiles for the information in the book. I've ordered a few of Mr. Arnold's books and I should also point out that he's an author that targets a student that really wants to play well and maybe form a band. His education style is more like one musician to another budding musician rather than giving you stuff that is corny or uninteresting. He also interacts with you via email if you have questions. So I guess what I'm saying is eMedia is fine if you really just want to accompany children or actually like campfire songs on the other hand if you want to learn stuff you wouldn't mind playing with your friends or in a band then I'd go for the 1st Steps.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a version that works on OS X.
Review: I was happily on my way to becoming a great guitarist with Emedia Guitar Method until I upgraded to OS X. Booting in classic mode is a hassle, so I wasn't playing as much. Fortunately, they have put out an OS X version.

This program offers a very comprehensive approach to learning guitar. A typical lesson includes a close up video of a guitar skill followed by a song or two to practice. The progression is very logical and easy to follow. As the songs get more challenging, there are some great features like the ability to slow the song down or loop sections of the song.

Rating:
Summary: MUST HAVE for the beginner
Review: This is THE tool to get over the inital frustration of learning to play guitar.

I have tried books, and on-line resources after picking up the guitar for the first time and none did it for me until i came across this software. There were two and only two things that got me to keep playing the guitar instead of chucking it away from frustration. This software was the most important one (and the other was enrolling in a guitar class).

The software starts from how to hold the guitar/the pick, how to pluck a string etc and then teaches you basic 2-chord songs that you can play along with the program. There are tips in the form of video clips as you go along also. It shows clearly how to press the chords and which fingers to use for which frets etc, and keeps showing you as you play along. You can also set the speed with which you play by chosing the midi option of playback. There is a metronome feature included also.

By the end of the first month, some of the tunes you will be playing will be green sleeves, house of the rising sun, scarborough fair, la bamba etc.

The different chapters are:
Simple chords, adding accents to your strums, slash chords, rock strumming and poewer strumming, playing the blues, reading tablature, bass-note strum, fingerpicking/arpeggio

Well worth the money

Rating:
Summary: Great Program for the Beginner
Review: This program has everything you need as a beginner to begin playing the guitar right away. I've completed all the lessons on the disk and now feel comfortable calling myself a guitar player. I'm still a 'beginner', but I met my goal of being able to play and entertain myself and others. Like any good learning program it starts off very easy and builds on what you learn from one exercise to the next. It's very easy to jump around from one lesson to the next so you can easily revisit a previous lesson. The guitar tuner feature makes tuning the guitar completely foolproof, but the consequence is that I can't tune the guitar without my computer or a specialized guitar tuning device. I would like to see a complete install option so I don't have to have the CD-ROM in all the time. I have a work-around for this problem on the mac by imaging the disk and having OS X mount the disk image on start up. This program works well on my OS X Macintosh and has never crashed. I will be buying the intermmediate course very soon.

Rating:
Summary: Great Program for the Beginner
Review: This program has everything you need as a beginner to begin playing the guitar right away. I haven't completed all the courses yet, but my enthusiasm for doing so is very high. Like any good learning program it starts off very easy and builds on what you learn from one exercise to the next. It's very easy to jump around from one lesson to the next so you can easily revisit a previous lesson. The guitar tuner feature makes tuning the guitar completely foolproof. I would like to see a complete install option so I don't have to have the CD-ROM in all the time. This program works well on my OS X Macintosh and has never crashed.