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iPlayMusic: Beginning Guitar Lessons Review |
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Written by Don Lee
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Saturday, 10 November 2007 |
 Now everyone enjoy the sounds of their favorite music but some folks
like to take the next step and actually learn to make their own music.
The problem people quickly realize is that learning to play an
instrument can be a costly but rewarding investment. There’s so much to
consider such as the instrument of choice, cost of personal music
lessons and the person’s motivation towards learning. Where do you go
from there?
One of the most inexpensive choices you can make in choosing an instrument is the guitar. A good acoustic or a decent electric guitar can be picked up at your local music store, pawn shop or even on eBay. Once you get your guitar, you then have to decide whether you want to spend hundreds of dollars on personal guitar lessons or give one of those software programs a chance. Now before you plunk down some of your hard earned cash, you should take a look at iPlayMusic’s music teaching programs. I picked this product up to see if it could finally teach me how to play that acoustic guitar that looks good in my room but doesn’t do much more than that.
Let’s Start Jammin’
Now I began my learning using iPlayMusic’s Beginner Guitar Lessons Level 1. I was ready to learn the proper way from the absolute beginning. No shortcuts, no nonsense. The book’s table of contents are broken down into the basics of guitar playing which covers topics such as guitar anatomy, how to hold your guitar, using your guitar pick, tuning your guitar, basic chords, strumming patterns, transitions (the tough stuff), practice tips and two songs (Sloop John B. and Corrina, Corrina) that you can practice your newly acquired skills on.
After you’ve learned the basic skills, now it’s time to put those skills to the test by learning the various styles of guitar playing. The second half of the book concentrates on the variety of different styles such as rock, blues, country, metal/punk, etc.
 One of the things I liked about the iPlayMusic package is that you can learn in the way that you feel the most comfortable. For example, I am one of those folks that need to do things step by step so I found myself using the book to teach and the DVD for the techniques. I found it to be a very useful way to learning this package but that’s just a personal preference. Maybe you learn better from the video tutorials or maybe just from the book, that’s what makes this package so useful. You can learn at your own pace and all you need is a guitar, DVD player and the book. If you’re struggling on a certain technique on the DVD , you can just play it back over and over.
One of the very cool techniques that you will find on the DVD is the four pane video display. Here is where you will be able to view multiple angles of the song being played. This is a wonderful concept because it displays the different elements that you need to learn such as hand positioning, the chords, changes and overall technique. You can also choose to loop a video tutorial by clicking a link in the bottom right hand corner of the video. This is an excellent feature so you don’t have to take your hand off the guitar and reposition it every time you want to concentrate on a particular video.
The Final Word
There’s a number of wonderful things that you will enjoy about the package. The lessons come on a DVD , which means that you can forget about those computer platform specific issues that plague other teaching programs. I was very happy to be able to play and learn by watching the DVD on my 36-inch television set instead of having to sit in front of my 19-inch computer monitor.
The video tutorials are done in very good quality. Whether you play it on your television set or on your computer screen, the quality of the video doesn’t differ. Very professional camera and video editing work done here. Even the book is written clearly and doesn’t overwhelm you with too much information. This is a beginner’s package so it’s crucial to keep the budding musician interested in playing.
I found iPlayMusic’s Beginner Guitar Lesson Level 1 to be the best teaching tool for a guitar novice. I’ve tried a variety of other methods and software packages but this is the best overall teaching tool for beginning guitar players. Judging by the material and the amount of effort put into to small details of the package, you can see that iPlayMusic spent a tremendous amount of time trying to make the best guitar teaching program available and they succeeded on every aspect.
You can click HERE to purchase iPlayMusic’s Beginner Guitar Lesson Level 1 or other iPlayMusic products.
About iPlayMusic
iPlayMusic, Inc. was formed by three friends who share a passion for music and instruction. We have 20 years combined playing experience and have studied music formally at Musician's Institute and the university level. You can learn more about iPlayMusic by visiting their website at http://www.iplaymusic.com
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