eMedia Guitar Method is a software based guitar lesson course, which includes 165 guitar lessons. It is a progressive program, starting with the basics such as; tuning a guitar, replacing strings on a guitar, and even how to hold the guitar. The lessons then move into your first couple of chords and basic folk songs which use those chords. We quickly realized during our review of eMedia Guitar Method, that this course focuses on learning by repetition and continually building on what you’ve already learned. As you would expect, all practical examples provided in the lessons can be listened to by clicking on a button next to the text. The quality and clarity of playback is good.
eMedia Guitar Method Quick Review Sheet
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Ease of use - 9/109/10
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Quality - 7/107/10
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Support - 4/104/10
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Price - 9/109/10
Summary
eMedia Guitar Method is an installable software, which can really help in taking the first steps in learning guitar. The program is meant for non-players, and it’s curriculum builds evenly from the basics, all the way up to playing basic songs. The software is interactive and multimedia. If you are set on learning guitar from a software, this is our main recommendation.
eMedia Guitar Method covers basic fingering, scales, chords, strumming, playing melodies, fingerpicking, tuning and all of the fundamentals associated with playing the guitar. We were very pleased to see that the programrelies on learning techniques through playing songs, which is great for beginners. 70 songs are taught from a diverse range of sources, supplemented by 51 short videos with instructor Kevin Garry, Ph.D.
The teacher sings over the songs he plays, a feature that can’t be turned off (unfortunately). His videos are not full lessons, just short explanations of some concepts and techniques. One of the best aspects of the software package is the animated fretboard feature, which is great for beginners who have difficulty reading munsic. The software also includes multi-track audio and variable-speed MIDI tracks so that you can speed up or slow down the tempo of any song or technique exercise. The software includes an automatic tuner, but during our review, we concluded that its of not much use, since it hardly picks up the string tone. They also built in a digital metronome, recorder and a 250 chord library, which is useful for beginner guitarists.
Again, we would like to emphasize on of the best aspects of the course, in that it offers a diverse collection of famous songs in several genres (blues, rock, folk, country and classical), which make learning easy and fun.
Screenshots
What you’ll learn with eMedia Guitar Method:
- eMedia Guitar Method covers the very basics of playing a guitar, perfect for complete beginners
- The basics of music and guitar theory
- Learn how to build up chords
- Well drawn animations show you different techniques
- Cover lots of styles – including Samba and Bossa Nova, and play songs from popular artists like Radiohead and REM
- How to use a metronome
- Improve your technique with lots of exercises
- How to read not just tablature, but standard music notation as well
Ease of Use
During our review of Guitar Method by Emedia, we were impressed to see that the software, as it claims, succeeds in presenting helpful lessons with an approach that’s easy to understand by beginners of any age. This software was the most simple to use and logically built guitar teaching software we’ve come across.
The software is easy to navigate as well. If you want to learn the lessons in succession, you just click on the next button. If you want to review, or step ahead, you can search by song, lesson type, or technique as well.
What You Get with eMedia Guitar Method
- 165 step-by-step guitar lessons covering guitar basics
- 51 video lessons
- 70 easy songs to learn, suitable for beginners
- animated fretboard on all of the lessons
- variable spped MIDI tracks in each lesson
- Automatic tuner, which picks up your string tone through the PC microphone
- Digital metronome software
- Chord dictionary
- Digital recorder to record yourself playing
Video Demonstration
Here is a video demo of Guitar Method, which will show you whats inside the program. It’s actually a commercial by the publisher of the software, so take the hype with a pinch of salt.
Pros:
- Very well structured guitar teaching program, suitable for people who have never picked up the guitar before
- Easy instructions for people to understand
- Useful recorded chord dictionary
- Fair price for what you are getting
- Easy installation – with no other setup required
- A variety of songs to learn
- Many different techniques including how to play blues, rock etc.
Cons:
- No printable reference material
- Tuner not very good
- Slightly dated user interface styling
- Videos are too short
- Teacher singing can’t be turned off
Support Services of eMedia Guitar Method
Guitar Method includes a comprehensive manual built into the software, a help section and a troubleshooting guide. They offer technical support and contact information posted on their homepage, with email and phone support as well.
Setup/Compatibility of the eMedia Guitar Method Software
Windows:
Windows 98/NT/2000/Me/XP/Vista, CD-ROM drive, sound card and speakers, 16 MB of free RAM, 40 MB of free disk space
Macintosh:
Power PC (or faster Intel OK), Mac OS X 10.1+, CD-ROM drive, 16 MB of free RAM, 83MB of free disk space
Warranty
Only for faulty CDs, no satisfaction guarantee
Price
- $49.95
Conclusion
In conclusion of our eMedia Guitar Method review, we have to say that this software based guitar teaching program is very good value for money and very few other software products match the overall quality of this software. It is very well structured, with a truly step-by-step approach to teaching beginners. If you are new to the guitar, we highly recommend it.
eMedia Guitar Method is good value for money, well structured, and offers a step-by-step method of teaching guitar basics to beginners.
I downloaded this a couple of months ago, it was pretty good, it really taught me the basics. I finished it not long ago, and now I feel comfortable with the basics, but the Emedia guitar program is for beginners, so now I need to look for something else. I’m just reading the reviews on this site, I’ll probably try TheGuitarLesson.com because of the animations and the focus on playing songs.
so would you guys recommend this software over the online video guitar sites?
Brent,
It depends on you really. If you prefer video guitar lessons, you’ll be better off with one of the video lesson sites. As you can see in the eMedia guitar review, this is an interactive software that has many features built into it. So all in all, if you prefer videos, than not recommended, if you prefer interactive techy software, than highly recommened. That is if you’re a beginner of course, since this edition of eMedia guitar is for beginners. There are other ones as well, but they aren’t structured as well as this beginner edition, so we can’t really recommend those.
Hope this helps!