Customer Reviews

eMedia Guitar Method Version 3 (Vol 1) [OLDER VERSION]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are a beginner guitar player and are frustrated with your lack of progression, this product is a must have. 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. Learning is by repitition and continually building on what you've already learned. You may feel a little silly playing songs like "She'll be comin' around the mountain" and "Oh-suzanna" but you'll soon see the benefit of these simple songs when you can suddenly make smooth chord transitions, which will of course help you later with the more complex lessons and songs. The best thing I've found about this program is that you move at your own pace. If you're having problems with a particular lesson or a certain chord transition, you can continue working on it until you're ready to move on. You can even go back and review any lesson you want. This is especially handy if you've had a break between practice sessions and it's been a while since you picked up your guitar. Also, after each chapter, the program gives you a list of popular songs which you should be capable of playing using the chords and techniques you've learned up to that point in the lessons. The program also has a very useful chord dictionary, metronome, and animated fretboard to follow along with during a song. Even if you don't even know what a fretboard is... even if you don't know a single chord... if you just picked up a guitar for your first time and haven't the slightest idea where to start...THIS PROGRAM WILL HELP!!!

I bought this based on the Amazon reviews. I am extremely new at this but the software is pretty good. The teacher is somewhat annoying and as another reviewer said, he sings over his playing way too much. I wish there was a way to turn him WAY down and the guitar up. It touts having over 160 lessons, but that is somewhat misleading. I don't doubt it has over 160 pages, but I covered 23 "lessons" in about an hour. I do like the fact that the first few lessons he teaches you very easy versions of the chords so you don't feel hung up on doing the full chords when your fingers don't want to move to strange new positions they aren't used to. I am using this as well as Fender's DVD for acoustic with Keith Wyatt. The DVD is a little more challenging for me, but Keith Wyatt is much better than the guy from the eMedia software (and he doesn't feel the need to sing!!!). Overall, I would recommend this software.

I really like this software. I have tried to follow countless guitar books only to abandon them halfway through. The interactivity and quicktime movies provided with this software makes it much more interesting to follow. I never get bored learning guitar with this software.

I can't tell you how many times I have tried to learn guitar- I've given up after trying to learn from books and being a single mom, I am not really in the financial position to take lessons. This is definately the next best thing! I've learned so much and I'm only halfway done. I am more into acoustic guitar, so I don't know if I will continue on with the intermediate version (it seems geared more towards electric and lead guitar). I also might take a guitar class at a local community college to get use to playing in front of others as well. A+ all the way!

I had been wanting to take guitar lessons but did not have the time.After doing some research I purchased eMedia's Guitar Method.I loaded up the software and began my first lesson.Within an hours time I was playing a song!I could not beleive it.I have never had a lessons nor could I understand a note.There are some really good features like a built in tuner and animated fretboard(my fav).I highly recommend the product.It's like personal lesson in your home!

I bought this CD title b/c I wanted to learn how to play the guitar again. My decision to purchase this was based solely on all the Amazon reviews that I perused beforehand. You can definitely learn to play the guitar with this, but there are so many other titles out there that are cheaper and more up-to-date. Furthermore, there is nothing more annoying to me than hearing the instructor loudly singing the songs over the guitar strumming. His voice dominants in many parts of the lessons, and it deafens the sound of the guitar which makes it very difficult to hear the chords being taught. Again, the software is good but may not be the best on the market. Then again, I've only purchased three titles, and this one offers a few things that the others don't include.

I was sceptical about buying this product after reading one of the reveiws about having some trouble with Quicktime. Anyways, I had no problems with this program at all. Guitar is my favorite instrument. I've always wanted to learn how to play guitar. I even bought the cheap $10 dollar videos that basically rush through everything and left me frustrated, and playing the chords all wrong. This video is SO MUCH FUN!!!! I thought I could never play guitar after being so discouraged from learning from other videos. I figured, ok, this is a little more expensive, but at least I will learn how to play over 70 songs!!! I'm so happy that I bought this video. It is worth every penny. I'm currently on the 42nd lesson. Mind you, this video is not one of those "we move along quickly, so if you didn't get it, just rewind" videos. Oh no, this video makes you practice the chords many times so it's in your head. When you're done with this video, you'll feel so confindent. It's like having your own private instructor. Certain things I was doing wrong I no longer do. It has even cleaned up my fingering technique. I have no more words, it's a great video and you can't go wrong with Amazon's price.

Thank you!

Im going to rate this product a 2 because I like it but I would change a few things if I could. It does show you a lot of chords and how to play properly and all that good stuff. The couple of things I would change is the fact that when they are teaching you a chord, you can play along with the program but its only about 15 seconds, then you have to stop and click play again. I wish there was an option where you could choose to repeat it on its own a few times so you dont have to stop every time to play it again. The other thing is something a little more important. The product has a program where you could go online to down load a lot of songs to play, its called OLGA. Well this website is having legal problems and is not online anymore. So you dont have that option of learning to play your favorite songs from the Beetles or Metalica or The Grateful Dead or anyone else, and thats what they advertise "Play hit songs". So overall, knowing all this I would have shopped around more. Especially for the price, its defenitly not worth 40-50 dollars when all you get is little 15 second examples on jingle bells and little traditional folk songs.

Well presented, easy to follow along, and easy to revisit previous lessons. Videos and illustrated fretboard really help see and hear how the song should be played. Not a lot of depth in the material but probably about the right level to maintain the attention of most students. Some of the accompanyment/singing could be better but overall does a good job presenting the music so the student can practice along. Some of the material/songs may not be to everyones liking, but again, these are okay for the beginner. The singing can be a slight destraction sometimes. I probably wouldn't recommend this to be the only source of learning guitar....and I don't think most people buying it would think it's all the will every need to become a great guitar player. I'm sure a teacher would still be very advantageous especially when it comes to pointing out bad habits that may creep into the new students technique. I'm trying to learn without a teacher as well and have found other music books very useful.
Bottom line; This is a good product and provides a good start at learning to play the guitar.

This program has been a great way for me to learn guitar at my own convenience. I'm not sure why A.P. Birch has had so many problems with the product. I run a top of the line Windows XP system (built in July, 2005), and I've had no troubles with either installation or use of the program.

Before that, I used a computer running Windows 2000 to run the program. Again, no hitch.

Quicktime is backwards compatible, so old videos will work with new versions of the program. Also, even though an older version of Quicktime comes with the program, you don't have to install it. You can keep a newer version if you have one. You can also download the newest version of Quicktime from the Quicktime site at any time. ([...])

In short, this program *will* run on a new computer. In fact, that's what it's designed for. The program has a great structure and very clear instructions. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to play guitar at their own rate.