- Internet download version: AUD$27
- CD-ROM Version: AUD$39
- Online or CD-ROM based guitar course
- No need to understand music theory
- Promises to have you playing your first song in 60 minutes
- Learn how to tune your guitar by ear
- Each lesson has a video of an expert playing the song
- 52 lessons to take you from beginner to playing advanced licks
- Covers 5 different styles of playing
- Full lifetime money back guarantee
- Included jam tracks to practice your riffs to
- Built in drum machine
- Guitar tablature lights up to show you what to play
- Animated fret board shows you where to put your fingers
Guitar and Bass is a multimedia course designed to teach you to play the guitar or bass guitar through easy to follow interactive lessons. Either course can be downloaded or purchased on CD-ROM, but those who choose to download get some extra bonus software.
The course comes in either a guitar or a bass version, but both versions are set up similarly in terms of the teaching style and content. Lessons come in the form of an interactive Flash based application which takes you through learning a new riff or song each time. The main interface shows you the guitar tablature for the piece and an animated fretboard diagram shows you where to put your fingers. The controls allow you to adjust the speed of playback and even step through the piece note by note to learn difficult sections.
There are over 50 lessons for each instrument included with Guitar and Bass which each teach you a new piece of music, but don't give much extra information about why you are learning the piece or the theory behind what you are doing. This is fine if you just want to start 'rocking out' as soon as possible, but not so great if you want to back up your practical skills with some useful theory. Each lesson does include a video of someone playing the piece though, so you should be able to quickly pick up some basic techniques.
The lessons all contain a tuner which will play each note your guitar strings should be tuned to so that you can tune your guitar by ear. Although this is a great skill to have, it can be very difficult for new guitarists to learn properly, so an automatic tuner might have been a better idea. More useful is the included drum machine which you can set to whatever speed you like in order to improve your timing.
Guitar and Bass is a useful enough course if you want to get straight into playing rock and blues riffs without having to bother with understanding why you are playing certain notes. Although some people might prefer a more structured approach to their learning, this course will certainly have you playing some cool sounding licks pretty quickly. For what you get the price is pretty reasonable and there is an example lesson for free on the web site so you have nothing to lose by giving it a shot.
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