Reviews (2)

PowerTracks is a great program!
PowerTracks is a great program and very easy to use. As someone very familiar with PowerTracks, I fail to see why the previous reviewer is complaining about the track highlighting. Clearly, you can highlight a track as many times as you want, either with the mouse, or with the F7 and F8 keys. I've never had a problem highlighting tracks or positioning the cursor. You could even type in the exact From/Thru times if you double-click on those fields on the toolbar. Editing, for me, has always been very easy with PowerTracks.

Don't let the price fool you. This program is very powerful and is very easy to use.

You Get What You Pay For
For the price, this program has a lot of bells & whistles: a nice lead sheet creation tool, a keyboard window & a decent set of effects.
Unfortunately, editing is a nightmare, which defeats the purpose of having a multi-track platform. For example, once you select/highlight an area on a track that you wish to edit, you cannot de-select/unhighlight it. So you can't tweak or fine tune your initial highlighting. Along with this, there is no "undo" button that would allow you to deselect/unhighlight the area & do it again. Along the same vein, there is no way to fine tune placement of the cursor--it's point, click and pray. The best you can do is zoom in to the max and click the cursor where you want it. I've seen other programs that allow you to use left arrow/right arrow to fine tune your cursor placement at any level of zoom. Not so here. It seems goofy not to include these simple editing features but--you get what you pay for. ... Read more

Features

• Self-paced lessons show how to play rhythms, solos, and scales
• Animated fretboard shows neck fingerings in real time
• Learn blues songs and techniques like bending and sliding
• Explore and learn about blues approaches and music theory
• Play along with a virtual band; built-in tuning reference included

Features

• Make your own SmartMusic Accompaniments with Finale 2003
• Complete set of over 50,000 skill-building exercises
• All 30,000 accompaniments included
• Human Playback brings your music to life - you'll hear your music as you'd want it performed
• SmartMusic Sound Font practice system offers 128 great sounds

Features

• Create by musicians for musicians -- every need a professional musician may have is met in this software suite
• Focus on staves -- just work with the staves you specify and hide the rest, to avoid confusion
• Choose from multiple standard instrument orders depending on what you're writing for -- jazz, band, orchestra, etc.
• Live Flexi-time editing and playback
• Add more than 60 different instruments - everything from anvils to Hawaiian steel guitar

Features

• Make notes and markings with just a click -- no menus and dialogs to navigate, no waiting for the screen to redraw
• Focus on staves -- just work with the staves you specify and hide the rest, to avoid confusion
• Choose from multiple standard instrument orders depending on what you're writing for -jazz, band, orchestra, etc.
• Add more than 60 different instruments - everything from anvils to Hawaiian steel guitar
• Work with 30 amazing new plug-ins, for incredible & unique sound

Features

• Complete set of over 50,000 skill-building exercises
• All 30,000 accompaniments included
• Human Playback brings your music to life - you'll hear your music as you'd want it performed
• SmartMusic Sound Font practice system offers 128 great sounds
• Record your performances into the included mic and hear yourself played back

Features

• They'll start playing in Just Intonation, learning which chords are sharp and which ones are flat
• From there, students will learn how to anticipate pitch problems and fix them quickly
• Students can experiment with the computer playing intervals or chords
• Perfect for band rehearsals, private training, or individual practice
• Includes microphone and foot pedal

Amazon.com Product Description

Whether your interest in this remarkable instrument is as a professionalmusician, an amateur musician, or simply a music-lover, the Violin MultimediaEncyclopedia is for you. This product offers a large collection of facts,music, and documents relating to the violin. It features biographies ofviolinists, comprehensive discographies, information on 10,000 works,information on famous instruments, interactive video presentationsretracing the origins of the violin, and over 3 hours of music. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Violin CD-Rom Encyclopedia is a must for violinists
I highly recommend the Multimedia Encyclopedia of the Violin for all violinists, regardless of your age. The amount of information packed into this visually appealing, beautifully conceived disc is invaluable for violinists. In addition, it is so beautifully designed and entertaining that we even gave one to my father, who is not a violinist, but a violin fan. We have been recommending the disc to all our violinist friends.

Leslie Harlow, violist ... Read more

Features

• The concise set of lessons and exercises combine with Ear Training and reviews, to ensure better grasp of essential music concepts
• Understand the different clefs & time signatures, flat and sharp notes, tempo markings and articulation
• Scales and intervals are explained, along with major & minor chords, harmonizing, melodies and more
• Get pop-up definitions of unfamiliar terms to supplement your learning
• Track your progress as a student with full records of every lesson passed -- you can generate your own tests for even more

Features

• Watch the full-motion video of over 70 classic guitar songs from the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and the Steve Miller Band
• Understand the theory and practice behind rock, blues, country, folk and classical guitar playing
• Begin your practice sessions with warm-up exercises and limber up your fingers for better playing
• Play along with classic songs as you follow the animated fretboard
• It even comes with a guitar pick!

Reviews (5)

uncool songs, otherwise ok
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.

Better than most guitar methods
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.

MUST HAVE for the beginner
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

Great Program for the Beginner
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.

Finally, a version that works on OS X.
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. ... Read more

Features

• Learn how to work with treble, bass, and alto clefs
• Read music, improve your sight reading, play new scales, and sharpen your listening skills
• Interactive feedback lets you know how slowly or quickly you are progressing
• Ear training drills help you understand what you hear
• A comprehensive Music Theory Reference Manual explains every term & concept

Features

• Learn how to work with treble, bass, and alto clefs
• Read music, improve your sight reading, play new scales, and sharpen your listening skills
• Interactive feedback lets you know how slowly or quickly you are progressing
• Ear training drills help you understand what you hear
• A comprehensive Music Theory Reference Manual explains every term & concept

Features

• Through this complete collection of lessons & activities you'll build your listening and perception skills
• Understand chord elelments and the seventh chord, as well as Roman Numeral chord numbering
• Notation skills are taught through fun games
• Keyboard skills and Ear Training drills improve your ability to play by ear & wing it

Amazon.com Product Description

This self-paced course uses interactivity, animation, and plenty of audio examples to help you understand and appreciate the fundamentals of music. Eight lessons cover the Nature of Sound, Melody, Harmony, Tonality, Notation, Rhythm, Harmony and Texture, and Form and Style. Learn the language of music in the Music Glossary. Click on a term to hear how it is pronounced and see its definition. Additional illustrations and musical examples accompany complex terms. Includes the MediaCheck diagnostic utility. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Inappropriate for anyone except an utmost beginner, if that!
If your interest is learning basic music theory, then don't waste your money on this silly program, which practically fails at touching even the most basic content of each of its eight lessons. The multimedia even is not taken advantage of and is so badly done that it is unnecessary. In the short glossary of terms, the audio pronunciations are badly done with trilled "r"'s. Instead, I recommend this book: "ABC of Music", also available from Amazon. Or, if you are a teacher considering this as a motivational alternative or supplement to a program such as Bastien Theory, Level 1, then skip it - the Bastien is more complete and more fun. ... Read more