Despite the speed and convenience of Nextel’s i85s, we prefer
the Ericsson R380, with just one reservation—thericssoneeprice.
It costs $600. For $300, we could buy a full-featured cell phone
and a Palm OS-based PDA. Freeing up a little more space in our
backpacks definitely isn’t worth an additional $300. The smart-phone category shows a lot of promise, but we have yet to see
anything even remotely close to perfection.EMEDIA GUITAR METHOD VOL. 1
THE UPSHOT
SEPTEMBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 19
U
ltimately, neither PlayPro Interactive Guitar nor eMedia
Guitar Method provide the kind of motivation you’d get
from a real guitar instructor—or a cute girl. Both pack-
ages will teach you right from wrong and help you master
the basics, but neither one makes learning particularly fun—
though this is largely due to the dearth of compelling songs
included in the lessons.If you already have the drive to learn the guitar
though, eMedia’s Guitar Method can make the process a
lot less frustrating. It doesn’t cover as much material or
include as many extras as PlayPro’s offering, but thanks
to its cleaner interface and superior multimedia
integration, Guitar Method is a better option for
beginning guitarists. nBasic instruction: eMedia introduces the basics of
playing the guitar in a simple and straightforward
manner. The software can be configured to display
music in either tablature or musical notation, and
Guitar Method’s extensive use of song-based
instruction helps make the learning process more
interesting. By the end of the first chapter, you’ll
already be playing your first song. Granted, it’s a
laughably simplistic single-chord version of “Frère
Jacques,” but everyone starts somewhere, right?
Winner: eMedia Guitar Method
Intermediate/advanced instruction: We
tested Volume 1 of eMedia’s Guitar Method
series, which covers only the absolute basics—
strumming, picking, common chords, and reading
music. Additional software packages are available
if you’re interested in taking your guitar playing
to the next level, but you’ll have to pay extra for
them. In contrast, the PlayPro software covers
techniques both facile and sophisticated in one
reasonably priced package. Winner: PlayPro
Interactive Guitar
Multimedia features: While it may not include
as many sound clips or instructional videos as
PlayPro’s software, eMedia’s Guitar Method
does a better job of integrating its multimedia
features into the guitar lessons. You’ll also find
an animated fret board that plays along with the
example songs, so you can observe the correct
fingering to use. Our main gripe with eMedia’s
multimedia is that its sound clips and videos
don’t play unless the Guitar Method window
is kept in the foreground, making multitasking
impossible. Overall, this category comes out
roughly even. Winner: Tie
Ease-of-use and interface: Guitar Method sports
an interface that’s clean, simple, and easy to
use. Important features are readily available, and
locating and jumping to a specific lesson is a cinch.
However, we occasionally encountered strange
bugs and crashes when using the program, such
as a cryptic “Handler not specified” error that
appeared when we opened one of the lessons.
These problems didn’t crop up often enough to
hinder the learning process, but they were certainly
annoying. Winner: eMedia Guitar Method
Reference tools: Two clicks of the mouse is all it takes to
pull up eMedia Guitar Method’s chord dictionary, which
includes fingering diagrams and audio clips for hundreds
of common chords. While eMedia’s chord dictionary only
shows one of the myriad ways to play each chord, that’s
probably enough for most beginners. However, PlayPro’s
thoughtful inclusion of a printed lesson book makes this
category a tie. Winner: TieIntuitive interface and seamless multimedia integra-
tion make this the easiest way to learn the guitar.GEORGE HARRISONAVRIL LAVIGNE
Most of the songs suck, and more advanced
instruction costs extra.
$45, http://www.emediamusic.comMA XIMUMPCVERDICT 8