Guitar Made Simple
Feb 6th, 2008 by guitarnews
Guitar Made Simple is a well constructed beginner guitarists’ program developed by acclaimed music educator and recording artist, Chris Standing. Extremely well thought out, featuring a thorough and personal approach, this CD ROM is the perfect instructional tool for either guitar players just starting to learn or those aiming to freshen up their skills.
The direct teaching style and layout of the CD is top notch, allowing guitar students to move forward, while simultaneously customizing the course to their own personal learning style and level of experience. Simplicity is the key.
Program Overview
The program is presented in an easy-to-navigate browser, and features a powerful “search facility”. Students can return directly to the page they were working on, then “tab” easily through to the next relevant section.
Standring makes sure the course provides plenty of fun through song examples and plenty of interactive videos. For each diagram, example, image and exercise, guitar students can click on a file and listen to the way it sounds on the guitar. This serves to make the learning extremely personal, while at the same time emphasizing each guitar technique being taught.
Audio and Video Quality
The audio quality is extremely high, further adding to the feeling of receiving private ‘one-on-one’ tuition. The videos which feature throughout are also of very high quality.
The ‘selective’ interactive audio feature allows students click on an audio example performed on the guitar by Chris Standring. The example can be heard with either the melody or the rhythm omitted, allowing practice play along for either the melody or rhythm part. This feature is educational, heaps of fun and certain to accelerate the pace that students can learn the guitar.
Music Notation and Guitar TAB
Each song, sample and exercise includes both guitar TAB charts and traditional music notation. Another nifty feature allows the student to click a chord diagram and show that chord shape from the perspective of the student. Students can also click on any chord symbol in the course and see three different versions of that chord.
What We Liked
Guitar Made Simple is a pretty serious guitar course, and it assumes students want to know how to learn guitar the right way. Standring does not advocate ‘not learning theory’, or avoiding ‘pointless’ exercises. On the contrary, he demonstrates theory and exercises to learners in their most simple form, explaining exactly why they are fundamental to making great musicians.
His unique and gifted presentation style ensures that despite the commitment, dedication and practice required, learning guitar can also be fun and fascinating.
The Downside
It’s difficult to find a downside to this package. Those who prefer instant download products might be impatient waiting for a CD to arrive in the mail. But even here, Chris Standring’s team has ensured a speedy order response time, with CD’s arriving to most addresses promptly in double quick time.
Overall, a brilliant guitar instruction package for beginning guitar players and those with gaps in their skills what want to improve. Click here to buy.
