My Guitar
© 2008 eMedia Music Corp.
Easy-to-use and learn from, this guitar tutorial is designed for children. Don't be fooled; however, because adults can learn along with it just as well. Those familiar with past eMedia tutorials will recognize the tried-and-true design, with content arranged in book fashion. You can freely page through the lessons, from easy to hard. Along the way, multiple-choice chord matching games reinforce chord recognition. At any point, you can jump to a video of a real guitar teacher (Kevin Garry) demonstrating the technique. If you're looking for harder songs, you won't find it with My Guitar -- the most advanced songs have no more than three chord changes. Other features include a chord dictionary that shows and plays every chord (if you click on a chord, you hear it played aloud), an adjustable metronome and string tuner, and the ability to record audio. The games are limited but fun; multiple-choice chord sorting games reinforce correct answers by playing the chord aloud and giving you a star. There's no record keeping, but there isn't really a need for it because you can easily jump to the place in the lessons where you left off (sort of like a book). There is no shortage of "learn to play guitar" products that are gimmicks. This program is not one of them.
$30, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: music, guitar
CTR Rating: 88%