Rock Around the Clock
by Linda Buchwald
Perhaps you picked up the guitar when you were younger but put it away after college. Or maybe you’ve always harbored a secret desire to play but have never had the impetus, or the time, to try.
Whatever the case, technology is offering hope to budding guitarists. Internet- and DVD-based teaching methods are convenient and easy-to-follow. What’s more, they allow busy adults to learn guitar whenever and wherever they want.
Making Music took a look at two companies that offer new guitar methods—WorkshopLive and iPlayMusic—to see how they compared to traditional lesson books and real, live teachers.
A New Beginning
Andrew Elder, 31, of Albany, New York, started playing the guitar in high school. He had a guitar teacher then, but when he graduated, he started to teach himself. Elder already had the basic tools he needed, such as chords and some music theory, but he noticed that his guitar playing was stagnating without the help of a teacher.
In 2005, Elder heard about the WorkshopLive guitar method and became a subscriber during its first week. “I’ve gotten better in the last year than in the past five years,” he says.
WorkshopLive, founded by Dave Smolover in 2005, provides downloadable lessons and animated sheet music. A special feature allows subscribers to choose lessons based on preferred learning styles, visual or auditory.
There are also options in terms of style, and users can learn anything from shredding rock to blues. “You get to pick and choose your curriculum,” Elder says. “It’s extremely flexible. It’s a miraculous tool for anyone who wants to learn an instrument.”
Online Community
WorkshopLive.com offers more than just lessons. Susan Mazer teaches folk, fingerstyle, and blues guitar on the site. She describes it as a complete music network and artistic community. There are songs, jam tracks, a glossary of terms, articles, metronomes, community posts, and master classes from prominent musicians.
Elder likes to download and print sheet music off the website. “I keep a bunch in my guitar case,” he says. “They really have everything under the sun that a musician could need to know.”
Of course, when you learn guitar online, says Pat Johnson, an acoustic guitar teacher for WorkshopLive, you won’t have instant feedback from a live teacher. Elder says that the lack of immediate student-teacher interaction is something he had to get used to, and he enjoyed WorkshopLive nevertheless.
We found WorkshopLive quite interactive. Students can e-mail their teachers and get in touch with students and teachers through online chats included in the service. “It’s the next best thing to actually sitting in a room with somebody,” Johnson says.
Real Songs
The second learning method we found—at iPlayMusic.com—was launched in 2005. Notes company President Stewart Putney, “We started iPlayMusic because more and more guitars are being sold to absolute beginners.”
Putney says the goal of iPlayMusic is to teach with real songs, rather than just theory and notation. Many users started playing the guitar when they were younger and now, 20 to 40 years later, they are picking up the guitar again and using this website.
The iPlayMusic website includes product demos, as well as video lesson downloads (compatible with video iPods) and DVDs you can order. Putney explains that one of the main differences between this and other guitar methods is that iPlayMusic has rights to popular songs by well-known artists such as The Beatles.
One feature that we enjoyed is that when you initially register for the website, you get some free lessons up front and five song requests for song lessons you’d like to see available. You can also download software to record yourself playing your own versions of popular songs. And, through the software, guitarists can even record their music and put it on an iPod.
Family Affair
We also checked out two DVDs available through the iPlayMusic website. The Interactive DVD was created for parents to learn guitar with their children. The idea grew out of the popularity of the parents and kids guitar sets, says Putney, sold last Christmas on the website.
“We wanted to give parents a chance to play something with their kids,” explains Putney, adding that parents with young children often do not have a chance to practice the guitar because of youngsters’ short attention spans.
“I’ve never seen anything of this type,” says Play Music Together user Joe Moniz. He started playing the guitar at age 19 but stopped when he was 26. He didn’t start playing again until he reached 35 and his daughter passed her first birthday. “My daughter is now two years old and is too young to play the guitar herself, but she loves to dance to the songs I play,” he says.
Moniz says Play Music Together keeps his daughter entertained for all six songs and sometimes she even asks to watch it twice in a row. While his daughter is entertained and getting immersed in music, Moniz has a chance to brush up on his playing and practice some songs that entertain his daughter.
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Put It Together
We found Play Music Together’s individual basic lessons—such as “Guitar Anatomy,” “Finger and String Numbering,” and “Tuning Your Guitar”—a breeze to navigate and understand.
Once you master the fundamentals, you can move on to the song lessons, including children’s favorites such as “The Wheels on the Bus.” As Moniz already knew guitar basics, he went right for the songs. “I found them easy to play and follow on the first run through,” he reports.
Another DVD option is iPlayMusic’s Beginner Guitar Lessons. The included book is packed with illustrations and is written in a simple, beginner-friendly style. We noticed that it incorporates the methods used in other guitar books, but the advantage is having a DVD to see the principles in action.
The format is similar to Play Music Together and even has the same introductory lessons. The individual song lessons here include popular songs, breaking down the chords and techniques of each and then putting everything together.
As in Play Music Together, song videos show the lyrics, chords, and a close up of the guitar with audio options for rhythm, music, and full band. Songs emphasize different styles such as swing, rock, or country. The DVD also includes bonus videos, riffs, and techniques.
Both Worlds
Absent from these websites and DVDs is, of course, a live teacher, but sometimes you get the best of both worlds—a live teacher and the Internet. Dale Vincent, a guitar teacher from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uses WorkshopLive in conjunction with his lessons.
Vincent has been playing the guitar for at least 25 years. He took private lessons when he was younger and has used everything from magazines to DVDs over the years to hone his skills. Now he uses the Internet.
Although he tries to be proficient in different styles of music and guitar playing, what Vincent likes about WorkshopLive is that if a student wants to learn a style that is not one of Vincent’s strong points, he can refer to lessons on the website.
“There are a lot of teachers out there who look at online guitar methods as competition, but I feel the opposite,” Vincent says. He encourages other teachers to be open-minded and to check out these methods. Even if they don’t use it as a teaching tool, they can at least get ideas.
Vincent says he is not worried about becoming obsolete. After all, everybody has different preferences when it comes to learning, whether it be self-teaching, group lessons, individual lessons, technological methods, or a combination.
Whatever the future holds, Vincent feels that technology won’t replace real teachers; it simply will take its place alongside them. He concludes, “I don’t think in music you’ll ever be able to replace the human element.”
Linda Buchwald is enrolled in the goldring arts journalism program at syracuse universitY. she anticipates a career as a music critic.
