| With its latest package, eMedia goes beyond the drills and tutorials of its earlier eMedia Guitar Method, instead targeting players who already have a familiarity with their instrument. Song-based and fully interactive, eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method covers a lot of ground in its single CD and thus just skims the surface of some topics. It also seems a bit lackluster when compared to Voyetra's exciting, rock and roll-inspired Teach Me Guitar Deluxe. Nevertheless, the program offers a barrage of mid-level and advanced chording, soloing, and picking techniques that should assist any student who seeks to become a more knowledgeable and skillful guitarist. Divided into six categories--left-hand techniques, barre chords, strumming styles, scales, solos, and fingerstyle guitar--the program delivers no less than 175 individual lessons and 41 appendices featuring most every popular musical scale in both open and closed fingering patterns, and a handy virtual chord dictionary. Most lessons allow you to adjust the speed of the music to suit your personal preference and loop certain sections for repetitive replay. Several sessions also offer optional narratives and video, though the narratives are too abbreviated to be truly informative and the video snippets, where veteran instructor Kevin Garry offers personal advice on certain techniques, are equally condensed and confined to a small window. eMedia has provided several additional perks to make your job a bit easier, including an integrated metronome to help keep the beat, an optional tablature display for those who can't read musical notation, and an animated fretboard that graphically demonstrates each lesson's fingering positions in both left- and right-handed formats. The program's tuner isn't quite so impressive, behaving just as erratically as most computer tuners, and certainly not a replacement for a handheld digital or quartz unit. A small but serviceable audio recorder allows you to build a library of your own efforts and even jam along with self-penned arrangements. The program concerns itself more with clean and semi-clean acoustic and electric guitar rather than heavily distorted hard rock. A valuable but curious assortment of songs dominates its many lessons, in particular Grand Funk Railroad's mysterious "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home," The Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey," and Jim Croce's exquisite "Time in a Bottle." Several complex classical pieces end the proceedings, culminating in the celebrated but extremely demanding arpeggio masterpiece "Romanza." It should be noted that although none of the selections are original recordings, all are capably translated and played. Although eMedia Intermediate Guitar Method isn't especially high-spirited, it does offer a deluge of material that will ultimately benefit any guitarist with the talent and the drive to successfully take it on. With a ton of challenging musical passages and cool licks, some nifty utilities, and plenty of guitar exploration, it is recommended to novice players with virtuoso desires. --Gordon Goble |
