Instant Play Guitar

American Music Teacher, August-Sept, 2004 by Kathy Maskell

Instant Play Guitar. Topics Entertainment (1600 S.W. 43rd St., Renton, WA 98055), 2004. $29.99. Beginner to advanced.

As a music technology advocate, my goal is always to be on the lookout for new ways to enhance my teaching and motivate students. Instant Play Guitar by Topics Entertainment is a wonderful package that addresses both criteria. For beginner students as young as early teens, this is an excellent introduction to both the art of playing and to the instrument itself. Established players also will find a wealth of knowledge here, as well as motivational tools, to inspire composition.

Since I am a pianist, I knew the music information would seem routine, but could my piano fingers adapt to new concepts? As I round the tune of "Amazing Grace" in a relatively short rime period, I was influenced more by the textual information than the video clips. The lighting in later video examples improved, which aided the visual reinforcement. Clicking on the bold, blue type brought up short, pointed text messages. Another plus was the "Tips" button to refresh your memory whenever needed.

With any instrument, introductory technique is critical. Fingering posture and hand position are illustrated clearly. I did have questions about my wrist posture that required a search of prior lesson topics. This is where I might have sought the advice of a guitar teacher to prevent injury. Learning fingering and strumming techniques took multi-tasking to new heights; however, the material continued to be presented in a non-threatening way, full of encouragement at every stage. The metronome is handy and well positioned visually to be a constant reminder of the benefit of slow practice.

Rhythm concepts are sound and presented orderly. TAB notation makes perfect sense with the rotating guitar neck visual. The use of red outlined measures as they are played helps keep students on task. As students progress to the second CD, they will find extensive theory resources, including chord inversions and building scales of all types, even a "weird" one. The scale finder is a wonderful transposing tool for all ability levels.

The "Chord Wizard" is a great tutorial, while the "Guitar ProLite" offers teachers an opportunity to create custom exercises and gives students a great compositional tool. Being able to import MIDI and ASCII files is the icing on the cake.

I would encourage guitar teachers to use this software to give diversity to lesson planning, and to those "do-it-yourself" types looking for a user-friendly music technology experience.

Reviewed by Kathy Maskell, NCTM, Tewksbury, Massachusetts.