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SuperKids Software Review - The Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Childrens' Software
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spacer all reviews > > > music software

My Guitar

eMedia

Ages 6 and up

Rating Scale
5 = great,    1 = poor
Educational Value
4.0
Kid Appeal
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0

My Guitar arrow indentSystem Requirements

arrow indentPrice Survey

arrow indentProduct Support

My Guitar is a fun way to learn acoustic guitar for a person of any age, from 6 to 60. It is organized in a series of 50+ lessons. It is set up like a book, with each page corresponding with one lesson. It works in sequential order, however it is run at the pace of the user. Therefore, the user is able to choose when to advance to the next lesson.

My Guitar is narrated by an animated guitar named Gary, who leads the user through each lesson, offering fun facts about the songs or information about new techniques used in the piece. A lesson typically consists of one of a few possibilities. It can be a song, an exercise to practice chords or techniques, a new chord that needs to be learned, a new technique that needs to be learned, or a short game that tests the user's knowledge of what has been learned. "There is a lot of material packed into these 50 lessons, and if you take it slow and take the time to learn and practice, My Guitar can help you learn the basics of the guitar," according to one SuperKids tester.

Educational Value

My Guitar teaches the user the basics and fundamentals of how to play the guitar. It covers all of the introductory chords from C to Am, as well as the basic strumming patterns with and without a pick. It is fun and easy to follow, with many tools to help the learning process along the way. In addition to Gary’s assistance, there are a number of other tools to aid in the learning process. During any new techniques or chords, videos are provided to show exactly how they should be performed, reinforcing the text and pictures on the screen. In addition, every exercise and song has an audio feature along with an animated guitar neck which shows what strings need to be strummed, and where th player's fingers have to be for every note of the song. It is easy to follow along with the audio and then try until that particular exercise s mastered.

The game also has several extra features to enhance the experience such as a built in tuner, which listens through a microphone and indicated whether each string needs to be tuned, and a recording option which allows the player to hear himself and determine what needs the most work. The small games interspaced throughout the program keep kids interested and ensure they are learning the material.

Kid Appeal

Gary, the animated guitar, is an excellent mascot who can capture the attention of a small child where a regular teacher might not be able to. It starts off very slowly, explaining the basics of the guitar, what each part is called, how to string it, how to hold it, etc… It may take a while for a child to get comfortable with the first few lessons, and a parent or supervisor should be available to ease them into the instrument. As My Guitar progresses however, it settles into a comfortable rhythm, and kids will be able to learn on their own. The inclusion of several games, enables kids to have something to look forward to as they learn.

Of course, a computer program can only go so far, and a teacher or adult who can play should check up on the student regularly to ensure they are fingering the chords correctly and are forming good habits. My Guitar could definitely work well as a supplement to guitar lessons to remedy the problem of practicing. My Guitar makes learning fun and easy.

Ease of Use / Install

My Guitar is simple to install. With an autorun feature and a simple installation procedure, anybody can set it up quickly and without frustration. The program itself is quite simple to use. Navigation is limited to a set of two arrows in the bottom corner of the screen, indicating the previous and next lessons. My Guitarprogresses at the pace of the user, so it may take some discipline to practice each lesson enough to master it before going on to the next one.

Best for... / Bottom-Line

My Guitar is a fantastic way to learn a fairly complicated instrument. It manages to make learning and practicing fun. Anyone who is looking for a simple way to pick up the guitar would be doing themselves a favor by using My Guitar to help them out.

See SuperKids' comparisons with other music software titles, and the Buyers Guide for current market prices of the product.

System Requirements
PC: Windows 98/2000/NT/Me/XP/Vista, Pentium II or faster cpu, 64 MB RAM, CD-ROM .

Mac: Mac OS X 10.1+, Power PC G3 or faster cpu, 64 MB RAM, CD-ROM .

Reviewed on:
-     Pentium 4 - 3GHz running Windows XP, with 1GB RAM and 24x - CD-ROM
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