I got a tip from a buddy in Santa Cruz about some new developments over at iVideoSongs, an instructional video site for musicians. The beta version was launched at Silicon Valley's Demo conference in late January. Now they've released over 20 tracks of Beatles songs with Giles Martin (who worked on Love compilation album) telling some behind the scenes stories. The lessons include rockers like Revolution, Day Tripper, Paperback Writer, Help, Hard Day's Night as well many other classics. The lessons are very detailed and cover all aspects of the song, typically running 15-50 minutes for each lesson.
You can also view a preview before buying any lessons. That's good since lessons range for $5 - $10 a pop, depending on the song and complexity. Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" costs $4.99 while the Beatle's "Day Tripper" is $9.99. The more expensive pricing is for songs that are taught by either the original artists or producers. But it seems to me to add a level of unnecessary complexity. (I'd rather learn Jet than the Beatles, but that's besides the point.) That's cheaper than private lessons, but can add up. At least if you're paying $10 you'll have motivation to master the song. And if you do, it's certainly worth the price. Even though the site is still in beta, it looks quite promising.
There are lessons for Acoustic and Electric Guitar as well as Drums and Piano. The genres of music covered include Rock, Indie, R&B, Pop, Folk and Country though some areas are quite sparse at the moment. The lessons are categorized as beginner or intermediata and there are also free tutorials on Blues riffs, Pentatonic scales, Alternate Picking, Palm Muting and so on.
As they build up their catalog of lessons (aiming for 1,000 by end of year) I hope they'll also offering a subscription pricing plan or some other kind of "frequent rocker program" for repeat customers. Check out some of the tutorials or the footage on YouTube.
This only sustain my theory that 2007 and now 2008 are years of good development for guitar related sites. Do you agree?
Posted by: Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com | March 07, 2008 at 05:44 AM