eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method Version 3.0
By Howard Berenbon
If you or your kids have an interest in learning the piano but just don’t have the time or money to invest in one-on-one lessons from personal piano teacher, don’t despair. eMedia Music has just what the doctor order: a piano teacher inside your personal computer (IBM or Mac) with eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method Version 3.0. Actually, you’ll be trained from the beginning by the experienced pianist and teacher, Irma Irene Justicia, M.A., who taught at the famous Juilliard School of Music in New York City.
This is an amazing music instruction program with over 300 lessons, more than 70 videos and 100 plus popular songs you can learn. It offers a very sophisticated interactive learning interface which includes an animated keyboard that displays the finger positions as the music is played, the new instant feedback feature that listens through your computer’s microphone or MIDI interface and corrects any errors, and also tracks your progress as you’re learning. And it’s very easy to use. First you’ll watch a video for technique, next practice playing the warm up exercises, then play along while the animated keyboard guides you through the fingerings.
After a quick installation from a single CD, get ready to begin your piano learning. Before you jump in to the lessons, first, you’ll need to choose the type of installation. The Compact installation will only use 83MB disk space, but you’ll need to keep the diskette in the drive. The Full Installation does not require the installation CD, but uses 433MB disk space. The program begins by asking you what type of instrument, either Acoustic piano (which requires a microphone for feedback) or an Electronic keyboard. If your keyboard has a MIDI interface you’re in luck because the instant feedback is more detailed. Then you’re asked to press a key on your keyboard (piano keyboard they mean) for a Keyboard Test. Once selected, video appears with your very own personal Juilliard instructor playing on screen. The next screen displays the contents with twelve sections for a total of 314 lessons detailed below:
I. Playing on Black Keys—Rhythm
II. Playing on White Keys – Notes
III. Tempo, Dynamics and Site-Reading
IV. Playing Songs with Accompaniment
V. Legato and Staccato
VI. The C Position and Intervals
VII. Triads and Cords
VIII. The G Position and Transposition
IX. The F Position and Hanon
X. Extening the Hand Position and Playing Scales
XI. G and F Major Scales, Chords and Arpeggios
XII. S Short Trip into the History of Western Music
Appendix
The menu system at the top of the page has File, Options, Goto, Tools and Help. Under the File menu you can send the page to your printer or print screen. Under Options you can pick your piano type, and also select or deselect the features like Animated Keyboard, Automatic Page Turning and Instant Feedback. Under the Goto menu you can jump to any lesson, song or technique, or just go back to the Contents. Under Tools, you can select your Metronome, Recorder, Finger Tracker, Note and Finger Tracker or check your progress. And the Help feature offers some information, or you can go from there to the Website for more details.
Before you start your lessons you’ll get a few pages of history, and then you’re on to your interactive piano instruction.
eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method Version 3 sells for $59.95.
System requirements:
Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7, 256MB RAM, CD-ROM, Macintosh OS X10.4 or later 256MB RAM, CD-ROM.
Software Companies Mentioned
eMedia Music Corp.
664 NE Northlake Way
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 1-888-363-3424
URL: emediamusic.com
