Learning Music Online- Crazy?

Posted by Chad Criswell Nov 26, 2006

Everything else in our lives has moved online so it was only a matter of time until music instruction moved to cyberspace as well. Computer aided music instruction has been around for decades, going back to crude music theory tools played on Apple II computers. Recently though the technology that drives computers and the Internet has advanced enough that many people are staking a claim and trying to profit from their own versions of computer based/online music instruction.

• SmartMusic Studio by MakeMusic Inc.- MIDI based intelligent practice and accompaniment system. In use for several years in schools around the world, it is a very popular and useful tool.
• In The Chair - A new take on the computer based accompaniment system it does one better than SmartMusic by providing video and live audio clips rather than through MIDI.
• eJamming- A MIDI based service that allows instrumentalists to play with each other in real time via the Internet. Users must have a MIDI based instrument, standard acoustic instruments do not work.
• WorkshopLive-Online guitar instruction with videos. Of the guitar sites I have visited this is the most promising and professionally done.