Why You Should Take Online Guitar Lessons
Many people want to learn to play the guitar but never get to actually commit to doing it. It’s a real shame because the guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments. It has a great sound and it can be used to play almost any type of song or melody, plus it’s relatively easy to carry around. With all these features a guitar has, it’s certainly not the lack of desire that keeps most people from learning how to play the guitar.
In fact, in most cases it has to do with time and money. Most of us simply don’t have the time to commute to guitar classes or afford to pay for a personal guitar instructor. Moreover, some schools are just not aimed at the average person who just wants to learn to play a few tunes, but rather focus on more advanced guitar courses.
The solution to all this would be teaching yourself how to play the guitar. But it does seem nearly impossible doesn’t it? Well, it used to be. I mean, how is it possible to learn to play music from a book or something, right? It’s not! But we’re not talking about books in the first place!
We’re talking about computer-based multimedia guitar courses that you can buy on the Internet. Think about it, a multimedia course will not only let you know how a tune is meant to be played, but will also allow you to record and compare your performance to the correct one. And as far as practice is concerned, you can see video instruction of basic guitar exercises and play it back as many times as necessary until you “get it”.
Furthermore, a PC-based guitar course will allow you to go at your own pace which may even be faster that the pace many schools or many instructors teach their students. Add to that the fact that you’ll be saving a huge amount of time and money and you have every reason in the world to try an online guitar course at a fraction of the cost.
The Delightful Prequel To The Wizard Of Oz
Just about everybody knows the story of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. But have you ever thought about what happened before the story began? Do you know anything at all about Glinda and Elphaba? Where did they come from? What happened to make them both the way they are? Was Elphaba always mean and wicked?
This delightful musical reveals the hitherto untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West. Based on Gregory Maguire’s outstanding novel, ‘Wicked’ the musical takes you down a spellbinding journey to the magical world of witches and wizards and tells you the fascinating story of ‘How Glinda met Elphaba’. Turns out they knew each other from way back then. Both went to the same school and an extraordinary friendship struck up between the two very different girls – one of them blonde and popular and the other, a misunderstood green girl, Elphaba. She started off trying to use her powers to oppose the Wizard of Oz, but destiny had other things in store for her. And so began the story of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West. So now we know she wasn’t so wicked after all.
This absolutely wicked and wonderful version of Wicked is directed by Joe Mantello, Tony award winner for “Take Me Out and “Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune”.
The music and lyrics of the wickedly delightful songs including “The Wizard and I”, ‘Wonderful” “What is this feeling?”, and “No one mourns the wicked’ are written by Stephen Schwartz Academy Award winner for The Prince of Egypt and Pocahontas.
The musical staging is handled by Wayne Cilento, Tony award winner for “Aida” and “The Who’s Tommy”.
The cast is no less impressive, with Idina Menzel picking up the Best Actress in a Musical award for her stellar performance as Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda, the dizzy blond with a peppy façade and a fragile heart, is superbly played by Kristin Chenoweth.
Wii And Playstation3: The Latest Battle Of The Gaming Consoles
It seems almost like a Christmas ritual: there’s a Next Big Thing in the video game world almost every holiday season. Last year featured a particularly interesting competition between the new gaming hardware put on the market by Nintendo and their prime competitor, Sony with its PlayStation series.
The Sony PS3 is the high-end, bells-and-whistles choice between the two. It includes high-definition graphics, a hard disk, and a Blu-ray Disc drive that delivers great image quality. The top tier 60GB hard drive version also includes a hefty $600 retail price. Nintendo’s Wii (pronounced “we”) costs $250 and builds in Wi-Fi (but not ethernet). Like the PS3, it has an SD Card slot and can display photos, but its standard-def DVD drive can’t yet play movies (Nintendo and Sonic Solutions are working on that).
What Nintendo does have that keeps it in the game is a unique gaming remote device (the Wiimote) and an enormous library of games. The PS3 enters the market with significantly more horsepower and better graphics, but their game options are, at this point, fairly limited. Wii came on the market with 62 games available; the PS3 opened with an inventory of 20 games.
PC World’s review provides a clean portrayal of the difference between the two systems. The graphics on the PS3 are state of the art 1080p high-definition and present a new level of quality for gamers. The Wii’s graphic capability is limited to standard definition, which is equivalent to the PS2, Sony’s last (and highly successful) video game console. However the Wii has a remote gaming control that utilizes motion-sensing technology, so that the gamers’ motions with the remote are mimicked in the game. If you’re playing football, a pass requires a passing motion with the remote. A sword fight will require a little air-fencing as part of the game participation.
The intuitive nature of the Wii remote is its strength, along with the relatively inexpensive cost compared to the PS3. Wii also has an additional controller called the Nunchuk which is a joystick-type device that works in conjunction with the motion-sensing remote.
The graphics and multiple uses (the PS3 includes a Blu-ray HD DVD player) are what make the Sony product attractive. When they both came on the market, the fact that each relied on separate characteristics to define their value has made for an interesting market contest.
The PS3 is the high-horsepower (and high priced) option on the market. It can handle HD DVDs, play back your digital photographs, and connect to the internet with a built in browser. Its graphics are unparalleled, and it comes with a decent game inventory that will at least get you started. It too has a new controller, one that utilizes a tilt feature that is a token effort at motion sensitivity.
With the Wii, Nintendo decided to forego the digital video wars and focus on a simple box with unique controls that is designed for fun. The Wii can play GameCube games (Nintendo’s last offering) and has been introduced with a new addition to the chart-busting Zelda game series. While the Wii hasn’t done much to upgrade the visual quality of the gaming experience, it has added substantial new dimension to the gaming process itself. It too can be utilized for web access.
Nintendo’s decision to target so-called “casual gamers” seems to have paid off in the short run. It’s too early to pick the long term winner; both companies limited their Christmas product issue in order to ensure sellouts and high product demand. The PS3 definitely has a price-break issue that will offset some gamers’ lust for the best graphics out there. On the other hand, it’s a system with a great future. Wii’s future is now, for the most part, and the product issues an intriguing invitation for a substantially new gaming experience, even if it occurs using last year’s graphics.
Wii Fitness With The Wii Fit
The Nintendo Wii revolution continues with the pending launch of the new Wii Fitness products as announced at this year’s E3 2007. This brand new product from Nintendo, called Wii Fit, will take the form of a balance board controller accessory and a bundled exercise game.
The Wii Fitness products take off from where Wii Sports started by introducing active-play games that are not only great fun to play, but also great exercise as well. In fact the Wii balance board brings exercise and fitness for the entire body. The software and balance board is aimed at a large array of exercise based fun, including dancing, aerobics, balancing, and of course games.
The Wii Fit software uses the balance board to compile data in order to plan your fitness progress over a period of time. The software’s fitness measurement system can collect data about an individual in order to keep track of their fitness goals. The fitness readings are presented in the way of a graph that measures your body mass index (BMI) and will adapt your Mii character accordingly. The Mii character is a animated character that represents an individual player’s physique, so it’s important to enter your stats correctly for accurate progress analysis.
Once your personal settings are calibrated, you can then start to have fun playing the fitness mini games. One of the most fun Wii Fitness games looks like the football heading game, in which the players are required to move their heads in the right direction to head the oncoming balls. Other mini games include doing hula hoops by shaking your hips and a marble madness style game where your balance is key to winning. The more serious fitness style games include doing strenuous balancing exercises, press-ups, and yoga.
The release date has still not been announced and neither has the price, but the price is rumoured to be in the range of $49 to $69. What the new Nintendo Wii Fitness products will hopefully bring is a whole new line up of interactive games. Who knows yet, but I can already imagine the likes of skiing, snowboarding, skate boarding, and so on. Maybe these future games could be used in conjunction with the Wii remote for a complete interactive experience?
Whatever happens next, the Nintendo Wii and the new Wii Fitness range are taking the console to a new level that the likes of Microsoft and Sony will find tough to match, especially at Nintendo’s affordable prices.
