Published 15/7/08
Tutorials for all the band!
Showmehowtoplay.com (SMHTP) is a new tutorial service that takes a neat approach to teaching users how to play popular songs. It’s a software-based system that centres around what the creators call the Multiplayer: an audio and video player with a split screen that shows video and plays audio of what the different instruments are doing during the song.
To take advantage of the service, users simply visit www.showmehowtoplay.com, download the free Multiplayer, and then pay under £1 (around $2) to download the specially encoded songs that they want to learn.
The really cool thing about SMHTP is that the different parts (the drums, for example) can be soloed so that the drummer can brush up on his or her skills, and learn fills hit-by-hit. Parts can also be muted or turned down in volume, so guitarists can can mute Frusciante and jam with Flea, or turn Carlos Santana down and tear the roof off!
Cleverly, the tempo of both the audio and video can be slowed down, in case a guitar lick or bass run is so complex that it can’t be learned in real-time. Further controls enable the user to control the level of (or mute) a built-in mentronome, the vocal line, as well as any ‘extras’, such as backing vocals.
As with most software media players, there’s a timeline that shows the current position in the song, but the SMHTP Multiplayer has markers that can be dragged to create a loop zone. So a chorus, for example, can be played repeatedly, for perfecting, say, a chord progression.
The SMHTP web site has a wide variety of popular songs for download in the Multiplayer format, from ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ to Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, all of which are displayed on the web site with a key of which instruments are used and the difficulty of each part. Why not try it out?
www.showmehowtoplay.com
Showmehowtoplay.com (SMHTP) is a new tutorial service that takes a neat approach to teaching users how to play popular songs. It’s a software-based system that centres around what the creators call the Multiplayer: an audio and video player with a split screen that shows video and plays audio of what the different instruments are doing during the song.
To take advantage of the service, users simply visit www.showmehowtoplay.com, download the free Multiplayer, and then pay under £1 (around $2) to download the specially encoded songs that they want to learn.
The really cool thing about SMHTP is that the different parts (the drums, for example) can be soloed so that the drummer can brush up on his or her skills, and learn fills hit-by-hit. Parts can also be muted or turned down in volume, so guitarists can can mute Frusciante and jam with Flea, or turn Carlos Santana down and tear the roof off!
Cleverly, the tempo of both the audio and video can be slowed down, in case a guitar lick or bass run is so complex that it can’t be learned in real-time. Further controls enable the user to control the level of (or mute) a built-in mentronome, the vocal line, as well as any ‘extras’, such as backing vocals.
As with most software media players, there’s a timeline that shows the current position in the song, but the SMHTP Multiplayer has markers that can be dragged to create a loop zone. So a chorus, for example, can be played repeatedly, for perfecting, say, a chord progression.
The SMHTP web site has a wide variety of popular songs for download in the Multiplayer format, from ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ to Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, all of which are displayed on the web site with a key of which instruments are used and the difficulty of each part. Why not try it out?
www.showmehowtoplay.com
