The Music Path Updated With New Lessons
by Lenny Liang
November 14, 2011
On The Music Path (or The Music Path) has recently been updated with new lessons by noted musicians Roscoe Beck, Russell Ferrante, Sean Watkins, and Kai Narezo.
If you've never heard of the app, the first thing that sets it apart from other music instruction apps is the quality of the instructors. These are not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill instructors. These are Grammy winners, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees, and musicians noted for being some of the best in their field. Imagine learning to play the "Cliffs of Dover" from the great Eric Johnson himself. Now you can.
The app also has a beautiful interface. The first time I used the app, I thought to myself that this is exactly what learning music on the iPad should feel like. The controls were simple, yet intuitive. You tap the screen to pause, swipe your finger down to bring up the table of contents, and swipe your finger left and right to scroll between chapters.The lessons in the app are packed with features like a built-in metronome and guitar tuner, as well as notations, chord charts, lyrics, and guitar tab. There's also the option to record yourself in certain segments, to slow down the lesson, and to loop parts of a lesson over and over again.
In addition, the film quality is of highest caliber, especially when downloaded in hi-def. One drawback to the app is that the lessons are not cheap, at least not by iTunes ecosystem standards. Each lesson costs between $1.99 and $19.99 and runs for about 45-85 minutes. This is a mere fraction of the cost it would take to take an in-person lesson with any of these music greats.
The Music Path aims to become a one-stop shop for professional quality music lessons. Like a musical Kindle store, The Music Path is constantly adding to its library of lessons. One thing to note is that some of the lessons are also featured as standalone apps, and the standalone apps are often cheaper than getting the same lessons within the main Music Path app. Note that if you buy the standalone apps, you cannot easily access the lessons in the main Music Path app, even though they're the same. However, I contacted customer service and they were able to give me access to the lessons in the main app for the standalone discount price. You can search "on the path" in iTunes to locate standalone apps that are cheaper than their in-app counterparts. The current standalone apps I found are Intro to the Guitar by Steve Postell, Intro to Classical Guitar by Scott Tennant and Intro to Blues Guitar by Kenny Sultan).
Other than this annoying quirk, I found The Music Path to be outstanding. Depending on your musical education needs, there are more cost-effective apps out there, which may get the job done. But in terms of production value, usability, growth potential, and quality of instruction, the lessons in The Music Path are the best I've tried.
On The Music Path is available in the App Store right now - free of charge, but lessons cost between $1.99 and $19.99.