![]() ![]() The forum hosts regular guided activities and community practice challenges or live courses. The forum is a useful place to find additional information (some of which, in our mind, should be on the main site). Like much of the site the content can be a bit high-level and the subjects feel a bit ad-hoc but for a muso they’re a real treat. The Tonebase Livestreams – a set of live and archived workshops and concerts –represent incredible value and include topics such as “The Fandango and Spanish Guitar” and “improving flexibility with opposing motion exercises”. The downloadable scores and workbooks are a real bonus and make the experience much easier. The song-learning videos are a real treat to watch and listen to, even if some of them are hard to master. Some of the videos are more like masterclasses so if you’re already a competent player but want to take it to the next level, this is definitely the course for you. For example, the book on La Catedral” by Agustín Barrios is 30 pages long and feels like a university text. The workbook material at this level is extraordinary. Where it lacks the back-to-basics approach, it excels with its explorations of applying theory to repertoire and mastering higher-level concepts such as polyrhythms and meter. The advanced content is where this site really comes into its own. (For most platforms – like Fender Play (opens in new tab) and Justin Guitar (opens in new tab) – the video lessons outshine any downloadable content.) Tonebase review: Suitability for advanced players Unusually, the excellent downloadable workbook content is the thing that makes the videos easier to digest and taken together, the whole thing is much more manageable. The basics video on “the language of music” is fantastic, once you get into it, and covers a really good basis of music theory but a beginner would definitely need to have a few lessons under their belt before diving in. However, like many other aspects of this course, once you get into the video it eventually becomes clear and manageable. A complete beginner, having filtered this lesson out as being suitable, might panic and give up. We laughed out loud at the suitability of Spanish Romance as a beginner level piece (though the tutor pointed out that this is usually suitable for someone who’s been playing a year or so). Moreover, some of the beginner level videos are far too advanced for a starter. For a complete beginner, this is assuming far too much information from the word go. In the introductory quiz, one of the first questions is “What’s the highest position you feel comfortable playing in?” Another question asks about “I and M alternation”. This site can feel extremely overwhelming for a beginner. Tonebase review: Suitability for beginners Overall, the content in this course is really good but it would really benefit from a clear path outlined at the start of the course and some much clearer labelling and organisation. Videos on understanding pitch notation are really thorough but we’d have appreciated that sort of content being in with the early lessons. However, once we got into them we were again pleasantly surprised at the accessibility of the content. Some of the content is described as “Progress Tracks” and this seems to be unexplained. For example, a first video explaining how to hold the guitar and how to make a good, clear sound was clear, thorough and calm. However, despite feeling a bit at sea when we started, many (but not all) of the videos are easy to watch and clearly delivered. We also found the filter system a bit tricky to get to grips with and could have done with a better explanation of how to use this. However, once you watch the Tonebase (opens in new tab) videos (which are approachable and friendly) the intention becomes clear but it takes a little while. Once we took the quiz, we still felt slightly abandoned to a vast array of videos. There is a quiz to determine which level you’re at but this is tricky in itself if you don’t know any of the terminology and seems to be aimed at at least an intermediate user. We’d have preferred a more linear approach to the lessons, or at least a clear map at the side. The platform can take some getting used to and feels like it launches the user in with very little introduction. Check out the courses on Tonebase (opens in new tab).But for all levels, once you get used to the layout and into the meat of the content, there are some real nuggets available on the platform. Because it's better suited to advanced players, rather than beginners, it doesn't rank highly in our guides to the best online piano lessons (opens in new tab) and the best guitar lessons online (opens in new tab). ![]()
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