14 DAY TRIAL // This morning, there were many programs waiting for me to write a review on them, but I decided to go for the bluesy one, especially after buying a new guitar some 2 days ago. In fact, this suits just perfectly as when I went to the music shop, I didn't have so much time to play along and further test the guitar (I already knew almost all about it) so I just played some blues and easy hardrock licks, just to make sure it works. I may be a sworn metalhead but I won't forget about the blues.
This is why I am going to tell you about the Blues Player: I guess there isn't a serious guitar player in the whole wide world who hasn't at least tried some bluesy themes. And it's not that difficult to play an easy blues, the real blues ain't at all easy and needs to be practiced over and over again, provided the feeling's right. Educational software as the Blues Player is a welcomed category on the web, especially for those who are in their early days of music.
The Looks
Being a software from the learn-a-lick family, the Blues Player had to look good, had to be very functional and easy to use and - at the same time - it had to be consistent with all it stood for: in my opinion, the developers have attained what they were aiming for. Technically, the Blues Player's GUI is very simple and contains only the necessary elements and no color schemes, skins and such like options. It is a one-window program, with no additional settings, other than what is needed for a lick-trainer: volume, tempo and key. The background is a blue-grey gradient and the buttons are very simple to both understand and use.
There are 2 sections - if we can say so - one with the score showing the exact notes of the current lick and the song-tweak area, with play/stop buttons, lick-chooser, volume, key and tempo buttons. Everything is tidy and there is not a single confusing element whatsoever. All the aspects of the Blues Player are so easy to use that even those who don't know anything about the PC could be able to operate it, since everything is done with just a push of a button and minimal effort.
The main window can be fullscreened, but in this mode, the score is very blurry and looks rather like and over-zoomed image, thus becoming rather difficult to read; so I won't recommend using the Blues Player in fullscreen mode.
The Works
The Blues Player brings one interesting feature among the "Minus One"-type softwares: the playback is not identical in two successive phrases. This means that Blues Player alters the way the background (drums, bass and piano) is played each time, thus you won't get bored because you won't feel like at a rehearsal, when you hear/play the same exact phrase over and over again.
Besides this variation, which band usual boredom when playing "music minus one ", the Blues Player offers even more: a high degree of interactivity, as it allows you to quickly choose the tempo and even the key in which you want to play. And if this is not enough, it's also up to you to decide whether and which instruments will play as your accompaniment: drums, bass, piano, even solo, all of them together or any combination between them.
And as we are speaking here about solo, here's one great feature: it will randomly choose to play phrases from the 30 presets (in the registered version) and thus construct a solo structure which will play indefinitely, as well as randomly, exactly as if it were an improvisation. And if you really want to play the blues, believe me that improvisation is more than a must, it's the living essence of the blues!
The score at the bottom of the window displays the professional musical notation of the lick you just chose to play and the changes, as you happen to change the key. The accompaniment follows nice and smoothly the instructions you specify for tempo (speed) and key and, this way, you are sure to have a rich and good experience, training with the Blues Player.
The educational purpose has a very strong point and believe me, I have been playing guitar for some 14 years now: no one can guarantee you'll become a skillful bluesman after working with the Blues Player but its constant and serious use will definitely ensure that you get at least acquainted with what the basics of blues are really like, as well as getting you used to major themes and phrases of this beautiful music. The best thing is that the Blues Player isn't fit only for piano or guitar: you can as well play any instrument capable of producing blues and train yourself. If you have played an instrument for some time now you then know that results don't show up in days, but rather months of hard work. So pick up your gear, start the Blues Player and get groovin'!
The Good
The strongest points of Blues Player are its simple design and operation, the backing-line setup possibilities, the capability of being usable with more than one instrument and last, but not least, the fact that it does not repeat the same phrases twice.
The Bad
If the score were clearer in the fullscreen mode, so the Blues Player could be read from a greater distance, this software could become of the major ones in what blues PC-training has to offer.
The Truth
I admit that the Blues Player is one of the simplest, yet useful, programs I have met lately, of course, when it comes to computer-assisted music training. A very good price for a small tool that can help you become an excellent bluesman.
See the snapshots below and "ask me nothin' but about the Blues" (Boz Scaggs):
