In Which I Take Back Everything Bad I've Said About the iPad

My wife is an Apple fangirl.  It's no use trying to explain to her that Apple products embody style over substance. Style is important, she tells me, likening the slender profile of a MacBook Air to a sexy stiletto heel in contrast to the "comfortable shoe" of my Asus laptop.  So, naturally she wanted an iPad.

The iPad, I tried to reason with her, is nothing more than a larger, unwieldy version of the iPhone (which she already owns), but without the phone. It lacks the functionality of a laptop and isn't good for much more than suffering the web. You only think you need an iPad because of Apple's slick marketing, which persuades you to buy yet one more gadget slated for obsolescence before you've opened the box.  Of course, I got her an iPad 2 for her birthday.

I fiddled around a little with it.  The only app I found remotely interesting was Garage Band (which hardly resembles the Mac version).  A couple of weeks ago, my wife gave me a smug, slightly sinister smile and handed me her iPad open to a demo version of The Music Path. Oh. My. God.

The Music Path is an iPad app that offers video lessons from a bevy of well known musicians on how to play the guitar, piano, drums and bass, including Jackson Browne on fingerstyle guitar, Jake Shimabukuro on the ukulele, Richard Thompson on acoustic rock guitar, Vonda Shepard on piano, Eric Johnson on electric guitar, and Leland Sklar on the bass, to name just a few (with more to come).  The lessons are shot in HD video and have cutaways of right and left hand technique, as well as for music notation and tabs.  Each lesson is modular and individually priced from $1.99 to $19.95. There's even a pretty cool promo video featuring Jeff Bridges, who seems genuine in his assessment of the app as extremely cool.
 
I'm pretty sure I would concur with The Dude on this.  My only hesitation about buying the RT (and maybe Jackson Browne) modules would be my fear that I will also have buy my own iPad when my wife demands hers back. According the FAQ, they may develop a Windows version if there is sufficient interest.  If TMP looks way cool to you and you don't want to spring $800 bucks for an iPad, email them and let them know.