Add Some Rhythm

You've taken a real liking to your guitar, learning each of its parts and anxiously awaiting picking it up again each day. The only thing that seems missing is your personal touch. You ask yourself, "How can I make this my music?"

Mahalo's Master Rhythm Guitar is the style guide you've been searching for, whether you realize it or not. Our dynamic host, Jen Trani, takes you deep into the trenches of guitar rhythm with 28 different styles of playing—from basic rhythm comprehension to engaging advanced lessons—guaranteed to help you find your own style.

Each lesson is accompanied by an exercise video, using different speeds and chords to move you and your guitar in the right direction. The lessons are split up into the basic rhythmic breakdowns, useful strumming techniques and popular rhythm styles so that you can put your skills to use regardless of your musical background. 

By the end of the course, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of rhythm guitar and its most noteworthy styles, including Bo Diddley's blues, funky 16ths and Latin grooves.

So if you want to get movin' and groovin' with your guitar, it's time to join Mahalo's music team and learn to Master Rhythm Guitar.

Maps Meet Apps

How's that drawing hand of yours doing? Why do we ask? Because it's time for more drawing lessons! Mahalo's got an amazing new app, which you can also download as part of our How to Draw app. Either way, you'll take your artistic skills to a whole new level! Draw the USA is where you'll learn how to name, spell and draw all 50 US States from memory. Your Geography teacher just might give you a standing ovation.

On the other end of the spectrum, we updated our How to Draw app with a Draw the Lion King section, which will allow you to bring your favorite Disney characters to life. Eight in-depth video tutorials explore the basic shapes of Simba, Scar, Timon and Pumbaa, along with the complex details necessary to create perfect reproductions in a variety of poses.

After we witnessed Al Franken's mad map-drawing skills, we issued a challenge to drawing expert Ken O'Brien: Learn to draw the USA from memory so well that you can teach it. Ken accepted the challenge and crushed it like a steamroller. And when you asked Mahalo for lessons on drawing Lion King characters, we heard you loud and clear. With experience developing "American Dragon: Jake Long" video games for Disney, Kenny had no trouble drawing Lion King stars with the hand of a master artist. This engaging teacher is sure to give you your money's worth!

These new courses feature drawing and memorization tips, beautifully-shot videos and text instructions that'll have you drawing in no time. To help you tackle a project as advanced as the entire United States, we've split it into four quadrants: the Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest.

After downloading and using our latest drawing courses, tell us what you think! Did you find our memorization tips helpful? Were our lessons as clear as they could be? Let us know via email at mobilehelp@mahalo.com!

The Sweet Sound of Apps

It's a wonderful day for audiophiles everywhere! Mahalo's new Master Pro Tools in One Week app just hit the iTunes store like a cymbal crash, so let's get this session started! With an amazing 250+ video lessons, this course will take you from a knob-twiddling amateur to a confident audio wizard.

You'll begin with basics like creating sessions and using templates, then move on to learning the windows and their functions. We'll teach you how to use the tools and displays that have made Pro Tools the industry standard, then give you comprehensive breakdowns of the channel strips. By the end of this tutorial, you'll be putting other engineers to shame. 

You may remember the course's dynamic host, Joey Biagas, from our Learn Garage Band 11 app. Joey, a phenomenal musician and expert audio engineer, was an Audio Recording major at California State University Dominguez Hills. For examples of his sonic mastery, listen to self-produced albums from his band, Setting Sunrise.

This course's numerous detailed text lessons, photos and videos are designed to guide anyone, from beginners to experts, through the world of Pro Tools 9. And this course is just the beginning! We're planning on rolling out additional in-depth installments in our Learn Pro Tools 9 educational app series, so if you weren't excited a minute ago, you're welcome.

After you've tried out this app behind the digital boards, give us some feedback—not too loud! We value your input, so send us an email at mobilehelp@mahalo.com. 

So don't delay! Amp up your Pro Tools 9 skills today!

Mahalo's Apps Rebooted

Here at Mahalo, we've always got something brewing. Seriously, you should see how much coffee we drink! Lately, we've been gearing up for two eagerly-anticipated releases: new iPad designs and iPhone versions of our apps! If you didn't have an iPad and couldn't take our courses, we're sorry we left you hanging. But believe us, this was well worth the wait. We're about to take the mobile education market by storm, so get ready to learn on the go!

If you want to make get fit on the go with Learn Pilates, don't lug that iPad to the gym. Just look on your phone! Or maybe you want the inside scoop on singer Jasmine V. Her official app is also now available on your iPhone.

And these apps just keep looking better and better, thanks to our team of dedicated video editors, writers and developers. With custom-made app themes and tons of new features, layout v2.0 is about to knock your socks off and make learning even easier!

Let's start with our landing pages. If your new app has downloadable content pack options, you'll see each one with a lovely photo, title, description and price. Select the course you want to take to get your purchase started. To see more downloadable courses, swipe to the right, or to start your purchased course, just select "Start Course"!

If your new app doesn't have any other downloadable courses just yet, you'll be taken right to the course's landing page, which contains beautiful photos from the course and a clear title with the name of your host.

Now, onto the chapters. We've got a horizontal layout. Just like the downloadable courses, each chapter features a photo, the chapter title and a short description. Clean, clear, easy. Perfect. Keep swiping to the right to reveal more chapters.

Once you've decided which lesson to start on, there are a few buttons at the top of each page to familiarize yourself with. A Back button to take you back to the chapter's table of contents, a check mark for when you've finished a lesson, a heart to save a lesson as a favorite and a blue download button to store lessons on your device for off-line viewing.

On the course navigation page, we've got a progress bar, the number of lessons you've completed and the percentage of the course you've finished. Each completed lesson will be checked off and highlighted in green. The layout will be vertical, so you can swipe down to see more chapters.

We're proud of all our apps and the variety of new features, and we can't wait to hear what you think. When you tell us what you like and don't like, we listen. If you've got any issues or suggestions, send them our way at requests@mahalo.com!

Up Close and Personal

As of today, we've hit another big milestone. We released our first "Up Close and Personal" app—this one featuring singer Jasmine Villegas (aka Jasmine V). And we're quite proud of this one. Not only are we featuring a new set of designs for the app (check back Monday for more info on that), but we at Mahalo feel that this app really showcases the talent of each of our teams at their best.

Two of our video editors—Billy and Dallas—spent hours upon hours getting every detail of these beautiful HD videos ready. From the two days they spent shooting with Jasmine (see the app for behind-the-scenes footage), the week they spent editing to perfection (associations were drawn to MTV) and the time they put into the finishing details like photography, the high quality of these videos reflects the time they spent.

As for the app itself, there's tons of great content (both for fans and casual consumers alike). Although it's specifically targeted towards Jasmine's loyal fan base (900,000 Twitter followers and counting), there are tips and advice that anyone would find useful—from fashion to skincare with more content in the works.

So check it out! We definitely think it's worth more than the $1.99 you'll pay for it. Then once you have a chance to go through it, let us know what you think! What do you love about the app? What more do you want to know about Jasmine V? What can we do better in the future? We'd love for you to email us at requests@mahalo.com with your feedback!