Lessonator has released version 1.0 release of its new music lesson and presentation authoring program for the Mac. Lessonator allows music teachers, students and hobbyists to create their own interactive music lessons without programming.

Sporting a slide interface similar to Apple’s Keynote, the app lets users create lessons by adding audio, video, movies, images and notation (standard and tablature) onto a multi-layered canvas. Slides look and operate just like other presentation packages, except each have a animated 3D instrument and music notation.

Each slide is made of three graphical layers: back, 3D instrument and front.  Lessonator users can choose among a flexible set of slide templates for guitar, bases or keyboards. 3D guitars, bases and keyboards are generated on the fly from 2D CAD drawings. A visual chord sequencer is designed to help you define a MIDI background track for the duration of a slide.

To celebrate the version 1.0 release Lessonator introduces the “Year Of Lessonator” subscription. Under this promotion, users who purchase Lessonator between Dec. 17, 2013, and Jan. 6, 2014, will receive a year’s worth of free weekly music lessons on their chosen instrument — guitar, bass or keyboards.

Lessonator 1.0 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later and costs US$59.95. Go to http://www.lessonator.com/ for more info.