Customer Reviews

DVD-Essential Exercises for Fingerstyle Guitar

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Lots of good ideas here to help improve your playing. You should have at least 6 months experience to approach this material, as it is a techniques video and assumes you already have the basics down in first position along with a few patterns or finger style songs. If thats the case and you are an independent learner then you will find this very enjoyable. Very good for the independent learner.

In contrast to a couple of the other reviewers, I found this DVD - as well as each of the others that Pete has done (all of which I also own) to be great learning. Since this DVD is mostly 'exercises' (other than the final piece that he teaches you), it can and probably should be a bit boring - but that is what learning is all about. I highly recommend this DVD for early-to-mid level guitarists as invaluable information, both on exercising and also on how to practice to improve your skills.

If you want to learn fingerstyle guitar, you will find no better instructors than the ones at Homespun. Pete Huttlinger and Happy Traum are simply the best to learn from. As to Pete's teaching:

Pete insists upon proper practice, proper technique, and discipline. Pete is able to draw the comparison to weight lifting for an athlete. The proper form, though may not seem so impressive, and may be slow, will yield the best results over time. Short cuts may impress people at first, but will leave the athelete incomplete; and the guitar player is no different.

Pete is one of the rare people that remain humble inspite of being in possession of such a rare gift. His teaching is to be taken slowly. Purchasing one of his DVDs is like signing up for 6 months worth of guitar lessons. It represents excellence at an incredible value.

Pete's John Denver songs are wonderful. He is unashamedly a fan of Denver, and many people who only knew the hit songs will be amazed at how talented Denver was as a guitarist.

This is for an intermediate and above, but if you are an "advanced beginner" who is unafraid to practice slowly, methodically, and carefully, grab the DVD and take 12 months to learn it. It will be more valuable than you could imagine. See his other DVDs here, as well as Happy Traum's and the Homespun catalog for the best musical instruction in the business.

When you find something of such value as the Homespun DVDs....sell what you have to purchase and cherish them. Pete Huttlinger is an extraordinary teacher!

He's a clear teacher, and the exercises are presented at the right pace. He takes time to explain the rationale behind practice, which seems a good idea to say to those of us learning exclusively through DVDs. The two songs you learn here, one classical, one a bossa nova, are pleasant pieces, and his pace of teaching here is a little quicker. In brief asides, he gives a lot of information beyond what you might guess would be here.

My problems with the DVD are two. For one thing, as with other DVDs from this publisher, you're paying nearly thirty dollars for sixty minutes of DVD. Traum is a good teacher too, but these do seem overpriced to me. There are others deals out there better, and similar information free on the web, so I'm not entirely happy with that.

The second problem is that the fingerstyle exercises are quite basic. I use patterns in daily playing that are more intricate than those he gives, and so to me these seemed simple (I'll certainly do them, however) and I had worked most out for myself. The only exercise that seemed intermediate to me was the arpeggios, in third and second positions, which are more about left hand than right hand technique. The two songs, however, are beyond beginner, more intermediate. It seems to me most purchasers are going to be disappointed by one or the other half of this 60-minute DVD--either bored as I was with the basic level of the exercises or intimidated by the songs' complexity.

What I would have preferred is 60 minutes of exercises, increasingly complex. I suppose the average buyer would find that too boring (teach me songs! they might say) but I'm very interested in getting better and know from learning other instruments that repetitive exercises are the way to do that. I wanted a DVD guide to those, rather than a fat printed book of them, and this isn't quite what I had hoped for.

As he points out, you could also use a pick with these exercises to work on your right hand accuracy.

This is a great resource for intermediate fingerstyle students who want to push their technique to a new level. I teach fingerstyle guitar for dollars, and use this DVD with students, and friends who need to expand their technique and thinking about fingerstyle patterns, and accents.

this instruction is very thorough. i would say that it is more geared toward intermediate beginners to intermediates. it is compiled of exercises to help to enhance guitar playing...i have learned from it and utilized some of the exercises. For those who think it is boring, to be an effective guitar player, you need to put into your daily playing routine exercises

This is a round about way of review for this particular dvd. A few years ago, looking at 50, I decided to get serious with the bluegrass banjo or it was not going to happen. I had played "my style" and "played around" Scruggs style but bluegrass is a tradition earned and learned. I started out with video from Murphy Method's series. A great way to learn even if you have a teacher nearby. Then I found Homespun label videos and paid full price of thirty dollars each, pre-amazonian days. Now all of the material is on DVD and makes for a much more efficient experience. That brings up to this review.
After playing guitar and banjo forty plus years I did not think I would or could hold onto a flatpick. I acquired three or four dvd's from Homespun and I amazed myself and friends. I can keep a pick going in some kind of order!One of the videos was Pete's John Denver's Volume One. Many folks know Pete H. was the lead guitarist for John Denver for the last four years of his life. I never was a big fan of John D. until learning some of his songs thru the teaching of Pete's series. I appreciate now that less is more, and one note can make an entire song stand out and be recognized around the world. I grew up in the foothills of Denver and I am right back there in two measures of Rocky Mountain...

After going thru six DVD's of above, I tried Pete's Fingerstyle Practise dvd. Yeah, I have heard much of this before yet not in such a methodical, clear and challenging way from a guitarist of Pete's caliber. He does not brag about his pro'player or his formal training at Berklee School of Music background. It comes up only in context when making a self deprecating joke on learning theory or his early "know it all" days with John D. etc. I did not think I had much to learn after many years but that only teaches you can always learn new ways, especially from an exceptional teacher as Pete. Even if Pete had not had toured and learned where he did, I would seek his instruction. I have seen many other "teachers" who now want nearly a hundred dollars a month to slowly repeat what they present. As for referring to the left hand or the right hand being insensitive, try taking a few banjo lessons. The "right" hand rules even if it is your particular left hand!
I highly recommend this study DVD as well as the more general DVD on how to practise by Pete. Well I guess less is more at this point.{Just learned to type and just like reading music notation, Practise slow, get it right. Repeat Pete!}

The objective of every fingerstyle is to "get the molasses out of their right hand..." That is what this video intends to teach, starting from Step 1.

I see there are a couple one star reviews. In reading them, they are totally unfair. They completely failed to understand what this DVD intends to teach. It's an EXERCISES video, not a play-a-long or hot licks DVD. So, yeah. Exercises aren't quite as thrilling as learning how to blaze through Nine Pound Hammer, but if you ever want to play Nine Pound Hammer and play it right, these are the foundational blocks of technique that will help you get there.

There are a lot of ways to learn fingerstyle- this is DVD is for someone who wants to learn fingerstyle the right way. Start off right and man, everything gets SO much easier as you progress skill levels. I say this as someone who, once upon a time, was quite skilled at creating the illusion of being a good fingerstylist, until I hit a ceiling with my playing. I soon realized that I had been going about it all wrong and wound up having to unlearn many years of bad habits. I really wish I had started off with something like this, instead of coming to it late. It's much easier to learn right from the outset than it is to unlearn wrong, then relearn right.

The fact of the matter is, what separates mediocre from good and good from great players is precisely this sort of thing- mastery of technique, exercises, practice. It's not quite as 'exciting' as just learning songs by the motions and playing away, but getting this stuff down correctly from the outset will clear musical paths later on that will be totally closed to you if you choose to just 'wing it'.

I don't give it 4 out of 5 stars because anything is wrong- it's just subjective grading. Great video for what it's intended to do. Understand what it's intended to do, then decide if that's what you want. If what you want is to learn fingerstyle the right way, get this, get Buster B Jones "Fingerstyle From The Ground Up", then lock yourself in a room for a month and don't leave until you've got it all down. Start there and brother, I promise you'll become a fine fingerstylist.

This DVD lacks any kind of panache, or style. The material is old hat, and can easily be found in many online websites. The presenter seems to convey a kind of holier-than-thou attitude, and makes it seem like he's doing you a huge favor by showing you the lessons, for a cheap price. Total lack of humility. One of the pieces that he teaches is called "Romanza", but he fumbles with the history of the piece, while trying to convey that he does know more about the piece than the piece itself. Sincere suggestion: If you don't know the history of a piece - silence is a better alternative to ignorance! Also, the exercises are extremely common ones, and are definitely not worth the price of the DVD. There are better books with CDs out there that are worth more than this one. The DVD quality is pretty good, though, and the split screen showing both the hands is quite nice. I really wish more teachers would realise that not everyone is right handed, and the verbage is geared more towards the right hand player, rather than the left-hander, or the southpaw. I think guitar teachers should merely refer to the picking/strumming hand, and the playing hand. Overall, very disappointing - save your money, and more importantly, your time!

The only thing I enjoyed about this DVD was learning "Romanza". The rest was sheer boredom. Pete has great technical skill but I disliked his delivery.