Customer Reviews

Fender Presents: Getting Started on Electric Guitar -- A Guide for Beginners

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Are you searching for the best instructional DVD for electric guitar? This is it.

I bought a slew of instructional guitar DVDs in the past month - and I'm writing this review so you don't have to! This one is clearly the best.

It covers rock, blues, country music, each with a detailed breakdown of rhythm and solo. Keith Wyatt (a superb teacher) leads you through every step of the way. His relaxed, intelligent manner and clear presentation are head and shoulders above the other instructional guitar DVDs. This DVD was professionally planned, rehearsed, and performed... maybe because Fender put their name on it. A whole lot of thought and time went into making this a top-notch foundational guitar lesson.

Many of the other DVDs were done by simply turning on a camera on in front of a great guitarist (who may not have the ability to articulate what he is thinking). This DVD could teach the others how to teach.

Everyone who buys an electric guitar should also buy this DVD. This DVD and a chord book are all you need to get started.

I am still in search of a good Jazz guitar DVD/book that will treat Jazz on the level that this DVD taught rock, blues, and country: a basic set of Jazz chords and a basic Jazz solo. After finding this DVD, I am hoping that Fender and Keith Wyatt will continue this series with a Jazz DVD.

Bottom Line: Five Stars. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.

P.S. If you are getting two DVDs, the second best Instructional Guitar DVD is "Learn To Play Rippin Lead Guitar with Paul Lidel."

I bought this after taking 4 months of lessons and it's one of the best investment i've made. Other than the great features that others have written about, i'll mention 2 which are of most use to me.

1. I've bought other books and books/cds combination but the one big flaw with those, even good ones, is that they do not SHOW you how to perform the techniques properly. Things like the finger roll, bends, palm muting can only be learnt from getting someone to show you how they are done (from instructors or guitar-playing friends if you're lucky to have them). Keith shows you how they are done in close-ups and like a good video, you get to play them over and over. This is something that even an instructor may not do for you unless you have personal coaching.

2. Most books do not show you the fingering. Here you get to see the exact fingerings used by Keith. The suggested fingerings are also shown in the tab sequence in the DVD.

I'd highly recommend this DVD to beginners who are still trying to learn all the basic techniques of electric guitar.

I've had this DVD for a couple of years now and this is my updated review...

The practice tracks are simple and repetitive, but after doing just the first two lessons (and practicing each one for a few days), I really felt like I was *playing* as opposed to tripping over my own fingers. A few weeks into it and I had enough of it down that I could play in front of people.

The DVD follows the rhythm method so don't expect to learn tunes from this DVD. It's all about the chords. If you want to put your new knowledge and reflexes to work, get a fake-book in addition to the DVD.

I couldn't give it 5 stars because of a few important lapses.

First, from the section on movable chords onwards, the momentum is lost as Keith Wyatt spends little time explaining anything and throws around terms that are going to be unfamiliar to a neophyte.

This is not so great a failure as you might imagine. I've seen a dozen other beginners guitar DVDs now and they all have the same flaw. Most are far worse. Most DVDs have some guy mumbling and playing tunes without explaining what he's doing. The better ones show the fingering and explain some of the terms. This DVD smokes all of them.

Because Keith Wyatt starts sucking so late into the DVD, the student already has sufficient knowledge of the basics. That's important.

At that point, you should have enough down that you can move on with other materials or make an educated decision about whether to start formal (real-life) guitar lessons.

...

Other criticisms:

The DVD could use a chord-finding chapter. I mean that it should offer a list of chords in a menu that link to the still-images that they use to show the fingering in each lesson. I hated going back through an old lesson just because I forgot one rarely-used chord. Bundling a chord-poster like some beginners books and DVDs do would also be helpful.

And I dislike the navigation-system that they use to switch between lessons and practice tracks. A more useful layout would offer the practice tracks and the back button at the bottom of every menu-screen so that selecting the first practice track from any menu-screen would take no more than a simple press of the down button.

...

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I'm way beyond it now, but it got me started. I think that it's well worth the money -- and I can't say that about any other guitar lesson DVD's I've seen.

TO START,IM A BEGINNING GUITAR PLAYER,PLAYING OVER THE LAST 6 MONTHS.IVE BOUGHT PAUL LIDELS BEGINNING ROCK GUITAR,DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY,ITS OK,BUT VERY SHORT,WITH LITTLE TO OFFER. GUITAR FOR DUMMIES IS JUST THAT.THIS ONE BY FENDER IS LESS MONEY (22.OO),OVER 3 HOURS OF INFO,AND ON DVD,IT SOUNDS,LOOKS BETTER,AND EASIER TO REPLAY AND PAUSE.THE TEACHER (KEITH WYATT) IS THE BEST OF ALL THE ONES IVE VIEWED.I FEEL LIKE I GOT MY MONIES WORTH WITH THIS DVD.

Overall a good DVD, but I think it is a little misleading. Speaking from the viewpoint of a beginner, the first portion of this DVD is excellent. Chord positions in 3d are taught, with some good practice tracks. So far so good. Unfortunately, from there, it whizzes through some techniques like palming/muting and rhythm, then comes back with an entire song(for each style of playing) that incorporates all the lessions. Unfortunately, while teaching the song, he runs through the technique rather quickly, throwing in a number of unfamiliar terms, chords, and complicated strumming which quickly lost me.

I'm probably just guitar-challanged, but I think the second half of this DVD is just a bit complicated for a true beginner. I will come back to this DVD once I am very comfortable with all the chords and strumming techniques, and it probably will be more digestable then.

The first part of the DVD is worth the money for a true beginner, but I estimate the second portion is for somebody that has perhaps a good 6-9 months of experience.

I spend one year in private lessons and tens of books on learing how to play electric guiatar before I discover this DVD.
Believe me is the BEST of all. It opened my eyes. Keith is an excellent teacher. The method he's using is unbeatable.
Only studing this DVD for couple weeks I learn more than in one year with a private teacher.
You can't go wrong with this DVD. Keith is teaching you chords, scales, music theory, blues , rock, country e.t.a.
I liked the practice tracks feature, which are pre-recorded sessions to help you practice chords and scales.

This dvd is good! Plain and simple. When I plopped this dvd in the player, I didn't know a guitar chord from a lamp cord. By the
end of the first lesson, about fifteen minutes, I was strumming chords and sounding good. There is over three hours of lessons and information. The reference section on music theory is very good. The 3d graphics of finger positions on the fret board are awesome. It's hard to learn watching someone else's fingers, because you can't always tell exactly what they're doing. But each time he shows you a new chord, you get a graphic of the fret board you can pause until you get it right. The lessons do get more advanced,and it will take time and practice to gain the dexterity to change chords smoothly and quickly. But for twenty
bucks you just can't go wrong. The dvd doesn't teach you how to play any particular songs, just styles, rhythms, chords and techniques. There are three practice tracks which you play along with, however. Just get it... you'll be happy and playing your guitar after one lesson.

I specifically came back after using this DVD for three months to comment that this is the BEST DVD you can buy for beginning to learn the guitar. The instruction is clear and each section builds on the next. You clearly will understand what you are learning and the practice tracks give you a looped base upon which to practice what you are learning. This is a great starting guitar DVD and you can then take all that you have learned here and learn from other DVD's, magazines, etc. If I would have started with some of the other "beginner" DVD's I have expanded on to using, I may have given up because they ignore too much of the basics. With the learning from this DVD, the others make sense and I am able to absorb their lessons quickly and play with more understanding. This DVD is worth twice its cost.

I bought this DVD for my 10 yr old son who is learning electric guitar. I really like the commentator. He explains things clearly and concisely and has good demeanor. The learning program is well laid out. If one were to complete all activities on this DVD, you would be well on your way to playing electric guitar. However, the program is more conducive for an adult or older teen. The program doesn't have any simple songs to practice and most of the exercises are too difficult for my son. I'm now searching for other, simpler guitar resources.

The DVD presentation is excellent and the menu is well laid out. After each lesson the DVD has a mode which takes you through a song using the new cords. The track will loop until you tell it to stop. It is a great way to learn and to practice rhythm as well as the cord fingering. If you are just beggining this DVD is great.