Customer Reviews

The Fingerpicking Guitar Of Kelly Joe Phelps

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If you're a hands-on type of person who just wants to be shown "how they did it", straight from the source, then this is the DVD for you. It's like having a talented guitarist in your living room, giving you private lessons.

Kelly Joe Phelps performs a song for you, then he stops and pauses and breaks it down, explaining what he did in each phrase. The camera zooms in on the fingerboard, and what his fingers are doing on the strings.

In all of this you learn lots of different techniques, and various tunings. He starts off with a couple of songs in standard tuning, then moves on to some open tunings.

I'd hesitate to say this is for the beginner. I'm a beginner on the guitar, but not to music as a whole, so I understand what is going on musically. So the instructions and demonstrations are very accomodating. With practice, I am certain it won't be terribly long until I can emulate some of his techniques.

This will interest:
Kelly Joe Phelps fans
beginner to intermediate guitar players
Some background in music knowledge will help.

Enjoy it!

Kelly J Phelps is a wonderful picker and in this video he demonstates his technique and skill. I would say this is for intermediate to advanced players. He demonstrates a couple of different tunings that help expand your resources, especially if you can only play in standard tuning. This vid is loaded with much material. It should keep most guitarists busy for a while. I have the slide video by him, I enjoyed it so much I bought this one. Definitely a cut above most guitar instructionals I've seen.

It really takes some time to learn the fingerpicking style that Kelly uses, though it certainly is worth the time to practice! Unlike many other musicians, it's a wonder to watch Kelly play! He plays with such warmth and emotion, I find myself putting my guitar down and just listening. He does a good job of breaking down the style and showing how he works the alternate tunings.
I highly recomend this video if you like his music, even if you don't play much guitar. I'm going to pick up his slide guitar video next!

I bought this for my husband the guitarist, and he really enjoys it. Phelps has some great tips delivered in a quiet, humble manner. His playing and singing are both very nice to listen to. He generally sings some and then breaks the song down into parts to show how he accomplished his sound. He does not belabor his points, so it does not get old and boring. He keeps it fresh and interesting, and the length of the DVD and quality of teaching makes it worth the price. The only slightly negative aspect is that Kelly seems a very quiet, mild-mannered sort of person, which can sort of put you to sleep if you're too tired when you're trying to listen.

Even though the DVD may not be as long as I would like, it is still awesome to watch Kelly Joe Phelps play the guitar. He makes it look so easy and gives great instructions on his finger-picking style.