Learning Guitar for Dummies

 A shallow treatment with a misleading cover.
I am glad to see that some people have found this DVD useful. If you barely know what a guitar is, this is an inexpensive introduction to guitar playing. However I truly feel like a dummy (more like a sucker) for having purchased and watched this DVD. This is a shallow treatment, which would be OK if the cover were not so misleading.

The back cover includes the phrase "Play in a variety of syles, including folk, blues, rock, and jazz." (Yes play these styles, but this DVD won't help you.) And it includes the phrase "Play open-position chords and jazz chords." This is the one that suckered me. Most musicians consider a "jazz chord" to be something more complex than a seventh chord - a ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth, perhaps with a flatted or augmented member. This presentation includes three or four major triads, three or four minor triads, and one or two seventh chords. This goes at least one step beyond the usual truth-stretching ubiquitous in advertising.

Jon Chappell does an adequate job of demonstrating a handful of basic chords and changing between them. He uses the same "Row, row, row your boat" kind of songs found in hundreds of other introductory music books. This is understandable, and the new musician should take pride and pleasure in playing simple things. But there is nothing fresh or thoughtful about the approach of this presentation. It is a rehash of the simplest things common in so many of these run-of-the-mill introductions.

If you have never picked up a guitar before, go ahead and get this DVD. It's cheap enough. Listen to Jon and take what he says to heart. I would like to think there is something better for the beginner, but this will work. If you already know a couple of chords, and can strum along with any song already, there is little for you here.

 Baby Steps... In the right direction
This was the first DVD I ever bought on the subject. I ordered I even before I bought my first guitar, so I was a real beginner.

The pace is very slow, but as a beginner, I liked it that way. It helped me to feel like I had the potential to keep up. This was very important to me so that I wouldn't give up.

Some may feel the pace of this DVD is too slow, but if you are interested in starting slowly... this may be just the right pace for you.

Eventually, I started collecting Guitar DVDs and I now have over 20, but this was the one that held my interest long enough to make it past the training wheel stages.

 Excelente para principiantes.
Si sabes algo de inglés y eres verdaderamente un principiante ¡Este DVD es para ti! Te muestra paso a paso el rasgeo y los acordes, el arpegio, etc. Y empiezas a tocar una melodía básica desde los primeros minutos. Con un poco más de práctica estarás tocando "La casa del sol naciente". Así de fácil. Tan sólo dedícale unos minutos diarios a practicar. Es un curso básico pero indispensable para un principiante, además Jon lo hace muy ameno. Me gustaría que hubiera otro curso igual para intermedios y para avanzados.
Definitivamente debes tenerlo.

 Excellent tape for the beginner
Let me preface this review with this statement - I have been playing guitar for over 25 years. I wish this tape had been around then...

Last summer, I helped my sister pick out a guitar for my brother-in-law as a birthday gift. While visting them last month, Suzanne (my sister) told me of a tape Fred (my bro-in-law) had picked up to help boost his floundering attempt at kick starting his Rock Star career at the tender age of 46. It was very good, she said; the guy mixed humour with very easy to understand instruction for the novice and even tone deaf. Cool, thought I. Perhaps I should check it out sometime...

Well, as fate would have it, I woke up in advance of everyone else the next morning, and in leu of watching their broadcast selection of local television programming, I decicided to pop in "Guitar Playing for Dummies". Wow. Chapel's easy going manner without talking down to the guit-picking virgin is just what the doctor ordered. We walks you through the basic chords, simple strumming and picking patterns, all to some decent pop standards. You will come out of this believing...no...knowing that you can become at the very least, a pretty compitent player. If only this had been available back in 1976.

My 18 year-old just got the bug after his best friend started playing the bass. So I ordered him a copy...

 Good and Bad at the same time
What annoyed me the most is when Jon switches to the G chord and uses a different fingering method than the one he says the student should us. When I first watched the video, I thought "Which chord is he ^$@%^$@ playing?! It's supposed to be G but its not G according to the fingers hes using!" and then I realized what it was.....

This was my first video I watched and really followed along properly since the last time I picked up my guitar was approximately 2 - 3 years ago. When I first started off, I felt horrible since I could barely keep up with the basic C chord and the first few songs... I wasn't used to the idea of having to stop the video, practice for maybe even a few days, and then continue the video. However, when I mastered every song in the video, it felt good and I felt confident that I could go to sometihng else. However, I don't feel ready for anything intermediate as I feeel like all I can do is strum chords and a bit of finger picking... no powerchords were taught, how do I practice to get best results? Nothing from this video.

The bottom line is, if you're new to guitar, this is a worthy video to build that confidence if you can play through it. If you can strum chords, or have been playing for say a year or so, forget this video.

 good beginner
Great dvd to learn a couple of songs, but the only problem I have found so far is that in Jamaica Farewll the cording is wrong in the book with the guitarist on the dvd the first A chord should be a D chord and then the A after two strums and then back to D after two strums.

 Good but not the best!
I own this as well as The Hal Leonard Method DVD. I don't think you can bet the latter for beginners. I plan on coming back to this later to continue my guitar experience. Check them both out but do Hal Leonards first along with his method books. Enjoy!!!!!

 Good place to start
Not having held a guitar in over 20 years, this DVD was a good place to start. There are lots of camera angles, and the instructor speaks clearly and explains well. The pop-up animation is entertaining but can also be distracting. I recommended this DVD for beginners, but wish the instructor would produce an follow up DVD. Possibly "Guitar for not so dummies"?

 Good, but inconsistent chord fingerings
After watching a borrowed copy of this video, I decided to buy it. Overall, I think this is a good video for beginning guitarists. I like John Chappell's teaching method. However, upon careful scrutiny I noticed that when he plays some of the songs (such as "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and "Sloop John B.") he uses different fingerings for some chords (like G and Dm) than the fingerings he told the viewer to use. The alternate fingerings (using the pinkie finger, which is difficult for beginners) allow the instructor to make quick chord changes during the song. But a viewer using the recommended fingerings will be struggling to keep up and may become frustrated.

In addition to this video, I recommend the eMedia Guitar Method software. It is a very complete teaching system, well paced for the novice guitarist.

 Great for beginners; little here for intermediate players
This DVD is great for people who have little or no experience with playing guitar and want to begin without investing in private lessons (private lessons are a good idea if you can afford them). The DVD contains basics such as posture, hand position, a few basic chords, and strumming. It even has a very basic introduction to fingerstyle (playing with your fingers instead of a pick).

I had taken a very basic class a few years ago, then taught myself barre chords and a few scales. I recently invested in a good mid-range guitar (Martin DC-16 GTE), so I picked up this dvd as a refresher. I found myself skipping to chapter 8 before I came to anything I hadn't learned yet. So the title "Learning Guitar for Dummies" is apt. It is great for beginners as a SUPPLEMENT to private lessons. For intermediate players who are looking to build such skills as fingerstyle, barre chords, scales and improvisation, etc, you'll need something a bit more advanced than this. I found myself more bored and drooling over the Taylor 814 CE he was playing than focusing on the really basic concepts he was presenting.

Other drawbacks of the video: 1) his singing is terrible 2) he doesn't go over such basics as selecting and changing strings or some accessories that are helpful even for the novice (i.e. string winders, supplies for cleaning and maintaining the instrument- like a lint free cloth, a humidifier, etc). 3) in the video he does not always follow the suggested fingering shown in the chart on the screen (i.e. on a few of the songs he plays a G chord with the 1,2, and 4 fingers instead of the 1,2,3 as shown in the chart- I also prefer the 1,2,4 fingering, but this may be confusing to some beginners). Other than that it is a good introductory video for the beginner.