Learn to Play Guitar DVDs

After careful evaluate I had decided to buy the Hal Leonard Guitar book at the music store. This was when I was a teenager and was dying to learn guitar so I could jam along with friends and play tunes at parties. I figured that book was going to unlock things for me and I'd be a superstar in no time.

Fast forward a head to a few years later and I had successful learned to read TAB and knew the major and minor chords required ot figure out most pop songs but I had all but given up on my guitar journey. The book was hard to follow and it didn't seem to be teaching me things fast enough. I couldn't understand why I had to play all these boring little children's tunes.

It wasn't until I got a bit older again that I recognized the benefit of understanding basic musical theory, keys and scales. Now I find myself over 30 and wishing I had taken the time to learn it right the first time. If you're like me then you probably don't have the time to donate to private lessons so you need an alternative. Well this article will be just what you're looking for.

The cost savings of DVDs over Private Lessons

Let's say that you start taking one half hour private guitar lesson each week. We'll say that the lesson costs you $15 each so that's 50 weeks (with 2 weeks off for vacation) so $750 a year. That's a lot of money when you think about it.

Over that first year you'll learn most of the chords you'll need, some basic theory and music/tab reading skills. You should be able to play some pentatonic scales as well. You'll be well on your way to becoming a good guitar player.

Let's contrast the cost of private lessons with a learn to play guitar dvd. We'll use my favourite course, Learn and Master Guitar, as an example.

The expanded version of their dvd course is $199 and it has 20 dvd's and 5 cd's. A beginner will have a year or more worth of material to cover based on my estimation of the lesson plan. You'll end up with the same skills I listed above and more after you complete this whole course plus you'll always have the discs available so you can refer to the material, lessons and refresh when you need it.

Cost benefit is $550 to use DVD's instead of private lessons. Plus you'll have all the other benefits of not having to take a lesson each week and be in complete charge of your own time.

Below is a complete outline of the Learn and Master guitar course. After reading it you'll likely see that the $550 difference between private and dvd lessons just isn't justified.

If you read the first article above on my lens then you understand that the cost difference between taking private lessons and using a learn to play course like Learn & Master Guitar is huge. I mean over $500 huge. This article is going to give a brief overview of the Learn and Master program and what comes with it. I'm a big fan of this course and have my own copy I use at home frequently. If you're a beginner I really don't think there is a better program available for you.

What comes inside

There are 20 dvd's, which each contain 2 lesson, 5 CD's which contain backing tracks for each of the lessons practice songs, a 100+ page lesson book and online support available from their customer community and support site.

The program is only sold online so it's delivered in a very nice small package that has it's own carrying case and is easy to store. That's an image of the new expanded edition on this page.

The Lessons

The video quality is top notch, I'm a big fan of the way they filmed the lessons in a darkened room with the focus solely on Steve the instructor. When it makes sense there are close ups on the strumming and fretting hands to help explain techniques as well as images that are shown at the side or bottom of the screen to help improve your understanding.

Steve, the instructor, is very soft spoken and has a nice method of explaining things. He's been doing this for a while and it shows. I can't think of a better instructor to help beginners get started.

The Lesson Book

Each lesson on the dvd has a corresponding section in the lesson book. The book goes over the information that was covered in the lesson as well as some additional exercises that are good for practicing. The lesson book also refers you to the right tracks on the jam cd's if you want to practice along to a full band.

Jamming with Backing Tracks

Practicing isn't always the most enjoyable thing when you're first starting out. How ever the backing tracks for each lesson that are available on the jam along cd's make things a lot more enjoyable. You can play along with a reference track that is in the left speaker or fade the track all the way to the right to play alone.

This helps you play in time with other instruments which is something you can have difficulty with as a beginner.

Online Support

The biggest point against dvd lessons has always been the lack of interaction between you the student and the instructor. With a video you can usually get every bit as good of initial instruction as from a private teacher, how ever you don't have the chance to ask questions if you aren't quite clear.

Learn and Master guitar has overcome this aspect of self study by introducing an online support forum. You can post questions by section of the course and Steve the actual teacher frequents the forum to answer questions. Other students can also chime in to help you as well.

All in all for the $199 price point the Learn and Master guitar program is a winner in my books and well worth a glance if you're looking for a guitar course for you or someone you know that is just starting out with the guitar.

Below are some videos worth checking out that are clips from the actual lessons on the dvd's. You can get a feel for Steve Krenz, the instructors, style and soft spoken way.