What's the best learn guitar DVD series?

[Yuma]

My kids recieved guitars for Christmas. I am supposed to get one, too. My wife supposedly had a teacher lined up to come to the house and teach the three of us. Well, it's almost February and no teacher. I went to Amazon.com to get a DVD series, just in case. The choices and methods are staggering! I'd also like to learn to read music, too. Anyone have any suggestions? I know there's some pretty good guitarists here.

 

[boisesuns]

Hey Yuma,

There are some goot guitar sites to go to for learning guitar online. I'm teaching guitar (Soon to be full time) and I usually start by teaching Chords and some easy scales. There is a lot you can find online at these sites. They have lessons and music to learn.

www.wholenote.com
www.8notes.com

There are tons more online sites to learn Chords, find chord charts and learn about reading music. If you have any specific questions, PM me and I can get you more links to free stuff, and some books I recommend.

 

[nathan]

Why don't you try that Esteban video?

 

[Rivercard]

Once they start learning how the notes on the fretboard relate to one another, encourage them to figure out guitar parts on their own from listening to CD's. That will build their ability to play by ear and stimulate personal creativity.

 

[vince56]

Why don't you try that Esteban video?

You have to be kidding. The guy's repuation in the local musician circle is that he is a tremendous hack. His playing is amateur at best and his music is the "nirvana" (i.e. lowest common denominator cheese) of flamenco guitar (which is a bastard child of spanish classical in the first place). Rivercard's got it right. Once they get up to a novice or intermediate level, it's time to check out some of the real instructional videos by guys like John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, & Paul Gilbert, if they're going for rock or jazz. If they're going for classical, there's only so much you can learn from books or DVDs and you should really seek out a college instructor. Christopher Parkening, guitar professor at Montana State, has published some great works that can help get kids started on classical guitar.

For a beginner, they just need to play guitar, play along to CDs and the radio, and have fun. Get some guitar magazines, learn some cool songs, etc. If they get past that, then onto the instruction part of music.

 

[nathan]

You have to be kidding.

I know he's a hack. My sister and my dad both can't squirm when his name is mentioned. Back when my dad had a cafe on Mill Avenue every year during the arts and crafts fair Esteban had a spot at short distance away. They said he was basically playing the same songs over and over again.

 

[Rivercard]

I know he's a hack. My sister and my dad both can't squirm when his name is mentioned. Back when my dad had a cafe on Mill Avenue every year during the arts and crafts fair Esteban had a spot at short distance away. They said he was basically playing the same songs over and over again.

Wow. I guess they edit him to look pretty impressive on the informercials. At first glance his technique looks pretty good. He is creepy though.

 

[boisesuns]

Wow. I guess they edit him to look pretty impressive on the informercials. At first glance his technique looks pretty good. He is creepy though.

One of my students has an Esteban guitar. It's not the greatest guitar out there. Esteban looks like SRV back from the dead, except for the guitar playing skills of cousrse

 

[GreenCard]

My 10yr old Grandson has a Guitar Hero PS2 and can really rock.It is very popular with all his friends.

 

[GreenCard]

I hope after he tires of the Guitar Hero game he will start with a real guitar. I have an Ovation model 1127 but it seems to be a little big for him.I think I paid $6 or 700 for it back in the seventies for my wife.

 

[Yuma]

I am already lost using wholenote web site. On the memorizing the fret board link, I see notes like C# in different parts of the fret board. Is this the same C# no matter where you finger and pluck it at?

Also, on the memorizing the strings, I see C note at different parts of different strings. So I can get a C note all these different ways?

How will I know which C# note or C note to play from which fret board or string? Or does it matter?

Or am I TOTALLY NOT getting this?

 

[boisesuns]

It is all the same C# or C on the guitar it's just in different pitch ranges caled Octaves. It's like on piano if you go from one not to the same note up higher it sounds the same just a higher pitch.

The way you figure out how to play it depends on the way you read it. The way the strings on the guitar are stacked up creates a lot of moveable patterns of note sequences (Scales) that are used for improvising. The notes you need to find really are closer than you think.

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[Yuma]

OK, is fret one furthest away from the guitar, up next to the tuning screws, number 1 or #12? The fattest string is supposed to be on the bottom, right? Or the skinniest on the bottom? I see these pictures, but I have no reference WHERE on the actual guitar which fret #1 or #12 is at.

Plus, I think I am playing the guitar Jimi Hendricks style. I think I might have the fret board the wrong way. Do you strum with the right or left hand? It seems equally applicable to me with either hand. Same for positing the hands on the fret board. It seems easy with either hand. I think that's part of why I can't figure out how to hold and operate this thing!

Plus I don't know what C or C# sounds like because the midi player for the site doesn't work for my computer. So Whatever positions it says for me to put my fingers on, I do.

Oh, when you put the fingers on the proper strings on the fret board, you only pluck those strings? Or do you strum across all the strings no matter where you put your hands?

I think I may need an initial lesson from a human. I am "playing" and it seems OK right handed or left handed. I know one way or the other I must have the guitar in the wrong position. Unless it was designed to go either way?

 

[boisesuns]

That picture above is like looking at te guitar laying in your lap. The bottom string is the thickest and the top is the smallest string.

Strum with your right hand, hold down notes with the left hand. Unless you are left handed!

When you are making chords, you look at the chart to tell you what stings to play, and sometimes what strings to hold down. The Heaviest String is on the left of these charts. The Spaces repreent frets (There you hold your finger down in between the metal on the fretboard)

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The X means don't play the string, and a O means play the string open (without holding a finger down)

Your fingers will be assigned numbers that will show you which fingers to put down.

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The numbers on the bottom of this chart are the finger numbers you hold down.

For Example, here is G Chord:

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Reading this chart means you play all the strings and hold your fingers down in the right place.

 

[Yuma]

THANKS!!! I have a feeling I will have trouble memorizing the notes and strings, but at least now I have SOME idea of how that relates to the guitar. I am a visual learner. So if I see a bunch of numbers and charts, they have no real meaning until I can see or visualize what they represent.

One last thing. Using the G chord example above, what frets does that represent? Also, I play the left chart first, then the right one? Or I am picturing I strum once, but move my fingures to the second chart as the strum recedes? Do both make the chord together?

(It's easier for me to touch the frets and strings with my right hand and strum with my left, but I am supposedly right handed! This will be pretty hard, I have a feeling. Training my left hand fingers to touch the strings right. It's easier to pick left handed, too. Do they make left handed guitars?)

 

[boisesuns]

In the G Chord above, the top and thickest line represent the nut (NO jokes Yuma!)

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The spaces after that are called frets (Seen above) The Dot inlays are used to help you navigate around the neck.

That G Chord chart shows two ways to play the same chord, you are just adding another note to make the sound fuller. Chord charts don't have any indication of how you are supposed to strum, they just show you how to make the chords.

If you are right handed, keep making the chords with the left hand and strum with the right hand. It will come around with practice. Learn a few chords and try and change between them. Start with the C, A, G, E, D chords and practice changing in between them. This is called a chord progression. Play the strings the chart indicates togeher and individually to make sure you are holding the notes down right.

They do make left handed guitars, but stick with what you have right now. When you hold the guitar, the thickest string should be on top.

 

[Redrage]

Whole note is a good resource.

If your kids like harder stuff get them the Metal Method video series. OSme of the stuff is a little out of date, but it's a good video/dvd series.

Guitar World has lessons on a CD/cd ROm evermonth as does Guitar One. CHeck thos out too.