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

Step-by-step lessons incorporating clear, easy-to-follow 3-D graphics and unique play-along tracks teach the viewer the essential chords, scales, and techniques used by acoustic guitar players in every popular style, including rock, blues and country. This DVD is separated into two major sections:

1)The First Step: tuning up string names essential chords and scales used by all players music reference section (notes, rhythms, chords and scales) practice tips fretting-hand technique picking-hand technique backing tracks for play-along animated 3-D fretboard graphics.

2)Play Acoustic!: rhythm technique (bare finger/thumb, bass/chord, fingerstyle, etc.) soloing technique (chord embellishment, open-string chords, using a capo) electrified acoustic rock, blues and country styles rhythm and solo technique in each style backing tracks in each style for play-along tips on caring for your instrument from the Fender Custom Shop.

Special DVD Features include: Bonus footage, including a Fender Factory Tour! Also: Web links, including a web site specifically designed for beginning guitarists Multi-language feature so you can hear the DVD in English, Spanish, German, French, or Japanese.

I was impressed by the vast amount of material covered by this video and in the beginning he covers it very slowly and in depth. My qualms with it are simple: 1. Doesn't cover the major scale (this is a minor one but I feel that since it's the foundation of music theory it should have been covered) 2. Lack of theory (Most guitarists I know wouldn't care about this one but I do, he tends to say "just play whatever sounds good" more than I'd like), 3. Towards the end of the video he stops explaining things (Ex. there is a bass run in one lesson and those nifty 3d fretboards are nowhere to be found. Since he doesn't say what he's doing very clearly I ended having to just figure it out myself. Not very instructional.) Finally I just felt that the examples weren't exactly anything I would be interested in practicing (Especially the rock example...that is NOT rock!)


GREAT! except.....   June 6, 2005
Absense of Form (Hong Kong S.A.R.)
25 out of 25 found this review helpful

This DVD is great! I play electric guitar and I use this DVD, it doesn't make much of a differnece really, its still a guitar. Anyways, this DVD covers a lot of stuff and the practice tracks really make it so much more fun to work on what you're learning, especially during the bar chord lessons when it gets so painful to just play the chord and hold it, but with the music it just makes it worth it.
However, one down side of this DVD is the lack of theory, Keith Wyatt tends to just say stuff like "This is C7" or "that's the minor pentatonic scale".... and I'm left with an empty space going "wait, what's with the names? they sound differennt I know but whats the difference between major, minor, 7th, etc.?!" I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for music theory :\....would have been great if it was included. However, I still think this is a really good DVD for beginners, I'm a beginner, i started off with the "LEarning Guitar for Dummies DVD" and moved on to this and I must say I prefer this, its more progressive in its teaching..