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

I bought a slew of instructional guitar DVDs in the past month - and I'm writing this review so you don't have to! This one is clearly the best.

It covers rock, blues, country music, each with a detailed breakdown of rhythm and solo. Keith Wyatt (a superb teacher) leads you through every step of the way. His relaxed, intelligent manner and clear presentation are head and shoulders above the other instructional guitar DVDs. This DVD was professionally planned, rehearsed, and performed... maybe because Fender put their name on it. A whole lot of thought and time went into making this a top-notch foundational guitar lesson.

Many of the other DVDs were done by simply turning on a camera on in front of a great guitarist (who may not have the ability to articulate what he is thinking). This DVD could teach the others how to teach.

Everyone who buys an electric guitar should also buy this DVD. This DVD and a chord book are all you need to get started.

I am still in search of a good Jazz guitar DVD/book that will treat Jazz on the level that this DVD taught rock, blues, and country: a basic set of Jazz chords and a basic Jazz solo. After finding this DVD, I am hoping that Fender and Keith Wyatt will continue this series with a Jazz DVD.

Bottom Line: Five Stars. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.

P.S. If you are getting two DVDs, the second best Instructional Guitar DVD is "Learn To Play Rippin Lead Guitar with Paul Lidel."


THE BEST I'VE TRIED   August 27, 2002
LEFTYGUITAR (Louisville, Ohio United States)
81 out of 89 found this review helpful

TO START,IM A BEGINNING GUITAR PLAYER,PLAYING OVER THE LAST 6 MONTHS.IVE BOUGHT PAUL LIDELS BEGINNING ROCK GUITAR,DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY,ITS OK,BUT VERY SHORT,WITH LITTLE TO OFFER. GUITAR FOR DUMMIES IS JUST THAT.THIS ONE BY FENDER IS LESS MONEY (22.OO),OVER 3 HOURS OF INFO,AND ON DVD,IT SOUNDS,LOOKS BETTER,AND EASIER TO REPLAY AND PAUSE.THE TEACHER (KEITH WYATT) IS THE BEST OF ALL THE ONES IVE VIEWED.I FEEL LIKE I GOT MY MONIES WORTH WITH THIS DVD.


Great tool whether you're taking lessons or self-learning   January 18, 2005
Tan Kheng Eng
55 out of 55 found this review helpful

I bought this after taking 4 months of lessons and it's one of the best investment i've made. Other than the great features that others have written about, i'll mention 2 which are of most use to me.

1. I've bought other books and books/cds combination but the one big flaw with those, even good ones, is that they do not SHOW you how to perform the techniques properly. Things like the finger roll, bends, palm muting can only be learnt from getting someone to show you how they are done (from instructors or guitar-playing friends if you're lucky to have them). Keith shows you how they are done in close-ups and like a good video, you get to play them over and over. This is something that even an instructor may not do for you unless you have personal coaching.

2. Most books do not show you the fingering. Here you get to see the exact fingerings used by Keith. The suggested fingerings are also shown in the tab sequence in the DVD.

I'd highly recommend this DVD to beginners who are still trying to learn all the basic techniques of electric guitar.


The Best DVD for a Beginner   January 9, 2005
Hey Mo!! (The City of Townsville)
36 out of 36 found this review helpful

I've had this DVD for a couple of years now and this is my updated review...

The practice tracks are simple and repetitive, but after doing just the first two lessons (and practicing each one for a few days), I really felt like I was *playing* as opposed to tripping over my own fingers. A few weeks into it and I had enough of it down that I could play in front of people.

The DVD follows the rhythm method so don't expect to learn tunes from this DVD. It's all about the chords. If you want to put your new knowledge and reflexes to work, get a fake-book in addition to the DVD.

I couldn't give it 5 stars because of a few important lapses.

First, from the section on movable chords onwards, the momentum is lost as Keith Wyatt spends little time explaining anything and throws around terms that are going to be unfamiliar to a neophyte.

This is not so great a failure as you might imagine. I've seen a dozen other beginners guitar DVDs now and they all have the same flaw. Most are far worse. Most DVDs have some guy mumbling and playing tunes without explaining what he's doing. The better ones show the fingering and explain some of the terms. This DVD smokes all of them.

Because Keith Wyatt starts sucking so late into the DVD, the student already has sufficient knowledge of the basics. That's important.

At that point, you should have enough down that you can move on with other materials or make an educated decision about whether to start formal (real-life) guitar lessons.

...

Other criticisms:

The DVD could use a chord-finding chapter. I mean that it should offer a list of chords in a menu that link to the still-images that they use to show the fingering in each lesson. I hated going back through an old lesson just because I forgot one rarely-used chord. Bundling a chord-poster like some beginners books and DVDs do would also be helpful.

And I dislike the navigation-system that they use to switch between lessons and practice tracks. A more useful layout would offer the practice tracks and the back button at the bottom of every menu-screen so that selecting the first practice track from any menu-screen would take no more than a simple press of the down button.

...

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I'm way beyond it now, but it got me started. I think that it's well worth the money -- and I can't say that about any other guitar lesson DVD's I've seen.


Could be better   July 8, 2005
DocSab (Philadelphia)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

Overall a good DVD, but I think it is a little misleading. Speaking from the viewpoint of a beginner, the first portion of this DVD is excellent. Chord positions in 3d are taught, with some good practice tracks. So far so good. Unfortunately, from there, it whizzes through some techniques like palming/muting and rhythm, then comes back with an entire song(for each style of playing) that incorporates all the lessions. Unfortunately, while teaching the song, he runs through the technique rather quickly, throwing in a number of unfamiliar terms, chords, and complicated strumming which quickly lost me.

I'm probably just guitar-challanged, but I think the second half of this DVD is just a bit complicated for a true beginner. I will come back to this DVD once I am very comfortable with all the chords and strumming techniques, and it probably will be more digestable then.

The first part of the DVD is worth the money for a true beginner, but I estimate the second portion is for somebody that has perhaps a good 6-9 months of experience.