Instructional guitar DVDs... are they all like this?

[Armistice]

On a Christmas whim, I bought a learner DVD by a guitarist called Adrian Legg which purports to be about open tuning.

So I take it home and put it on and discover some interesting points...

(1) Adrian is playing an Ovation acoustic that doesn't have fretboard dots on it, so while I'm watching him and trying to figure out what he's playing, I continually have to to reference myself to the nut to think "was that the 4th fret or 5th fret". Now he's not playing anything particularly difficult, and he does break it down and play it slowly, but it just seems like not the smartest move to make for an instructional DVD.

(2) the guy's timing sucks... and he admits it.... on the third of three pieces on the DVD he warns against playing on your own too long, as your timing goes to hell - something I utterly dispute, incidentally - and then proves it by asking you to rewind and try to tap your toes to the piece, and then plays it against a metronome and is just all over the place. Now I'm very aware of letting a piece breath and speeding up and slowing down in various places as the toon requires it... but I really was alarmed at how "off" this guy's timing, generally speaking, actually was.

(3) the accompanying booklet doesn't feature tab, but notation, for a piece played in DADGAD. Presumably the person watching the DVD is new to the tuning and so will struggle with reading notation... Not that I can read it anyway in standard tuning particularly well, but again, it just seemed a little strange.

I'm wanting to buy more DVDs to learn new styles, but I'm sort of a bit cautious since getting this one.

Are they all like this?

 

[travelin travis]

check amazon reviews. ime, they're hit and miss.

 

[Rokket]

I have reviewed several of them when I was in my learning stages, at a point when I wanted to be the next rock god. I can honestly say that most of them are just ego stroking for the instructor. If you get one that is not by a celebrity, as Travis said, they are hit and miss. Get one by (insert guitar star name here), 9 times out of 10, he's just showing off his chops and showing you what he can do that you can't. I have seen a few of them (Paul Gilbert to drop a name) that was actually useful because of the way it was filmed more than his instruction. He tended to approach everything as if you too were a Berkeley student.

Anyway, I got long winded... sorry.

 

[Valley Arts Kid]

The Joe Pass ones are really good.


Dave Navaro did one in which he openly stated that instructional video's are NOT a good way to learn.

 

[mikeh]

They can all be hit and miss. I agree many "name artist" videos seem to be more an ego thing (and no doubt an attempt to milk an addition 15 minutes of fame and $$$$ from the buying public) rather than any true attempt to teach.

Some people are good teachers - but most are not. I've never seem a guitar video that did not have fret markers and it does indeed seem to be a poor way to present a video instruction.

I own about 80 instruction videos for everything from guitar, bass, banjo, violin, steel guitar, harmonica, keys, drums, vocals, etc - most purchased used for anywhere from $1 -$5 a fraction of the original costs. While I'm self taught on several instruments I always buy any low cost video, hoping to improve my chops in whatever way I can.

I find instuctional videos are much like business seminars (which I attend often) or any learning venue - the best you can hope for is to pick up a couple fo things you can use, hopefully, enough to justify the cost and your time. Some people are good at presenting information, most are not, but at the end of the day, nothing beats hands on experiance.

 

[zook250]

this is a true storey. i play bass and for some inspiration i bought a Rudy Sarzo bass guitar instructional video. this was about 10 years ago.
it just so happens that Rudy was in town with Quiet Riot, so you know we're there , being the 80's hairmetal head bangers that we once were. during a break in the show, we see Rudy walking around amongst the crowd, so my guitarist buddy runs up to him (drunk) and says "hey my buddy has your video, the one with you on the cover in pin stripe jeans". i have never seen a more shocked or embarrassed look on any musicians face before or since. he gave me his autograph then he took me aside and said that i should buy the Victor Wooten tape. he was really nice about it, but he had a hand shake like a dead fish.