Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Someday, the time will come for me to take a lead break and the notes will pour forth from my fingers, dazzling my fellow jammers...in my dreams!It's been a constant source of frustration that, while I can play a reasonable accompaniment, I'm almost at a complete loss when it comes to lead.It's all the more frustrating when I cross paths with a youngster, just starting out, whose fingers know where to go as if by instinct.They can't explain how they do it, they just do it!
That hasn't stopped me from trying to master the fingerboard for myself.With only slight exaggeration, I've tried `em all.Fretboard Logic, Skeptical Guitarist, Russ Barenberg's 6 CD set, Steve Kaufman's "Figuring Out the Fingerboard" DVD, Kirk Lorange's "Plane Talk", you name it.
Each method of instruction has its plusses and minuses.If someone were trying to choose among the many instructional materials in order to decide which one to start with, I'd recommend this one. Hence, the title of this review, "First Among Equals".
I picked up Marcy Marxer's DVD because of her reputation teaching beginners.I figured that if she could show beginners how to do this stuff, then maybe she could show me.
Part of the problem evaluating the DVD is that I have already gone through so much material. Each item adds its own bits to the mix, so it's hard to say who's taught me what. Often, I'll see something and go, "Aha!", only to realize later that I'd seen it before.Clearly, it hadn't sunk in, but it must have been churning around untilr the right trigger came along.
There's a lot of good stuff in this DVD.I'm glad I bought it and have no intentions of selling it.This DVD did the most to consolidate all of the pieces I'd picked up over the years because when I heard Marxer say it, my reaction was, "Oh!So that's what that was all about!"It clearly brought me along to the next step.
There is one thing that keeps me from declaring it the overall champ.Marxer will presents a golden nugget of information, whether it be an insight or practice exercise.Your reaction (well, mine anyway) will be, "Wow! I see!" Then, she'll take off on it, creating leads that I doubt I'll ever be able to do even with years of practice.It would have been better had she kept things simpler and, perhaps, tabbed more things out.However, that doesn't take away from the nuggets.Thar's pure gold in them thar hills.
That issue aside, I recommend this DVD highly.It's a great place to start one's mastery of the fingerboard. I couldn't give it 5 stars because of the issue of the previous paragraph, but I wish Amazon allowed for 4-1/2 stars because that's closer to what I feel it deserves.
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Product Description:
Anyone can learn to solo on the guitar! Even if you're a novice, as long as you know your basic chords, you can start playing melodies and improvising lead parts. Marcy Marxer's user-friendly method brings all the notes, frets and strings into clear focus, giving you an invaluable roadmap to the guitar fingerboard.
Marcy has successfully taught this foolproof method at guitar camps and workshops across the country. She provides both practical exercises and theoretical knowledge to demystify the guitar for learning players. Starting with warm-up exercises to isolate and strengthen your fingers, you'll learn to play with proper hand position and learn to build pick accuracy and speed. Marcy then shows how to play scales horizontally (up the neck) and vertically (across the strings), and provides easy ways to find the notes anywhere on the guitar neck.
You'll learn to pick out simple tunes like Frere Jacques, London Bridge and Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Marcy shows you how to hear each melody note in terms of intervals, where it lies on the scale, and its place in a chord. Adding passing tones, slides and other ornaments start to make your melodies come alive. Before long you'll be improvising a blues, a swing tune (Lady Be Good), a fiddle tune (Chicken Reel) and a pop song (Tennessee Waltz).
This in-depth two-hour course imparts a huge amount of information that will take you from basics of improvisation to the intricacies of the CAGED system. As a bonus, Marcy and Cathy Fink provide rhythm backup so you can practice your new solos.
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