Learn & Master Fingerstyle Guitar - Complete Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners to Advanced Players | Perfect for Home Practice, Live Performances & Music Lessons

This is a review of "Learn & Master Fingerstyle Guitar" with Steve Krenz.This DVD-based training program is produced by the same folks (Legacy Learning) who publish the popular "Learn & Master Guitar" course. Both courses feature Steve Krenz. He is a very effective guitar teacher; he obviously has many years of experience teaching students of all ages, interests, and abilities. See the Legacy Learn & Master Guitar website for more details about their various courses.With guitar lessons from a guitar teacher costing between 40 and 120 dollars per hour, this course is quite a bargain. Many years ago, I once spent a year with a guitar teacher going through Mel Bay Guitar Melody Chord Playing System. That year of instruction cost 1,500 dollars (not adjusting for inflation). While I felt the cost was worth it, I am very happy that much cheaper DVD courses are now available as an alternative."Fingerstyle" is a technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to the fingers, as opposed to "flatpicking" which involves plucking the guitar strings with a single pick. When playing "fingerstyle," the thumb typically maintains a rhythm (usually playing alternating bass notes on the lower three strings) while the remaining fingers pick out the remaining chord notes (or a melody) on the higher strings."Learn & Master Fingerstyle Guitar" with Steve Krenz would probably be best for someone who is new to "fingerstyle" guitar. Even if you are not a beginner, you might benefit from this course; completing the lessons (including the "advanced workshops") could potentially fill in gaps in your prior education and experience. Also, if you are a guitar teacher, going through this course might give you ideas that could improve your instruction of this material. Actually, I am a little disappointed that they did not add three more lessons (DVDs) to this course to raise the level of instruction (and playing) just a little.This is a thoroughly professional product: the training is well designed, the video and audio are outstanding. You don't need to know how to read sheet music to use this course.This course is not for the absolute beginning guitarist; I suggest that you first finish any one of the following before starting this course:(1) Six to twelve months of lessons with a guitar teacher(2) At least lessons 1 through 10 of Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar(3) Fender Presents Getting Started on Electric Guitar - DVD or Fender Presents Getting Started on Acoustic Guitar - DVD(4) The Rock House Method: Learn Rock Guitar - Beginner ProgramThis course will work best if you can already play open chords and barre chords, with no hesitation between chord changes. Having said that, lots of folks have learned chords and fingerstyle simultaneously: it's challenging, maybe even aggravating, but it can be done.The "Fingerstyle Guitar" course includes the following:- 9 instructional DVDs- 1 CD with a PDF file of the course booklet and MP3 files of the "jam-along" tracks- Fingerstyle arrangements of over 20 songs- Beginner and advanced workshops for each session- "Lessons with the Masters" featuring Phil Keaggy, Thom Bresh, and Pierre BensusanThe course does not come with a pre-printed course booklet. Instead, the 137 page course book is included as a PDF file on the included CD. You can either print out the whole booklet at once, or you can just print out the page(s) you are working on. The course also comes with "jam-along" tracks as MP3 files on the included CD. "Jam-along" tracks allow you to play the guitar parts over pre-recorded bass and drum tracks. I play such tracks through my guitar amp via an iPod. (I used an acoustic-electric guitar while going through this course.)Here is an overview of the content:Lesson 1: Fingerstyle technique; fingerstyle technique exercises; nails; fingerstyle guitar tips; fingerstyle resources - guitars.Lesson 2: Adding notes; alternating bass notes; syncopation; metronomes.Lesson 3: Intervals (3rds, 6ths, 10ths); working with intervals; strings.Lesson 4: Arranging for fingerstyle; finding melody notes; "Danny Boy"; finding your own melody; footstools.Lesson 5: Classical technique; Giuliani studies; hybrid classical picking; study in A minor; "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"; nylon strings.Lesson 6: Slides; hammer-ons; pull-offs; creating open position runs; hammer on tricks; harmonics.Lesson 7: Jazz chord families; adding color tones; adding a bass line; repeating diminished chords; fingerstyle resources - The Real Book.Lesson 8: Pop fingerstyle; Merle Travis technique; advanced fingerstyle technique; pull-offs to open strings; capos.Lesson 9: Lessons with the Masters - Phil Keaggy, Thom Bresh, Pierre Bensusan.Lessons 1 through 8 are all followed by a "Beginning Workshop" and an "Advanced Workshop," which also include many song arrangements. The lessons are roughly 40 to 45 minutes in duration. Each workshop is roughly 30 minutes long. As with all DVD courses like this, it is great to be able to replay portions of the lessons and workshops as many times as necessary to master the material.In summary, this is another excellent at-home guitar training program from Steve Krenz. It is ideal for the beginning guitarist who has at least learned basic chords. Intermediate and advanced players may also benefit from the course; but there may be some who feel that the course is too basic for them (i.e., they might end up disappointed that they spent their money on the course). I am glad I went through this course: it helped me to correct some bad habits, it taught me new theory and techniques, and it is helping me to regain some long-neglected skills. The "workshop" exercises from this course will now become part of my daily guitar workout.Please note, there are some pretty great fingerstyle videos on a popular video website.For intermediate players who want to learn from a master, check out DVD-Jorma Kaukonen's Fingerpicking Guitar Method. For you young folks out there (who don't know what you missed), Jorma Kaukonen was the lead guitarist for the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. While he is known to many as a rock guitarist, Jorma loves fingerpicking, and he is a great instructor.