Good Guitar Instructional Videos - opinions?

[zau_mx]

Hey guys! I'm new to the site and this is my first topic.

I'm currently in med school and as such, I literally have no time to play guitar anymore. However, I do still practice when I can and I do want to get better. Currently, my knowledge of music theory is quite pitiful to say the least and my chops aren't exactly virtuoso level.

I found a solution in guitar lesson DVDs though, as they are convenient and easy to use.

Here's a few of them that I've hunted down so far and I wanted to know which of them would benefit me the most.

I want to play mostly metal and hard rock, two very demanding types of music (with an exception to jazz, which is a bit complicated for me to say the least). As of now, I cannot play songs by ear or solo in anyway (except maybe in the style of Kerry King; tremolo picking+whammy bar=br00talz!!!!) and when somebody asks me what key a song is in, I am stumped. Strangely, I find rhythm guitar to be quite fascinating; thrash and contemporary metal rhythm guitar in particular. It has that strange rapid-fire machine gun type sound (listen to Metallica's "Disposable Heroes" and Pantera's "F'in Hostile", as well as songs from All That Remains and Chimaira) and I have NO IDEA how to practice that. From what I could gather, a lot of DVDs seem to focus more on lead guitar playing.

Having mentioned my current abilities (or lack thereof), I could really use your opinions on which guitar videos would be most beneficial for a n00b with lofty goals such as myself.

THEORY VIDS:

Lick Library - I've heard quite a bit about this series and they look like they have some good products. Their videos are divided in two basic halves; 'Theory' type DVDs, which don't teach specific songs but more of specific skills and techniues, and 'Learn to Play' DVDs which teach songs by a specific artist but delve less into the theory side of things. They don't use tab, which is kind of a bummer, but the instructor apparently does a good job of teaching.

Doug Marks' Metal Method - I've seen ads for this course TONS of times in guitar magazines so it's got longevity at least. It's one of the more well-produced ones, as it includes onscreen tabs and backing tracks. They have a Basic Course which teaches hard rock and classic metal and a Speed course, taught by that ambidextrous freakshow Michael Angelo Batio. They also recently released a Metal Riffology course taught by Sarah Spisak which focuses more on riffing and rhythm playing.

Guitar 411 by Doug Doppler - This is the other one I'm seriously looking at to learn theory, aside from Metal Method (apparently, people named 'Doug' have a penchant for making guitar lesson videos) . I've never heard of Doug Doppler before but some people swear by his DVD as being the most useful they've ever owned.

CHOP-BUILDERS:

Rock Discipline by John Petrucci - Lots of people really like this but what I've seen so far scares the crap outta me. I know John isn't the fastest player ever but he's certainly one of the cleanest, which I guess gives the illusion of super speed.

Paul Gilbert's Intense Rock - This man is one of the reasons I started playing guitar and using Ibanez in the first place. I've seen clips of his vids on Youtube and he's very entertaining, if a little corny. He's also got a DVD that teaches songs from his "Silence...." album but I'm not sure if it's available yet or if its any good.

Speed Kills - I already mentioned this one above. Batio's music, personally anyway, cannot be enjoyed by a blind person. Watching him play and hearing him are two different things but for all the flak he receives, no one can knock his technique. I've heard some good things about his Speed Kills series as well but again, what I've seen frightens the hell outta me.

Others - I've heard of Frank Gambale vids for sweep picking, Tomo Fujita's vids, Ritchie Kotzen, Rusty Cooley....can anyone help me sort out the crap from the good ones?

[kotornut]

John Petrucci's 'Rock Discipline.' I recommend it for picking techniques, legatto and so on. It's very good. Only bad thing is that John Petrucci is so, melow you get a little too relaxed and sleepy if you do too much at a time.

It's not easy, but honestly from where it starts anyone can begin, the more advanced sections are scary but you can work up to those, actually that's a good mark of the video, it'll be usefull for a long time.

However, there isn't much musical theory and so on so it's just technique.

[rob777vdy]

Originally Posted by kotornut

John Petrucci's 'Rock Discipline.' I recommend it for picking techniques, legatto and so on. It's very good. Only bad thing is that John Petrucci is so, melow you get a little too relaxed and sleepy if you do too much at a time.

It's not easy, but honestly from where it starts anyone can begin, the more advanced sections are scary but you can work up to those, actually that's a good mark of the video, it'll be usefull for a long time.

However, there isn't much musical theory and so on so it's just technique.

ive never been a fan of petrucci didnt like any of the bands hes been in a just dont care nothing for his music,same for satch just dont like any of his music,apart from back to shallabal thats a awsome tune,but the rest of his stuff does nothing for me.not knocking these two mind you,there just not the type of guitarists i listen to.

[newbieguitarmaker]

But John's video is amazing for technique and Satch has great technique too, it doesn't matter at all if you like their music or not. I only like a small amount of songs from both too but I still got petrucci's vid.

[newbieguitarmaker]

Doppler's Diatonic Theory and Harmony rocks

[markg5150]

Definitely the Doug Doppler DVD for theory. I've got Rock Discipline as well but Petruccoi bores me to sleep too.

I was just thinking about what technique dvd to get, it'll be interesting to some other ideas

[bloosqr]

I'm going through Metal Method now.. I hadn't played guitar in about 10 years (and i'm actually switching hands to left handed from previously being a left handed playing right handed guitar.

I bought a slew of these books/dvd including Rock Discipline and the Hal Leonard book.. but for my level I think the MM one is the best so far. The first two dvds are pretty easy but it is very systematic and well thought out in terms of getting your skills back up to par and very easy to improvise upon in terms of keeping things interesting (i.e. you can build up w/ a metronome to play at 1.5/2 X speed on some of the early lessons) I'm right at the end of the 2nd dvd now, I've skipped ahead and looked at some of the tabs in the later dvds and it certainly gets more fun by dvd

If I were to criticize this set, I do wish there are few more "song" like exercises btwn some of these lessons that matched the dvds difficulty. Also I think they way the fretboard is taught is a bit much. Basically in lesson you have "memorize" the fretboard (2 if you count the previous lessons memorize the E and D strings). That said as a whole totally worth the money..

[zau_mx]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses.

One of the things I'm really having trouble with is memorizing the fretboard notes, which I think is a very useful skill to have in the long run. My brain is running out of space; med school takes up most of my memory already

Yeah, the Rock Discipline vid, I have to say is quite boring. John just basically sits in the dark the entire video. He does offer a very important piece of advice though, and that is using the metronome. It's great how he almost always incorporates an actual metronome into the exercises.

Seems like the Doug Doppler DVD is the way to go for theory; for someone who is quite new to music theory, will it be able to give me a good solid foundation? I've heard some people say that it moves quite fast and that's a bit intimidating for me.

[markg5150]

The Doppler DVD is very good for starting theory. The pdf lessons that come with it mean you can take it slow and come back to it again and again.

[courtney2018]

If you do a search you'll see that this has been discussed before. I talked about Doug and another Desi Serna. These two are the two best instructors on DVD as far as I'm concerned. Paul Gilbert would be #3 in my book. There's alot to learn from him and he breaks things down well. Doug and Desi give you a great understanding. If finish those two you've got most of the theory licked.

[bloosqr]

Incidentally there are several ways of learning the fretboard, that are pretty easy..

I think the easiest is just memorize where the "BC/EF" box is. There are only 5 positions for this (w/ the repeat after 12) .. while you do that, note that the relationship between the B's (and everything other note) always follows the same pattern .. i.e. after open B comes 2 frets up on A and then comes 2 frets up from that on G etc..

The latter is useful as backup for knowing the box and more importantly for scales and positions..

So once you know where the BC/EF box is you know it is always surrounded by AD/DG


D_EF_G
A_BC_D

so now you know the rest of them.. (its shifted by one on the G string but no big deal)

once you have that down memorize across a few rows (which is what I did first actually, i.e. memorize 5th fret 10th fret, then 3rd and 7th)

[Emericavox]

i personally liked this video

http://www.duckscrossing.org/tradsho...00320678FC.jpg

not sure if its popular tho =/

[metalgod72]

Paul Gilbert's are great, and you can see most of them on youtube.

[inder]

I would Recommend Melodic Control and Essencial DVd from marty friedman.
And of course his latest DVD 99 guitar phrases!!!!

More Chops at:
Richie kotzens rock chops and high tech rock guitar