Search - Learn To Play the Songs of John Denver: Lessons 1-3 on DVD

Great, great material for the guitarists!

Peter Hyatt | Orrington, Maine | 05/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Growing up hearing John Denver, his songs were more of a "guilty pleasure" because of the catch pop tunes on the radio. What I did not know until recently was what a tremendously gifted guitarist he was, as well as a talented vocalist and song writer.

Going beyond just "Country Roads", Denver's music is deep, complicated, and beautiful. Pete Huttlinger, an award winning fingerstyle guitarist, toured with Denver before his death. Pete is unabashadly a fan of John Denver and his love of John and the music comes through nicely on this DVD set.

Although not for the beginner, if you are an "advanced" beginner, you will be able to start with one or two of the simpler songs of John Denver, as Pete moves through them pretty quickly (you will be using the pause button judiciously!) you will be assisted by the enclosed guitar tab booklet. Taken slowly so as to learn properly, these are beautiful songs, presented humbly, but with a dry sense of humor that belongs to Huttlinger. From this DVD set, I learned how deep Denver's music ran, but it also introduced me to Huttlinger---and I went from there to purchase his other teaching DVDs (on Jim Croce, and on practicing guitar) as well as Pete's musical CDs (which ever acoustic guitar player will fall in love with...especially "Naked Pop" sold here at Amazon).

Homespun does a great job with clear camera angles of Pete's left and right hands, and the songs are broken down, little by little. These are like taking very expensive personal lessons, and the DVDs will take months to learn. I find this to be among the finest that Homespun has put out (along with the Songs of Bob Dylan by Happy Traum), and are not just fun to learn, but will make you a better guitarist as you work through them."