Search - DVD-Guitar Soloing 101- An Easy Guide to the Fingerboard on DVD

First among equals?

d-18v | USA | 12/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."