Search - Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon - Guitar Play-Along DVD Vol. 16 on DVD

A great instructional DVD, but NOT for beginners.

vikerii | 07/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this DVD and am very happy with it. I would highly recommend this DVD to anyone who wants to learn these songs. Here's my review:

PREREQUISITES: Before you buy this, remember that this is David Gilmour being taught on this DVD, so beginners will most likely struggle with a lot of this. Know how to do bends, especially at the lower frets where you need a lot of finger strength (and calloses!). Also know quick hammer ons and pull-offs, feel comfortable moving up and down the neck, and also jumping frets quickly for chord changes. I would recommend being comfortable with those before attempting this DVD, or at least be patient with yourself as you learn these parts. :-)

PROS: (1) The instructor is both a very good player and as well a very good teacher. At the start of each song, he breaks down which keys the songs use and which chords you will be playing, and demonstrates how to play them, as well as move from one chord to the next. He plays VERY cleanly and VERY smoothly, so its very easy to see what he is playing and also reassuring to know it's the right way to play it. (2) Multiple camera angles. For each song, you can choose different camera angles to watch: 3rd person view (like you are an audience member) or 1st person view (like you are the player). All views are very clear and very close up, so its very easy to see what he is doing. (3) TAB. No matter which view you choose, you can see the tab at the bottom. (4) Main guitar tracks and solos. He teaches all the main stuff, so you will learn both the main guitar tracks and all the solos as well. (5) Real arrangements! The instructor does not dumb down anything. He plays it as it is on the album -- whether easy or hard -- so you are learning the real parts, not some watered down arrangement.

CONS: (1) A few songs are left off this DVD: "On the Run", "Great Gig in the Sky" and the cut'n'paste intro "Speak To Me" (no big loss there). The first two, OTR and GGITS, should have been included even if they are largely keyboard pieces, since there's still plenty of good guitar work in there. (2) The instructor moves at real time thoughout the song, so you will definitely need to stop and replay many parts as you learn this. I would highly recommend watching this on a computer DVD player, which usually has a progress bar that you can click on, and quickly and accurately go back to replay a part you are working on. With a conventional DVD player, you will need to frequently stop to rewind and it's not nearly as easy to replay specific sequences. (3) Missing fills. While they give you the main guitar part as well as the solos, there are still fills and overdub pieces that are not included. Not a biggie since you get the vast majority of guitar parts, but nonetheless they are missing.

That's about it. Even with those couple cons, I still give this 5 stars and highly recommend it. This DVD really has been a HUGE help for me in learning these songs, way above tabs alone. And I hope they publish more DVDs for other Pink Floyd albums too.

QUICK NOTE: The reviewer that wrote the first review on this page apparently intended to write a review for the book/CD version and erroneously posted it for this DVD version."