Learn and Master Guitar

As with all of Legacy Learning Systems educational products, what makes Learn and Master Guitar shine are the comprehensive nature of the course and the top-notch production quality. This guitar course is truly a professionally made product. It is the most expensive course that we talk about here, but it is well worth the money. Again, value is what matters most and considering the large amount of professionally taught lesson content from a truly talented instructor, this guitar learning package is a real bargain. A list of this course's awards testify to its quality:

• 2008 Acoustic Guitar Magazine 'Player's Choice Award'
• 2 Telly Awards
• AEGIS Award for Excellence in Education

About the Instructor

The guitar instructor, Steve Krenz, holds a degree in music. He posseses a wealth of professional guitar playing experience stretching from performing with a symphony orchestra, to jazz big bands, to performing with artists like Donna Summers, The Fifth Dimension, Bryan While, and Tommy Sims. He has made numerous studio recordings that have been featured in the advertising campaigns of big corporations such as Coldwell Banker and Prudential. He also has extensive experience with teaching guitar. He's taught thousands of students in many different styles and maintains a busy schedule of playing, performing, conducting guitar workshops, and public speaking. Steve has a gift for communicating his knowledge in a down to earth and practical way. His passion and knowledge of the subject is very evident after just a few minutes of watching the videos.

Course Content

The course covers every topic and subject needed to turn you into a competent guitarist - you just provide the practice, as Steve says. No prior knowledge of the guitar is needed and the lessons progress neither too rapidly or too slowly. Many guitar courses focus on one aspect of guitar technique or playing style, such as lead guitar, jazz guitar, music theory, etc. With Learn and Master Guitarall of the subject matter (and with 20 DVDs there is a prodigious amount) is presented in a logical and balanced way, without any one element receiving excessive attention. Yet, none of them are glossed over either. This results in guitar training that is comprehensive and thoroughly balanced. The course consists of 20 DVDs, 5 Jam-Along CD's, a 100+ page lesson book, and a student support forum.

The DVD's

The DVD's are region free and can be played in any country. They are the main part of the course, each one containing what are called 'sessions'. These sessions are divided into a few separate components:

• Instruction: This is where you'll find all of the specific lesson topics for a particular session.
• Guitar Tips and Tricks: Steve shares useful advice about various guitar topics (e.g. buying a guitar, caring for your guitar, etc.)
• Assignment: Here you'll be given specific assignments to ensure that you understand everything taught in the session.
• Workshop: This is where the student will practice everything learned in a play along with Steve Krenz.

The first 8 sessions present an introduction to the guitar, basic techniques, finger exercises, string names, reading music, open chords, barre chords, strumming patterns, and major & minor scales. These are the primary fundamentals and plenty of instruction and exercises for developing them is provided. The remaining sessions 9-20 covers more complex topics such as advanced strumming and rhythm, fingerstyles, pentatonic scales, advanced chords, solo techniques, ear training, chord formulas & inversions, a host of lessons on playing specific styles of music, and much more. This second half of the course is where you can put your fundamentals to use and learn to develop or follow a style of your choosing.

Lesson Book

The richly illustrated workbook contains all of the songs and exercises from the video portion of the course as well as more instructive material for learning to play guitar. This allows you to study and learn when not engaged with the video lessons.

Jam-Along CD's

The Jam-Along CD's are a great feature of this guitar course. They contain performances of nearly 100 songs from the course, recorded by Steve Krenz and other professional musicians (Dino Pastin, Javier Solis, and Abel Orta). The tracks can be played back at three different speeds so you can slowly work your way up to playing at the correct tempo. For some reason, these Jam tracks weren't mixed with and without the guitar part (as they were with Learn and Master Piano). However, the guitar part can be turned off by adjusting the balance on your stereo so that you can fill in with the band.

Member Support Forum

One great benefit of Learn and Master Guitar is the student forum that is provided with the course. This is a very active forum and in it the student can connect with other students, get questions answered, and chat with Steve himself. Guitar websites are awash with accounts of how actively Steve participates in this forum.

Bonuses

There is also a free Learn and Master Guitar app for the iPhone that was developed by Gibson. This handy app includes a chromatic tuner, a metronome, chord charts, and access to the Learn and Master lessons.

Price and Guarantee

Standard Version

Deluxe Version

Final Analysis

There's really nothing about Learn and Master Guitar to cause complaint except, possibly, that you have to wait a couple days for it to arrive in the mail. It really is the ultimate guitar course for beginner and intermediate guitarists. It's certainly not going to teach you everything there is to know about guitar playing - no course can do that. Long after you finish this course you'll continue learning new things about playing guitar. But, no other course offers the student the solid and comprehensive foundation in guitar skills that this one does.