Opinions of "Learn & Mater Guitar" Course by Steve Krenz?

I have used it. I think it is a pretty good program. I think that Scotty West's program (Absolutely Understand the Guitar) is better. But, Krenz's instruction is easy to follow and well laid out.

BTW - I also love that Steve's program has a forum ( http://community.legacylearningsystems.com/boards ) and he answers your questions personally!

I'll have to check our Steve's program. I've done Scotty's and it was excellent!

Rip--I'm checking out their website, but can you give me a little more info on your experience with this program?

Krenz's program is a graduated instructional system that starts you out as an absolute beginner and takes you all the way to being a master.

His approach is different than Scotty's. He is more technique based. One thing I like about Scotty is he is able to explain things like no one else can.

Both programs together make the ultimate package... But, if you can only afford one, buy Absolutely Understand Guitar by Scotty. It is the soup to nuts music theory and guitar training system Bar none!

Good stuff

Thanks Rip :D

Does anyone have any experience with this course? It appears to get high marks & reviews when I Googled it. I already purchased it for a "guide" to teaching my two sons electric guitar. While I started playing at age 12 in 1980 and am mostly self taught, I know I am no music teacher. Thus, I wanted a good course to guide me in working with them, provide the material, the topics to study, etc. This way, my role can be to just help them when they need it, rather than be their "teacher." Anyway, here is the website.

http://www.learnandmasterguitar.com/

My oldest is 11 years old, has been playing drums for 3 years, and really wants to play electric guitar. My younger son is only 8, but he has been playing classical guitar with an instructor for almost two years with a Childbloom instructor (by the way, Childbloom is GREAT for young children- unpaid endorsement!). My 8 year old loves classical guitar, but also wants to learn electric guitar.

Although I already bought it, any opinions would be appreciated!

Most of the reviews on the net are "plants", meaning that the review site(smartguyreviews, etc.) gets paid for click-throughs to the L&MG site. That said, it really is a great course! I bought it over a year ago, worked with it for a couple of months, then stopped playing for a while. I started up with the course again a couple of months ago and I'm working on some fairly challenging stuff right now(for my abilities, anyway). I'm certain that it will be perfect for what you're intending to use it for. I guarantee you'll pick up some things as well. One thing you should know, it teaches reading music notation. After the first couple of sessions(there are 20), TAB pretty much disappears and it's all notation from there on out. There are lots of benefits to this approach, so while it is somewhat irksome at first, you will gain a much better grasp of music in general versus learning entirely from tablature.

Thanks for the review, TeeGee.

Standard notation is okay for me. I learned how to read it, while helping my 8 year old with his classical guitar lessons over the last couple of years. Of course, TAB is easier, but I am able to get by with standard notation. I happen to really prefer when standard notation is used along with TAB right underneath. Takes up more space, but I really like that format!

Update - I received the course on Friday and introduced my boys to it over the weekend. Both seemed pretty excited and eager to get started. There are 20 "sessions" and if the first is any indication, the course appears well thought out and produced. I didn't get a chance to preview other "sessions" on the dvds, but I did thumb through the accompanying book. The information in the book looks pretty good, with appropriate level skills and assignments, getting harder as you go.

One thing I really liked about the course, was the way a session is presented to the student. First the skills/goals of the session are presented and demonstrated on the dvd, with the same information in the book. Then, a series of practice exercises are presented on the dvd and in the book. Finally, there is a separate section of the dvd for the student to work and practice the exercises "with" the instructor. Once the student understands the new skills/goals, (s)he can jump directly to the section of the dvd that does the practice exercises.

It did seem a little odd, that they would introduce two open chords with the first lesson (C and G7). These are obviously tough on two young beginners, but that is where I come in, helping them and making suggestions for them to correct little mistakes. I think the first session may be a little early for chords, but I guess they do it so a student will be up & playing simple songs after only a few sessions, before the student quits out of frustration.

So far, a nice course. But, it honestly seems like it would be a little daunting for a complete beginner, without an experienced guitarist actually there with the student to help.

I will post another review a month or two down the road, once we get a little deeper into the course.

I'm a day or two late on this thread but I've been working my way thru this in order to learn to read music.
I think the course is pretty darn good and I'm just getting used to the idea of jamming with CDs after years of playing by myself working thru TAB.

My goal of learning music is coming along but I find that I've had to supplement the material on music and fretboard because while I think it's complete in the course it doesn't immerse me in several explanations. I need several explanations repeated several times to get it. Steve just asserts that you need to memorize all the scales. I don't memorize by brute force very well so I'm looking for clever mnemonics and other approaches.

Some of the later DVDs where he demonstrates techniques such as bends, hammers, pulloffs, Travis picking (muted bass) are very helpful.

The course is pretty good. But additional material might also be helpful.

Unimogbert
(enthusiastic fingerstyle intermediate)

I just got Steve's lesson package. looks pretty good from skimming thru. Where can I find Scotty's version?

Just got it. I took lessons for 2 months before the job changed my hours and had to quit. Except for the immediate hands on correction, the lessons in this package work just as well

So now that some of you have had the time to try it out, what's your opinion? I'm thinking about trying one of the two that have been mentioned in this thread but it would be helpful if someone has an updated opinion after using them for awhile.
Thanks.