Legacy Learning System Review Learn to master the guitar

I've been playing guitar for nearly 20 years but have always been frustrated by my limitations. My only formal training was an intro guitar class in college and a few months worth of private lessons some time later. I taught myself to finger pick to an intermediate level but have never been very accomplished on lead playing and am not versatile at all. I recently stumbled across some info on the Learn & Master Guitar series on a couple of guitar websites and thought it sounded interesting. As I researched the course, I found it nearly unanimously praised and I eventually decided to bite the bullet and spend the $150 (it seems that the course is nearly always "on sale" on their website). I am so glad I did, just wish I'd had this course 20 years ago!

My problem has always been simple ignorance - I had no idea where to begin. This course does a great job of guiding the player from the most basic principals through to more advanced studies. The instructor on the videos is very warm and is a good teacher - he takes things slowly and methodically and explains everything clearly (and he is also a great guitarist). The course does a good job of keeping things dynamic, mixing theory with hands on learning and offering a number of different resources to help the learning process - the DVD sessions, lessons from the workbook, and CDs with accompaniment tracks to jam along with. The content is also quite diverse - you'll work on strumming, finger picking, soloing, chords, scales, rock, blues, and jazz styles, and on and on. The videos are well produced and have a really pleasant vibe. Each session has a suggested time period for mastering that session's material based upon an assumed practice schedule of 15-30 minutes per day. Some sessions may take a week, others a couple of weeks, etc. I think the time estimates are fair for beginners, though some more accomplished players and/or those with prior music theory knowledge may move more quickly through the course. One other very helpful part of the course is the online experience. There is an active community of online users and forums at [...] and the instructor interacts there from time to time in addition to the help & encouragement found from other students.

There are two real sticking points for this course in my opinion. First, your practice time will be self-directed, so lazy folks may not be motivated to follow through. I think this type of course is best suited to self-starter types who are disciplined enough to practice without someone else making them. A flip-side benefit is that you can learn at your own pace based upon your existing skill level and your time availability. Second, this course is pretty heavy on the music theory. For people who just want to learn some cool-sounding riffs and rock out, this course may not be your thing. This series really is about learning and mastering the guitar, and that cannot happen without learning some good solid music theory. This is a strength in my opinion but I know it will turn some others off (heck, I was a 10 year old kid taking piano many moons ago, and I remember how little interest I had in learning to read music!). Highly recommended if you've got the time and inclination to work hard - if that's you then this is money very well spent! This course was initially sold independently but later branded under the Gibson name. It's no wonder Gibson picked it up, it's really good.