Terrific DVD
S. C. Leek | London, England | 04/10/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This DVD showed me stuff I have been hearing on the acoustic guitar for years and never had the first clue how it was played. Everything is based around the pick n fingers technique which will certainly take a bit of practice if you've never tried it. A lot of the stuff is in a Bluegrass/country vein so you should be aware of that. It's all in the key of C A G E or D, which are the keys that a guitar works well for, and a lot of open strings are used in the licks. Thers no filler, no extended breaks for live performance inserts, it's just one lick after another. For me personally, at least 100-120 of them are "must learn".
The only downsides?? the tab booklet is sometimes a simplified version of what Arlen plays (and sometimes its just not quite right). Just watch the video, you can slow it down. Also, as other people have mentioned the sound quality IS a litte muffled but it's not really an issue. If you love the acoustic guitar you can't go wrong with this DVD."
4 star marred by muffled audio
F. Freer | Ann Arbor, MI USA | 02/17/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is one of 10 Hot Licks DVDs I've purchased. It's the only one with an audio problem. The audio is highly muffled which is unpleasant to listen to but is intelligible. It's as though the second stage of Dolby noise reduction was applied against a non-Dolby encoded recording.
I also own Arlen's Master of Stratocaster DVD which repeats a good portion of what's here. Despite this, I found it's a good value because Arlen does a good job of addressing how to play hot licks on an acoustic which is my motivation for this purchase. Loaded with tips for taking advantage of the instrument in each of the popular keys. The vast amount of material presented makes it hard to believe it's only 63 minutes long. This is intended for non-beginners."
Loads of Licks
Carolyn Gorman | Newburgh, NY United States | 02/22/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These aren't "hot, blazing" licks. They are great for a beginner or beginner-intermediate player. But any player will get ideas and learn something new from this. There are loads of licks in this."