Customer Rating: 
Summary: Helpful for first-timers
Comment: I bought this after my husband gave me my first guitar. Before taking private lessons, I thought it would be good to have a little bit of knowledge before humiliating myself publicly. I had never picked up a guitar before buying this video. In less than a month I was able to finger pick beautiful chord runs and "fake" like I knew what I was doing! The video does progress quickly and you'll put your rewind button to good use, but with practice, you'll get it. The basics are covered and explained well enough that it's easy to understand for a beginner like myself. It gives you a good overview of the guitar and gets you acquainted will all 6 strings and different styles of playing. This video was a great investment and though it's not the same as one-on-one lessons, it is a nice primer. For the $20 it cost, it wasn't much to risk to get the feel for the guitar and decide if this was the instrument for me.
Volume 2 of the same series, however, wasn't as helpful as the first. It moves quicker and I find myself swearing a lot when I try to follow along.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not very good for beginners
Comment: Well I bought this video and book figuring it would be better (financially) than taking private lessons. I was wrong. Perhaps he's a great teacher for more advanced students but I'm just trying to figure out basic chords and he's moved on after only a few minutes. Granted I stopped the tape, practiced some, and tried to start again but he just seemed a little too advanced for someone with no experiance at all. I guess you can't duplicate that personalized attention with a tape. I suggest if you're buying this to have most of the chords under your belt and, obviously, be very very dedicated to this because it's much harder without a real instructor showing you "exactly" what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great place to start.
Comment: This video gives you taste of a few different ways to play a guitar. It starts with holding, tuning and hand positions. It has lots of lessons to test your progress but you should get the paperback by the same name to go with it. Mike shows some basic cords but the lessons seem to expect you to learn some on you own. Get a cord book, it's hard to practice fingering cords while watching the video. This video is lots of help if you feel lost.
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