Danny Gill Essential Guitar Practice Routines Alternate Picking

Great practice routines for beginning guitar players like me. Just a few days on the excercises and my picking has improved a lot. Danny Gill is really one of the best in Lick Library.

Awesome

This was a gift for my son. He loved it.

I'm a fan of the Lick Library series and especially the ones featuring Danny Gill. He's an excellent teacher and this is one of my favorites of all the Lick Library videos I've seen so far. Most tutorials on alternate picking tend to just have a series of exercises but in this DVD, Gill has written 3 songs (beginner, intermediate and advance) centered around the alternate picking approach. They are in a style similar to a slowed down version of old Vinnie Moore or Tony MacAlpine songs so when you learned them all you've developed your picking technique and have something you could actually play for someone. Though simple they are still interesting harmonically with a variety of chord changes rather than just couple of power chords. They've become one of my main warm up rituals.

Danny Gill is a fantastic teacher. He has a supportive manner and a strong intuitive understanding of the learner. Even though he's super-advanced as a player, it feels like he hasn't forgot what it's like not to be at that level.This DVD is fantastic value for money. He gives you a variety of exercises to work on your alternate picking technique, with the majority of these techniques subsequently being incorporated in the songs for further consolidation.There are three songs, one for beginners, one for intermediate-level players, and one for more advanced players. The songs are really fun to learn. I would say, however, that the beginners song is pitched at the very extreme of beginner-level; I imagine that 'real' beginners would struggle with it. The same is true of the intermediate song: the left-hand isn't too complicated, but the sheer speed at which some of the song is played is truly challenging, and so this song too belongs more in the upper-intermediate category. Whereas the first two songs are on the brink of the next level, the advanced song is actually probably at the lower end of advanced playing.But none of the above is designed to detract from the DVD: I just want people to be cautious about the labelling of each song so that they won't be unnecessarily demotivated. If you're a beginner and find the beginners' song hard, that's because it really is very hard for a beginner!In a nuthsell, if you truly do the exercises and learn the songs on this DVD, practising regularly and over a sustained period, you will find, as I have, that your alternate picking will improve immensely.Thank you, Danny Gill, for yet another great DVD.