Your First Guitar Lesson

Twenty-year veteran music teacher Dan Huckabee is the host and instructor for Your First Guitar Lesson, a program aimed squarely at the folks who give up in the first month (often because they try to learn too much at once). Using the “Suzuki violin method” (which avoids information overload by covering one aspect of the instrument at a time) as a guide, Huckabee teaches budding guitarists simple chord positions and songs, starting with “Happy Birthday” played with simplified two-finger chords, followed by more complex tunes such as “Midnight Special” and “Auld Lang Syne,” featuring the somewhat trickier 7th chords. Huckabee encourages viewers to start with an easy guitar to play (he points out that some kids might want to use a ukulele or tenor guitar--both four-string instruments tuned in a similar fashion on the low strings), and even demonstrates some do-it-yourself guitar modifications (some of which you will not want to try on your vintage Martin) to help make an instrument easier to play. A solid introduction to guitar-playing, aimed--according to the jacket copy--at “kids, adults and sexy senior citizens,” this is recommended. Aud: P. (C. Block)