The Sound and the Story question

[One Drew Remains]

I just started playing guitar a couple of weeks ago. (can play 5 chords now w/o looking at the fretboard!) My question is, if I get the Fortress Sound and the Story, will I understand a lot of what they are talking about? I'm scared most of it will go over my head. Thoughts?

[The DIsposable Hero]

I own the digital version and I will say that Mark and Myles definitely explain what to play very well. Pretty often when they have a chord of some sort they will call out which fingers on which frets. For example, Mark would say something like "10th fret on the A string, 12th fret on the D string, 14th fret on the G string". Myles will sometimes say you play this chord, second inversion or third inversion or something like that. He's referring to the chord's form, which ultimately leaves the chord with all of the same notes as a normal bar chord.

The camera angles and the tab book (PDF) are REALLY HELPFUL.

I'd say the trickiest part for some of this stuff is the execution of some of the riffs and licks themselves. They do play everything at normal speed and slowed down. Basically to get those under your fingertips, just take it one piece at a time (at a pace and a rate that is comfortable enough for you, I cannot stress that enough), and once you think you have that down to the proper speed, move on to the next part. Then you string all of the parts together, and voila you can play an Alter Bridge tune!

Hope my insight helped!

Dakota C. (The Disposable Hero)

[Andy92]

They break the songs down very well, and I don't think they'll use too many terms that are foreign to you. As The Disposable Hero said, a lot of the DVD is broken down into "place this finger on this fret" as they walk you through a section. Sometimes they (Myles especially) will explain some theory that's going on with the chord progressions or selection of notes, but you don't really have to understand that stuff to learn the song. They're just explaining where the song comes from musically.

My main warning would be that a lot of the material on the album is fairly difficult for a beginner. When they play the songs up to speed, some of it can look very intimidating. It's worth the purchase since you're an AB fan, and you'll grow into learning the parts as you go. Just focus more on the slow motion versions of the songs at first. If you try to play a part at full speed right off, it'll be crazy overwhelming. But that goes for most pieces on any instrument really.

[austinjhnsn]

They do a very good job at explaining the parts, that's for sure. It's detailed but nothin too theoretical and complex, like they don't get too far into the music theory behind a part, just a really good guitar lesson from the masters.

I would start out with Lover, for the most part its a pretty easy song. All Ends Well is a good one too, learning pretty simple fingerpicking patterns like that is cool.

Congrats on picking up the guitar!

[One Drew Remains]

Thanks guys. I'll pick it up. Believe me, I'll take it slow, lol.

[austinjhnsn]

Nice! You'll have a really fun time, believe me. Set goals for yourself too, like a difficult riff, just practice endlessly til you get it, as long as time permits.

[HellRazor1281]

As far as the DVD is concerned, they do walk you through every single part of the songs, but based on how green you are, I would recommend first finding a few easier songs for you to tackle on your own first (by all means, get the DVD now too) by going to ultimate-guitar.com and downloading some free tabs. Go for songs that are not all that complex and involve moderate difficulty chord changes so you can get a feel for bouncing up and down the neck. Also look for some simple 1 and 2 string guitar riffs (Metallica's Enter Sandman is a great easy song for learning some cool riffage) I would get a few songs like that under your belt before tackling the DVD head on just so you have a bit more in your back pocket that you can utilize to get through the rhythm portions of songs better. And work on alternate picking CONSTANTLY, you'll need it to play most of the songs off Fortress.

And welcome to the dark side! We have bacon.

[One Drew Remains]

Thanks for the advice. I'm getting the dvd (mainly for later on) and I'll tackle parts when I get a bit more familiar with the guitar. I may also check out Enter Sandman one of these days.