Review: Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class
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My dad has played guitar in various bands since he was a teenager (his band was even the opening act for the Beach Boys once!). My husband plays the guitar, albeit very irregularly. I don’t recall ever having picked up a guitar, other than, perhaps, to hold one for my dad or my husband. My kids are pretty much in the same boat. Brianna has expressed an interest in learning to play and both she and Josh have received inexpensive student guitars as Christmas presents in the past, but that’s about as far as guitar lessons have gone.
Enter Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class. I was really excited when we received this product to review. At least one of my kids (Brianna) was excited about it. I’d hoped it would be something she and Josh could do, fairly independently, during Christmas break since it’s a DVD. I thought the kids could watch it and follow along with little help from me.
It sounded like a nice plan anyway. Brianna tried it once and said she didn’t like the way the lessons were taught. It wasn’t until I sat down with it myself that I understood what she meant. Although the DVD course is supposed to be “for the 1st day beginner to beginner/intermediate,” I thought it moved way too fast for someone who has never picked up a guitar before. I found it very difficult to figure out where to place my fingers fast enough to keep up.
I asked my husband to watch it with me, trying to imagine that he was a beginner. He was surprised at the chords which were taught first, saying they were some of the more difficult ones to play. He also felt that the finger placement could have been explained better. For instance, in the first lesson, you could switch between chords without moving your pointer finger, but this wasn’t explained.
Overall, the concept of DVD guitar lessons is a great one, but it wasn’t enough for us. The series would probably be great for an intermediate player, but we really struggled with it. There are four volumes in the Worship Guitar Class series, which focus on learning to play praise and worship songs with the goal being to “develop a richer relationship with our Creator.” We received Volume 1 to review, along with the lesson/song book, which is sold separately.
Each DVD in the worship guitar series was created for kids and adults, ages 10 and up and teaches 7 familiar worship songs. Volume 1 songs include: He’s Got the Whole World, This Is the Day and Lord, I Lift Your Name on High. The DVD volumes are sold for $24.95 each or $99.80 for all four (set of four includes $40 worth of bonus eBooks). The books are $5.95 each or you can buy the four DVD pack and the books for $119.80 (plus the $40 worth of bonus eBooks).
You can visit the Worship Guitar website to see the wide variety of other products they have available, as well.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.