Yesterday I received Dennis' DVD. I thought i'd post a review here for those interested.
Let's start with a small overview
The dvd lasts for 2:30 and is divided in 3 parts.
- First part is designed as a master class during which Dennis shows the various "pompe", waltz, bossa and funk rythms. He also covers the rythmic "breaks"/"Rythmic variation" whatever you call them. There are 3 students with him. Dennis gives them some "assignements" and then tell them what's right/wrong.
- Second Part is focused on Chords voicings and chord progressions. Common and less common voicings are covered (3notes chords/Django's chords/Joseph's chords). Dennis then moves on common chord progressions, showing some specific voicings, some way to embellish them and some way to simplify them. He then wraps everything up with a huge number of intros and ending in both major and minor.
- Last part is a series of questions asked by students from the first part. This covers some intersting points such as "My mediator is sliding while I do rythm" to "What practice should we do beside this dvd".
The running time breaks down to 1:15 for the rythm part, 1:05 for chords, and ten minutes for the questions.
First impression : Damn this is dense ! 2:30 is a pretty long time for an instructional DVD, but this one is packed full of information. It's not the kind of DVD you watch watch through once with your guitar and then you put it on the shelf. I think it'll take one 3 to 6months to really assimilate the advices and to master the exercises.
What's paradoxal is that, despite of the huge quantity of information, Dennis takes the time to detail the important points (with close ups on the right or let hands depending on the exercise).
Then, the Master Class format of the first part is really a good idea. The 3 students have a diffent level and specific "problems". This, imo, covers most of the mistakes one can do. Here too, Dennis takes time to explain what's right/wrong with each student. One small regret I have concerning this section is that the Waltz rythm coverage is really light. I would have appreciated a little less funk tyhm and a little bit more waltz, but that's just my opinion. An other point I regret is that though Dennis' sound is great, the sound of the student guitars are too low (But that might come from my audio installation so this might not be the case for you)
The exercises are really great (and haaard !!) and well targeted (some of them seems to come from a certain Mister Fapy L. from Holland
)
My single true regret is that the French subtitles are bad. But then, most of you won't care
To sum up, I think that's a great DVD on a subject that's often underestimated by other instructional material. There's no written material with it and that's a good thing. Dennis says pretty much the same thing that Mandino Reinhard told during a master class. You have to learn "on the spot" with your ears and not your reading. Of course this means you have to keep your remote control near your guitar to rewind.
To really sum up
, if you're a beginer, or if you're not satisfied with your "pompe" or if you want to go beyond the basic "pompe", you know where to head for 
http://www.hyperhipmedia.com/HM0006.html
