Chet Atkins in Three Dimensions, or “Chet Licks,” taught by John McClellan. Two disks, over 2 hours total running time. This set of DVDs continues the Mel Bay books of the same title. McClellan, a friend of the Atkins family as well as a highly accomplished guitarist and instructor, leads you through Chet’s techniques, including cross-string scales, arpeggios, artificial harmonics, and more. There’s a graded progression from alternating bass to advanced harmonics, and similarly graded musical examples including “Avalon,” “Take Five,” “Mainstreet Breakdown,” and others. It’s probably as close as you’ll get to taking a private master class with Chet Atkins!

Beginner’s Rock Guitar, taught by Fred Sokolow, 72 minutes. This DVD is all about having fun playing rock guitar, so veteran session player and instructor Fred Sokolow takes you through an impressive set list of garage band classics from “Louie Louie” (what better way to learn power chords?) to “Proud Mary.” You’ll get a lesson in Chuck Berry boogie backup and soloing (“Roll Over Beethoven” and “School Days”), plus scales for soloing, from simple blues scales to sliding pentatonic scales as used by Dickey Betts and Jerry Garcia. There’s even a section on the chord-based licks as used by Steve Cropper.

Intelli Tuner
Tuners that clamp onto the headstock are not exactly new, but the Intelli IMT-500 has several advantages. The most obvious one is the price: at $29.95 it’s one of the least expensive fully chromatic tuners we carry. Another advantage is that the small size and compact clamp design means your tuner isn’t hanging six inches off the headstock, waiting to be bumped and broken. Despite the low price, the Intelli display has a back light, so you can use it in dingy bars and moonlit gigs with ease. Best of all, it’s both small and sturdy, so even when it isn’t clamped onto the headstock it won’t get in your way.

Peterson StroboFlip
Electronic tuners have come a long way in recent years, and Peterson has consistently been the Mercedes of them all. But despite the obvious advantages of all those “sweetened” and tempered tuning options, the size of the earlier Petersons has been an issue. In a studio, a tuner the size of a hiking boot isn’t something to worry about, but for ensemble players who want to be able to achieve the same kind of tuning perfection “on site,” size does matter. The StroboFlip brings you the latest in tuning technology in a much smaller package. At only 4 by 4 inches, and only 2 inches deep, it fits in most case pockets with ease, and runs on 3 AA batteries (an AC adaptor is also included). A small clamp makes it easy to mount the tuner to a mic or music stand. The flip top lid makes it easy to close and protect, and you can tell your friends it’s your very own satellite phone. But the real advantage to these Peterson tuners is the myriad of tempered tunings for specific instruments already programmed and ready to use, and they can make an amazing difference in live ensemble playing, and can “take the arguments” out of recording. You can also program up to 8 different custom tempered tunings, which makes home recording less stressful (save the exact tuning you were using so you can replicate it when adding tracks later). If you find that perfect moment when your instrument is perfectly in tune, you can program that blissful combination into your Peterson and return to it again and again. Isn’t technology wonderful?