August 03, 2008
Best instructional guitar DVD you can buy
I often see people ask the question - which instructional guitar DVD is the best one? Of course, there's no easy answer to that. It depends on your current skill level, what style you are playing and what your goals are.
If you are like me - you like blues, jazz and improvisation, and you want get better at it - here's what I think is the best instructional guitar DVD ever - Jazz Rock Mastery, by Scott Henderson. I am of course saying this from my personal and subjective point of view, because what is "the best", is very subjective. However, I can tell you from my experience that this DVD has taught me the most of any instruction I have ever received. Yes, it is that good.
Who is Scott Henderson?
Scott Henderson is a fantastic player, who has played with Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, among others and he is also an instructor at Musician's Institute in California. He plays a Strat through a Marshall-type amp, and he mixes high gain jazz-rock guitar with jazz improvisation. In my opinion - one of the finest guitar players alive.
I have played guitar over 25 years now, and when I was younger, I always found improvisation to be some sort of mystic gift that some people just seemed to have. Well, I can tell you that "skills from practicing" is what it is mostly about. Talent sure makes a difference, but practicing and knowing your instrument is the major part of being a good improviser.
This becomes very apparent when you learn from this DVD. Scott is a master and jazz/blues improvisation. He explains, in a very good way, how to practice phrasing, how to play interesting ideas over different kinds of chords, how you can use the simple pentatonic scale in a myriad of cool ways, as well as arpeggios, chords and scales.
Now, I want to stress once more the importance of practicing. This DVD gets difficult pretty quick if you are a beginner/intermediate player. You need to really sit down and work on you instrument so that you can get the most out of what Scott is talking about.
If you are serious about getting better at improvisation, I strongly recommend you get this DVD. It may take years before you are able to absorb it all, since there is so much amazing material here. I still learn things from it today! Don't let this discourage you, it is a good thing. There are no shortcuts to becoming a master of an instrument, that is something I have said many times on this very website. Scott's DVD will demystify a lot of things about improvisation, and help you get a good understanding of how you can develop strong improvisation skills.
If you would ask me what instructional DVD I would take with me to that desert island, the answer is easy - Scott Henderson's Jazz Rock Mastery - without hesitation.
By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com
» RSS