Customer Reviews

50 Licks Blues Style - DVD

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My Background:
In order to level set you as to my comments here is a little about me. I have been playing pretty consistently for about 1.5 years. I still consider myself a novice guitar player. I know 1/2 dozen cords, a few songs, some typical beginner licks and have been practicing the A major and A minor pentatonic scales both in the first position. I am pretty good with those two scales. I have no problem reading most guitar tablature.

What You Need To Know
This is just my opinion. It is key that you can read guitar tablature. Also, it would be VERY helpful if you knew many (more than I do) of the pentatonic scales and several of the positions for each (there are 5 positions for each scale). Mat (the instructor) only shows you one scale and in a single position (A Major "Blues" scale). He does this very quickly at the start of the DVD. It would also be very helpful if you are proficient at bends, hammer ons, pull offs and slides. You will also do better if you have some skill in a few different strumming techniques, including muted tones. Clearly all of these are key elements of blues guitar (actually any guitar work) and he uses them in abundance.

The Instruction and Licks:
As I mentioned he does show one of the scales he calls the "A" blues scale. However he is all over the place on the fret board (uses far more than just this one scale) and if you don't have some degree of proficiency in playing scales you will not get much from this DVD. He also shows you quickly how to tune a guitar. However I'm guessing that anyone who would remotely be able to use this DVD would already know how to do that.

The licks he shows are very cool and if you can learn some of them they can be strung together to really jam. They range widely in level of complexity. There are a few that could be played by a beginner who has little experience (although they are the exception). Any beginner trying to learn these licks would have to be highly motivated and determined. Mat does include the tablature for each of the licks which is very good. In most places on the DVD he shows both of his hands so you can see the fret work as well and the picking. He does slow his playing down and for the most part you can figure out what he is doing. However he is so versed in what he is doing that he does sometimes make assumptions that you understand what he just did or what he is telling you. This is where it will be difficult for beginners.

Bottom Line:
Pretty cool DVD. With my current skill level I will be able to make some use out of it but by in large it is a little beyond me still. That said I am still very happy I bought it because I am sick of just practicing scales up and down, up and down, without doing anything cool. You can not even get 30 minutes of live guitar lessons for $10. The DVD is done well enough such that if you have some ability to play and want to check out some cool licks it is well worth the money.

Mat and would not hit it off. Instant personality clash for sure. Then again I didn't buy this DVD to make friends. I bought it to learn blues. 50 good usable licks presented in a way that you can actually learn them. Good camera angles, the sound is fair. Tab could be onscreen but I guess the booklet works just fine. Just the thing for the early intermediate player.

This DVD spends a lot of time in my player!

I am a professional musician with over 17 years experience on guitar alone and this is the second DVD in this series I have bought now as I was so impressed with the first which was the Country licks. At the outset it should be said that these DVD's are not for beginners, sorry but that's just the facts. This isn't to say that a beginner cannot glean inspiration and work up to certain licks slowly but I would suggest this really suiting the intermediate player to advanced on some techniques.

With my many years of playing I was already familiar with the techniques being employed on this DVD and found myself ripping some awesome licks in just a couple of hours after sitting down and viewing it. Even for an old dog like me I was learning how to lay down certain phrases I was always curious about but never got around to ... such as some of the faster flourishes.

The sound and presentation are simple and yet excellent with both right and left hand views on screen at the same time. Mat Gurman does a fine job of breaking down the phrases and is technically excellent in his own right. I have had no issues with the Tab that comes with this DVD NOT matching up with what is being played ... every note was where it ought to be.

A final note ... don't be put off by the return to menu feature, I have found this to be a smart addition to this series since it allows you to stay with that lick until you got it locked in before moving on without having the DVD race away from you while you are working things out. This also makes each lick easy to find and return to rather than having to scroll through to locate it!

For this kind of value I plan on getting the Jazz and Rock DVD's in this series - my vocabulary has really expanded in the time I have spent with this product and I am already an advanced player. If like me you are an experienced guitarist you may find you only need 10 or more of these licks but I'd be learning them all because they can often transform into other licks you create yourself.

Killer series!

This was a very pleasant suprize i really enjoyed this dvd.It challenges you to learn and play these very usable and desireable blues licks.In this dvd are the great turnaround lick's that have been used for years on some of the best blues solo's , I instantly began using what i had learned from this dvd in my solo's.

The one drawback is the DVD menu i found myself back at the start menu many times.

This is the type of dvd that helps you take your soloing to the next level.But if you are new to guitar this would be a frustrating ride,I would estimate that the people who would benifit from this should be at least intermediate to advanced level....but everyone is different.

This dvd is one of the best blues insrtuction i own.

I've been playing the blues for a long time so I wasn't particularly inspired by any of the licks. I didn't find the 'gem' that I didn't recognize to add to my vocabulary, the one illusive moment i was looking for... nevertheless, every one of these licks is the 'meat and potatoes' vocabulary that can be used to talk the talk. Mat does an outstanding job of guiding you through these 50 licks with real clarity. I like that he uses the actual names of the notes instead of naming the string and fret for reference. I can see that Mat's a real musician and has a masterful handle on his axe. I went through it in about a week and had a good time doing it. I like that the DVD format defaults to the menu after the lesson to give you time it 'fool around' with the lick and squeeze as much as you can out of it. I really enjoyed it. Good stuff.

great book... you should be aware of blues scales and have a little practice before using it but it will help you a lot. After a few exercises you'll notice some improvement on your style..and 50 licks is more than what you need...cheers from Costa Rica...surf town :)

Some really cool riffs that can be incorporated into your playing - Instructor could have spent a little more time explaining and breaking them down, but I guess they had to stay within a certain allotted recording time

Having recently revived my desire to improve on the guitar, I purchased this video. I had just purchsed another DVD with which I was very happy and decided that any decent guitarist needed some blues licks in their repertoire. I had a more difficult time following along with this one than I did on the previous purchase. This one comes with a hard copy of the Tabulature but I'm convinced that in many places, the Tabs don't match what he says to play or actually does play. That's a little frustrating for me. I do give it 3 stars because I do think as I improve, there will be some learning opportunities, but at my current skill level, it's a bit over my head so that makes it not very valuable for now. Perhaps there should be a grading/age/skill level system like they do for kids' toys that allows for consumers to judge how advanced you need to be to get value from a product or if it's even suitable.

I will definitely learn diferent styles and techniques from using this DVD, but the presentation here could be vastly improved. He plays each lick blazingly fast twice and then slows way way down in a manner that doesn't always follow the exact way he played the lick at speed. On Lick 1 it seems like he's throwing in an extra note or two when he does a hammer on halfway through it that is not played when he does it slow. When he plays lick 2 fast, he doesn't use his pinky but when he slows way down he does. Which way am I supposed to play it Mat?

All I really want is consistency that I can learn from and imitate but this makes it very confusing to me. It would have been really nice if it was played somewhere in between too ... and in a manner that used the same fingers on the same notes all the way through. Yes Mat, you are a very talented guitarist but hearing you play it at a blistering speed two to three times does not really help me learn how to play it once on my own. And you absolutely need to be consistent with how you play it every time.

I've only tried the first two licks so far, but each one has been difficult to really learn how to play it in the same manner (even if it is slower) that Mat does. If the first two licks are not like the other 48, then that will be refreshing. You will definitely learn some stuff from this DVD, but it could prove to be a confusing and frustrating process. If you don't have good callouses on your hand when you start ... you will. And that's a good thing.