Customer Reviews

Adam Kadmon: The Guitar Grimoire - Progressions and Improvisation

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this pop up on Netfl*x a few weeks back. Even though I don't like his Grimoire books (I explain some why below), I was vaguely interested in seeing how this guy played/sounded. I figured anyone who makes these really boring books that print out the same patterns over and over again in every key might surprise me and actually be interesting to check out. Sadly I was wrong about that. All I can say is I want my 45 minutes back!

1) The guy sounds like a bedroom player who can't play. He has no rhythm feel, no dynamics, bends out of tune, and OMG don't even get me started on his "tone"!
2) The production is incredibly poor ---it looks like the cheapest "pro" level production you can get away with before it starts looking like you did it with your cell phone camera.
3) I'm not a religious guy, and I'm a long time metal fan, but the stupid semi-satanic sets were just too corny for words.
4) Why do I get the feeling he's wearing a robe and hiding his face to hide being fat and bald?

The Grimoire series is nothing but a few very simple concepts (and sometimes just some patterns) redundantly printed over and over again in every key in order to waste as much paper as possible -- and to fool an unwitting guitar student into thinking he's getting his money's worth. If you really want to learn your instrument, learn the concept, then apply it yourself to the instrument. Don't look on page 213 for an F# harmonic minor (because you only know it in A). Why give this sucker 20 bucks to show you something you can do yourself by moving your hand down a minor third? It's a bad way to learn. Listen to how he plays if you want to see the results of this method. So why is he selling so many books (and now DVDs)? O right, the books are nicely presented with nice fonts and cool looking charts. Who cares if the content sucks, it looks cool, right? Well this DVD throws the presentation out the window, so you can't even fall back on that. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I bought this dvd even with the above (negative) review, because I liked the BASS GRIMOIRE DVD, yes I'm a bass player.
Well, whenever I read * GRIMOIRE reviews everybody seems to be concentrated on the
Wizard who presents the DVD. I think the most important than the Wizard is the what
the DVD can offer to you, and in this case the Guitar Grimoire - Progressions and Improvisation
is very usefull. The "Wizard" shows you the progressions and how to use then, give you
"tips" on how to create your own song.
Regarding his playing , well I think this DVD doesn't intend to show you the best guitar
player you've ever seem/heard... he just show you how to compose a song a solo with the
theory explained during the DVD and his book.
I liked this DVD a lot and I'm now buying the book Guitar Grimoire - Progressions and Improvisation
so I don't have to memorize all patterns.
Hope this helps.
Alessandro

Each DVD is rich with guitar playing concepts and theory. The DVD flows extremely fast, but armed with a "pause" button a user can absorb a lot. Each DVD is jammed packed with viable information and technique, even though there's a cheesy Grim Reaper explaining these lessons throughout the DVD.
I recommend these DVD's to anyone interested in learning or getting better at playing guitar.