Product Details

• Actors: Jim Weider
• Directors: Happy Traum
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 2000
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0634023330
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #642,113 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

HereÕs a video lesson for novice players who want to get started playing blues on the electric guitar. Jim Weider shows the easy way to get into playing authentic licks, riffs, rhythms and hot solos. Each tune covers a different aspect of electric blues playing and provides a great solo for practicing the techniques heÕs taught. The Honky Tonk Gurus (JimÕs touring band) supply great back-up and help Jim demonstrate how a song should sound when played in performance. 90-MIN. VIDEO ¥ INCLUDES TAB ¥ EARLY INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great electric blues instruction, August 20, 2006

By 

Mark Twain (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Licks and Classic Solos for Electric Blues Guitar (DVD)

Jim Weider covers some classic tunes (Going Down, Hideaway), classic licks, and his own composition to provide a pleasant and lucid lesson on how to play electric blues guitar. Jim has a friendly manner and the excellent screen shots make it easy to see what he's doing. There is also space for the student to play along while Jim and band play back-up. The tab is excellent, thorough, and accurate.

The video covers both rhythm and soloing techniques and pentatonic scales up and down the fretboard. For example, Jim covers the rhythm part to Going Down (done with power chords) and then uses the E pentatonic scale in different positions to show how licks are done in these different positions on the neck. Naturally, he shows you how to play famous blues licks that every electric blues player should know.

Homespuntapes is well known for its quality instructional videos and this is no exception. This is a creative tape with a fine instructor that has good visuals and a good tab book. This is not a beginner's instruction video. If you know how to play rhythm and know your pentatonic scales on the electric guitar you should get a lot of mileage out of Weider's instruction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Basic Licks and Theory, October 16, 2009

By 

Yardbyrd - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Basic Licks and Classic Solos for Electric Blues Guitar (DVD)

I'm puzzled by the guy that gave this one star. Maybe he is a total beginner. If so, then this might be too tough. Or maybe he was hoping for specific instructions for his own favorite guitar leads. This DVD starts out simply enough with a very (very) basic blues progression, shows its relationship to a fundamental pentatonic blues scale, and then progresses beyond that. The split screen between fretboard and picking hand makes it easy to see what is going on. Jim explains the most basic stuff of electric blues guitar, suggests that the learner "learn it", and then builds on those basics to progress further, step by step. For me anyway, if a person learns the basics and the theory, then they can learn to use their creativity to improvise sensibly, instead of learning to parrot other players note for note. Jim has an easy going, friendly demeanor on this DVD, as well as his other ones, and you feel like you are learning from a friend. I don't see what the point would be trying to "wow" the viewer or show dozens of licks without being in the context of the basic nature of the blues and the chord progressions. If a person wants "quantity", they can find charts and tabs of all kinds of licks for particular songs all over the web. This DVD might not work for everyone, but it will do well for those who want to learn the blues, based on understanding the basics and progressing, rather than simply learning to copy the licks of dozens of players.

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely an intermediate dvd, September 20, 2006

By 

Everett C. Bennett (Jackson, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Basic Licks and Classic Solos for Electric Blues Guitar (DVD)

This dvd is definitely not for beginners. You need a reasonable knowledge of the fingerboard and pentatonic scales. If you are a beginner, you'd probably be better off starting with some of Happy Traum's blues dvd's. Weider does cover some of the basic blues stuff that every blues player needs but you'd need to be a very determined beginner to do much with the rest. I thought it was excellent, loved the songs he uses. It was all pretty much at my level with some fun challenges. It will help me be a better blues player. On the con side, the material could have been better organized and Weider could have done a better job tying what he was playing at the moment to the tab. All in all, a good teaching dvd.