Product Details

• Actors: Fred Sokolow
• Directors: Stefan Grossman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Grossman Guitar Workshop
• DVD Release Date: April 19, 2005
• Run Time: 70 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009GV9J6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,418 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

By the end of this DVD lesson, you will be playing the blues in several keys and styles. You'll know how to play blues turnarounds, boogie-woogie bass lines, several strumming and fingerpicking accom- paniment patterns, as well as blues solos, licks, and

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent beginner's lesson, August 9, 2010

By 

Bonifatius (München) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginner's Blues Guitar (DVD)

As the title of the DVD suggests, this one caters to the beginner, which is unusual, because normally Fred Sokolow makes instructional DVDs for the more intermediate player. This DVD is suitable for the absolute beginner, not only for blues beginners but even for those who may have never known a chord before.

Sokolow covers mainly fundamental blues techniques in the Key of E, which includes a variety of turnarounds and some basic licks. Starting with regular strumming, which he makes more interesting by using some nice embellishments, he shows the basics of fingerstyle blues. The song selection that he uses for teaching purposes is overall good and consists of some well-known blues standards: "How Long Blues", "Baby, What You Want Me To Do", "Blues With a Feeling", "Key to the Highway", "Hesitation Blues" and the Ragtime-like tune "Call Me a Dog". A nice repertory, if learnt properly.

I found Fred Sokolow to be a good teacher and I enjoyed his teaching style. It has to be noticed, however, that Sokolow's talent as a teacher is not undisputed, at least to judge from a part of the customer reviews of some of his other DVDs. Maybe this has to do with his calm, almost dry approach. Like I said, it worked fine for me. Sokolow's singing voice, however, is not the greatest in the world, but then again, it's not his singing you should be interested in when watching this DVD. The DVD comes with a booklet that contains the tabs for the material covered in the lesson.

It is clear that in a 73 minute lesson only the most rudimentary of introductions can be given. Nonetheless, if you have worked your way through this DVD, you should be really proficient in the fundamentals of acoustic blues and have a good foundation from where to build up. I recommend this DVD to the absolute beginner.

5.0 out of 5 stars panman says, January 28, 2012

By 

Larry A. Pandoff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beginner's Blues Guitar (DVD)

Fred puts out a large product easy to follow and understand get one (5 stars). I have many of his books and disks.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great begginers blues lesson, December 25, 2010

By 

Jan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beginner's Blues Guitar (DVD)

Easy to follow instructions which shows you, how to play your first blues tunes in several keys. From strumming versions to the quite nice fingerpicking. Everything is described in detail and also written in the attached booklet. Fred is great teacher and his quite simple aproach works very well. I recomend this DVD for every begginer guitar player, who loves the blues.