Customer Reviews

The Guitar Grimoire: Scales & Modes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This DVD is strange. Let's just get that out of the way. I almost turned it off after the first thirty seconds because it is so bizarre - tons of weird, satanistic goth stuff. But, mostly out of curiosity, I kept watching. I'm a former Berklee student and I'm very familiar with intervals and modes, but was looking for something to refresh my memory. Believe it or not, this was actually perfect for what I was looking for. But I can't imagine a beginning musician trying to follow this video. He flies through the material at a breakneck pace, barely explaining anything as he goes. Within minutes you're already talking about Phrygian modes and so forth. If you're not familiar with advanced musical theory, you'll be hopelessly lost, trying to keep up with the information while being slightly amazed at the surreal (ridiculous) production quality of the DVD.

However, if you are somewhat experienced with musical theory, you may glean a good bit of info from this. Strangely though, when he relates it to the guitar, it seems to be very basic info. It doesn't really add up - to be giving musical info at the most advanced musical levels, but giving guitar tips at the neophyte level.

All in all, I can't say I recommend this for too many people. You'd be much better off just buying the book version of this DVD (the Guitar Grimoire). It has tons of theory info in it, minus the pentagrams and dudes in black cloaks. He also references the book constantly in the DVD, so unless you have it, the DVD isn't particularly useful anyway.

I was very excited about getting the Guitar Grimoire Scales & Modes DVD. I had been told that it was tantamount to a month's worth of guitar lessons with a top-notch instructor. Unfortunately, I found this DVD to be exceptionally cheesy with a pedagogical style that is both tedious and repetitive.

As an intermediate guitar player, I bought this DVD to improve my knowledge of the way scales and modes can be used harmonically with chords. I had already bought the Grimoire scales and modes book and found it to be a decent reference tool, though only for someone who already understands the basics of guitar and music theory.

The DVD disappointed me in every way. It added nothing to the book. Moreover, it is incredibly boring. To his credit, the instructor attempts to liven up the video by dressing in a wizard's costume. In addition, when the instructor talks, he does so while sitting atop a thrown surrounded by gargoyles. His voice is digitized so that it sounds only partly human. Lightning bolts shoot out of his guitar between segments. To me, this was an attempt to make an otherwise boring video into something a bit more entertaining. But the attempt failed. The result is a DVD that is more adolescent than professional, more cheesy than instructional.

I would recommend that guitar players (especially beginners) stay away from this DVD. It is far too complicated for someone with no previous understanding of music theory. Furthermore, many guitar buffs might be turned off by the fact that most of the DVD's lessons are based on the piano, not the guitar. This DVD might as well be titled the "Piano Grimoire" because it focuses almost exclusively on the piano.

If you want to learn more about scales and modes, you might want to try Joe Satriani's lessons on this topic in Guitar World magazine. You can find these online at www.guitarworld.com. For a really great book about the guitar and music theory try Fretboard Logic by Bill Edwards. I am sorry that I bought the Grimoire DVD and cannot recommend it to anyone.

In the early 1990s I purchased The Guitar Grimoire, Scales and Modes. Eventually I purchased 4 other books from the series. These books are an invaluable source of information.
I mistakenly thought that the DVDs would be an excellent medium for the viewer to learn some of these concepts and their applications directly from Adam Kadmon.
While Adam is indeed the instructor in these DVD "lessons" (and almost everything else too), this is another case of "the book is SO much better than the movie."
I can't believe how bad the DVD is, especially considering how great Adam's books are.
A lot of time is spent explaining how to use the book, and in general repeating concepts and ideas from the book. The DVD adds little value, if any, to the book. To me it would have been more interesting to listen to some of the scales and modes in a variety of contexts, with explanations regarding scale/mode choice as well as note choice, exercises, progressions, or something that would make me glad I purchased the DVD. To me it was a waste of money.
I witnessed the equivalent of a really bad B movie (as mentioned by another reviewer). Who knows, maybe this one will become a cult classic too. I'm giving it too stars because there is some knowledge in the DVD. Unfortunately it does not add much to the material included in the book.

Out of necessity, I feel I must rate this DVD on two levels.

First, this DVD is clearly a statement by Kadmon on his personal cosmological beliefs. From his name alone, which means primeval man, you should know that he means to convey more than just how to play the guitar. His appearances on his throne are intentionally timed to take advantage of certain Tree Of Life ideas which I don't have time to get into here. But, he appears beneath the middle one of three six-pointed stars ... 666, get it? And, he is surrounded by four beasts, which is taken directly from certain prophecies in the bible, old and new testament. At opportune times, a picture of the Circle of Fifths flashes on the screen, which is common knowledge for any musician who has been formally trained. But, what musicians usually are not aware of is that the 12 keys in the Circle of Fifths, indeed even the 12 notes in western music, are both derivations of the 12 astrological signs of the Zodiac. Yes, my Christian friends, every hymn sung in your church every sunday (the pagan day of worship of the Sun) is in the key of one of the signs of the Zodiac. Christians and Kadmon have a lot more in common that they realize ...

Secundo .... Kadmon is right on that the proliferation of TAB notation has seriously dumbed down far too many guitarists. He spends the first half of his DVD on the piano because that is standard procedure in any formal music curriculum. Every formally trained classical or jazz guitarist understands this, and has been through the process. After he grounds you in musical theory from the piano's perspective, he then spends the second half of the DVD with his guitar in hand, showing you how to apply that knowledge to your guitar. This is the best approach to teaching musical theory for guitarists I have seen yet.

I haven't yet seen mention of something unique and quite valuable Kadmon does for guitarists. I purchased a couple of videos in the past put out by Frank Gambale to learn his sweep picking technique, but I felt his approach to teaching it, while it clearly works for him, was not particularly practical for me. Kadmon, on the other hand, presents a much more logical approach to sweep picking with his consistent 3 notes to a string patterns.

My review is pretty much an echo of the others presented. While there is some good information in this DVD, it's presented in such a bad way. You've got the book author dressed up in a wizard robe with a hood covering his face, sitting on a throne surrounded by weird symbols and gargoyles while fake torches burn on either side. And did I mention that his voice is digitized during the whole DVD, including the parts where he's explaining music theory and stops being theatrical? I really felt bad for the author and embarassed for watching it.

The DVD also contains essentially the same information that's presented in the book of the same name, and does not really provide anything new. If you already have the book, this may or may not be useful to you as a companion. I personally got more out of the book by itself, which is still an excellent resource. However, I do have a better understanding of of music theory now, but I learned more about how it relates to the piano as opposed to the guitar. Why they chose to give most of the examples on the piano instead of the guitar is beyond me.

So, in closing, it gets one star. It would have been higher had it had additional content or gone into greater detail about actually understanding scales and modes and their application. Unfortunately it just turns out to be some doofus in a robe reading the book to you, and I don't think that's worth the price of admission.

I bought this DVD because I didn't want to have to go through the book confused. I thought he would explain things and go through what is covered in the book. WRONG. He goes over some things and not everything in the book. Also he just plays through the scales without even showing examples or giving ideas of how to use or apply them. He even starts going through all these crazy exotic scales for "who knows what reason". After going through those scales he then tells you that you will find explanations in my book!! What the hell!!! Is the DVD supposed to be a companion while you go through the book?? He does not teach anything in the DVD, he just wants you to waste your money while he sells his book to you. This DVD sucked!!! I was really looking forward to expand my knowledge.

First off, I'm a Christian Guitarist and found nothing even remotely scary, evil, or even dark really about his symbols, fake fires and gargoyles. Lighten up people!!! Its tongue-in-cheek hokum, but the information presented is PURE GOLD.

Like many other reviewers, this series has exposed me to Music Theory in a way that many hundreds of dollars in books and private lessons over 20 years couldn't. Intervalic relationships and Modes not only of scales but of Chords as well have opened up my eyes and increased my playing ability within the first few hours of viewing Adam's DVD's. He teaches you how to speak and understand musical shorthand, scale construction, related scales, substitution scales, polychords... basically de-mystifying things I have mis-understood for years (including his books which scared me off because of the amount of information).

Something else, by gaining a greater understanding of Music Theory, you will open yourself up to playing other instruments.

Adam... You the MAN! You've presented things in a way I can understand and I WILL be buying your books as companions for the DVDs. THANK YOU!!!!!

I figured that I'd try this since I have the book. Actually, if you spend time reading the book, which is very helpful, you'll learn volumes more about scales and chords. The narrator/player cruises though at such a high rate of speed through all sections that it almost requires you to know what he is doing before hand to understand. I'm not writing this from a beginners point of view but as a warning to those who think it may be a nice introduction; it really isn't. The reviews that gave it 5 stars puzzles me and I'm truly and honestly being sincere when I say this. Get the book before this video and you'll know what I mean. As an aside, to call the whole wizardry thing being cheesy is an understatement. I wouldn't call it satanic, just not necessary. If anyone's interested I'll sell you my copy.. It really is of no value..

I purchased this dvd along with the companion book, "The Guitar Grimoire". The book is rather confusing and droll. I would rather shoot myself then watch that video again. Not only was it basically a rote reading of the book, but the format was terrible. Throughout the entire thing the author wears a monks robe that hides his face, he continually makes these idiotic gestures like he's a magician, the whole audio is done with some annoying special effect on his voice and the content was just not that eye-opening. I have "A Modern Method for Guitar", volumes 1,2 and 3 by William Leavitt of Berklee music. I have found them to be far more valuable. Not only do you learn to sight read, but you also gain better theory and much of the same information offered by Cad-man in a much more mature presentation style. Sorry, Adam. You are obviously knowledgeable and talented, but writing books and making videos does not seem to be your forte.

Ok first off the guy in the cloak is a bit over the top, but if you can get over it this DVD is packed with a considerable ammount of knowlege about music theory. He is only onscreen in cloaked form durring segways between lessons, most of the time you are watching his fingers.

Any music DVD/VHS/Book can spoon feed you scales, this disk is actually more about theory. Most DVD's are more about watching the "star" shred and if you happen to learn something great, but that's not really the intention. You will learn something here.

It starts by explaining the scales and intervals on a piano keyboard. The keyboard is utilized in many scale theory books and videos because it is the easiest way to visualize the relationship between the notes. For example why are there two frets between a G and an A but only 1 between a B and a C? Well if your familiar with the piano layout it's alot easier to figure out why (there isn't a semi-tone between a B and a C note).

I was really suprised by the breadth of the information on this disk, I expected just a very cursory introduction to scale construction, but there is much more. He doesn't just stick to the standard "Western" scales, but goes on to some of the more exotic. He then goes on to show the basic patterns of the western scales on a fretboard and explains how to transpose them to any key. Once you grasp the concept of where the intervals are on the neck it's a good excersise to figure out the exotic scales.

The bottom line: if you want to be spoon-feed western scales, or a guy in a cloak offends you look elsewhere. If you want a very good introduction to music theory and actually want to learn something about scale construction, intervals and start a good music theory foundation then pick up this disk.