Customer Reviews

The Guitar Of Lightnin' Hopkins

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3 star:		(1)
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Of the 40 odd 'How to Play Guitar' videos I own, this is my favorite and the one I go back to every month. I've worked with this video now for about four years and have been making real headway with it for about 18 months. I'm still a ways from improvising blues lines the way Lightnin' does. Like all of Ernie Hawkins' videos, this is not for someone who does not really play guitar. If you are an advanced jazz player, rock player or blues player you will likely get a lot out of this video quickly. I bought it shortly after I took up the instrument with the idea that this was the style I wanted to specialize in. It won't work like that. Lightnin' Hopkins was a very idiosyncratic player. He had a bag full of tricks, which he strung together in different recipes, which enabled him to create his own arrangement of most any song on the spot. He was also adept at playing what he called 'air songs,' songs that he could make up on the spur of the moment. His guitar style is much more formidable than it appears to the untrained guitar player. Lightnin' Hopkins might easily be seen as the father of Rock and Roll guitar playing. It's easy to hear that players like Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Scotty Moore owe a considerable debt to Lightnin' Hopkins' style which is what attracted me to this video in the first place. Apart from being a blues guitar virtuoso, Ernie Hawkins is the foremost guitar style imitator of all the blues giants. His two volume expose on Mance Lipscomb is the natural next step after mastering Lightnin' but I have to confess, I'm still working hard on Lightnin' and hope I advance enough to tackle Mance before the end of 2006. If you do not consider yourself an advanced guitar player and want a bridge to study the Lightnin' style of guitar, consider "Beginning Rockabilly Guitar" by Fred Sokolow. This is a much easier lesson and covers most of the skills one need to approach Lightnin' Hopkins' guitar style. One caveat, Sokolow's video, too, is not for someone who has NO knowledge of how to play guitar. It expects that you know basic chords forms and how to read guitar tablature. These are not very great demands, but if you are an absolute beginner you should get something easier. Happy Traum offers a video called "Yes You Can Play Guitar" that will probably work for someone who knows nothing about playing the instrument.

Ernie Hawkins does a fantastic job of breaking down the style of Lightnin' Hopkins in a clear and concise style that makes it easy for a relative beginner to understand. I have purchased a few teach yourself books in the past and have had minimal success in picking up the material and didn't have time for lessons. Ernie's DVD puts the instructor right in front of you and walks you through Lightnin's trademark shuffle beats, turn arounds and runs and will have you playing it in no time. Ernie intuitively understands which parts may be more difficult and repeats the instruction as necessary helping you avoid the rewind button. The video quality is excellent and the split screen feature which allows you to see both fret hand and picking hand is invaluable. Also included are some excellent videos of Lightnin' playing the songs himself. I am a huge Lighnin' Hopkins fan and would love to see more of his songs broken down like this in DVD format. (Ernie, are you listening?) :)

If you're really serious about trying to learn Lightnin' Hopkins style of guitar, this is your video bible. 100% agree with the other review that this is in no way intended for anybody who could be considered a beginner; it actually humbled me a bit in that i found myself having to go back and learn more elementary things from other sources just to be able to keep up with the dvd. Uninformed listeners might hear Lightnin's music and think "he's recycling the same three riffs" but that's missing the entire subtle genius of it; it's almost always similar but it's never, ever the same. Ernie Hawkins does a fantastic job teaching this principle and teaches you many subtle variations so you can tweak the 5 songs you learn here to sound like other Lightnin' tunes pretty easily. You will likely have to develop your hand strength just to physically be able to do some of the bending and sliding that happens here, and forget everything you know about bass rhythm because Lightnin's thumb had a mind of its own. This will be hard, and this will be frustrating, but if you stick with it you'll learn a rich and rewarding style of Texas blues guitar that sounds great and is a blast to play.

This review has been used to cover several Lightning Hopkins CDs and a DVD review of an instructional film, "The Guitar Of Lightnin' Hopkins", directed and taught by Ernie Hopkins, Stephan Grossman Studio Workshop, 2004, on learning his guitar style. I might add that this film makes abundantly clear that learning Lightning's eccentric style is definitely not for beginners. Go to the Willie Dixon song book for that.

Lightning, Lightning Hopkins, Arhoolie Records, 1993

Freedom Patterns, Lightning Hopkins, Fuel 2000 Records, 2003

Blue Lightning, Lightning Hopkins, Paula Records, 1995

Lightning Hopkins & The Blues Summit, Lightning Hopkins, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Big Joe Williams, EMI-Capitol Records, 2001

I have spilled plenty of ink in this space tracing the main line of the blues from its acoustic origins down in the plantation South, up river through the way station of Memphis, and then to the electric "Mecca of Chicago. Along the way I have occasionally mentioned some of the other branches of the blues line like the North Carolina pick. I have not spent nearly enough time on some of the other important branches of the blues expansion, especially in the post World II period such as the West Coast blues and, as will be noted here, Texas blues.

If the blues is synonymous with the black struggle to get by day to day, to make ends meet and to make it to Saturday night and some relieve then the very big locale of Texas and its harsh hard scrabble life and strict Jim Crow laws hardly seems out of place as a key blues outpost. From the days, in the 1920's and 1930's, of Blind Lemon Jefferson working the streets of rural small town Texas, cup in hand, up to the artist under review, Lightning Hopkins, working the small black clubs and "juke joints" of the cities (like Houston) and beyond to the sounds of blues revivalists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and his brother there has been more than enough misery to create a separate Texas blues tradition.

Moreover, Brother Hopkins brings a distinctive guitar pick of his own to the "dance". He is famous, above all, for what is called the E shuffle sound as he works the guitar to create a sound that is a little "happier" than the forlorn one of the Delta or the "amped up" one of Chicago. I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to hears Lightning live until late in his career in the early 1970's when he had lost a little of his fine-toned edge. One can recapture some of that though through some of these earlier recordings from a tie when he was in full blown Lightning form. Listen up if you want to learn a different way to run a guitar from that of Muddy Waters, Bukka White, B.B. King or, for that matter, Eric Clapton

Needless to say Lightning had covered most of the known blues classics of his time as well as his own material. The borderlines of what is one's own material and what one has reworked from the blues pool is not always clear but you need to hear, for starters, "Mojo Hand", "Hello Central", "Little Girl" and "Rock Me Baby" to get a feel for his sound. Add on such classics as "Wig Wearing Woman", "Lonesome Dog Blues" (with an eerie dog bark included free), "Back Door Friend" and you are ready to become an aficionado. Throw in the talking blues-styled "Mr. Charlie", "Baby Child" and "Cooking Done" for good measure. Finally, team up Lightning with the likes of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and the amazing Big Joe Williams (especially on Hopkins' "Ain't Nothing Like Whiskey" and "Chain Gang Blues") at the famous 1960 "blues summit" and you are ready for the graduate course.

It would not seem appropriate to spend too much time on Lightnin' Hopkins here. The review is really about Hawkins' teaching method, the recording, the materials, etc.

That said, If you're interested in getting into playing acoustic style blues, this DVD and Lightnin' more generally strike at the heart of that characteristic blues sound. If you listen to Lightnin's music, you'll find there's really a handful of basic forms that he draws from to write his music. As a result, this is a great video for someone who has a little bit of playing under their belt, knows root position chords, and maybe has a little experience fingerpicking (at least enough to know how to find the strings) but really wants to dive headfirst into a "blues" sound.

When I first got this video, I was turned onto it by a selection of it that was placed on YouTube -- with Hightnin's "Shinin' Moon." It's a good sampling (it's still there), and it gives you an idea of how Ernie Hawkins breaks these songs apart. He gets down to basic little quirks or moves that are characteristic Lightnin' signatures. He also doesn't belabor or unduly repeat technique/mechanically oriented material. That said, you should have your basics -- slides, vibrato, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs -- down, because he's not going to give you much there by way of fundamentals. But he will walk you step by step through these songs, and it will give you insight on how to get some really gritty sounds out of your guitar.

I have hundreds of instructional videos to compare this to, and the recording quality is top notch. The format is -- (1) footage of Lightnin' performing the song, (2) Ernie breaking it down, and (3) slow split-screen walk through. The written materials help reinforce when you need to work on specific passages or just don't get something. If you're looking for a way to learn this sound, this video (though a little pricey) is a good selection.

The DVD is Excellent but I can't say the same for the printed material.
The booklet is tiny, I need glasses to read it.
The printed tab/music don't match the song as played/taught.
I like to have either a tab or music in note form to refer to for learning the passages.
I know, everyone will say, "learn to hear the notes" which is good if you can pick it up that fast.

What I would like to see is a accurate PDF file that could be down loaded after you buy the DVD.

i haven't seen too many, however, of the ones i have, Ernie Hawkins does an excellent job of explaining how to play the guitar. He keeps an even pace thru out, so when you are learning you know what you can expect from him. He breaks it down and gives tips on what might be easier, but also follows up on how exactly Lightnin' Hopkins played it. he also shows alternative licks that you can throw in instead. Great job Ernie.

I play with the Mushroom Cowboys - blues - rock - acid country

I absolutely love Lightnin' Hopkins. My grandfather could play many of his songs very well, and since my grandfather is no longer living, I bought this DVD to help me learn the Lightnin' Hopkins style. It's definitely an excellent and thorough video, but if you only have minimal guitar experience, this may be a bit much.

Really liked this DVD. Includes footage of Lightnin' in action with really well broken down explanations of some key songs. Tab included.

Ernie Hawkins is great and I love him but there are few Hopkins selection in this DVD. I wish he could have added two or three more.