Customer Reviews

Guitar Method: Legends of Blues Guitar

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This dvd doesnt teach anything. I bought it thinking it would be cool to learn some blues guitar. All it is is a video of a guy playing blues riffs, then playing them slightly slower. No tabs,no instruction.

It's almost 20 dollars for a videocam home-made crap!
It says "Topics include finger picking, call & answer phrasing, etc.". It's a plain lie: nothing gets explained (the guy can barely talk), it's just a bunch of video sequence recorded with a best-buy cam. Don't buy this, get some Hal leonard stuff ore some... I did by mistake. It's too much money for something I could produce and sell myself...

I made the mistake of purchasing the methods in the style of SRV, Clapton, and Legends of Blues Guitar. While Curt is a very capable player, his instruction methods (or lack thereof) and cheap production will leave the student disappointed.
I'm giving it 2-stars since I did learn a few licks. It would be amazing if someone would present this material in a more formal package, with better production values, and using more adequate instructional techniques. Curt is VERY talented and knowledgeable, but his DVDs have been a huge disappointment.
For the aspiring blues players (at any stage) I would recommend looking into material from Keith Wyatt, Dave Rubin, John Ganapes, Wolf Marshall, Miguel Botafogo, Barry Levenson, etc. Their books/CDs are MUCH better than Curt's DVDs, and some of these authors also have DVDs available. I've been playing for 18 years, and thanks to these authors I'm now gaining a deeper understanding of the blues, and more importantly, I'm acquiring more tools (e.g., understanding chord-scale(s) relationships, note choice, phrasing, technique, etc.) that will facilitate my self-expression (and I'm finding that I'm playing less notes now, and hopefully saying more). In contrast, I can learn licks from Curt, but with little or no musical explanation, poor production, and lousy supporting material in the form of a cheap booklet.
For those who want DVDs, for the beginner the Classic Blues guitar vol. 2 DVD may be a good choice to learn some songs. For a more advanced player BB King's Blues Master Complete is also great. I only have vol.1 (VHS), and it's great to see and hear BB talk about his influences and play a little bit in their styles, and then see and hear how he takes from these styles to build his own voice. The book has transcriptions and explanations to most of these examples, as well as to BB's playing with his band.