Customer Reviews

House of Blues Presents: Blues Guitar Course

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a little worried about buying this product because for some reason there are no reviews on it anywhere on the internet - not on amazon, not music123, musicians friend, or guitar center. However after looking at the product descriptions on the sites just mentioned I realized that this dvd/book course is actually the combined courses of two earlier blues dvds, level 1 and level 2, also by house of blues. That makes this a great buy because the original lesson 1 sells for 20 bucks, and this is a combo of 1 and 2 selling for the same exact price!

The teacher, John McCarthy is pretty skilled and easy to learn from. I like the way the lessons progress, they are easy to follow and always interesting. The camera work is good, its always kept so that you can very clearly see what McCarthy is doing. He usually shows things a couple of times slowly and then will do it once or twice at full speed which is nice because you're not constantly rewinding.

One thing that I wasn't expecting to get from this course was a huge library of online backing tracks. Whenever you sign up online you get a couple of extra features such as additional resources that deal with the book (which are fairly minimal, but that's fine, the book has enough in it already), online forums, access to backing tracks and more. My favorite part is the access to backing tracks, which as it turns out you don't just get the backing tracks for this product but every other house of blues, and rock house production as well. That's a whole lot of backing tracks folks, and they can be fairly expensive themselves, so to find a pretty big lot of them for free, I was excited. Note, they aren't all blues tracks, most are going to be rock, and a couple are metal, but still it's a very nice resource to have. They are downloadable as well as streamable, so you can do what you want with them - put them on your ipod, or burn them to a cd.

Anyways, on to my actual playing progress. I've had this for just a couple of days and have learned some pretty cool riffs and some neat soloing techniques as well as some rhythm stuff. I will admit that I'm no where near finishing the course, but if the rest is as good as it has been up to this point its absolutely a great buy, It has made my playing in just a couple days a little more "soulful." At just 20 bucks, its not much of an investment, so I definitely recommend it, if nothing else just the backing tracks make it worth the price of admission.

This is actually the HOUSE OF BLUES course 1 & 2 combined.
So far I'm having a blast with just the book & CD's, haven't looked at the included DVD's and the free member access to the internet web site for additional instruction. I personally own five (5) different blues instructionals and this one is the most complete and best by far. As you can tell by now I STRONGLY RECOMMEND BUY THIS ONE. They take you through the basics, how to read tab, how to play the essential scales, and then go into the intermediate and more advanced chords & scales. Again, I'm still looking forward to browse though the 2 included DVD's and their membership web site (free). Great investment & Very well written - Luv it, BUY IT!! As always, THANKS for reading my reviews and be well. The WebbMan

I really like this blues guitar course, it's really nice how all the parts work together. You start by going through the book, first learning some chordshapes, if you're not fully comfortable with the result from the book, just put in the DVD and watch John show you the example. Then, when you think you got the stuff from the book and dvd nailed, play it along with the cd. The short blues solo's at the end of a few of the chapters sound really good btw. Really nice flow learning this way, and it keeps me interested. I have to say, I only just finished chapter 3, out of 10, and I've been using this course for a few weeks.
Good to know is that this IS the full course, so Level 1 and Level 2 combined, had me doubting for a while, but it's the real deal, 100 pages of tekst, 2 dvd's and 2 cd's. Another great feature that comes with this package is the access to the website of Rockhouse. Loads of info for guitarplayers and a lot of backingtracks, not only for this program, but for all products published by Rockhouse and House of Blues.

Bottom line:

Great product if you want to get started playing blues guitar!

This is a review of "House Of Blues Presents: Blues Guitar Course." This product contains the DVDs from "Learn to Play Blues Guitar Level 1" and "Learn to Play Blues Guitar Level 2." Beware: The Level 1 and Level 2 DVDs are sold separately, yet each one (by itself) costs more than this combined course. In other words, if you buy Level 1 and Level 2 separately, you will be paying more than twice as much as the combined course.

The "Blues Guitar Course" comes with a full-size booklet, the Level 1 DVD, the Level 2 DVD, and two backing track CDs (so you can learn by playing along with drums and bass). Backing tracks can also be downloaded from the website.

I have many Rock House guitar instruction products (such as Rock House Learn Rock Guitar - beginner, intermediate, advanced). As with all of their DVDs, the production values are very high. As with all courses I have seen with instructor John McCarthy, the instruction is very well designed (building from simple to more complex knowledge and skill) and instruction is very effective.

Level 1 DVD: Tuning; chords for blues progression in the key of A (both open chord and barre chord versions); fingering patterns for pentatonic scale in the key of A minor (teaches the 5 basic patterns which can be moved up and down the fretboard for any key); picking; techniques such as bending, hammer on, pull off, slides, and vibrato; blues lead; 12 bar blues progression; example blues riff.

Level 2 DVD: Blues in the keys of E and C, pentatonic scales in the keys of E and C, advanced bending techniques, jazz chords, jazz-blues fusion, lead techniques, advanced blues rifts, combining major and minor scales, sixteenth note lead patterns, circle of fourths.

I only have one criticism of this course: John does not spend enough time teaching vibrato. He basically just demonstrates a vibrato, and then tells you to practice until you can do it. A popular free video website has much better instruction on vibrato. I think this professionally-produced DVD should have provided instruction at least as good as those amateur videos.

This is a great course. Highly recommended. Also consider supplementing this course with the booklet "Blues You Can Use" by John Ganapes. For considerably more money, try "Learn & Master Blues Guitar" (by the same folks who make the great "Learn & Master Guitar" course).

While this DVD is a stand-alone course, it is probably best to have finished another beginner course before taking this blues course (such as the Rock House DVD or Fender's "Getting Started on Electric Guitar").

I have been playing for three months. Iam taking lessons and nothing so far has compared to this product. If you want to learn how to play the blues or just the guitar in general, get it! I also would recommend the "Fretboard Logic" by Bill Edwards. Fretboard Logic will teach you how to know exactly where to play in Key without the guess. Both of these products together should advance anyone years beyond the average player.

This is an excellent resource. The information on the minor pentatonic scale and positions, which I had begun to put together from other resources, really came together using this resource. The concept of positions and the "BB Box" and how to apply it across the keys became much clearer. This is what I needed to really be able to explore the fretboard, in a variety of keys, in a very flexible manner that allows me to apply the knowledge gained to a variety of blues sounds, traditions, and even artists. The information is available elsewhere as well but the concepts are distilled into a very accessible format and structure. I recommend this.

I am an intermediate player that mostly plays rhythm guitar, but wanted to learn more blues techniques. I am still just getting started with this book but already love it. Between the cd and dvd included as well as the downloadable features on the internet I can't believe how many options I have for the price. This book will keep me busy for a long time.

This is probably the best course out there. You do get the most and best for your money. The website support that comes with the purchase makes it a terrific value for the money. Consider what you would pay a good guitar teacher. I love this book so much I go through it again and again for review. When I play my stuff, people don't believe I have only been a serious student for a little over two years... Thanks to the author John McCarthy!

If you are just starting out on guitar and have interest in getting a base of knowledge required for blues (or rock) soloing, this is a good package to work with. The DVD presentation style is good, easy to follow, and matches the tab. Covers the scales (notes) you need and basic blues progressions and riffs. Once you have practiced and absorbed the material you probably won't reference back to it a whole lot, you'll be ready for some more advanced material. The online resources are a nice added bonus. I would purchase this again and recommend for someone starting out on guitar if they are blues focused. Highly recommended.

Fast Ship great product, received at my door promptly. new package everything here and i like it ,I would order again