Customer Reviews

Rockabilly Guitar book/ 3 - CD set

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This is a good way to get started if you're looking to learn some basics of rockabilly guitar. This will give you everything you need to get started playing some of the earliest hits of the genre. There are no actual songs in the set, so you should probably get something like the rockabilly bible in order to learn the real songs.
I would not suggest this set for someone who doesn't know the basics of the guitar already. The first CD jumps right in the middle of things so there is a definite assumption that you already know the basics. So if you've been playing and understand chord structure and the blues scale, you'll be able to grasp what is being taught. Most of the stuff that is shown is almost immediately transferable to the early rockabilly hits.
As I said before, it's a good start. Just don't expect to be Brian Setzer at the end of the third CD.

My problem with this Book is that it's not a textbook with audio examples. It is rather an audio course with a booklet that contains some tabs. I'd rather prefer a textbook with detailed explanations, photos and the like. This book contains none of it, only tabs of the material presented on the CD, and not all of it at that. A lot of stuff taught on the CD didn't make it into the booklet. I find it hard to learn any genre just from listening, particularly if the accompanying written material is not complete and leaves you guessing what has been played. This is not to say, however, that Sokolow's audio course is poorly done. He presents a wealth of information, cool licks and examples of the style's different techniques. This audio course just doesn't work for me, which is a shame because I like the teaching style of Fred Sokolow very much and own a lot of his DVDs. Sokolow's Rockabilly Guitar-DVD, which I worked through as well, is a much better point to start for the rockabilly novice.

this book is a gem. On the cd's you'll find much more than the examples in the book. Fred explains each lick/progression carefully. He starts with serveral boogie bass lines in the key of E, than A, etc. The licks are simple, but not simplistic, and get progressively more complex. You really get that old rock feel. It's a lot of material, and you have to work hard, you won't get it quick. It's like a guitar course. You can easily transpose the licks to a more rock feel, or to a bluesy sound, cause it all comes from the same place, and yes, fred also explains how to do that. You'll find licks, short songs and progressions with that old rockabilly feel, and a lot more. My best guitar book so far.