How To Play Blues Guitar; Rock Guitar: A Guide From The Greats

An excellent companion piece to his Bottleneck Blues Guitar (reviewed in the July-August, 1991 issue), Stefan Grossman's How To Play Blues Guitar is a wide-ranging exploration of various blues styles ranging from delta to ragtime, and playing techniques which Grossman learned firsthand from the blues guitar greats. Sprinkled throughout the instruction are rare film clips of such renowned early artists as Lightning Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Blind Blake, the Reverend Gary Davis, Elizabeth Cotten, Son House, and more. Grossman takes viewers through the keys of C, E, A, and D, and demonstrates several important blues tunings: the open D, the open G (a.k.a. the Spanish tuning), and the dropped D, as they're learning such tunes as "You Got the Pocketbook, I Got the Key," "Police Dog Blues," "Big Road Blues," "Crow Jane," "Pony Blues," and "Mississippi Blues," among others. Grossman is an amiable and inspired instructor, and guitar players (and this program is really more for intermediate to advanced players) will absorb a great deal from this superb introduction to the multi-faceted world of the blues. Rock Guitar: A Guide From the Greats offers instruction from a rather motley crew: Richard Thompson, formerly with Fairport Convention; Ron Wood, of Rolling Stones fame; and Michael Schenker, who left The Scorpions to form The Michael Schenker Group. By far the best instruction comes from Thompson, who is not only an excellent guitarist but also a decent teacher. Wood offers a few jokes, but simply isn't an exceptional guitar player. And Schenker, a virtuoso lead guitar player, is pretty much at a loss when it comes to verbalizing his impressive techniques. The program is divided into chapters: "strings & things," "technique," "chords & chord shapes," "scale patterns," "left-hand tricks," "right-hand tricks," "putting it all together," "playing live," and "recording." Fortunately, Thompson is on hand quite a bit of the time (although Schenker and Wood will be the drawing card to get aspiring guitarists to check out the video), and offers a number of excellent tips. In addition to the instruction, the program also features some great clips from the masters: Les Paul, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, and Pete Townshend. How To Play Blues Guitar is highly recommended and an Editor's Choice. Rock Guitar: A Guide From the Greats is recommended. (Available from: Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, P.O. Box 802, Sparta, NJ 07871.)