A few weeks back, I took a look at LickLibrary's DVD series "Learn to Play Pink Floyd." It's great, but it may be quite some time before I'm able to master some of David Gilmour's more sophisticated solos. So in the meantime, I'm focusing on some more basic blues playing. Luckily the folks at LickLibrary have just released a new series of DVD's highlighting Irish blues rock guitarist, Gary Moore. While Moore is not so well-known in the US, he's one of my favorite blues players. Gary Moore is a supreme shredder when he wants to be, but he's also excellent at slow burn blues. And that's what I wanted to learn.
There are several different DVD's available: Learn to Play Gary Moore, The Solos and Quick Licks. Each of these takes a different approach and you may find one more of a fit depending on what you're trying to learn. The Quick Licks DVD is a good way to get started with some snappy licks that you can add to your own blues and rock playing. The Solos DVD is probably the most advanced, giving you note perfect instruction on several famous Gary Moore songs. Each DVD also includes high quality blues backing tracks in the style of Gary Moore, giving you a great way to practice your new found skills.
The Quick Licks DVD features 30 different licks in the style of Gary Moore's "Walking by Myself" song, an 8 bar blues song in the key of E. The instructor Danny Gill breaks things down into small steps so that you can easily follow along even if you've never played the blues before. He takes you through the basic blues shuffle rhythm, to a simple walking bass, a turnaround and some simple fill licks in a matter of minutes. I think there's a bit too much distortion when he covers the opening rhythm part, but you can still pick it up quite easily from his description.
There's also just enough theory to provide a context for understanding the scales that form the basis of these licks, but not so much to keep you from having fun. And once you learn a few of these licks, you'll definitely be having fun jamming along to the backing track. With the focus on licks, they add up to the full solo of "Walking by Myself." And best of all, you can break at any point and feel that you've learned something that you can incorporate into your playing.
The Learn to Play Gary Moore DVD featuring Richard Barrett goes into more detail on specific Gary Moore songs, including "Still Got the Blues," "The Loner," "Out in the Fields" and also "Walking By Myself." Each song is covered in its entirety with the intro, verse, solos, bridge etc. However, on this DVD the pace is quite a bit faster than on Quick Licks, so you've really got to pay attention. In this DVD, there's a greater investment required than just learning licks, but the payoff is that much greater, especially if you're a fan of Gary Moore. Unfortunately, for most of the songs, the instructor's guitar has no visible fret markers, so you've really got to listen to closely to figure out where to play. (It begs the question: what were they thinking?) For an intermediate player, it shouldn't take too long to adjust, but it still seems like a bad idea for an instructional DVD and it makes it impossible to recommend this DVD for a beginning player.
In The Solos DVD, the emphasis, as you might guess, is on the solos rather the rhythm parts of the song. The instructor, Stuart Bull, is very thorough in showing the solos at full tempo and then breaking them down into smaller pieces at a slower speed. The DVD assumes you're already familiar with the songs and will know where to place the solos. But if you're not, there's a full disk of backing tracks (also at multiple tempos) that makes it easy to practice to accompaniment. The pace here is fast, but assuming you're motivated and have the time, you can chip away at these and eventually learn the whole song.
The production on all of these DVDs is superb. You've got multiple camera angles going so you can see both the right and left hands at all times. Having an on-screen tablature view for longer licks as well as on-screen guitar chord diagrams for obscure chords like the so-called Hendrix chord (E7#9 --also used in The Beatle's Taxman) would have been a great convenience. Sometimes a picture is a much easier way to learn, rather than having to listen carefully to the description and watch the instructor's fingers.
If there are two things these DVDs show, it's that anyone can learn to play the blues, but it can take many years to really become an expert. Even beginner can pick up some basic blues rhythm and licks to jam with others. But there's enough subtlety and complexity to the blues that you can always learn something new no matter what your skill level. If you're just getting started, I recommend picking up the Quick Licks DVD; it's the easiest to get into and the instructor really takes his time to explain things.
Intermediate or advanced players may want to skip Quick Licks and dive right into the other DVDs. There's many hours of instruction in each of these. While there's some overlap between each DVD, since they all feature Gary Moore's most famous songs, they are taught slightly differently in each case. You can get the DVDs directly from LickLibrary, from Amazon
Below is a video excerpt from the "Learn to Play Gary Moore -- The Solos" featuring instructor Stuart Bull. If you're not familiar with Gary Moore, this is a great intro to the soulfullness of his playing, especially the portions of "Still Got the Blues."
, Quick Licks
Richie Barrett on guitar, backing track producer and transcriber. See more on his website http://www.richiebarrett.com
Posted by: RValentine | September 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM