There's no notation/tablature provided with this video, but Trovato patiently breaks down every tiny sliver of it. Watching this video, I was reminded of some gripes I've seen on amazon about this and other similar videos. People get really apoplectic sometimes about lack of tablature, or the inability of certain celebrity pickers to really show you what they're doing; sometimes it gets really righteous and the players are accused of selfishness. Having met a lot of brilliant players, I'd like to say that some musicians are just inarticulate about what they do. Others develop to the point where it's difficult for them to even think about the foundation of their style-- I can attest that, as you get better at playing and improvising, it becomes harder to understand how you got there. I've even tried to take notes as I've progressed, and it's still very challenging to remember all of the steps later.
Here are some thoughts about learning from instructional material.
REGARDING INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS COVERING INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED MATERIAL--
While I agree that beginner players need a teacher who can walk them slowly through everything, I think that serious players should start to realize that they're going to have to do some struggling if they want to join the big leagues. If you need every note spelled out for you, even though you have footage of the guy playing all of it, you may be tackling a job that's over your head. I think a lot of people believe that if you can just get the tablature to something, you can play it. Another phenomenon I've noticed (mainly in teenagers) is the notion that I have some kind of guitar secrets that I'm withholding from them. Maybe this is all part of our increasingly impatient society, I don't know; I do know that if many of the guitar innovators we all listen to had sat around whining about the defects of instructional material, music would have ground to a halt. There were no instructional videos years ago; even a guitar instruction book was a pretty scarce thing as recently as the fifties and sixties. When I was a teenager, there were plenty of highfalutin books around to help you with jazz, reading, etc. but not a whole lot showing you how to play blues, country, Hendrix, and the like. I know this sounds like the old "I used to walk ten miles through snow to return a library book" kind of rant, but Lord! I would guess that Albert Lee spent countless hours figuring out stuff that his heroes had played, and put it all together into his own style over a period of many years. It's "hard damn work," as Louis Armstrong once observed. I think that if you can't figure out anything Albert Lee does just from watching and listening, maybe you're not ready to play like Albert Lee. It's fine to buy a video, as I do all the time hoping for some insight, but you're still going to have to work hard. It's not just a matter of paying twenty bucks, popping in a DVD, and now you get to be as cool as Albert Lee. Even if Albert Lee came and crashed on your couch for a few weeks, and let you ask him questions all day long, sooner or later you'd have to sit down and do some work yourself.
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There are some DVDs that are being marketed today that maintain that you can learn to play the Blues by viewing these video presentations. The fact is that guitar basics can be learned via video or DVD by some people. However, while you might be able to learn some of the basics of the Blues through video presentations, the reality is that the Blues really is a genre that requires person to person direct interaction in order for you to best be able to succeed in your goal of learning to play Blues guitar well.
ReplyDeletei think there's definitely some truth in that. i'm not sure it's literally true for every potential blues player, though-- most of what i've learned about the blues i've learned by studying records (freddy king etc.) and i'm not sure how much one-on-one interaction with teachers eric clapton had, for example. most of what i've read about the greatest blues players of the past suggests that they had many opportunities to learn from other blues players-- not necessarily in a structured teaching situation.
ReplyDeletei would say that if a player can already play, he or she could learn just about anything from a video.
i'd add, for what it's worth, that the main problem with learning the blues, or any other style, from a video is that videos tend to demonstrate a bunch of licks out of context, and the blues is really a story-telling medium. that's a larger concept that videos may not be able to get across-- i've never seen one that really gets into that kind of idea. b.b. king's video is pretty damn helpful, though-- it gets into how he chooses phrases, etc. a little bit. pretty fascinating.
I don't doubt you can learn to play the notes. Don't know about the blues though.
ReplyDeletewell, if we're going to be picky about it, sitting across from bb king, albert king, and freddy king all at once (throw in earl king if you want!) for a week of lessons is not going to teach you how to "play the blues." no kind of teaching can teach you to feel something, or express yourself emotionally in any style of music. the blues is often talked about as if it's a style that has a unique claim to "soulfulness" or "feeling," a notion i question, but it's fair to see that if you don't play it with feeling it won't be worth a damn.
ReplyDeletebut this gets to a problem i run into with students sometimes, which is that people seem increasingly inclined to think of teaching as a service industry, kind of like catering. teachers are supposed to give you advice, and help you avoid bad habits, or tail-chasing approaches to practice and learning, but the student is supposed to do the work. it often seems to me that people dismiss teaching aids if they don't endlessly explain every possible nuance of every lick. as much as i love instructional videos, i feel that if someone is willing to work, they can buy an album by an artist like bb king, or charlie parker, and keep studying it until they get it. i would buy a freddy king instructional video if he had made one, but the information is really all there on the recordings if you are willing to work at it.
it's important to recall that most of the musicians who created blues, country, jazz, etc. did it in an era where there was virtually no instructional material for the guitar. i think all the instructional stuff now makes it easier to dip into a wide variety of styles, shortening the process a bit, but it's no substitute for hard work. nor is it a substitute for "having the blues", whatever the hell that means.
at some point i plan to write about that topic, but now my fingers are tired.
I have no bones to pick with any of the above. I can't claim any experience with the blues per say, I do have some time-in-the-saddle with other genres and I'll occasionally run in to players that are solely self taught by video and/or tab. This usually makes for a horrific listening experience.
ReplyDeleteYou probably knew this...
Rest your fingers my friend. You'll know when it's time to type again.
Er...kinda like a losing weight video, work-out video! All very good but let's remember...none of the greats from the present era...say growing up in the 40's-70's had instructional videos, and for that matter Mozart, Beethoven and countless others were without videos, magnetic tape, turntables etc.or for that matter even electricity...so...perhaps the inate instinct to make music really evolves from a gift one is born with...not great chops, great ears etc. (I've never seen an infant so endowed), but the innate, uncanny instinctual ability to JUST KNOW what to do, how to listen, inner visual memory when it comes to sound an ability to critique themselves when they sang out of tune at a young age and to improve their pitch, a sensitivity to phrasing and countless other things...I mean...look at some of the out-takes of American Idol (the people can't hear that they are not even close to the melody, have no timbre like those they say they sound like AND they are grown/almost grown adults???)Sorry but no video can help that , tho an extreme example...Perhaps we need to re-examine the reality of being musical and what gifted really means..Mozart was a genius. Don't take my word for it research it yourself...Prince and other media fabricated "genius'" are just that.Written about by people who couldn't tell a potential "Einstein" from a vagrant with unruly hair, bushy mustache, and owner of one suite, perhaps at good will and parrot of countless library books...none of which he wrote, of course...Anyway, long live great music, great players and those that are used to bring on true inspiration and innovation for the rest of us to appreciate and to help lead us forward! Makes life fun!!!!!
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