Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Let me start by stating that I read tab pretty well, I've been studying with an excellent instructor for about a year, and I'm a real bug about getting the stuff I play to sound 'right'. By right, I mean that it needs to have at least the same feel and close phrasing - doesn't have to be mechanically note for note. But, sometimes, to capture the feel of a multitrack recording with a single guitar you have to make allowances for the exactness. Still, it has to sound right, and sound good.
Secondly, this deserves more than 5 stars.
I've got several different tab sources on Hendrix, a DVD by another (excellent) instructor, and have been working on a couple of Jimi tunes. Thought I had at least the scaled-back versions down pretty good. I've watched most of this set once-through now, and it left my jaw on the floor. The richness of the detail blew me a-way. By the time you're through the 2nd or 3rd song in the set, you'll be glad they chopped them up into measure and gave you half-speed demos so you wouldn't miss any detail. Even the rhythm parts need to be slowed down so you can see what is going on. As for not having tab - heck, go get it. Then you'll have the best of both worlds (but this world is better, trust me!).
I grew up with Hendrix music; I know the stuff in my head, almost by heart. But the theory explanations by Velvert Turner combined with the dead-on normal and half-speed split-screen demos by Andy are a goldmine for what they reveal.
How the music is phrased is a HUGE part of the sound, and you're not going to get that from just the tab. Seeing it performed here, with close-up fretwork and the split inset screen for the picking and strumming gives you that. That's hard to find, and heaven knows why anyone would knock it.
The delivery in the set feels choppy at times because of breaking the songs down a few measures at a time. But the sonic landscape of Jimi's work is so rich and thick that I don't see how else they could do it and still keep our heads from exploding! Bear in mind that many tab sources you're going to get are essentially going to be the "easy guitar" version of these songs, not the real deal details with full and half-speed demos in digestible pieces.
As for getting it from a concert - fuggedaboudit! Besides the period quality problems with most Hendrix footage, you have to realize that there are problems with the directorial idea of what makes for good entertainment. That usually conflicts with what makes for a good instructional source. For comparison, go rent SRV's Live at the El Macambo and see how much you can glean of how to play Stevie from that, even though it was capture with much better technology and much more recently. Or, get "Lightning in a Bottle" and see if you can figure out much about the masterful acoustic version of "Can't Be Satisfied" that Buddy Guy plays. Concert footage was not shot to teach you how to play, and there is NO freakin' way this should dismissed in favor of old concert footage as a training aid. You'd need your head examined if you did that.
I'd strongly recommend the DVD version of this set so that you can go directly to your favorite section. Also, some DVD players will let you step through at varying speeds and loop a given segment over and over. Trust me - on some of those Jimi solos you're going to want to have those extra tech tools handy!
I simply am AMAZED that anyone panned this set. It is a gem of source material for anyone that truly wants to play Hendrix so it will should like it should. Can't imagine WHAT they were expecting to be so dissappointed by it. So far as I know there isn't anything else out there like it. If there is - Axis or Ladyland - I WANT it.
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Product Description:
This fantastic two-hour-long digital video disc shows guitarists how to play the important parts to every song on this influential album. The DVD is hosted and taught by the late Velvert Turner, a student and friend of Jimi's, with demonstrations by ace Hendrix educator Andy Aledort. For each song, the guitar parts are played first slowly, then up to speed to help players learn each riff and solo properly, and there are backing tracks to play along with. As a bonus, this DVD includes actual footage of Jimi playing many of the songs explored and covered on the DVD. Players will learn: Purple Haze * Manic Depression * Hey Joe * Love or Confusion * May This Be Love * I Don't Live Today * The Wind Cries Mary * Fire * Third Stone from the Sun * Foxey Lady * Are You Experienced? * Stone Free * 51st Anniversary * Highway Chile * Can You See Me * Remember * and Red House - and with the navigational freedom that a DVD provides, they'll easily be able to go right to the lessons of their choice!
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