Can anyone write a review for 'Play What You Hear'? by Chris Standring

[Morpeli]

Hi,

I have been searching for actual reviews of 'Play What You Hear' by Chris Standring. Many people seem to think it is good but there are actually very few actual reviews of what it is.

Can anyone here write a review with more detailed info about what this course entails?

I have read at many of the posts on various forums regarding this post but I can't get a good sense of how this course works...they are either marketing reviews or very brief.

Thanks!

[Drumbler]

Here's a couple reviews. They seem legit.

Review Play What You Hear Guitar Lessons

http://makesurereview.com/guitarless...-you-hear.html

There are also a ton of jazz lessons right here too.

http://www.jazzguitar.be/jazzguitar_lessons.html

There seem to be a lot of posts recently asking for reviews of PWYH. It makes me question why. Are you spamming? This is the wrong place for it.

[jazzguitarbob]

I bought Chris Strandings course. Very good for beginner to intermediate players. jazzguitarbob

[pierre richard]

theory and ear training is what gets you there...

when playing some scales you already know without looking at the fingerboard..close your eyes and just listen..listen to the noteas as they come along...hear the intervals and such...

time on the instrument...pierre

[ksjazzguitar]

I don't know, I'm inherently skeptical about new learning systems. It seems every few years there is some yahoo that comes along with the next great system, but it is really just the same old stuff put in shiny new packaging. I don't know this system in particular. I'm sure it's fine, but I don't think it (or any other "great" system) will live up to its hype.

It's like weight loss programs - every few years there's a new "hot" one that everyone swears by. But most of them either don't work or are nothing new. And ultimately we know what we really need to do to lose weight, we're just too lazy.

It's the same with guitar - we know what we have to do to get better, we're just looking for a shortcut. But there are no shortcuts.

And the name "Play What You Hear" is just a gimmick - "playing what you hear" is the goal of every system ever constructed. When I lived in Portland there was an appliance store owned by a guy named Tom Peterson. One of the lines in his commercials was, "All of our televisions are superhetrodyne!" Really? Every television since the 50's has been superhetrodyne. It would be like advertising, "Our potato chips are made from potatos!" It's the same thing with "Play What You Hear."

And I know I'm getting myself in trouble, attacking the cult of "playing what you hear," it's not all it's cracked up to be. I'm not saying it's not a great thing, I just think it can be dangerous to focus on. I knew a few guys in college who swore they weren't going to learn a much theory and the weren't going to "play licks" - they were just going to "play what they heard." Well, every time I hear them they sound exactly the same. They played what they heard, but what they heard never developed. The point of learning all that theory and doing all that analysis isn't to get you away from playing what you hear, it's trying to expand what you hear.

Just my thoughts. I still say you'd be better off with a good teacher - far better than any book or DVD.

Peace,
Kevin

[backliner]

Originally Posted by ksjazzguitar

...The point of learning all that theory and doing all that analysis isn't to get you away from playing what you hear, it's trying to expand what you hear...

Damn if that doesn't make sense for where I am presently at.

Our College Professor eschewed anybody buying pattern books. He said, "Just write your own patterns."

Here I am 30 years later with my tired old dozen licks I came up with, and they weren't that great to begin with.

I'd be much better off copying what Charlie Christian heard in HIS head.

[jbraun002]

Well said Kevin! Over the last few years I've realized I can often play what I hear. But while jamming on a jazz blues I realized what I was hearing wasn't quite what I wanted to hear! I was square! Yikes, what's one to do?

I've taken up learning others lines now, which started (slowly) changing my conception of line possibilities.

[jbraun002]

Btw, I hate to double post, but one thing that has worked for me (YMMV and there's more than one way to do it!) has been to get away from standard tuning and tune in 4ths. _For me_ that made me hear the board better, maybe because the relations between any given notes became so obvious. It's weird how that one change can alter my perception of the instrument so much. For me I think I started to see the intervals a lot more clearly, like on the piano.

Anyhow, good luck with your ear training!

[ksjazzguitar]

Yeah,

"Play what you hear" is a great goal and should always be in the back of your mind. And definitely write your own licks. But expand what you hear by taking in every source you can find. To quote (if I remember correctly) Jim Hall, "Borrowing from one guitarist is stealing, borrowing from several is research." And to quote Picasso, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

Yeah, there is a certain logic to tuning in 4ths, and I knew a guy who tuned in M3s (no reaches, octave repeat at 3 strings), but I think I would miss the nice easy chords for my CMs. But if I were going to be just a pure combo player, I might experiment with that.

Peace,
Kevin

[backliner]

[quote=ksjazzguitar;107260]...there is a certain logic to tuning in 4ths, and I knew a guy who tuned in M3s (no reaches, octave repeat at 3 strings), but I think I would miss the nice easy chords for my CMs...[quote]



Oh man. I have enough trouble playing tennis with the net UP. If it were down I'd have to wear a cup.

I mean, I get very whirly when I'm not in my comfort zone. If I minded the stretches I'd go back to saxophone.

It's been too long in standard tuning for this old dog.

Shame on you guys, scaring an old man.