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A book that costly has no business with that many mistakes. Virtually every song in the book had them. It's not a mistake at that point, it's just negligence. I almost wrote a letter but why would I waste my time with a guy who didn't bother proofing his own books? He's just another jerk selling half assed junk as far as I'm concerned.
Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
Amazon.com
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06-08-2023 08:55 PM
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His videos are very good. And he has a forum (Woodshed Forum) on Tapatalk where he answers questions from a devoted few. He’s very generous with advice, and doesn’t match your characterization in the slightest. Originally Posted by DawgBone
Again, I’d access his free videos … including “Shake that Thing” which I posted above. He has plenty of free stuff in YouTube. Not a jerk.
Edit: Also, don’t buy books like this on Amazon. At this point, the one you linked is a just collector’s item, a relic. He sells most of these kinds of books on his website for around $19.95.
Stefan Grossman'''s Guitar Workshop Online StoreLast edited by Kirk Garrett; 06-08-2023 at 09:23 PM.
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That collector's relic was about 40 bucks ordered through guitar center in the mid 2000's. It was incomplete to say the least so I have no interest in being one of his devoted few. The guy didn't bother giving a cursory check of his own book before printing it and selling it. Maybe he's a saint otherwise but his physical materials are half ass. If I buy two books/CD's/DVD's from the same company and they are both full of errors why would I buy a third? I already learned shake that thing it's in the book I linked, maybe you missed that. I learned all those songs, sorted out his multiple errors and made up my own stuff to cover it. Better than no book I guess, which doesn't say much. It was what was available then. Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
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I just learned how to play the twelve bar blues chord intervals and then started adding notes between them, working up until I could solo between chord changes or do both simultaneously.
Also, read book of blues. Download it.
Start listening to Mississippi John Hurt, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. They are completely opposite ends of the spectrum, and whichever style suits you better, learn first. Their common element - fingerpicking. Learn how.
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Stefan Grossman's site is indeed a treasure trove of lots of good lessons; I particularly like the teaching style of Tom Feldmann. From an old sales offer:
Tom Feldmann's Country Blues Lessons
(Current links)
I don't know if what Doug Macleod does really counts as "country blues" but he did play with a number of the "greats" mentioned above. He has an older course that's now available via MusicGurus
and current material: Guitar by Masters - Interactive Classical and Jazz Guitar Lessons . I seem to recall he also does online lessons and I'm sure he be a great teacher.
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You’re the guy that wants to buy stuff. I’ve been advocating using the resources that are free, mostly through Stefan Grossman‘s guitar workshop. Originally Posted by DawgBone
Who’s the jerk here?
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You sound like one of Stefan's chosen few. Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
I haven't bought a guitar book since I bought the two Stefan Grossman books/DVD's which three times now I noted were incomplete, had omissions, and had glaring mistakes in the tab. I guess that's acceptable to you. You can make excuses for his shit proofreading work. Excuses sound the best to the person making them so have at it.
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You can look me up on his forum. I think I’ve posted three or four times in total. Probably once per year. Originally Posted by DawgBone
But I am a fan. Grossman is a great guitar player and teacher, and his video material, as I’ve indicated, is excellent. And a lot of it is available for free online.
I’m only responding to you, so that newbies don’t think Stefan Grossman is some kind of “jerk” as you called him. In fact, he’s a tremendous resource. His material is excellent. Whether his older books have typos, is sort of irrelevant.
And don’t Micky Baker’s jazz books have errors? Does this somehow make them useless? Nope. Not to most people who learn from books. Usually it’s easy to figure out when something is a typo. For example, I looked up the errors in the book you despise so much, and which you linked to an Amazon reseller who is charging three times what Grossman charges. Apparently there is a G in the bass of an F chord. Well, this would be terribly easy to sort out using your ears.
I don’t think you want to learn anything whatsoever, and that you just wanna bash someone. Have at it.
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He's a resource. It's not tremendous. His material is less than excellent. We aren't just talking about typos. You are welcome to make more excuses for him I'm just saying I didn't find his material all that helpful beyond getting alternating bass thumbpicking down. Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
The book was as I described it. I carefully learned all the song material provided from the book The amount and quantity of typos as you call them doesn't make me hungry for his video stuff, some of which I already had, Blind Blake w/Ernie Hawkins. It's an incomplete resource at best. You won't know any John Hurt (or Blind Blake) songs front to back unless you improvise for yourself after what very incomplete tabs provided in the book. Neither were the tabs accurate at all in MANY places especially in the Jon Hurt book. Easily one of the more poorly done guitar education related books I've owned. I just want to bash someone. Actually when you dedicate a ton of time to what turns out to be a marginal material you don't care for remarks like "he's excellent" from people who maybe put in some time or maybe just post on guitar forums. And you shouldn't say I don't want to learn anything, you don't know me. I have done many gigs, taken lessons here and there, and moved around for musical pursuits. I am allowed to critique material you consider to be treasure. One mans' trash.....
Have a great weekend.
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I'm also going to jump on and say Grossman's Complete Country Blues Guitar Book isn't worth it. It starts off at full speed (no easy tune like Freight Train to start with) the CD arrangements don't match the book and most of them he's using a capo so they key is also wrong. I was disappointed, so disappointed I still don't like to buy books a decade later.
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The book reviews online would indicate most people are getting a lot of value from the books.
However, I prefer the videos, many of which are available for free online, and some of which I’ve posted here.
Let me know what you think of Stefan’s free videos.
If you can’t pick up the notes of these I-IV-V tunes with your ears, once you know the positions, I don’t know what you’re doing on a jazz guitar forum.
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I said I bought it a decade ago, but more importantly, the book isn't for aspiring jazz guitarists. The CD should be in the same key as the written examples, and the performance should match the page, this is how instructional books should work. Instead it's like he published his notebook and just played whatever he wanted in the studio.
Just my opinion, it's not worth the $35.
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How do you like the free videos I posted? Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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The videos are great, I just have a problem with his book. He knows how to play.
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What is cool about this vid is the way "Book" teaches. You don't need the TAB in front of you. TAB is sort of useless in this style * Let us know how you like it. Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
* since a lot of this involves holding down chords it would be helpful if TAB indicated the chord you should holding say inlight blue and the notes that change would be in black etc. surprised nobody thought of this already...would also be helpful for chord melody
I second thatTom Feldman is a great player and teacher.
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I don't read music worth a damn and I don't really like Tabs but watching others do the John Hurt picking in person and having some stuff tabbed out for it to go along with it was extremely helpful. I was checking out materials from an area Nashville library while I lived there because they had fingerpicking DVD's and tab material with it. There was a Happy Traum series of lessons that was extremely basic but real helpful because the tab was manageable. Originally Posted by alltunes
The biggest hurdle is getting the alternating bass thumbpicking steady and consistent IMO. After that things will much more easily fall in place.
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Don't forget Elizabeth Cotton's "Freight Train", a classic.
M John Hurt's "You Are My Sunshine".
Merle Travis's "Cannonball Rag".
Not exactly blues, but still mainstays of the genre.
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Jesus Christ. I ought to keep my mouth shut but I won't.
I understand the attraction of this stuff but you AINT LIKE THEM. Are you black, ill-educated, oppressed by the whites, living in poverty, etc, etc? And doing it all years and years ago?
No, you're not. So why do you want to be like that? You can't be like that. And if you were you wouldn't want to be.
I tell you, the sight of modern educated well-fed whites trying to act like that is not very good to my eyes or my heart.
It's about rhythm. Forget smart bass lines, contrapuntal lines, and all that college shit. Just tap your foot and play that bass string. Use one finger to hit some treble notes. One chord will do, maybe two. Flow it along like a train or a river.
And sing something you mean. Make sure you have no money. Make sure your life is a wreck and there is no social benefits.
Sing up.
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You really ought to have kept your mouth shut, you had that much right. Please tell me being drunk was the excuse for this post. Originally Posted by ragman1
What percentage African descent does one need to be to qualify to play this kind of music and still pass your brown paper bag test? Serious question. You're speaking but you really don't know the background or motivations of anyone posting here. Please remove your post and do yourself and all of us a favor. Thanks.
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He was right about singing something you mean.
“never play a note you don't believe and never write or sing about what you don't know”.
which doesn't mean you have to sing about poverty.
From the same -white- guy who likes to cite the lesson above that was taught to him:
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I guess he should change his forum handle to captain obvious then. Originally Posted by RJVB
The rest was pretty insulting. I wonder how it would come off if someone was berating what they thought were black people about playing classical music. YOU AIN'T WHITE and you ain't playing for european royalty while wearing a wig and finery. Why do you want to be like that? YOU CAN'T be like that!........ I guess in his view being black means you are poor, oppressed, and ill educated? Or just back then, but not now? Or just partially now? See what I'm saying? Poorly thought out remarks. You don't know the background of anyone here or the motivations they have for pursuing a given type of music. I am pretty sure he will think better of those remarks today, he's a generally smart guy. The mistake he makes is not realizing some great blues and soul artists have put white players in their bands because.....they liked the way they played the music. So racial remarks have no basis in reality with regard to any style of music. There are white dudes doing effective mongolian throat singing. YOU AIN"T MONGOLIAN!!!!!
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I won't go as far to say that they have no basis whatsoever. "Black" voices do (tend to) sound slightly different, also in classical singing, and I have no basis to believe this can not have any physiological explanation at all. Originally Posted by DawgBone
But the main differentiating factor here is cultural, not "racial". And yeah, I do think that counts. I've always felt something off by, e.g., an average/typical English interpretation of Italian baroque music, and Spanish music in particular always sounded best to me when played by Spanish.
Fortunately this thread is about blues, and not jazz
FWIW, that now acclaimed white bluesman above was once refused to play on a George Harmonica Smith tour - by the local tour organiser (IIRC not in the US). Because he's white and didn't fit with the image that had to be projected. Upon which George apparently threatened to cancel the whole tour. (OTOH he also once paid Doug the explicitly non-compliment that he "sure sounded a lot like B.B."
)
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That damn Greek descendant whitebread dared marrying a black woman later giving birth to a coloured boy (named Shuggie).
Now that's what I call cultural appropriation ...
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Those three, erm, graces sure look like they're a bit too tanned to be Greek Originally Posted by Bop Head
Seriously, look like. I don't know what kind of make-up and lighting they used, but you can often almost only guess the differences in skin colour in those old B&W recordings!
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Doug is solid, quality blues. I believe it was you who turned me on to him a while back..... Originally Posted by RJVB
I won't go as far to say that they have no basis whatsoever. "Black" voices do (tend to) sound slightly different, also in classical singing, and I have no basis to believe this can not have any physiological explanation at all.
But the main differentiating factor here is cultural, not "racial". And yeah, I do think that counts. I've always felt something off by, e.g., an average/typical English interpretation of Italian baroque music, and Spanish music in particular always sounded best to me when played by Spanish.
Fortunately this thread is about blues, and not jazz
FWIW, that now acclaimed white bluesman above was once refused to play on a George Harmonica Smith tour - by the local tour organiser (IIRC not in the US). Because he's white and didn't fit with the image that had to be projected. Upon which George apparently threatened to cancel the whole tour. (OTOH he also once paid Doug the explicitly non-compliment that he "sure sounded a lot like B.B.")
There is a guy on facebook like you are describing. Thinks he's the white savior of the black blues because he only allows black blues to get shared on his page. A well meaning moron. He gets trolled by everyone, and yet is always raging about white people playing blues, lol. I guess he missed the memo that even black owned clubs play a mix of black and white blues and soul.
As for singing, not all black people can sing contrary to what seems to be a popular belief among whites, throat structure be damned. Same for rhythm. I once played with a black guy who couldn't hold time to save his life. It was his inexperience, not some racial thing. Some of the black blues greats are as great as they are because they basically stewed in blues from their youth to adulthood. Lucky Peterson, Freddie King, guys like that who were doing it from the earliest years and surrounded by other adept blues players.
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