Search - Charlie Christian Featuring Andy Aledort on DVD

Amazing Analysis and instruction

Charles A. Cooper | Jacksonville, Florida USA | 07/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD is an amazing instructional tool for learning how to play some of Charlie's music. It is better than the other things I have seen in the Signature Licks DVD series. At first I was concerned that there is no tab booklet with this dvd, but Andy is such a great instructor that I soon realized you really don't need it, and it would probably just be a distraction from the real instruction available here if it was included. Andy plays each head, explains the structure of the song, shows in slow motion what is going on, suggests some theoretical analysis of Charlie's approach, and plays each segment up to speed. He then shows how to play several solos for each piece. You get the Head, solos and strucure for each piece broken down and also in full speed.

Before I bought this DVD I was concerned that he could not thoroughly cover each song on one DVD, as was the case on other DVD's I have seen in this series, but somehow he really does it here. You can really learn all eight songs (Air Mail Special * Benny's Bugle * Gone with "What" Wind * Grand Slam * Seven Come Eleven * Shivers * Solo Flight * Till Tom Special.) at a performance level entirely from this one CD.

Andy's ability to explain the essence of each lick is truly amazing and very effective. The pedagogy here does expect an intermmediate ability. Andy makes theoretical reference to basic song structure and chord construction with out going into a long winded explanation of the theory behind it, but it is all pretty basic. If you can understand what the I, V, VI, and II chords are in the key of F, C and B-flat, and know the difference between a major and minor third, you will have more than enough theory to follow along with no problem. If you want to learn Charlie's style or just want to learn how lead guitar was approached by the guy who invented it, all from one of the best guitar teachers you could ever find, then this DVD is for you!"

Get the book - skip the video...

Eric Dumas | 08/23/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Hi guys,

Got the video. As usual, Andy does a great job at getting all the right notes, etc. I like him and his Charlie sound is pretty good though I think Andy is at his best in the Stevie Ray/Jimi realms.

There is no tab and I sure miss it a lot. This is the last time I buy one of those DVD with no tab.

Fortunatelly, Wolf Marshall does a C. Christian book/CD kick with almost the same songs. I don't have the book yet but based on the really solid job Wolf did on the Joe Pass CD/Book I am not too worried.

If Wolf can do a killer job with Joe Pass it is hard to imagine how he could fail his C. Christian book.

Christian was a pioneer so I still want to learn his hits. However it will be done with the book.

An advantage of the book is that you can teak the channels so you can tone down the solos. This is almost as good as a rythm track. The DVD won't offer that."