Another goodie from Home Spun
David Klausmeyer | USA | 01/15/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I own several Home Spun instructional CDs and DVDs. I enjoy them all, and they've made me a better musician.
This is another good one. James explores the music of Yank Rachell, breaks down a couple of tunes, and then plays and sings for us. I've also taken some of the techniques James decribes and applied them to other tunes.
You could easily spend an entire day or even a weekend studying and playing what's included on this DVD, which I think makes it well worth the $20. I mean, where alse can you take a music lesson and spend all the time you want with the teacher for only twenty bucks?
Also try the Home Spun Sam Bush DVDs. Awesome stuff. Com'on, you couldn't hire Sam Bush to be your teacher, but here you can have several hours of him, and play the DVDs over and over."
This is what you want if you just wanna jam with friends
K. Celli | Davis, CA USA | 12/12/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've played guitar for over 30 years and whenever I am at a big jam, I'm one of about 10 guitarists all playing the same thing. I decided I needed a new novelty instrument so I took up mandolin and this was the first Mandolin training DVD I bought. This is perfect. Almost every rock and pop song out there is a I IV V based progression so this DVD is the fast way to hit the ground running if you wanna jam with your friends. I've been playing for about 5 months now and, thanks to Steve James, my friends are amazed at how quickly I've gotten "real good.""
Good instructional material for the intermediate player
J. Arnold | Arizona | 09/20/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This DVD is good instructional material for the intermediate player. Steve James provides an easy to follow review of some basic blues phrases. The written material is used and explained in the video. He also talks about blues mandolin players, especially Yank Rachell. This DVD is a good place to start learning blues mandolin. This is not a DVD that centers around blues scales, improvisation or different chord progressions and blues rhythms. Instead, James centers on about four songs that he explains and plays well."