Search - Guitar Method: In the Style of Van Halen - The 50 Hottest Licks! on DVD

Shortcut to Van Halen's Sound

Unique Rebel | Damascus, MD USA | 11/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD delivers what it advertises but it suffers from poor packaging. It's vitally important that you open the ".pdf" files on the disc, which must be done on a computer and not a DVD player (FYI: ".pdf" files can be opened with free Adobe Acrobat software) and print them out with your computer's printer. The fact that these files are included is not listed on the DVD case, even though it does make note of them in the "Special Features" section.

I'm sure that the reviewer "EVH Fan" did what everyone else does and rushed right to the video section and didn't explore the rest of the menu items. If all you did was watch Mitchell play the riffs, you would be frustrated too.

The videos are a good starting point to demonstrate that these "cool riffs" do not require blistering speed to play. You actually need to hear them at full speed to recognize them. We've all learned songs note-by-note that didn't sound like anything until you could actually get close to the original recording tempo. Here, you can follow along with the sheet music and tablature to "name that tune", so to speak.

If what you're looking for is theory, then this is not the compilation for you. The greatest insight into Eddie's technique is on his equipment setup. This is explained with intricate detail and demonstrations. I've always viewed "licks / riffs" as "Cliff's Notes" of songs. You just want to get right to the "good parts"; bits of flash without necessarily learning the entire song. Hell, back in my early days (the `80s), I spent hours figuring out riffs from vinyl LPs or paying $10 for a half-hour personal lesson to learn one or two of them! You "kids" have it easy, now. hahaha

I think this is a good tool for players at all levels, but especially for beginning and intermediate ones. It can get monotonous running through endless scale exercises and chord progressions or spending a week learning one song - remember when you first started and your friends wanted to hear you play something? How impressed were they with your pentatonic scales and bar chords, huh? For that matter, what were the first 2 things they said after you played the one song you knew - "cool"..."what else do you know?" Curt Mitchell's trying to help you show-off a little sooner, but you'll still have to practice.

This won't teach you the theoretical meaning behind what you're playing, but it will reassure you that sounding like an icon is within your reach and give you something to impress with and possibly inject into your musical wanderings. Good Luck!
"

Best Teacher Anywhere!

kondor,kondor | Ca | 10/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am a slow learner and the way this was taught and shown was excellent! Each guitar lead lick was played slow then up to speed. And for someone like me to be able to learn this style of guitar technique was quite a feat let me tell ya. I have used others by this master teacher and he knows his stuff."

Complete waste of money - rip off - don't buy

EVH Fan | California | 06/24/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I feel like such a sucker for buying this. The DVD displays the tab (your TV is now a giant tab sheet) for each of the 50 riffs while listening to Curt(?) playing it first at normal speed and then a little slower. Wow! How revolutionary! Kind of like looking at the tab sheets and playing a CD.

Don't waste you money on this. No insight to EVH technique is revealed here. Curt Mitchell must have really needed money to go ahead with this. Don't give him any!!! The absolute worst piece of crap I've ever bought. Can you tell I'm disappointed with this?

If you still want it, I'll gladly sell you mine. Used only once!

"