Search - Pumping Nylon (includes Paperback book) on DVD

Worth taking a look at

Redgecko | USA | 04/10/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This review applies to book the book and the DVD.

Incorporating these technical exercises into your practice will yield rapid improvement. But a lot of things could be improved. For instance, a lot of space is wasted in the "Horizontal Character Builders" section where 3 pages are used to show the exercises on all 6 strings when it would have been adequate to show it on 1 string--it was a good time to use the word, "etcetera". And, Tennant also failed in this section to suggest using the same exercise using finger pairs 2 & 3 and 3 & 4. He also bores us on the DVD and takes up valuable space by tediously showing each finger combination for most of the warm-ups.

Most of the exercises aren't original and Tennant misses the opportunity to add some originality. For instance, a good suggestion would have been to practice the right and left hand walking exercises without looking at your hands, which is the how much of what we play is eventually accomplished. And, many of the left hand warm-ups, especially the finger independence stretches should be attempted first on higher frets where the stretch is easier, e.g., 6-9, and then gradually translated to frets 1-4. Though Tennant does encourage exploration, most students will blindly follow the leader.

Most of his example pieces are inappropriate in a book of this nature. The pieces are way too advanced for focusing on technique--you'll spend more time figuring out how to play the pieces than utilizing the technique. For instance, after Tennant presents the basics of how to barre, he offers two pieces written by his buddies Andrew York and Brian Head that are only appropriate for the advanced intermediate player. They, and other pieces, are much too complicated for the average guitarist to bother with. Simpler pieces would have been more appropriate.

The companion DVD addresses only basic material, how to hold the guitar, how to pluck a string, how to file nails, etc. And, it's disappointing that there is only one DVD that only covers the daily warm-up exercises. I was looking forward to seeing Tennant play The Spider and Odair's Favorite Drill played with blazing speed and the flamenco fragments played at speed. So, in addition to many of the examples being inappropriate in a book of this nature, they're not even recorded on the DVD! Now, I realize that there wasn't room on just one DVD for everything, that's why there should have been additional DVD volumes of the exercises. Also, since there are no metronome markings, you're left to wonder exactly what speed you should try and achieve and what some of the exercises and pieces would sound like when played fast. It's good to know what ideal to strive for.

Tennant makes the same mistakes on the DVD as in his book. For instance, near the beginning of the DVD, after explaining the difference between the rest stroke and free stroke, he plays an illustrative piece by Dowland called The Frog Galliard, (which isn't even in his book). The piece is much too advanced and played way too fast for a beginner who is trying to focus on learning the rest and free strokes to get anything from. There are dozens of slow, simple pieces by Giuliani, Carulli, Sor, Coste and others which are in the public domain, and that would have provided the beginner with a good insight into the application of rest and free strokes in a piece of music. He also states (incorrectly) that rest strokes are mostly for renaissance and baroque period pieces which might lead some students to not practice them if all they wanted to learn was Sor, Tarrega and other more "modern" composers.

Tennant is an excellent presenter and a lot is to be gained from watching this video and there is a lot of valuable information in the book. But the book badly needs a revision and a good "weeding-out" and more DVDs need to be made covering all the book's material with simple, relevant examples substituted for The Frog Galliard and other poor examples.
"

Great book for technique

Just passin trough | Ottawa, Ontario Canada | 09/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best book I have found to improve my technique. I exercise with this book every day and my skills started improving within a week.
I play mostly Gipsy Kings and Jesse Cook music, I had problems with my picado and it has improved tremendously.
I recommend this book to anyone wanting to improve their left, right and coorindation between the two."