Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Seraphial

Seraphial

New member
Hey guys, can anyone recommend any DVDs that help learn blues fundamentals/licks? I picked up a guitar world beginners guide to playing the blues with Andy Aledort and really enjoyed it - covered everything from scales to shuffles to solos in the style of the greats (all Kings, SRV, Clapton). Really enjoyed how he slowed things down and that it came with a tab book to follow. I also have a Greg Koch SRV DVD and though that's good, I'm really looking for something that comes with a tab book as well.

Any suggestions?
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

i could say either you have the blues or you don't have it :smokin:

on the other side i'd say forget the dvd's and work through that
online course .. http://www.blueslessons.net/
enjoy!

greets, martin
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

First of all Clapton and SRV are NOT..... I repeat NOT blues players. They are Rock players that were influenced by the blues. Hence the term Blues/Rock. Don't get me wrong these guys are great players, but if you want to hear great blues players you have to go back BEFORE Clapton, Hendrix, and SRV.

1. Muddy Waters
2. Robert Johnson
3. Howlin Wolf (Hubert Sumlin was Wolfs guitar player)
4. Lighnin' Hopkins
5. Albert Collins
6. B.B. King
7. Freddie King
8. Albert King

This is a list of SOME suggested listening. Find yourself a good local blues player and take a few lessons. Then listen to the masters. Thats the way to learn how to play blues!
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Ditto---never mind the mojo-challenged copyists, get the real deal and get your own take on it. Start with late 40's T-Bone and work your way up to about the mid-60's...that's where it lives.
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Bludave said:
First of all Clapton and SRV are NOT..... I repeat NOT blues players. They are Rock players that were influenced by the blues. Hence the term Blues/Rock. Don't get me wrong these guys are great players, but if you want to hear great blues players you have to go back BEFORE Clapton, Hendrix, and SRV.

1. Muddy Waters
2. Robert Johnson
3. Howlin Wolf (Hubert Sumlin was Wolfs guitar player)
4. Lighnin' Hopkins
5. Albert Collins
6. B.B. King
7. Freddie King
8. Albert King

This is a list of SOME suggested listening. Find yourself a good local blues player and take a few lessons. Then listen to the masters. Thats the way to learn how to play blues!
Click to expand...


All these cats along with T Bone Walker, Otis Rush & Buddy Guy.
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

No Elmore James on the list? He's my favorite. I found the book "The art of the Shuffle" to be handy.
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

What about Ry Cooder, Rob Thomas and Robert Fripp???
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Go look for the 'Blues You Can Use' series of books on Amazon - no DVD I'm afraid, but a play-along CD and the tab to go with it.

>;o))
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

add:
son house
freddie king
clarence gatemouth brown
bo diddley
chuck berry
buddy guy
john lee hooker
leadbelly
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Bludave said:
First of all Clapton and SRV are NOT..... I repeat NOT blues players. They are Rock players that were influenced by the blues. Hence the term Blues/Rock. Don't get me wrong these guys are great players, but if you want to hear great blues players you have to go back BEFORE Clapton, Hendrix, and SRV.

1. Muddy Waters
2. Robert Johnson
3. Howlin Wolf (Hubert Sumlin was Wolfs guitar player)
4. Lighnin' Hopkins
5. Albert Collins
6. B.B. King
7. Freddie King
8. Albert King

This is a list of SOME suggested listening. Find yourself a good local blues player and take a few lessons. Then listen to the masters. Thats the way to learn how to play blues!
Click to expand...

All these guys and more are blues players ... hell I'm a blues player ... but no way Clapton and SRV aren't blues players. I love all these guys but that's about the most rediculous comment I've ever heard.
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

If SRV's "Texas Flood" isn't considered blues... theres something really wrong with all of you.

I know that all the cats from the 40's, 50's and 60's are where it started and where its at, but c'mon.... alot of what SRV did was as gritty and bluesy as the next guy, and IMHO he's alot better than some of those old guys! Playing like SRVs was just unheard of back in those times, i guess.

If your like me you won't be able to follow anything he's doing, but one of my favorite DVDs is Stevie Ray's "Live At The El Macambo". It was filmed in 83 so it was when he was still fairly new on the scene and it was also before it really got burnt out on drugs and booze. AWESOME playing on this one!!! A definate must have!! :):)






FenderBender
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

There also weren't amplifiers or electric guitars back then (I think there were some hollowbodies maybe and lap steel guitars, but I'm talking solid-body electrics and semi-hollows), no one ever thought of a sound like SRV and Clapton's existing because all they had in terms of guitars really were acoustic guitars (30s and 40s).

SRV and Clapton simply played amped up versions of the blues. I see how a lot of people would consider it blues-rock instead of actual blues, but at the heart of it they're still playing blues.
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

- i'm missing johnny winter on your great list of blues players
- srv also played blues ;) .. eg life by the drop
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Corbic said:
There also weren't amplifiers or electric guitars back then (I think there were some hollowbodies maybe and lap steel guitars, but I'm talking solid-body electrics and semi-hollows), no one ever thought of a sound like SRV and Clapton's existing because all they had in terms of guitars really were acoustic guitars (30s and 40s).

SRV and Clapton simply played amped up versions of the blues. I see how a lot of people would consider it blues-rock instead of actual blues, but at the heart of it they're still playing blues.
Click to expand...



+1 Very well said. It wasn't the same back then since they didn't have the electric guitars and all, but players like clapton, and SRV still had that old blues mentality and heart in the mix the whole time....it was just electrified.








FenderBender
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

Led Zeppelin's first album. To me, that, SRV and certain Hendrix tunes (Red House, Voodoo Child) are the culmination of the original blues. If those men from the 30s and 40s had strats, teles, Les Pauls, Marshalls and Fenders, they would have used them, and we probably would have had even COOLER blues influenced rock to listen to. I can just imagine Robert Johnson with a strat and a Marshall stack, lol. :smokin:
 
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

oh my ...

first of all, Andy Aledort is a great teacher!

I understand the gist of Bludave's comment, but the discussion of whether or not Clapton and SRV are blues players is probably better left for another thread. ;)

They both loved the blues, "done their homework", and have played blues based music with great heart and soul. Peter Green said specifically that what attracted him to the blues was that it had a lot of soul.

I would recommend that anyone learning the blues get John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, and learn it note for note. Then move on to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers "A Hard Road" with Peter Green.
This is a good primer for modern blues playing, and the recording is a little more "accessible" than some of the older material.

I do agree with others who say you should go back and listen to the original blues masters though.

as for DVDs, I just don't know what all is out there. Maybe check Amazon, since they have pretty good user reviews.

We have covered this subject in the past, which led to me creating an "Essential blues listening" page.

I would also recommend you read my "History of the Blues, part I" on my site. (sorry, shameless plug. :))
 
Last edited:
Re: Want to learn the blues - recommended DVDs?

I have Greg Koch's SRV DVD. He's a great player, kinda wordy and cheezy with some of the verbage. He takes you through some of SRV's songs and spells things out pretty well. It has a nice split screen format.

If you want more theory, Jazz guitar for electric blues players is pretty fun too.
 
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