Bob Brozman - Learn To Play Bottleneck Blues Guitar Vol. 1

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring AND frustrating.......2007-12-02

There's lots of great stuff to learn on this dvd, but it's not all clearly explained and the accompanying tab leaves a lot to be desired. Too often I've ended up repeating segments of the dvd over and over trying to figure out what he's doing, and he's certainly not one for always slowing down so you can see.

If you are an experienced guitarist already, then you may be fine with this, if not be prepared for some tedious work that there really should be no need for.

It's such a shame - this could have been absolutely brilliant.

The Professor Is A Genius.......2006-09-09

Bob Brozman provides a guide to the world of slide guitar. His style is obviously different from the early masters, and is influenced by Hawaiian, Jazz and Ragtime. His rhythmic style is sometimes hard to follow, but his Rhythm In Your Riffs provides some help. Playing with picks-some find it hard at first, I did, but don't let that put you off learning from the contemprary master of Blues, Mr National Bob Brozman.

blue man plays whites.......2006-01-14

I found these 3 DVD's very interesting and useful. Instruction is clear and background information seemed relevant and plausible e.g. old masters tried to play clean, no point in copying mistakes. Mostly in 'G' tuning, only Vol 3 has alternate tunings. Arrangements seem overcomplicated but you can take what you want and leave what you don't. Playing is very accomplished but has an academic feel (comes from teaching more than performing I guess). His lap style slide playing (breifly featured in vol 2) sounds more fluent to me (as heard on world of slide guitar, also available from amazon but performances only). Anyhow this is the most in depth instruction dvd for bottleneck delta blues I know of. Vol 1 covers 70% of useful content for playing in 'G', Vol 2 covers a few more tunes but I'd recommend getting Vol 3 before Vol 2 unless you've mastered vol 1 first. If you're cherry picking, vol 3 has most variety of styles.

Start somewhere else.......2005-07-12

I have played slide guitar for some years myself and was recommended this series, by Mr Brozman, by a friend. Whilst Mr Brozman plays well enough, he has very strong ideas about how slide Blues guitar should be played.

Rather then give a player some new ideas to take away and work with to create their own Blues; one is given the "It's my way or the Highway" school of Blues. This includes playing with the slide on the little finger and NOT the ring finger, despite the fact that Blues greats like Son House and Fred McDowell used the slide on their ring finger and that it really is a personal thing.

Brozman is also keen that you use finger picks that to me are like playing with boxing gloves on!

At one point he explains that in some songs Robert Johnson did not play strictly to a 12 bar Blues and that if you do that it will sound wrong to "modern audiences", well excuse me Mr Brozman if I put the Blues of Robert Johnson before you.

DVD Review:

DVD Review List

DVD Review