DVDs

A documentary celebrating the life and work of Aaron Shearer — the most influential classic guitar author and teacher of the 20th Century, featuring Mr. Shearer’s former student, Manuel Barrueco. Aaron Shearer’s extraordinary life is told while being honored as a guest at Manuel Barrueco’s guitar master class. Many of the finest guitarists of our time offer insights into Mr. Shearer’s contributions to the study and performance of the classic guitar. Enjoy performances of Bach, Vivaldi, Tarroba, Barrios, Villa-Lobos, and Brouwer. In a private recital for the class, Maestro Barrueco performs Scarlatti, Nazareth and Rodrigo.

Experience a unique repertoire of progressive and classic styles from this comprehensive collection of contemporary guitarists including the sophistication of Paulo Bellinati, the creativity of Steve Baughman, the energy of Beppe Gambetta, the versatility of Steve Kaufman, and others.

Are you a complete beginner? Or maybe you had some lessons once and got discouraged because you found it too difficult? If so this is the DVD for you! It shows you the easiest possible way of playing guitar, with no pointless exercises or inane, nursery rhyme type tunes…just good, inspirational music. Lessons include tuning, moveable chord shapes, cool strumming patterns and much, much more.

The guitar styles and techniques of Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy and Rev. Gary Davis combine blues and ragtime techniques into a style that can best be described as raggin' the blues. This exciting and challenging approach to fingerstyle playing combines complex right hand picking with intricate left hand fingerings, single string runs and rhythmic licks. In this lesson, Stefan Grossman illustrates and explains seven famous ragtime blues instrumentals. Includes a free instructional booklet.

Contemporary acoustic fingerstyle blues encompasses a wide variety of styles, techniques and sounds. In this lesson, Stefan Grossman teaches four multi-sectioned blues instrumentals that are bases on traditional techniques, blues piano ideas, single-string melodic guitar licks and horn styled solos. The music varies from a piano styled boogie to a slow country blues reminiscent of the playing of Blind Blake and Jelly Roll Morton to a New Orleans blues in the style and feel of Ray Charles and Snooks Eaglin. A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD.

The golden age of African fingerpicking guitar was in the 1950s and 1960s. The great players and recording artists of that time included Jean Bosco Mwenda and Losta Abelo from Zaire and George Mukabi from Kenya. Guitarists from other parts of the world have rarely if ever had a chance to learn their songs and playing techniques. On this video their arrangements are taught by John Low, who has lived, worked and studied with African musicians, including those mentioned above. There are some interesting links with American guitar styles but there are just as many differences, including rhythms borrowed from traditional African music and catchy up-beat patterns.

African fingerstyle guitar is usually accompanied by rhythms played on a bottle. John Low is accompanied on this DVD by Frans Maathuis and Keith Jackman on bottles.

This DVD offers a rare view into the rich textures of African fingerstyle guitar music. It was recorded by the famed cultural anthropologist Gerhard Kubik between 1966-1993. These are audio-visual field recordings from isolated African villages to the gardens of Europe presenting some of the legends of this style: Mwenda Jean Bosco, Faustino Okello, Pierre Gwa, Daniel Kachamba and others. The roots of American blues guitar techniques are evocative sounds and rhythms of African music adapted to solo fingerstyle guitar. 26 songs are included.

Recorded before a Nashville studio audience, Alex de Grassi in Concert captures the solo artistry of one of the world’s finest steel-string fingerstyle players. Known for his flawless technique, inspired compositions, and melodically inventive style, de Grassi demonstrates his richly orchestrated sound on a dozen standards and originals.

Alex de Grassi is a treasure. I’ve admired his recordings for more than 20 years, but it’s his live performances that really shine. This DVD gives an intimate feel for his technical wizardry as well as his vibrant and poetic music-making which make him one of the most distinctive steel-string guitarists performing today.
    David Spelman
    Founder & Director
    The New York Guitar Festival®

Ana Vidovic is an extraordinary talent with formidable gifts taking her place amongst the elite guitarists of the world today. Her performance includes her favorite pieces by Bach, Torroba, Ponce, Paganini and Walton.

In this video, classic guitarist Andrew York, member of the renowned Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, showcases his compositional and solo guitar performance skills. Andrew plays eight compositions that include seven original works for guitar reflecting an incredibly rich and eclectic assortment of moods and temperaments. A special feature of this video is Andrew York’s comment and performance notes concerning each guitar solo. Included are the following Andrew York compositions: Marley’s Ghost, In Sorrow’s Wake, Bagatelle, Sunday Morning Overcast, King Lotvin, Numen, and Sunburst/Jubilation. Also included is Andrew York’s splendid performance of the gigue from the Third Cello Suite in C Major by J. S. Bach.

This course is a fun, easy way for a beginning to intermediate guitarist to learn how to play the blues. You'll learn blues chord progressions as well as a variety of blues strumming and picking patterns. This course also presents basic blues scales, lead guitar techniques, and combination rhythm and lead playing. The basics of slide guitar and open tuning are also covered.

No music reading is required for this course, but the student should understand basic chords and strumming as taught in Mel Bay's Anyone Can Play Guitar Volume 1 video.

This method was created and is taught by Vern Juran, who has an extensive background in teaching and performing blues music.

This course is designed for the beginning slide guitar player but will also help an intermediate player develop bottleneck technique. You will learn standard and alternate tunings, reading slide tablature, basic left- and right-hand technique, and classic bottleneck blues riffs. A free tablature booklet of examples from the video is included at http://www.melbay.com/DVDbooklets/index.asp.

In this DVD, you will learn from one of America's foremost classic guitar teachers. Ben Bolt demonstrates his principles for judging distance, point of reference, right- and left-hand positions, and the correct sitting posture. An easy-to-understand and technically correct introduction to classic guitar performance.

No music reading ability is needed to learn from this video lesson. You'll start with easy chords, strumming, and fingerpicking techniques by playing along with songs on the video. In addition, you will learn the country boogie-woogie guitar style and Travis picking as well as how to solo over back-up rhythm track on the video. The songs in- clude Amazing Grace, Wabash Cannonball, and Will the Circle Be Un- broken. A companion booklet is included at http://www.melbay.com/DVDbooklets/index.asp.

Taught by Paul Hayman, a teacher with over 20 years experience, this DVD is designed to teach the basics of Dobro playing to the beginning student. No previous musical experience is needed to be successful with this method. This video presents note by note instruction for playing both rhythm and melody styles using the classic songs: Home Sweet Home, Bury Me Beneath the Willow, and Red-Haired Boy. A PDF file is available for download at www.melbay.com/DVDBooklets.

This course is designed for the beginning guitarist who wants to start playing the blues. No note-reading ability is required in this course, but a basic knowledge of open and barre chords is necessary. These types of chords are taught in Mel Bay’s Anyone Can Play Guitar, Vol. 1 and 2. This video will teach you new chords and chord progressions as applied to blues music. You will learn blues techniques, licks, and scales that will enable you to perform complete blues guitar solos. Also included are rhythm tricks so you can practice your chords and licks with a complete blues band. Includes an instructional booklet at http://www.melbay.com/DVDbooklets/index.asp.

Paul has taught for the past 15 years - not only guitar but also banjo, resonator guitar, hammered dulcimer, lap dulcimer, and autoharp. The lessons he presents are derived from his own easy-to-learn method which doesn't require the student to read music. Basic accompaniment patterns will be learned. The student will then progress to the alternating bass styles while learning fingerstyle classics. Includes a free instructional booklet at http://www.melbay.com/DVDbooklets/index.asp.

Designed to help both the beginning and intermediate guitarist learn the most commonly used chords. Through split-screen viewing, the student learns how the chords are fingered and how they should sound. You will learn major, minor and 7th chord forms as well as diminished and augmented chord shapes on the first four frets of the fingerboard. These are the same chords used in thousands of your favorite rock, blues, and country songs. 30 minutes.

Vern Juran has played and taught guitar professionally for over twenty years. His course presents beginning acoustic and electric guitar students with a practical, easy-to-learn approach. No previous knowledge of music is necessary. In the first video, Vern teaches tuning, the parts of the guitar, how to hold the guitar and pick, and proper right and left hand positioning. Using numerous close-ups and diagrams both on-screen and in the accompanying booklet, this video lesson teaches the student to strum basic chords for four folk songs and two blues progressions. By following this method, you can enjoy a lifetime of guitar playing, no matter what style of music you choose. Includes free instructional booklet at http://www.melbay.com/DVDbooklets/index.asp.

This course for acoustic and electric guitar is designed to follow our Volume 1 video and continues it its easy, step-by-step approach. Again, music reading ability is not necessary to learn the material in this course. You will learn both E and A-form bar chords with their major, minor and minor seventh fingerings. You will also be taught new strumming patterns along with functional chord changes commonly used by guitar professionals. Play-along examples are used throughout the method so you can strum along with the instructor. Includes free instructional booklet at http://www.melbay.com/DVDbooklets/index.asp.