Has anybody got John McLaughlin dvd

[Me2]

It's apparently to be a great Dvd to teach you jazz improve but it expensive [120$] and looks very intensive has anyone tried it.?

[silent-storm]

I have it and while it is interesting, he only covers what he uses, which just isn't enough for it to be worth it. He doesn't say anything about pentatonics or triad pairs or upperstructure triads or much about comping, which is stuff he probably knows more about then anyone, but just doesn't use, which is what the DVD is marketed as. So for the money I was expecting more. The way it is set up could have been SO good, with him playing solo's then analyzing them, but his music is so spiritually aware that the theory takes a back seat to the spirtual aspect and therefore he can't really go too indepth about what is going on in his head while he is playing.

the books by Jerry Bergonzi and Mick Goodrick will cover everything and more that the John Mclaughlin DVD's cover. I believe the Bergonzi's even have a DVD option...although I personally like having the books.

[curiousgeorge]

I have it and while it is interesting, he only covers what he uses, which just isn't enough for it to be worth it. He doesn't say anything about pentatonics or triad pairs or upperstructure triads or much about comping, which is stuff he probably knows more about then anyone, but just doesn't use, which is what the DVD is marketed as. So for the money I was expecting more. The way it is set up could have been SO good, with him playing solo's then analyzing them, but his music is so spiritually aware that the theory takes a back seat to the spirtual aspect and therefore he can't really go too indepth about what is going on in his head while he is playing.

the books by Jerry Bergonzi and Mick Goodrick will cover everything and more that the John Mclaughlin DVD's cover. I believe the Bergonzi's even have a DVD option...although I personally like having the books.

I almost bought Goodrick's 'the Advancing Guitarist' book the other day, until I flipped through it and discovered many little black dots and no tab! I can't read music at all...Can you recommend a good book for sight reading, so I can then process the lessons in Goodrick's book? Thanks man... :cool:

[Shredmaniac]

William Leavitt's "Modern Method For Guitar" : Vol.1 is a good starting point. Sure, most of the exercises and pieces sound dated, but if you approach them as sight-reading exercises it should be no problem.

If you already are a good guitar player you should be able to quickly progress to page 60 of the book, after which position playing is approached. This is the really useful part of the book. Before that the exercises are exclusively played using the open position. This is good for building good sight reading abilities, since all the notes are right under the first four frets. This is an approach also emphasized in the Goodrick book, in a MUCH MORE complex way though =)

Keep in mind that the first Leavitt book is all about position playing (you stay in a position and switch scales, in the case of Vol.1 major scales) and not position switching (you stay in a scale and switch positions of that scale along the neck). This is covered in Vol.2, and is also a goldmine of sight-reading knowledge.

Hope this helps,

Pierre

EDIT : Oh by the way you can buy the Goodrick book before you can actually read the notes, since a large chunk of the book is just text : concepts, ideas, exercises, general thoughts... You'll still get a lot of ideas by just reading through it. I love reading it every now and then, even if I do not plan on practicing its content at that moment. It's just a wonderful - and exhausting - way of looking at our instrument and music in general. As the author says in the foreword, "this is a do-it-yourself book" and not a collection of progressive exercises that are supposed to take you from point A to Point Z in X months. Which is why it is easy to lose your temper and mental health by reading it ^^