[QUOTE=Bobc] Hi Howard
I've been listening to that CD for two days now. Lot's of favorites already. Gotta read that booklet.
Ever consider making a lesson DVD?[/QUOTE]
Hi Bob,
As it is, I do teach here at home, and via videotape.
With my lessons at the house, I do the lesson as per normal and then at the end I sit in front of the camcorder and explain the whole thing note for note so that the student can watch, re-wind, re-watch, etc.
At some point several years ago, Doug Young (who you guys might know via his pickup comparisons at his web site)asked me to teach him a song from my first cd.
I agreed to do this, but it ended up taking me 3 days to make a 20 minute tape............I finally realized that I had to imagine that Doug was 'inside the camera', instead of sitting next to me in my room!
Once I did that, it was easy to just talk to the camera.
Anyway.........I have been doing it ever since and I have students all over the US and in England. I use a VHS-C format which will play, with an adaptor, in any VCR. It requires no other special equipment.
At some point I guess I could get a DVD Camcorder.
The main point, however, is that my lessons are as close to 1 on 1 as is possible. I can't forsee making a mass-marketable DVD lesson for general consumption.
How do you know what the viewer's response is to any given explanation? How low should the common denominator be? Too much information will be too boring to the advanced student, too little info and the intermediate player won't fully comprehend the concept.
With my method, the potential student sends me an audio clip (I don't need to see them, in truth), and that tells me if they're up to the level where I can teach them whatever song they'd like to learn.
I then send them the first tape which has the whole song played through, and then the first verse broken down note for note, bar by bar.
They then get this, study it, and then send me 'their response' ie: audio clip.
I then email them my critique with corrections and suggestions, and on the second tape I send I include those corrections and the next section of the song. If they're very quick learners I send them more information, or less if they're not as advanced......and so on.
All the available 'lesson DVD's' on the market are done making a lot of assumptions. They rarely, if ever, cover the entire song as the artist recorded it, and usually it's just a verse and a chorus.
I believe that the appeal of these DVD's is primarily the chance to have one's favorite artist playing on the home tv in the living room with the possibility of learning as secondary.
Yes, they have split screens, great sound, close-ups, etc...........Mine, on the other hand, are full shot including my face and frankly speaking, if you're a good listener, you can shut off the picture and just listen to my explanation and you'll know exactly where to put what finger, where, and pluck what string(s) with what hand, etc.
I just feel better doing that way because it's more personalized for the individual student. Many of the artists out there who do DVD's are not teachers. If you're a good player you can glean enough information to learn what they're showing, but in many cases that's not so.
Homespun has yet to beat a path to my door, but by the way: I know Happy, and Artie Traum for many years, I've performed with them a few times way, way back in the 1970's.
Thanks for asking!
Howard
Login
Register
FAQ
