Guitar Grimoire Progressions & Improvisation-DVD4

Customer Review: What do you want for $15? You tightwads. It’s $15!
As a companion to the book it more than serves it’s purpose. For the cost of these books and instructional DVD’s, the wealth of knowlege presented is insurmountable, when you consider the cost of one private half-hour lesson at $30. Let’s just say you bought all the grimoire series along with their instructional counterparts. Maybe, it’ll cost you $120.00. There’s a hell of a lot more information stuffed into these books than 2 hours of private tutoring. Stop being such tightwads, and take these videos for what they are, something to help you understand the book more.
P.S.- Everybody learns differently. For some, reading the book alone is the way. For others, accompanying the book with the video makes it easier. At any rate, the “Grimoire Series” are the most thouroughly comprehensive books available at any cost, and I recommend them to everyone who plays guitar from novice to pro. You won’t be sorry you made the investment.
Customer Review: Mediocre material from a great author
P. Molzen wrote: “…these DVDs are of very diminished value without the book. And that is what they do, augment the book and help the reader extract more from it.”

I would say that without the books the DVDs are almost worthless, and the “added” value provided by the DVDs is negligible.

From the Grimoire website:

“How important are the Grimoire DVDs?

Grimoire DVDs are just as intense as the books. The guitar wizard, played by Adam Kadmon, gets to the meat of the matter, with non-stop instruction. From start to finish, he keeps you going. He is also to able to explain material in a visual format easier than in a book.”

- Sure it is visual, but there are many written explanations from other authors that are clearer than this DVD.

“It’s like attending a class in college or conservatory, but you have the luxury of repeating the lecture over and over, without going broke.”

- If I ever attended a class like this, I would look for another teacher. This is a shame since the author is highly knowledgeable. That knowledge is not properly presented in the DVD in my opinion.

Let me briefly illustrate some of the reasons why I did not like the DVD.

1. The “wizard” gets in the way. It is a combination of annoying/distracting/disturbing. I’m all for making learning fun, but this is not fun. I don’t mind the cheesey effects, but they add nothing to the learning experience. “Barney teaches guitar” or “learn chord progressions with Elmo” or “Guitar Styles of Darth Sidious” suddenly sound good in comparison to “the wizard.”

2. The examples are too basic and fail to apply the concepts from this and other Grimoire books. For example, we are instructed to play in G minor for the One-chord jam. I think it would have been more beneficial to present students with alternative scales, and perhaps play some measures using the different scales so that the listener can compare them. For example, Song of the Wind (Santana) has 2 chords, Fmaj7 and Cmaj7 if I remember correctly, and it has Carlos Santana and Neil Schon trading solos throughout the song, and using different scales over the same 2 chords. Why not apply some of the ideas presented in the Scales and Modes book here?

3. Somewhat related to number 2 above. On page 144 of the book, readers are instructed to check out the video for a better demonstration of soloing with the minor pentatonic scale.
It is important to note that the author mentions the “bluesy” sound, yet does not present the reader with the typical Blues scale (minor pentatonic with the b5 added).
In addition, there is no mention of micro-tonal bending. These characteristics are essential for a “bluesy” sound.
Assuming the author did not want to use notes beyond the ones in a piano keyboard, there are still some issues to consider.
For instance, the author instructs students to emphasize the 4 tone when playing over the IV chord, and the 5 tone when playing over a V chord. While this sounds fine, it can also sound very boring. As they say, Blues is easy to play but hard to play well. I prefer authors (e.g., Dave Rubin, Barry Levenson, et. al.) who talk about using target notes such as the 3rd (or b3rd), b7th, 5th, 4th, or the root.

In summary, while I loved the Grimoire books, the DVDs have been a huge disappointment. If they were included with the books at no additional cost I would not mind. “BUY NOW”