Ultimate Blues Jam session Vol. 3 - Stuart Bull

It would be a mistake to underestimate instructor Stuart Bull - he is unassuming and plain spoken. I have seen enough of his Guitar Instructional lessons to know he is a poised and articulate player! He mentions he has been playing guitar since age 11.  No visible tattoos, earrings, piercing, no long finger nails - a nice young man. An electric guitar player.

Even thought this is volume 3 - it is, in my opinion, quite suitable for a beginner to learn a lot from with four or five hours already under their fingers. However I am pretty sure Vol. I and 2 would be a good idea but haven't reviewed or seen those yet.

My main peeve is Stuart takes an inordinate amount of time telling us the notes to various chords where a chord diagram chart would be far superior but this a lick library quirk - no written material. Time to re-think that one lads! There are however great backing tracks with a really good organ and bass player. What's more you almost get a glimpse into the secret world of backing tracks and wonder why they are rarely talked about and why you have so many questions about them that remain unanswered. Don't look at those men behind the curtain! Just because the instructor is obviously reading off screen doesn't mean that you should! Or does it?

What you get here are 10 blues and quasi-blues songs and what sounds like the song "Nobody  wants you when you are down and out" (#3) broken down and explained/shown to us by Stuart plus a CD of backing tracks you can play along to for each of the ten. See the menu below. This is great introduction to various styles! There are a couple (at least) stand out style lessons with rhythm and melody we need to be able to play down at the pub!

This has one foot in Chicago blues but veers towards jazz so you needn't fear already owning similar. I am seeing some new pathways here myself so you might too. Some very interesting Chuck Berry double stop rock as well but it gets more jazzy sophisticated as we proceed with the guitar lessons and you do get a wide selection of those in this lesson.

Stuart, with all due respect but Its annoying and confusing that I need to sit there with a piece of paper and pen as you tell us the chords one note at a time to each of these songs - as the lesson progresses the songs get more advanced with various scales and jazz chords popping up. And you don't really teach us about chord structure leaving out all mention of triads and intervals. I guess this guitar playing information is in volumes one and two.

See Page II  of Ultimate Blues Jam session Vol. 3 - Stuart Bull