Its hard to argue with this Rockabilly guitar lesson. Besides our instructor Jim Weider; we have Rick Danko on bass, Levon Helm on drums and Chris Zaloom on guitar. This is the current line up of "The Band". I mean "the Band" band; the real Band. OK, so Robbie Robertson was replaced by our instructor but that ought to tell you something right there about the caliber of this guitar instructor.
This is one of a two part Rockabilly Guitar set featuring this same line up and there is a double size fold out pamphlet for each. This first one is record holding 90 minutes long too!
My No. 1's back cover tells us that we are going to be taught the country finger picking style of Scotty Moore as used with Elvis on some of his hits and how to get the Duane Eddy twangy sound. We'll also learn about the single string style of Paul Burlison who influenced a few folks like Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. We know this since they and others, many others if you look for them, cover his tunes. Lets grab our guitars and see if this lesson lives up to it claims. But wait, do you have the right guitar gear or are you gonna wish you did?
A couple of three or four things are for sure in Rockabilly!
One: There will be flat picking alternating with copious amounts if finger picking and Two: only 1 to 3 slap backs desired on your slap back echo emulation device! Digital or Analog. Analog if you can get it.
Three: Bigsby tremelo arms are de rigueur and don't go out of tune as bad as they say. Floyd Rose tremolos are a pain compared to Bigsbys especially changing strings. Ma where's me wrench? Still Floyds will work real well after the strings are stretched-beaten like an octopus 100 time on a rock to tenderize them.
I have to say its an advanced lesson and almost immediately you find Jim executing fast paced finger picking. He makes some effort to teach us but not enough for me. I open the pamphlet and find a well written Tab of the finger picking however so all is not lost.
Rockabilly Guitar - Jim Weider Page One | Page Two | Page Three | Page Four
“Sometimes we pee on each other before we go on stage.”
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