One of the things that makes the blues difficult to teach is that it’s such a personal mode of expression; many legends have employed their own unorthodox techniques and tunings. Albert Collins tuned to an open chord; Otis Rush plays upside-down and backwards; Albert King did both.
Doug MacLeod is a perfect candidate not only to unlock the mysteries of the blues but to make the process fun, as he does on this double-disc DVD. He’s an absolute natural — comfortable, entertaining, and, most of all, enthusiastic — spinning out words of wisdom with as much ease and authority as he picks a turnaround. “Don’t be afraid to get lost on the guitar,” he advises, “because if you get lost on the guitar, you’ll get found. And what you find getting back from being lost is yours — your own identity.”
Doug breezes through Disc One’s first section (covering tuning, left- and right-hand techniques, and a one-chord groove) in 32 minutes, with nary an edit. Some working knowledge is assumed; for instance, there’s no explanation of the pentatonic scale that most of Doug’s licks are based on. But, if you’ve got a few basics under your fingers (open chords, the I-IV-V progression), you should be able to get a handle on everything here. And there’s also plenty of valuable information for intermediate players, like MacLeod’s jazzy “Benson” (as in George) octave runs and his “Bastard G” tuning.
The DVD’s multi-angle feature allows the viewer to isolate MacLeod’s left or right hand as he’s playing. This is preferable to split-screen, although it will probably be most useful in conjunction with the rewind button, as Doug crams a lot of information into this master class. The multi-angle footage also explains Solid Air’s somewhat misleading claim that the discs contain “over five hours of footage”; they do, if you count each angle as a separate program. On the other hand, the DVD-ROM portion includes 45 pages of tablature and standard notation you can view on your computer or print out.
101 Blues Guitar Essentials offers a fresh, fun approach to the blues. Highly recommended.
— Dan Forte
One of the things that makes the blues difficult to teach is that it’s such a personal mode of expression; many legends have employed their own unorthodox techniques and tunings. Albert Collins tuned to an open chord; Otis Rush plays upside-down and backwards; Albert King did both.