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Post by Michael Messer on Sept 30, 2010 12:55:45 GMT
AN INTRODUCTION TO LAP STEEL GUITAR For Blues, Country, Hawaiian and Bluegrass styles, on resophonic, electric, or acoustic lap steel guitar. This tuition DVD contains all the building blocks you need to start playing lap steel guitar. Michael Messer provides clear instructions, plus numerous insights and hot tips. The film is divided into 25 chapters for easy navigation, and runs for almost 2 hours, which is amazing value. Although aimed at beginners, this DVD is useful for players at all levels. Available from: EURO BLUES PROMOTIONS LTD PO BOX 478 CHELTENHAM GL52 2XW Email: info@euroblues.co.uk www.euroblues.co.ukwww.euroblues.co.uk/merchandise.htm------------------------------------------------------------------- That is the official blurb about the new DVD. If anyone has any questions about its content, I am always happy to answer them. Shine On Michael
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Post by pascal on Sept 30, 2010 15:54:07 GMT
Hi Michael, Just back from the mix of my first release (send you one, sure!) of Hawaiian songs, I found in my mail box this great new. Could you tell me what songs and tunes are inside? I can put an ad at the French forum for you, and will do the translation with pleasure. Only the shipping cost is £ 2.50 in U.K, we can order through Pay Pal or whatever, but how much is it for oversea? (France) "Mahalo" for your ansver.
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Post by Michael Messer on Sept 30, 2010 17:28:20 GMT
Hi Pascal, Thank you for offering to translate & post the information on the French forum. Here is the introduction text from the DVD package: For Blues, Country, Hawaiian and Bluegrass styles on resophonic, electric, or acoustic lap steel guitar. This tuition DVD contains all the building blocks you need, to start playing lap steel guitar. Michael Messer provides clear instructions, plus numerous insights and hot tips. The film is divided into 25 chapters for easy navigation, and runs for almost 2 hours, which is amazing value. Although aimed at beginners, this DVD is useful for players at all levels.
Michael starts with an introduction of which tools to use, and how to hold the ‘steel’ to produce clear notes and get a good tone. He demonstrates all the basics, including: holding the steel, vibrato, playing single notes, chords, rhythm, and harmony runs using straight and angled steel techniques. Michael teaches a simple major scale melody and introduces the student to playing the musical styles most associated with lap steel guitar. The lesson also includes improvisational techniques and much more.
------------------------------------------------------ I do not teach any songs in the lesson. I teach the student actually how to play, rather than how to copy me play a song. I teach basic technique of how to hold the 'steel' and how to play good clear notes. I teach basic G major scale in low bass G tuning / runs of single notes / rhythm techniques for both left and right hands / harmony pairs of notes for playing melody on different pairs of strings / basic blues techniques and scales / basic country licks and style / basic Hawaiian licks and style / high bass G tuning / High bass G scale / High bass harmony pairs / ........plus lots of information about 'How to Play', rather than how to copy me playing a tune. There are 25 chapters of this lesson. I like to call it 'Lesson 1' but friends who have seen it say that it is lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4. I hope it achieves what I set out to do with it, which is to teach people an art form that is difficult to learn because of partisan attitudes related to their taste in music. This is not a lesson of how to play the Dobro, or how to play Western Swing steel guitar, or Hawaiian steel guitar. It is a lesson teaching the student of any style of music >How to play Lap Steel Guitar. I hope that makes sense and helps people to understand the content of the DVD. In a fgew days I hope to be able to post a short clip of 2 minutes of the lesson on here. Shine On Michael.
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Post by ken1953clark on Sept 30, 2010 19:50:11 GMT
I'm assuming there will be some copies for purchase at Pocklington? ;-)
Cheers
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Post by ken1953clark on Sept 30, 2010 19:50:59 GMT
also... Nice shirt!
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Post by Michael Messer on Sept 30, 2010 20:44:59 GMT
Hi Ken, Glad you like the shirt DVDs will be stacked up at Pocklington! Thanks, Shine On Michael
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Post by Blues Pertti on Oct 2, 2010 8:48:01 GMT
Hi Michael,
is it available in any shop in London next week? ;D
Pertti
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Post by Michael Messer on Oct 2, 2010 13:24:45 GMT
Hi Pertti, It will not be in any shops by next week. Eventually it will, but not that soon. Shine On Michael.
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Post by Steverb on Oct 8, 2010 6:56:49 GMT
Hi Michael,
I think you may have missed my question a couple of days ago in another thread. Are you still planning to do the Sunday morning lap steel lesson at Pocklington that we discussed on the forum some months ago?
Steve
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Post by Michael Messer on Oct 8, 2010 8:40:27 GMT
Hi Steve,
I will do a lap steel class at Pocklington on the Sunday morning if there are enough people interested in doing it. Not all the participants visit this forum, so we may not be able to finalise that idea until we get there and meet everyone.
Shine On Michael
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Post by bod on Oct 11, 2010 14:58:36 GMT
Hi Michael
Just wanted to say how useful and interesting I'm finding this dvd. Love the way that you have not walked us through basic versions a few well-known songs but have instead provided a sort of kit of lap steel playing components that can be put together in various ways so we can have a crack at playing something broadly appropriate for a whole bunch of numbers, in a range of styles. (Not that there's anything particularly wrong with the learn-a -few-songs type approach, I have some like that and I think they are worth having - but I'm not sure that another one like that would have added much to the mix, whereas I finds that your "kit" approach complements the others very nicely... )
Also, what an ad for nice tricones (and 30-odd years of practice) - even my old mum said it sounds lovely!
edit - and I meant to say, speedy service from Euro Blues an' all...
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Post by Michael Messer on Oct 11, 2010 18:34:46 GMT
Hi Bod, Thank you for your kind words. I am pleased you are enjoying the DVD. I prefer to teach in this way, rather than teach songs. I believe it is of much more value to the student to learn how to play, rather than how to play a particular song. I teach bottleneck slide guitar in the same way. I understand that one song can lead to another, but I also think that learning one song can limit the student who does not understand how to apply the notes, runs and chords of one song to another. I really do believe that learning this way is more effective in the long run. And as you said, there are many tuition DVDs that teach songs. Phew....that 30-odd years is close to 35 years! It's getting serious Shine On Michael.
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Post by melp on Oct 16, 2010 19:29:12 GMT
Michael,
BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!!!!!!
Just started working through your DVD for lap steel. Well in a word its just excellent - a real everything you always wanted to know to get started!
One can always tell when you find good instructional material, it feels like it was made just for you, so thanks for making this one, just for me!
I will not list all the aspects that make this "the one" to get started in lap steel, just to say its absolutely spot on.
Lovely guitar by the way, and the playing, well its just what we have dome to expect.
Many thanks, and great job!
Cheers
Mel
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Post by Michael Messer on Oct 17, 2010 9:16:15 GMT
Hi Mel,
THANK YOU!!!!!
I REALLY appreciate your comments and I am VERY pleased that it is working for you.
As a product it is so new that we have hardly had any feedback at all from people who have bought it, so I am of course VERY grateful for your kind words, but also very interested to hear what people think of it.
I know you said in your post that you would not list all the aspects that make it work for you, and please understand that I am not on an ego trip here, but I really would be interested to hear some of your thoughts about why you like the DVD. I think I broke some new ground in my approach to teaching lap steel guitar via a DVD player, and I am genuinely interested to hear what people think of what we have done.
Thanks Mel.
Shine On Michael
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Post by melp on Oct 17, 2010 11:50:17 GMT
Michael,
No problem, I am so pleased with the DVD, and as you asked for it here goes.
1/ Technical stuff - camera work, split screens, sound.
Well its first class, I can see and hear everything, any bits that cannot be seen - e.g. what's going on under the bar - you talk about and explain. The greatest compliment I can pay the production stuff is that its invisible, it does not get in the way of the teaching process. Which means that its as good as it needs to be.
Oh that other tutor DVD's were the same - how many times have I been rewinding and rewinding trying to figure out what the hell was happening under the left hand!
So the shooting angles are just spot on.
2/ Lesson content - the design. The reason that this a really great beginners DVD is the overall design of the lessons. I would describe it as wide and shallow, but not skimping on the overall fundamentals, in fact they are reinforced several times, which is what I need.
For a beginner, like myself, I do not need 10 licks some of which are likely to be way beyond my initial capabilities, - or a song which I can play 2/3rds of. Songs are fine, but its a bitch if you don't happen to like the song!
In this case wide and shallow (shallow is a good thing, means I can most likely progress fairly quickly) is good.
I can learn some cool sounding stuff in multiple musical styles (this is what I really love about this DVD I not only get to pick up lap style basics, but I get a grounding in new musical styles I would otherwise not have got (hell would freeze over before I would have bought a country music tutorial, but its really fun mess about with).
The most important thing for a beginner is that I do not have to practice for three months to get anywhere.
Its simple enough, but does not sound like meaningless practice phrases that are purely designed to get my hands to work. It all sounds like music - this is clearly a balance thing, you got it right for me!
3/ Teaching approach The style is very easy to get with, things get repeated quite a few times (I have used the rewind less with this DVD than any other I can think of). The background information is very good - it tells me that this bit is not so easy - sets my expectations that this will take some practice and patience.
I guess that my main observation is that while its laid back, so its not dry and hard work, it covers a lot of ground.
Sometimes I find I need to take a break with DVD's where the style grates after a while, I watched this one first time through like a movie. Great that you chat about other aspects of the music as you go, means that is does not get too dense, and I get to learn other interesting stuff.
4/ Practical stuff (things you may never think of that makes life so much easier) So many little gems are on this DVD e.g. using fingerpicks on the wrong edge to strum? I was pretty sure this would not work, they would pull off, oh no they don't works just fine when you get the weight right. Also, we do not just get the MM version, two ways to do this I use this one, but both work (think that was damping left, right or both hands). In short you have included enough detail on the fundamentals and where there choices you point them out.
5/ Where do I go from here? Basically , enough ideas of where to go after this DVD, what to try next.
The "stylised building block" (my term) approach really works for me. if you are learning a song then you learn the song, with your "building blocks" it sort of leads naturally into modifying, extending and personalising. Stylised because they licks are in a specific style, blues, country, Hawaiian.
OK that's about it, in conclusion I will come out of this DVD with better technique, I will have new stuff to play, I will have suggestions of what to do next.
Oh yes, what's wrong with it? For my money not a hell of a lot.
Please, Please Please make more instructional DVD's (especially Blues and Hawaiian) - while I would love to get to Blues week or the other workshops more often its not so easy these days.
And for goodness sake make them like this one
If any clarification needed don't hesitate.
Cheers
Mel
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