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You Can Teach Yourself Reso® by Janet Davis
Published on 04/21/03 at 17:42:13 CST by Administrator
If you frequent our chat room and/or forum, then you know that instructional materials are a hot topic of conversation. An especially hot topic is the question of good beginner videos. It seems like someone is always popping in looking for a recommendation.
To better answer these questionsafter all, its been about 30 years since I was last in the market for beginner productsIve been busy contacting authors and publishers and lining up series of comparisons and product reviews, beginning with this look at Janet Davis You Can Teach Yourself Reso®, published by Mel Bay. Ill be reviewing other products in the near future.
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Just about everyone who has been involved in bluegrass for any length of time is familiar with the name Janet Davis. Janet, a talented multi-instrumentalist and teacher, has published a number of popular instructional books. Since 1976, her mail order/online music store, Janet Davis Music, has been providing quality products and services to the bluegrass community.
Upon contacting her, Janet was, as always, gracious and prompt. The instructional materials arrived within just a couple of days, as has been the case with every order I have ever placed with Janet. I am always happy to recommend her store. This, however, isnt a review of Janet Davis Music.
In my opinion, most of the instructional materials on the marketeven the better-prepared productshave tremendous room for improvement. Having said that, I must admit that I am generally impressed with You Can Teach Yourself Reso®. It provides a pretty good mix of technique, theory, and practical applicationall presented it in a relatively easy-to-understand manner. Starting with the basics, each lesson builds on previous lessons, covering tuning, barring techniques, licks, picking patterns, chords, natural and artificial harmonics, scales, waltzes, fiddle tunes and much more.
Throughout the course, Janets teaching method is fairly simple. She explains and demonstrates a technique, concept, or lick, and then shows you how it is used in an actual song. The song list is well thought out, and beginners will like the fact that, from the outset, they are learning tunes that theyll actually be able to use in a typical bluegrass setting.
Here are some of the songs that are included: Salty Dog, Wabash Cannonball, Cripple Creek, John Hardy, Blackberry Blossom, Footprints in the Snow, Great Speckled Bird, Dark Hollow, John Henry, Train 45, Grandfather's Clock, Hamilton County Breakdown, Reuben, Salt River, Lonesome Road Blues, Fisher's Hornpipe, Bill Cheatam, Flop Eared Mule, Devil's Dream, Red Haired Boy, Amazing Grace, and many more.
The complete You Can Teach Yourself Reso® set consists of an instruction book, CD, and video. Each item can be purchased individually, or you can buy them as a set. Brand new players, particularly, will want the video, which is very nicely produced and does an excellent job demonstrating basic techniques as well as the more advanced lessons. The video and CD present basically the same content, although the CD does so in more detail. Therefore, more experienced players who are familiar with basic technique may find the video to be somewhat repetitious and unnecessary.
I have heard a number of positive comments regarding the You Can Teach Yourself Reso®, and after carefully reviewing the material, I agree. In the future, Ill be happy to recommend this course to beginner and intermediate players!
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