Product Review:
John
McLaughlin’s This is
How I Do It
Improvisation Workshop DVD
By Mitchell Levine
Of all the components of musicianship,
the most mysterious to the guitar student of virtually all
levels is improvisation. Technical skills and sight-reading
can be taught mechanically, although doing so in an inspired
way is, of course, not so easy. Intermediate guitarists learn
about scales and their relation to chord changes, and transcribe
and imitate solos, and hope that they’ll learn more about the mysteries
of that strange form of apparently spontaneous composition
called “improvising.” Most people don’t even
believe that soloing well and creatively can be taught, and
that inspired improvisers are born and not made.
Well, protean guitar virtuoso John
McLaughlin believes otherwise, and he sets out in this instructional
video to prove it. As a brilliant improviser himself, he
hardly needs any introduction. From his early jazz days,
to the fusion of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis’ Bitches
Brew, to his acoustic work in Shakti and the classic Friday
Night in San Francisco, Mr. McLaughlin has demonstrated not
only his legendary, perhaps unparalleled, technical mastery
of the instrument, but extraordinary ability to create startling
impromptu solos over incomparably difficult material as well.
In this three DVD set, McLaughlin
leads the viewer on a journey to develop both technique and
intuition to similar heights. Covering the fundamentals of
theory from harmonization and basic scales to more sophisticated
modal theory, each of the DVD’s chapters is followed
with demonstrations of McLaughlin using that information
to create a solo, giving practical insight into the theoretical
topic.
Each of these expositions is presented
in “split screen,” so
the student can view both right and left hands of his execution
of every sequence – a big improvement, at least in the
mind of anyone that’s ever tried to learn from a concert
video. Finally, each performance segment is followed by a thorough
analysis of the relation of the topic to the particular improvisation.
In this format, the serious student can probably learn more
than most improvisers ever do after years of searching for
these elements in disparate sources. However, with the wealth
of information presented, it should be noted that this is a
study program that requires a substantial commitment of time
and effort: fully mastering the lessons and meeting all of
the demanding requirements for the lessons could take one to
two years or more.
Also, it’s probably much more than the typical pop/rock-style
guitarist will ever need – the DVD appears to have been
designed for the committed jazz or fusion player who wishes
to explore the full harmonic and tonal resources the instrument
has to offer in complete detail. It’s rather unlikely
that a top 40 or college alternatives player would ever require
the depth of theoretical understanding this program was designed
to develop, nor was it intended for complete beginners either.
Those without basic proficiency on the fretboard, and at least
some knowledge of introductory music theory, should probably
wait a few years before attempting to make their way through
this course.
But, for the player that deeply
wishes to develop the skills necessary to reach the guitar’s
true potential, and is willing to make a heavy investment
of time and labor, it would be difficult to pick a better
bet than This is How I Do
It, as both an instructional aid and syllabus for a course
of music study. That is, unless you happen to have access to
private lessons from one of the world’s greatest guitarists,
and, now, greatest teachers as well. Everyone else should buy
a copy of this DVD immediately.
For more information, log on to the
distributor’s site
at www.abstractlogix.com.
