John McLaughlin - This Is The Way I Do It (The Ultimate Guitar Workshop On Improvisation)

John McLaughlin has created a must-have guitar method with "This is the Way I Do it." Good, sound guitar instruction, especially for jazz is very hard to come by. Larry Coryell, when asked about learning jazz said something to the effect of "get a good teacher - you have to be careful because there are a lot of bamboozlers out there!" I would have to agree with that. I've studied with around a half dozen teachers over my 35 years or so of playing and a few of them were just plain bad, despite having relatively good reputations in the area. John McLaughlin excels at teaching guitar. He actually gave Jimmy Page lessons in England when he worked at a guitar store. 'Nuff said...First off, this course is not for beginners. John claims you need to be able to read standard notation before delving into the class. It's also not for people who don't want to put in the time and effort to study. It's also not for people who want to learn to play fast, like John is often prone to do. Nope, this course is all about the developing solid fundamentals on the guitar with regards to improvisation.My father was an orchestral clarinetist. The lessons in this tape are along those lines. John starts with the modes, but instead of just playing them he plays them against a drone so you can really feel the atmosphere of each one. He has drills that run scales/modes in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths and 7ths - both up and down the entire neck. There are also drills in fluency. You will be able to develop fretboard and theoretical mastery and play what YOU feel. It's not about trying to become a McLaughlin clone.At times watching the musical examples (he does an "easy" and "advanced" demo of each major concept) is kind of like watching a Michael Phelps DVD if you were learning how to improve your strokes. But John is friendly and humble and explains what he is doing in a simple way. He shows you exactly how the drills are incorporated in a musical fashion.I could go on and I realize that not everyone is a big McLaughlin fan. Frankly I feel a lot of his playing goes over the heads of most people. But even if your favorites are Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian or Barney Kessel, you can't argue with the fundamentals presented here. And if you like Pat Metheny and/or George Benson (more contemporary players) you'll love this set. John really digs deep into modal playing including comping for vamps similar to Coltrane's "Impressions" and some Miles stuff.If you think you're going to watch this a few times and put in a few hours of practice and start playing like John, move on. But if you are looking for a lifetime of ideas and things to work on and inspire you, pick up this set and really work with it. You won't regret it! I am loving it.

I bought this DVD set a while back. I have been a big JM and Mahavishnu Orchestra fan for many years. As a rocker at the roots this was my idea of jazz.I recently was surfing Amazon and came across this item again and was shocked at how bad the reviews were. I found the DVD interesting and instructive but apparently many didn't. My guess is much of this is because of expectations. This is not a classic instructional video even though it is " This is How I do it" In my opinion it should be more viewed as a "Master Class" than traditional instruction. It certainly assumes a lot of background, particularly in theory. He goes over many things in a very cursory way. Without a good foundation it is pretty easy to get lost. JM tries to explain his thought process and how he approaches improvisation. He does not really go over how "you" should approach improvisation. He gives you food for thought but not a step by step instruction. He tries to emphasize his mental framework and some of his tools. I think from that perspective it is 5 stars.If you are looking more for a "method book" then you might be better off looking elsewhere.

I just had to respond to the 2 star review. First before even getting into this you had better know how to play through all the scales and modes fluently. This isn't a dvd to teach you that and Mclaughlin states that right up front. Secondly, he does only go through the modes in C but shows a number of variations on how to practice them so you can become fluent. If you need someone to transcribe all 8 modal exercises into each mode of each key for you then go buy something else then come back to this. Third, this also applies to the pentatonic scales which are integral to his playing style. Finally it helps to be able to read music or else a lot of this will escape you.So what do you get? We you get an indepth explanation and demonstration of increasingly complex improvisations based on what he has just exposed. So you can see the practical application and how it comes out during improvisation. And that is his main point. These are only techniques on how to approach improvisation. His overall message is not that these are improvisations you should practice and memorize but this is one approach on how to find your own voice. For anyone even remotely involved in improvisation this insight is extremely valuable.So, will you have to apply yourself and transcribe the modal exercises into other keys? If you want to get better yeah you should. I just feel the other reviewer felt that 3 dvds should show everything about playing. Anyone who thinks 3 books or 3 dvds will make them a player is fooling themselves. This set will help you along the way to improving your improvisation tremendously. If that's what you're interested in then I highly recommend it.

He just runs through scales and doesn't take any time to "show you" what is going on. Absolutely for expert players.Beginners do not waste your money.

I love this video....firstly its definitely not for beginners...its for guitarists who already are at imtermediate to advanced level..and already know basic music theory and all modes of maj scale ,melodic min and harmonic minor...the whole purpose of this video is for u to see how john puts all these ingredients together ...and when he is teaching he just touches on these subjects and doesn't really explain anything..he teaches as though u already know a fair bit...this video woke me up that I was wasting a lot of my time in how I was practicing scales ..I was just playing then from bottom to top and down again..john encourages playing them in intervals in this video...if u ever wanted to see what john is like in person or how he thinks when improvising this is for u...

I think someone else posted on this video presentation saying something to the effect that this did not help! I disagree entirely. I am not a 'super' guitar player, and this video is actually is targeted at advanced players, there are many insights into JM's technique which you don't get while watching him play on the numerous videos you can view on You Tube, for instance.I actually attempted to kind of practice / play along with some of the exercises - and I am sure if I continue to work at it, I will get to a point further beyond where I am just now.

Siamo giunti al 30 gennaio 2013 e ancora non si ha traccia di questo prodotto. Doveva essere un regalo ma è sicuramente andato oltre con i tempi. Speriamo nei prossimi giorni. Fra l'altro non capisco la sua non tracciabilità. E' la prima volta che mi succede.