Jimmy Bruno: No Nonsense Jazz Guitar

First off, Jimmy Bruno is a cool guy to bring into your practice room. He's very certain of what he teaches here and yeah, there are other ways of thinking about things. But just go with his way. It's the only way you'll get it and you'll be happy you did. His methodology simplifies the process of jazz soloing so much, and these "tricks" will open up worlds for you. I wish I'd run into this DVD a long time ago.The lessons are broken down to where they build off of each other incrementally, which makes total sense. Jimmy plays for you a lot too, and Holy Moses, can this guy play. I mean if you are a beginning guitar player with no clue to what he's talking about, his playing alone makes this DVD worth buying. And, he's very encouraging, in a very Philadelphian kind of way.He teaches the lessons in the key of C mostly, but then you've got to go practice each "trick" in every key on your own. And you really do have to do that before you move on to the next lesson. Jimmy's very honest in telling you that it can take months to master each "trick", and that it can take years to master them all, if ever. So know that Jimmy's lessons won't happen for you if you don't go to the woodshed with them. And Ladies and Lords of the guitar, I highly recommend that you do. It will be worth it. And of course if you get interrupted by life or a gig that takes your practice time in a different direction, having bought the DVD, Jimmy's teaching will always be there for you when you can get back. Then if your life dictates that you are just never going to have the time to get the necessary practicing done, I think you'll still enjoy and learn some helpful things just by watching Jimmy teach the lessons.Now, if you are going to have any success here, you need to know, or go and learn, some jazz style chord fingerings. And I think it best if you have at the least done some rock-style pentatonic soloing. But Jimmy does show you an excellent and easy methodology right off the bat for doing a basic ii-V-I chord progression where you can shift keys by simply moving the same fingering pattern up and down the neck. If you've never played jazz before, this is a great place to start your soujourn. But you'll move along a lot faster if you have either taken some jazz lessons or are just thoroughly familiar with the guitar neck from whatever genre of music you have studied previously. And you would definitely do well to know how to play at least one 2 octave fingering of a major and natural minor scale in every key before you start. Then too, you'll move along much faster if you can read music and can find the booklet that came with this DVD back in the day. I could not. And the description for this purchase makes it clear that the DVD does NOT come with the booklet. So I knew I wasn't getting the booklet before I bought the DVD, and now you do too. But it'll really help if you can hunt one down.Something else you need to know, this older DVD does not play well at all on the DVD drive I utilize with my iMac, and I know some PC folks that don't fare much better with older DVDs. Without getting into a lot of unnecessarily technical stuff, this DVD is just too old to do much fast forwarding and rewinding with the modern drives. And you will definitely be fast forwarding and rewinding a lot. But it gets next to impossible and sometimes the drive just quits altogether. So know that before you buy this. I do have a workaround for you though.If you dig that old DVD player from the 90's out of your closet, get an older and cheap computer monitor or a little TV with RCA style audio and video inputs, then maybe find a little desk to sit it all on and clear out a corner for it, you'll have a nice little DVD instructional video learning center. I know, I just felt all of you under the age of 40 cringe. But the old DVD player will work fine with these older instructional DVDs. Fast forward and rewind as you will. I really like taking DVD lessons like this this Jimmy Bruno DVD provides, but I have to say that I just wouldn't buy any of these kinds of instructional videos if I had to do it all on my computer's DVD drive. Try my workaround.So really folks, out of all my instructional DVD's, this is one of my favorites. I do utilize the "tricks" I have gotten a handle on a lot these days and I am so glad I ran into this. I think with some effort, time, and patience, that you will be too.

Jimmy Bruno is a great teacher. Jimmy's fingering system and thoughts on chord melody and inversion selections are excellent. I've been playing blues a long time, but jazz always seemed complicated and mysterious. Jimmy cuts right through to the heart of playing jazz. This is not a shortcut to making a jazz noise with your guitar - there are some serious concepts that will take a lot of practice to master, but Jimmy will get you up to speed in the shortest possible time. This video will probably be most useful for intermediate and advanced players who have little or no jazz background but want to explore. A beginner may not get much out of the examples to begin with, but it never hurts to watch the masters explain what they do - some of it will stick in your mind. I always like to watch musicians who do things I cannot, just to see where the road might lead.I'd recommend this DVD to any guitarist who loves jazz guitar but just can't seem to master the theory behind it. This DVD won't make anyone a jazz player overnight, but it will help you to advance your playing skills. Highly recommended.I did have one issue:If you order this DVD, be sure to check the enclosed booklet when you receive it - the booklet that I received jumped from example 15 to example 34. So I contacted Amazon, and, as usual, they sent me an immediate replacement at their expense, but unfortunately the booklet was missing the same pages. Obviously this is a QC issue with the publisher and nothing to do with Amazon. I contacted Hal Leonard Publishing and they have agreed to send me a replacement copy of the DVD. I had to pay the $5 to return it but at least I have the complete product.UPDATE 9/19/2011: After returning the DVD on August 3 to Hal Leonard, and several emails promising they were sending the replacement, Hal Leonard Corp finally sent me a replacement DVD and threw in a bonus DVD for my patience. I must say, it seemed to take a long time, maybe they had to search around for a complete booklet? Anyway, I now have the complete book - now I actually have to get to work trying to learn some of Jimmy's stuff.

I bought this DVD because jazz music and theory in general has always been a bit hazy and difficult to understand. Bruno makes it quite easy to grasp given that you pay attention to what he is telling/showing you. By no means will this elevate you to his level of playing if you are beginner or intermediate player but he does demystify some concepts when it comes to using notes outside of the major Dorian and mixolydian scales. He shows you how each note of the major scale has its own scale which can be utilized over chord changes. He shows you four voicings for major 7th, minor 7th and dominant 7th chords on 5 groupings of strings, each group made up of four strings to be strummed or plucked with the nails (my preferred method). This adds up to twenty voicings that can be used for voice leading and navigation of the fretboard (but you have to connect the dots as he doesn't really show you the fingerlings for these inversions. You have to follow the notes in logical sequences). I gave this four instead of five stars because he does NOT touch upon something very important and fundamental in music: modulation. What it is and how to employ it to create music with more depth. Learn some techniques for modulation like using pivot chords and employ what he teaches you and you will advance quite quickly so long as you practice adamantly. Highly recommended!