DVD

As anyone who squeaked through 10th grade history knows, the alchemists were a semi-scientific posse of medieval individuals utterly hung up on the notion of transforming lead into gold. Of course, their efforts did not lead to economic good times, but Blues Alchemy addresses a much more useful and likely kind of transformation: turning those leaden, everyday blues licks and chord progressions into tasty and intriguing improvisational gold. These DVDs are about learning to play the changes, but not in the sense that jazz musicians do - it isn't about learning every arpeggio and mode under the sun. Instead, on ten diverse chord progressions, master blues alchemist David Hamburger will teach you how to transform your blues bag into gold by learning how to target tones and play the changes. This hands-on playing course guides the student through 10 distinct blues rhythm patterns and variations, 10 distinct solos and variations, plus dozens of extra blues licks and tricks of the trade. 190 minutes.

Ann Rabson has been playing and singing the blues professionally since 1962. Ann has toured all over the world, performing solo, with the band Saffire, and with piano legend Erwin Helfer. In this intimate instructional DVD, Ann personally teaches her own brand of blues and barrelhouse piano with six in-depth lessons based on left-hand grooves. With each groove, you'll learn to play tasty fills, turnarounds, soloing ideas and much more. Topics covered include: two-beat shuffle; box shuffle; linear boogie woogie; round boogie woogie; Yancy/Domino-inspired groove; New Orleans-inspired groove. 1 hr., 45 min.