Albert Lee: Country Boy

Up front, you need to know that this is an instructional video for guitar players, not a documentary or concert film on Albert Lee. But even if you don't play, there is plenty of in studio footage of Albert Lee doing his thing, and he talks about his history as a guitarist, musician, and songwriter quite a bit as he teaches. Also know that you are getting 2 instructional DVD's in one package here. Nice! One was done back in the late 80's and the other in 2005, and the differences in Albert are, negligible, he's grayer, but he has the same great positive outlook on life and playing his guitar he did in all those years before. It 's really inspirational in many ways.Know that the older video was the top selling instructional DVD of its time. Many, many guitarist have taken the trek you are about to begin. And the nice thing about instructional DVD's is that there's only the hurry you feel you need to make. If you decide that the instruction is just a level or two higher than you are ready for, you are still going to get a lot out of just listening to Albert talk about how he thinks about the guitar neck, right hand technique, and soloing in general. Some of which you are going to be quite surprised with I think.But you bought this DVD to learn some 'chickin pickin' didn't you? This was of course what Albert Lee is most known for and he did it so well that everybody else who you know that is doing it today, just had to get this first video and try to cop his style, which is a little different from the early chickin pickers. And that's kind of cool, knowing that Gatton, Gil, Hilliard and company likely spent some time with this early video just like you are now. It's all here folks! And the second video just takes it a step farther. But now listen, while chickin pickin may sound like something simple, it is not. To start, you would do well to know triad voicing and fingerings all up and down the neck. And you definitely need to know some music theory as related to the guitar in order to get what he's saying. Then you need to have done some melodic soling on pentatonic scales or the like. If improvisation is new to you, you're going to have a hard time here, at first.Then it helps to be able to read guitar tablature too. And KNOW THAT THIS PARTICULAR LISTING DOES NOT COME WITH THE TABLATURE BOOKLETS THAT CAME WITH THE ORIGINAL VIDEOS. You'll be searching for that proverbial needle in the haystack for a long time if you go for it. But if you find one, I'd get that if I were you. Sometimes Albert's "by ear" explanations move pretty fast. But he does teach to the song and technique rather than the tabs. So you'll get what you need without them. And that part of what's great about this video. Albert is teaching you the core of how he does what he does, one lesson at a time. And I highly suggest that after watching the DVD through once, you work each lesson until you feel you know what he is teaching and have integrated the technique into your own playing and stye. And this might take you some time my friend, though I believe it will be time well spent. Really, a lot of folks, maybe even most, give up on chickin pickin' once they find out there's going to have to be quite a bit of practicing involved. And there's a lot more than just chickin pickin in these videos. Albert clues you into the fingering patterns and scales he likes to utilize in soloing, the banjo style rolls he utilizes in the right hand, and he teaches specifically to several songs. This is great stuff Ladies and Lords of the guitar. And remember, Albert is not so much teaching a note by note adaptation to his playing. He's teaching you how to improvise in his style. And you will very seldom hear Albert Lee ever play the same solo twice.Now these lessons are taught with the help of another guitar teacher that is "interviewing" Albert about what he does and how he does it. It works pretty well, really well for me. Sometimes he has to bring Albert back on track and you get to know just how fast Albert's mind works when he's playing and the fact that he's leaving this guy behind sometimes, confirms that "Oh! I'm not a dummy. Albert's just picking up the pace." and all through the video, Albert will amaze you. But don't let it his amazingness discourage you either, just let yourself be amazed and you'll really enjoy these lessons.And now, one last little thing you might run into that you should know before you buy this. I haven't run into this particular difficulty with this particular DVD, but often with instructional DVD's you have to fast forward and rewind a lot, and that is certainly the case here, and the video will get gummy on DVD Drives for your computer to where it is just about impossible to take the lesson. If you've got an old DVD player in your closet, pulling it out and hooking it up to your TV may well be a better option. I can just hear the under 20 players out there cringe. But you'll likely save a lot of time and frustration if you've got an older DVD Player hanging around. And know that this is not a BluRay, it is a DVD.So, let the journey begin. I'll assume you are listening to some great country guitar in the meantime, which will help you out too. Enjoy!

Warning! If you play guitar, this instructional DVD will scare you. Albert Lee makes it look easy, but if you play, you know it's not. This is not for beginners, and not for the faint-hearted. Having said that, buy the darn thing. This things don't stay in print forever, and it's a lot of fun to listen to and watch, especially if like me, you have wondered "How does he DO that?". The DVD comes with Adobe PDF tab files for all the guitar parts. If you have a computer program that slows down audio, that would be a help. Fast doesn't even begin to cover what Lee does. It would be hard to over state how important and influential this man has been to guitar playing, so if you are feeling ambitious, or just want to watch one of the greats, by all means buy this DVD.

This is Albert Lee in his prime years (not implying he didn’t get better and better after this.) It is for advancing-intermediate and up. But other than Albert playing really fast, it is not incredibly finger-twisting, by which I mean Albert plays with a flow and with devices that expedite his speed and navigation around the neck; he's not trying to make it hard for himself. The scales are major, mixolydian, and blues, with major and minor pentatonic included in there. Lots of double stops and chromatic passing and approach notes.There are not only great lines and licks, but so important are the devices Albert uses to move from position to position. There is a core that you see repeated in different keys, some with open strings and some up on the neck. Some work their way up or down; others you just shift (aka jump) position between notes within the line.Examples mainly in keys of A and E, but also G and some C. One solo in F major. The A, E and G examples span the fretboard from open position to above the 12th fret. Although there are longs solos to study, there are also short examples of a few measures to present the component parts of his style. One could spend some time on those if not quite up to pages worth of solo at a time. And after you have seen Albert’s go-to devices a few times, subsequent keys and solos become easier.There is some truth that Albert doesn’t explain all that well what he is doing, but it’s all there on video, written music and tab. And he is a humble prince of a fellow. The comments from the interviewer, and the text with the book are good. The shorter examples are helpful.The difficulty I find taking advantage of the material lies in the length of the video; an hour and sixty minutes. The content is 5 stars; one star off for the difficulties described next.It is very hard with a DVD of that length to zero in on short segments to loop and slow down. I have a newish computer with plenty of power but if I try to back up and start at a point, the video often lags behind the audio by a few seconds, and I’ve missed the fingering details I want to see. Not impossible to do it, but tedious and a bit frustrating. It could just be my computer or me. I’m using VCL media player. I recorded the audio off the sound card into Audacity, and then exported short segments as mp3s to use in a slowdown app, which works fine if you don’t need the video.An option you might consider is video on demand from the publisher. They have video on demand for viewing online, with a download that you have to watch with their included app. You don’t get an MP4 download that you can use in other programs like Transcribe!. But it handles the zeroing in just fine and has loop and half speed functions. (In exploring around, I found I had to download the pdfs from the video on demand version; trying to do that from my downloaded version froze the app up. Customer service was prompt and helpful on that.)Like any serious guitar method, this is lots of work for even a pretty good guitarist. If you are diligent with it, it could be one of those hugely influential or even transformative studies.

This is an awesome DVD. I has two very great volumes combined into one. There are long detailed discussions of his style of playing. I had the full book versions of both volumes covered "Virtuoso Techniques" and "Advanced Country Guitar" published bu CPP Media and DCI,and these twobooks have every note tasbbed out and in sheet music form. CPP also publishes a book titled "Best of Albert Lee" which has full transcriptions in tap and sheet music that detail every note of Lee's great solos like "Luxury Liner" (emmylou Harris), and "My Baby Thinks He's a Train" (Roseanne Cash (this book is separate from the music in the DVD, but offers a very complete examination of Albert Lee's guitar style when used along with the DVD mentioned here).

I bought this because I thought this was an instructional video. Albert Lee is well known guitarist, but this is a studio concert. With just a few interviews of how to play. But it's not in depth at all just a quick kind of how to. Then into another song.

Learn all you can from this guy,very important,there's no one like him on the planet

This DVD features Albert Lee at his best, together with another excellent small band. While the tutorials require the students to have some knowledge of harmonics and scales, the DVD also includes a PDF-section with transscriptions and tabs of all examples shown and discussed. Truely helpful! Among the songs demonstrated and transcribed there is a selection of instrumentals from both of Albert's purely instrumental albums and a piece of blues of which I don't know the original album. Regretfully and unnecessarily, there is a shorter version of this DVD around ("Highlights") that doesn't contain most of the rarer tracks and lacks the transscriptions. If you have that one and like it, you will rejoice with this one.

Technically and cerebrally challenging, that is why he stands out from many others. One must have a guitar with a low action, with a set of 9s or even lower, with a set of 8s, with the usual standard 'Telecaster' or a very close generic guitar, fitted with Humbuckers. While the rest of the world was messing around [Beatles excluded] with silly, stupid, pointless pop rubbish, Albert was figuring this stuff out, way back in the early 60s. Not easy, and I have been playing Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed stuff since 67 till now. Those two pickers established a 'Precedent Set' for all that was to come in their wake in the field of Country, which is what Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Albert Lee, Vince Gill and many others are all about. Potentially, a long term project, or an hour a day, there really is no rush, yet extremely rewarding once you 'Crack' Alberts system and technique, then off you go on your own, with the incorporated backing tracks.Written with easy guitar TAB, and backing tracks for you to aspire to. Worth every penny !

From this DVD the following truths become self evident1. Albert Lee is an amazingly brilliant guitar player2. Albert Lee is a not a teacherThis DVD is a forum for Albert to show some really incendiary guitar playing. However, his analysis and explanation of the guitar playing is weak and this DVD is reliant on the interviewer explaining what Albert is playing. If you want instructional material I would prefer a good book rather than a DVD (Something like Hot Country by Lee Hodgson - which has a foreword by Albert Lee, or Country Solos for guitar by Steve Trovato). However with neither of these items do you get Albert Lee rocking out with a 4 piece band which, to me, was the real highlight of this DVD.

Excellent DVD So nice to hear Albert Lee play so many good things and then have a bit of break down re his technique etc between numbers! Not sure if you could learn to play like Albert from watching this unless you are pretty accomplished to start with as it is a bit technical but a great DVD just to enjoy even if it didn't have the in depth technique descriptions! What a truly great guitarist Mr Lee is and so modest about his huge talents!