Homespun tapes review?

[waynep]

I am considering trying out a homespun tapes course. There are some fingerstyle blues ones I have read about available.

Would anyone care to post a short review of their products? Do they come with tab/music? How detailed are they? Any other usueful information? Are they worth the money?

I was thinking about this 2 DVD set . .
wayne

[Bern]

I recently bought
Solid Air Records 2 DVD set DADGAD Guitar Solos featuring Laurence Juber, Al Petteway & Doug Smith (tab & notation included). 6 hours / 12 songs.
I rate it a 8 to a 9 simply because I don't care much for Doug Smith's style of play. LJ & AP are excellent in showing and explaining of whatever they're doing.
I would recommend this set.

[Jeff M]

I lean more towards Stefan Grossman's site.
I have purchased a number of Homespuns tapes and found them to be hit or miss when it comes to the TAB and the instructor's thouroughness in going over what they are playing.
My experience with Grossman's material has been much more uiniform.
If looking into country blues, I HIGHLY recommend Grossmans material, in particiular EVERYTHING by John Miller;
http://guitarvideos.com/video/00miller.htm
It's like sitting down with your favorite kindly kindergarten teacher. He goes over everything very thouroughly, slowly, several times. The tab is spot on.
His Mississippi John Hurt and/or Libbya Cotten material are great places to start.

I've also heard good things about Grossman's "Country BLues" material;
http://guitarvideos.com/video/dvd/90456dvd.htm
and if you are into the Rev Gary Davis, Ernie Hawkins compilation is generally regarded as the best around.(More advanced style...may want to wait for that).
http://guitarvideos.com/video/dvd/813dvd.htm
Click on the material you want to check out. You can view clips of them and see the instructors style.

[outsidenote]

I like the homespun stuff. It varies a lot in terms of detail but they tend to let you know in their descriptions and you can look at previews on their website.

The level 2 stuff usually show more detail and go slower than level 5 which is for advanced players who need less detail. The level 2 stuff by Happy Traum are usually very practical and geared more to beginner/early intermediate in that style and dont assume a lot of prior knowledge.

[solarbean]

I really enjoyed Pete Huttlinger's John Denver series.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by waynep

...Would anyone care to post a short review of their products? Do they come with tab/music? How detailed are they? Any other usueful information? Are they worth the money? [/url]
wayne

Hi Wayne...
Homespun tapes dot com sells series which hey have produced, and series produced by others. I have purchased both from them, and to answer your questions somewhat:

The quality has always been fine on what I've purchased, and their business practices and speedy delivery have been great.

Some series come with tab or notation, others not, and they are usually specified or detailed in the descriptions on the site.

Are they worth the money?
I teach and charge $35 for single lessons, or $100 for a package of 4. They last 90 minutes, and it's up to you to remember what you were taught (and several of my students bring video cams to lessons).

DVDs and videos offer one the opportunity to review the things learned over and over. I own probably 10 DVDs I've accumulated because I want to absorb some new techniques. I'd gladly and most assuredly pay more than double the price of a DVD with 5 - 7 songs on it for just a lesson with a teacher proficient in the techniques, and get no more than the videos offer.

DVD can be ''freeze framed'' quite easily, and are happy diversions in the RV on vacations. I love learning by seeing so they are more than worth the price to me.

Lastly, two other sources...
Elderly.com
AcousticMusicResource.com

[Cessna7035Q]

The content is great, the Purple Player is the most buggy, DRM, infuriating POS software ever perpetrated. I have 48 of their video lessons and have finally become fedup and will NEVER buy another while they use this method of distribution.

[FlyFast]

I agree that all of the content I've seen from them has been very good. Toby Walker and John Miller are two of my favorite. I also agree with the prior post that their proprietary video player stinks. For that reason, I'd suggest paying the upcharge and getting the DVDs instead of the downloads. I own several of the downloads and there is another one that I'd like to get but won't because of their player program.
The comments about the Stephan Grossman videos are spot on. He puts out good stuff.

[dhalbert]

Homespun frequently offers sales on their material, but it is often the older audio+book courses (no video). I have not been so tempted by these. Are there CD courses that you like?

[Fuzzy125]

I've found the Homespun lessons, those taught by Happy Traum, very instructive, and I enjoy Stefan Grossman's own lessons too. They complement each other nicely. But I want to point out two things:
1. Work through "Basic Theory Every Guitarist Should Know" from Homespun early on. Otherwise, many of these DVD lessons, which are song-based, will tell you only where to put your fingers, and you won't know you're actually employing, say, a D shape on the X fret, which makes it an X chord, which makes sense because you're playing in the key of X.
2. Work through the videos at a deliberate pace. If I hadn't had lessons with an instructor face to face for a year, I would've blown through these videos and gotten maybe 50 percent out of them, but thinking I had gotten 100 percent. The instructor I had would allow me to move onto the next song only when he was satisfied with my playing of the current song. I applied that same ethos to learning from videos.

The ones I've worked through and wholeheartedly recommend (all taught by Happy Traum):
1. Easy Steps to Acoustic Blues
2. Blues Bag
3. Easy Steps to Acoustic Blues Jamming (still on it)

I almost never refer to the tabs. Everything I need is either on screen or can be figured out by ear. Again, knowing basic guitar theory and the chords shapes, or CAGED, would help in internalizing and making sense of what Happy is doing. Otherwise, watching the videos would be like reading "video tabs."

[guitar12]

I've been real happy with their stuff especially the Pete Huttlinger Jim Croce series. I download them directly to my Mac and play them from there and have not had a problem with the online interface at all (I think it is called Brain Player). The tab for that series is very accurate.

Rob

[jeanray1113]

I have quite a collection of Homespun's lessons, both dvd's and downloads. Everything I have seen has been very high quality, from the teaching to the videography. Pete Huttlinger's lessons are superb. I have his John Denver series as well as Guide to Better Practicing and Exercises for Fingerstyle Guitarists. Mary Flower is also very good. Really, I haven't seen any that I haven't felt were well worth the money. The ability to watch certain parts over and over is a huge plus. I have bought quite a few downloads now, and the Purple Player platform has worked well. Once, when the tabs did not download with the lesson, I emailed support staff and awoke that next morning to find that someone had answered my email and fixed the problem at 2 AM!

I also have one of Stefan Grossman's dvds and it is excellent. I anticipate ordering more of those as well.

[LeftArm]

Originally Posted by Cessna7035Q

The content is great, the Purple Player is the most buggy, DRM, infuriating POS software ever perpetrated. I have 48 of their video lessons and have finally become fedup and will NEVER buy another while they use this method of distribution.

I have found that the latest Android version of the App is much improved. I use it to play them on a tablet.
I have Toby's Fingerpicking freedom as well as Etta Baker and Keb Mo and a couple of short lessons. Toby's lessons "Finger Picking Freedom" has no tab (obviously) but his other lessons are detailed finger by finger with accompanying tab, Etta Bakers has a comprehensive tab "book" the lesson is more in an interview style only covering the twiddly bits. Keb Mo's style is more chatty and it is often difficult to see what he is doing but it's easy enough to pick up by ear.
I like them. It's great to be able to sit down with the guitar and play along.