Sol Philcox Instructional DVD is out!!!

[Spidercaster]

No affiliation with the guys who made this, just in case that matters -

new link coming - please check back.

[DblStop]

Cool Spidercaster,Sol has an AWESOME future ahead of him what a great player and a fine young man he is.Keep us informed about the DVD that shoukld be KILLER.Go get em' SOL !!!!You rule my friend.Mark Moree aka DblStop

[DblStop]

A bump for my buddy Sol,this cat sure can pick!!Mark Moree aka DblStop

[still_fiddlin]

I was curious about this, but the guy who hawks this stuff turns me off with his pitch. "No scales to learn! No hard work! All it takes is an opposable thumb and you can play like the pros! ..." The kid can pick, but has anyone bought this set yet?

[Spidercaster]

Originally Posted by still_fiddlin

I was curious about this, but the guy who hawks this stuff turns me off with his pitch. "No scales to learn! No hard work! All it takes is an opposable thumb and you can play like the pros! ..." The kid can pick, but has anyone bought this set yet?

I haven't bought it yet, but Sol attempted to teach me how to do some of his "chicken picken" stuff when he was here visiting me last summer.

I can attest to the fact that he is a great teacher, but the "No hard work!" bit is off. It can be learned, but it does take work, and a lot of practice. Like anything, some players will pick it up in two seconds, and others will take 2 weeks, but I have no doubts that it can be learned.

[MTguitar]

Just read this off his myspace:

"He worked all spring illegally in a garden centre to buy a Korean-made Fender Stratocaster and began recording demo tracks in his bedroom on stolen software"

I wonder if he'll be upset when someone burns a copy of his DVD?

[Spidercaster]

Originally Posted by MTguitar

I wonder if he'll be upset when someone burns a copy of his DVD?

The short answer is "No".

[vikki]

Anyone purchased this yet, if so what do you think? I must say the write up is real corny but is there some good learning country stuff in there, its not really on the cheap side either, anywhere else you can buy this from?
Vikki

[empty]

Anyone get it yet? Anyone? Bueller?

[RCinMempho]

Looks like everything but chord-melody jazz in there. That leaves some room for the next DVD. :)

[Ormond]

I have both the lesson series and the 101 Licks.
Depending on what level you are at you will get a different level of usage. For the beginner I would strongly recommend it because many of the essential licks are there. The intermediate player will zap through that stuff. It is still a very good series for the intermediate player.
It is not quite so jam packed for the advanced player...or someone who has learned the basic licks and learned how to string them together. But much of what is on the set is stuff that can be put together thus extending a players "longer run" stuff.
The bends, however, are pretty advanced. In fact, one or two licks requires bending three strings at once - with one bend going in the opposite direction of the other two.

He has a habit of just "taking off" after a riff has been shown and doing some stuff that you wish had been put down in the tab. And he plays it so fast it is hard to slow down to analyze it. Whoever wrote the tab for the series could have extended some of the tab sections. It would have made things less frustrating.

He does touch on the jazz flavored stuff a little - something I think is important if a player wants to sound more sophisticated. He does about four of those runs and they sound very cool on their own but I have yet been able to find any chord(s) that can be played over them that makes the run sound like it might not be falling apart. They start in A and go to D but, nah, does not quite work. I moved two of the runs up two frets on the neck and they actually fit better. So if Sol does another series of DVD's (and I hope he does) it would be good to put a backing track behind some of the less obvious changes to show where the passages could be used. Not necessary for the easy blues licks or Cowboy chord licks.

I have all the Doug 7 stuff too - by comparison I like what Sol does because it is not as disjointed. There are acutally sections that stand on their own for a style or technique - for example, there is a section on neck navigation, probably the most useful part of the entire Series and all the runs in the section are linked to the subject. It just feels like there was a little more thought and planning in the Sol series.
Finally, there is so much material that the cost of the DVD's is reasonable. Even a bargain. That saying, there is so much of it that it can be overwhelming to find a place to start. I went through both series and graded each section as to whether I wanted to learn it or not and at what priority. I then turned the DVD's into Quictkime files so I could easily go to where I needed without having to deal with 6 DVD's. This way I can follow my notes, follow the tab and get in and out of the video section without too much computer hassle.
Fulfillment on the order was excellent. I had the DVD's three days after ordering.

I highly recommend the DVD's. But be be prepared for some frustration when you see things played really quick that could have been tabbed out as a bonus.
If you are a beginner I'd say you have a solid year of work with daily practice to nail the series and play to speed.

[mody]

Nice review Ormond,
Thanks, I'm waiting on my shipment in transit to India.
Sol's a boy wonder!

[empty]

That's exactly the kind of review I was looking for...thanks, Ormond for the time and thought.

[mannyg]

Why would you buy Sol's DVD when you can buy his teachers Brent Mason?
The source himself.

[GOBIGRED]

Originally Posted by Ormond

I highly recommend the DVD's. But be be prepared for some frustration when you see things played really quick that could have been tabbed out as a bonus.
If you are a beginner I'd say you have a solid year of work with daily practice to nail the series and play to speed.

Ormond,

Thanks for the review. I am really wanting to get these DVD's. Do you think the 101 licks is worth it? I am most interested in learning how to put runs together and navigate up and down the neck. I have Doug's dvd's and would am looking for something that doesn't jump around as much as you suggested. Thanks.

[Ormond]

Big Red - tough to answer your question without know what level of playing you are at. For beginner i would definitely start with the Lessons DVD. the 101 is a little more scattered like the Doug 7 stuff. Though Sol does group thing there too. The 101 covers everything from the Bluegass open stuff (usually in G) to some Albert Lee type stuff and some fusion'y hybrid jazz things - and at the end closes with some blues and rock stuff. I would recommend 101 Licks for for someone that already has a pretty decent foundation in Chicken' Picken stock stuff.
If you do not have a grasp of how to play double stops in a series up and down the neck and tie single note runs in the Lessons would be a better start. The double stop stuff is covered in 101 but is not presented in the length it is in Lessons.

If you are an intermediate or advanced player you may only feel about 50% or less of the material is useful...but the value of the 6 DVD is that there is a large volume of content, so even if only a third of the material was interesting to you there would still be enough to justify the purchase.

One thing I will semi-correct about my first review is about the tabbing - many of the extended runs that come after the tab has ended is an extension or compilation of a series of the tabs. So it is basically available but until you have learned all the runs you might not make the connection.

I MUST MENTION - the Tab is not included with the DVD's. It is immediately available for download. The format is in TabView - which is a dynamic format that will play the tab notes back for you but it is a pay/subscription service. It is not expensive and there is 10 day or two week free trial period so you could do a screen capture of the tab pages if do not want to buy the software after the trial period ends.

As far as the B. Mason stuff available, I have some and it is good. But I really wanted to see what Sol is all about and i was not disappointed. The B. Mason lesson I want is the one he did for PG Music on the Band In A Box platfom. But it is PC only compatible and not in Mac format...I could run Windows on my Intel Mac but I really do not want to.

And finally, the first edition of these things will be Collectors items someday.
Sol has quite a future in the music business and I don't think anyone knows where, or how far, his journey will take him. I think he will be charting some new territory. He will master the Chiken' Picken' genre, but he is clearly going to move beyond it too.

[blue water girl]

Originally Posted by mannyg

Why would you buy Sol's DVD when you can buy his teachers Brent Mason?
The source himself.

It is inevitable that Brent has taught Sol some things since he has come to the United States, BUT Sol had enough raw talent of his own to make Brent want to help him come to the US and help him with his career - not TEACH him. Sol plays like Sol, Brent plays like Brent. They are not the same at all. They both have very distinct styles of their own.

Something else cool about Sol's dvds is that he personally tabbed them himself. Brent has never tabbed anything in his life and from what I understand, most Brent Mason tabs can't be counted on to be accurate.

By the way- Sol is doing great. He is on tour with Jake Owen right now as his lead guitarist. He has only been home about 5-6 days in Sept. and will only be home a few days in Oct.

[RCinMempho]

One thing that makes these lessons unique is that all of this is still new to him as well.

After 5 more years of playing, Sol will lose the perspective he has now while all of this is still relatively new to him.

Some of the early Johnny Hiland stuff has the same quality.

[Freight Twang]

Originally Posted by mannyg

Why would you buy Sol's DVD when you can buy his teachers Brent Mason?
The source himself.

Think about it. ..... Brent invited Sol to stay in the states, it is most obvious...... Brent is learning from Sol. What better way to try to stay on top in Nashville music scene by be friending a young man who will soon rule the Nashville skyline. If you buy Sol DVD, you will be learning the same licks that Brent is at home right now learning himself. Come on people, there is a conspiracy brewing. :lol

[Ormond]

Freight - funny. but young people do come at the guitar from a different place these days. My nephew has only been playing a year. When I first saw him with the guitar I was amazed. He was just ripping all over the neck with blazing fast runs, arpeggios, sweeps, pinched harmonics - I mean in zero time he has practically mastered the Avenged Sevenfold catalog.
I was playing something and asked him to hit a couple of backing chords. I told him to play an E chord. He gave me a blank look and said he did not know how to do that. He said that he did not know anybody that play notes "up at the top of the guitar." He struggled to get his fingers to "bunch up" like that. It was like watching a 9 year take a second guitar lesson. He quickly tired of it and went back to shredding.
I cannot play the the things he was playing. He could not follow me if I were playing "Puff the Magic Dragon."
Young people are growing up learning approaches to guitar we did not. Their LEARNING is a product of the environment they grew up in..I would not expect Brent and Sol to sound the same at all.
This is a picture of a West Virginia boy playing a real "E" on my D28 - where he comes from those Cowboy chords are still in vogue.

[Ormond]

BWGirl - one thing I did notice about the Sol tab - it was dead-on accurate. Not a wrong notation in the bunch. Now I know why.

[Ormond]

now I am re-interested in the B. Mason BIAB thing. Like I mentioned, I would have to spend some decent money to run Windows on my Mac. So maybe one of you PC'ers has or would buy the Mason BIAB Instructional series and post a review. Here is the basic info to be found at: http://www.pgmusic.com/guitarstarbm.htm
About the program
GuitarStar: Brent Mason Country teaches you how to play like a pro! 150 guitar riffs by the Country star are included, and you can learn any of them by pressing different keys on your computer keyboard. Like all PG Music GuitarStar programs, Brent Mason Country is easy and fun to play and you don’t need to have any previous musical training under your belt.

Watch video tutorials of Brent performing each riff, slowing them down, and offering tips and tricks to perfecting each one. Then, play the riffs yourself by pressing on your computer keyboard. Sit back, and view the standard notation and guitar tablature as the notes fly by on the on-screen guitar fretboard!

With GuitarStar: Brent Mason Country, you’ll get…

* Over 4 hours of video lessons with Brent Mason.
* Over 2 hours of Brent Mason audio recordings
* 150 Country Guitar riffs played by Brent Mason, each including full audio, notation, tablature, and detailed video instruction!

Transform yourself into a Country GuitarStar…

* Play back any of the hot Country guitar riffs by pressing keys on your computer keyboard.

Master the riffs…

* View each riff in standard notation and guitar tablature.
* Watch the notes fly by on the on-screen guitar fretboard.
* Watch the tutorials of Brent Mason performing riffs, and offering tips and tricks for perfecting each one.
* Slow the videos down to half speed for further analysis.

Learn these hot Country Guitar styles…

* Chicken-pickin’
* Hammer-ons and Double-stops
* Pull-offs.
* Honky-tonk Barroom
* Counter-rhythm
* Rockabilly
* Descending Triads
* …and more!

[Freight Twang]

Originally Posted by Ormond

now I am re-interested in the B. Mason BIAB thing. Like I mentioned, I would have to spend some decent money to run Windows on my Mac. So maybe one of you PC'ers has or would buy the Mason BIAB Instructional series and post a review. Here is the basic info to be found at: http://www.pgmusic.com/guitarstarbm.htm
About the program
GuitarStar: Brent Mason Country teaches you how to play like a pro! 150 guitar riffs by the Country star are included, and you can learn any of them by pressing different keys on your computer keyboard. Like all PG Music GuitarStar programs, Brent Mason Country is easy and fun to play and you don’t need to have any previous musical training under your belt.

Watch video tutorials of Brent performing each riff, slowing them down, and offering tips and tricks to perfecting each one. Then, play the riffs yourself by pressing on your computer keyboard. Sit back, and view the standard notation and guitar tablature as the notes fly by on the on-screen guitar fretboard!

With GuitarStar: Brent Mason Country, you’ll get…

* Over 4 hours of video lessons with Brent Mason.
* Over 2 hours of Brent Mason audio recordings
* 150 Country Guitar riffs played by Brent Mason, each including full audio, notation, tablature, and detailed video instruction!

Transform yourself into a Country GuitarStar…

* Play back any of the hot Country guitar riffs by pressing keys on your computer keyboard.

Master the riffs…

* View each riff in standard notation and guitar tablature.
* Watch the notes fly by on the on-screen guitar fretboard.
* Watch the tutorials of Brent Mason performing riffs, and offering tips and tricks for perfecting each one.
* Slow the videos down to half speed for further analysis.

Learn these hot Country Guitar styles…

* Chicken-pickin’
* Hammer-ons and Double-stops
* Pull-offs.
* Honky-tonk Barroom
* Counter-rhythm
* Rockabilly
* Descending Triads
* …and more!

Ormond, I have had it for over two years, its GREAT. What would you like to know about it? If the mac is a problem, go buy a cheap PC, load it it and play. If you like Brent and his style, it gets no better, unless he comes to your house and teaches you.

[Ormond]

I think I just have to buy an inexpensive piece of Mac software and then some version of Windows.
Your post is encouraging...maybe I will just go ahead and do this. I have pretty much learned everything on the Doug 7 videos and everything off the Philcox series so I am bored and looking for the next batch of stuff.
I notice that this stuff is mostly all the same and once you have the basic positions down and the speed up then this style of guitar is pretty easy. It is the "getting to the level" where it all makes sense and fits together that is the tough part of the curve. But I am expecting the B. Mason stuff to be more challenging. I bought one of his VHS tapes about 7 years ago, watched it twice and gave it to someone that played better than me because it was incomprehensible to me. I am hoping I am far enough along this time that I can do something with it.

[JPW2105]

[quote=blue water girl;2053808]Brent has never tabbed anything in his life and from what I understand, most Brent Mason tabs can't be counted on to be accurate.[quote]

I found the tabs from the Hot Licks video (now DVD) to be spot on to be honest, the guitarstar ones I would expect to be the same - I've been told by someone who has it that they are very good. However, the net is full of tabs of Brent's work and the vast vast majority of these are usually slightly out, but I find that it puts me in the right place to work it out properly... I've lost count of how many tabs there are for 'Hot Wired'.

In reference to the bending bit on the DVD, there is a youtube clip of Sol on the Collins America site where he is demo'ing a new PA system - some of the bends are just frightening. I would post a link but I'm at work and can't access YouTube It's well worth a look thought.

When Brent and Sol recorded the track 'Bargain Bucket Breakdown', Brent said to me that watching Sol was frightening, I think the phrase he used was 'I only recorded the modulation bit, it was all I could do at that velocity'!

Safe to say that when they play together, they push each other to become better players and that thought scares the living daylights out of me..!!!

[JasonDrew]

Hey Ormond

There is program called crossover that will allow you to install the brentmason guitar star.exe on a mac. i have it on mine, its 90% accurate
check it out. The only thing that does not work is the video which you can load in quicktime player I have found that crossover is quite useful for lots of windows based crap lol that we need to use from time to time here is a link
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

[Ormond]

Thanks Jason. I will check it out.

[Ormond]

Here is the link to the Philcox demo for Collins, it is the second last video - the booth stuff cannot be heard over the crowd noise - looks like the clean ones were done in B. Masons living room. Both sing (well) - Nice house, too:

http://www.bagamp.com/news.html

[blue water girl]

[quote=JPW2105;2060227][quote=blue water girl;2053808]Brent has never tabbed anything in his life and from what I understand, most Brent Mason tabs can't be counted on to be accurate.

I found the tabs from the Hot Licks video (now DVD) to be spot on to be honest, the guitarstar ones I would expect to be the same - I've been told by someone who has it that they are very good. However, the net is full of tabs of Brent's work and the vast vast majority of these are usually slightly out, but I find that it puts me in the right place to work it out properly... I've lost count of how many tabs there are for 'Hot Wired'.

In reference to the bending bit on the DVD, there is a youtube clip of Sol on the Collins America site where he is demo'ing a new PA system - some of the bends are just frightening. I would post a link but I'm at work and can't access YouTube It's well worth a look thought.

When Brent and Sol recorded the track 'Bargain Bucket Breakdown', Brent said to me that watching Sol was frightening, I think the phrase he used was 'I only recorded the modulation bit, it was all I could do at that velocity'!

Safe to say that when they play together, they push each other to become better players and that thought scares the living daylights out of me..!!!

Hi Jason-

Brent was joking around when he said it was all he could do at that velocity But he does think Sol is frightening. Sol put that song together in a few hours from beginning to end one morning when he was bored and for a kid who was still 18 at the time that is pretty amazing.

[JPW2105]

Hey Julie, Seems we are talking just about everywhere these days..!!!

I was kind of thinking Brent was joking, but it's hard to tell with him sometimes

Now, if Brent finds him frightening, You can't imagine what he does to us mere mortals...!!!!

[JPW2105]

at our signatures... almost worth a game of snap..!!!

[mody]

Hi Ormond,

I got my shipment two days ago, your review and notes are bang on. Thanks!

If you ask me I'd say I'm an intermediate guitar player, I did get through the first chicken pickin chops disk in two days. That's not to say I've mastered it, far from it, stuck to the core material for the sections and ignored (though marvelled) at the bits you initially mention weren't tabbed. BTW I haven't had a chance to look at the tab files, their site had only 3 (each disk from the first series I presume, should ask them about the extended stuff and the tab for disk two, unless it's already in those ptb files that I haven't had a chance to check out as yet).

I'd say I'm a noob at country and these vids are gods gift to folk starting out in the direction. Sol is particularly good at making you feel at ease, informally presenting the material in great detail, and those run offs after the examples are case in point usage experience. To be revisited after you've got past some of the more advanced material. It's really quite an experience. He makes it look easy, and it was going great till my hybrid pickin fingers wore their nails out by the end of the second day, it's going to be painful till the callouses form I suppose.

Anyways, what I wanted to say is that at my level of playing, I've never connected with a guitar instruction DVD as I did with Sol's. I'm a campolongi with his material. After doing my first 12 bar country cycles it felt like a new instrument. I'm excited not just about the quality of material but being that the style is new to me, it's amazingly refreshing.

The other great thing is after only two days I was sounding different, my singer buddy was like hey that's so country, I've got a smile on my face regardless, so I flick the pup to the neck from my bridge and pick the same material blues style and gawd damn it worked just as well. I'm also glad I've got a glendale tele neck for all the nut bending stuff.

Highly recommended material if you ask me. But since I'm clearly in the honeymoon period, Ormond's review is the real stuff.

Cheers,
Mody

{PS: Ormond where are the extended tab things, included in those three ptb files? Gonna have to print them out today.}

[ruger9]

Originally Posted by Ormond

I MUST MENTION - the Tab is not included with the DVD's. It is immediately available for download. The format is in TabView - which is a dynamic format that will play the tab notes back for you but it is a pay/subscription service. It is not expensive and there is 10 day or two week free trial period so you could do a screen capture of the tab pages if do not want to buy the software after the trial period ends.

The TAB DOESN'T COME WITH THE DVDs?!?! Deal breaker. That's BS. I have to go online to get the tabs, and it's a PAY service?!?! $77/$127 for the DVDs and then MORE (after the trial expires) to have access to the tabs? Complete & utter BS. (Unless I have misunderstood?)

Damn shame...these are the first "lessons" I've seen that seem to be, instead of just a bunch of licks, lessons that EXPLAIN what going on behind the notes, and take the mysticism out of the jump from rock/blues to country. A jump I've had a hard time making. My fingers are pretty fast, and I can chicken pick a bit, but I feel like I'm "missing something"... like I'm just not "getting it." These lessons looked like the bridge for me. But $77$127 and NO "printable, you-keep-the-hardcopy-forever" TAB? that's flat-out ridiculous.

[Ormond]

I was also disappointed that the publisher of Sol's stuff chose to go this way....it would have been better to have just posted downloadable .pdf's like Doug Seven does. Better yet to print the tabs in a booklet and send it with the product like the Brent Mason DVD and the Homespun stuff does....
even still, the Sol stuff is mostly licks with a little better flow organization in the lesson series....but nobody has yet put together a really coherent, cohesive series that that leads you in a linear, progressive manner. None that I have seen, at least. I think I have most everbody's...and for the most part they are just collections of random licks.
I find it is just as useful to find tabs of entire songs and learn them. There are some good resources out there and a lot of the Chickn' Pickn' classics are to be found. I just finished learning all of "Hot Wired" today and I think I will start Cudge Boogie tomorrow. What I like about learning these entire things is that they will take you through a full series of chord progressions so that you know how to fit things together. I can see that when enough "vocabulary" is built up then these lessons and tabs are not really necessary because your brain and fingers will just take you where you need to go. But for getting the style dialed in, the combination of DVD's like Sol's and the the tab that is available is really enough to get you completely grounded in the genre. Plus, a lot of these solos and tabs are broken down for visual reference on YouTube. It is great if you have the money to spend on the DVD's but there is plenty of free stuff out there to keep you busy for a year.

[mody]

I hear the guitar star Brent Mason software to get great value at 50$.

The Chicken picking chops publishers forwarded the pdf's to my mail account.

So let me get this straight, the extended versions are only available at their members only portal? That sucks! Gonna have to write to them again bout it.

[Budda]

This guy has some great stuff:

http://www.halleonard.com/product/vi...&keywords=Greg Koch&subsiteid=1&

[garytelecastor]

Originally Posted by Freight Twang

Think about it. ..... Brent invited Sol to stay in the states, it is most obvious...... Brent is learning from Sol. What better way to try to stay on top in Nashville music scene by be friending a young man who will soon rule the Nashville skyline. If you buy Sol DVD, you will be learning the same licks that Brent is at home right now learning himself. Come on people, there is a conspiracy brewing. :lol

Freight Twang-Blue Water Girl is Brent Mason's wife. Check out her post.

I checked out the Sol site, but the examples they show didn't seem to be all that new or inspiring.

[BeeBender]

Yeah Man, incredible chops and humor. Especially his Jimmy Page "Heartbreaker" solo.

[Ormond]

Budda,
I am going to have to look into the John 5 tabs. the guy is quite amazing. He paid $135,000.00 for a Broadcaster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Tfd...eature=channel