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Author
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dean

Registered: March 2003 Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota Posts: 2003
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Review Date: Fri May 16, 2003
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $29.95
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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Booklet with licks
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Cons:
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Great little video that highlights Johnny's playing and his interest in teaching. The Tab/notation booklet really helped.
------------------------------ "I used to be clueless, but I've turned that situation around 360 degrees."
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Telecaster

Registered: March 2003 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 182
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Review Date: Sat May 24, 2003
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: Not Indicated
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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Very Descriptive
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Cons:
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I own Johnny's and Brent Mason's Hot Licks Videos. Brent does a great job for the advanced player. Johnny really goes into the specifics of what he is doing and where on the fretboard he is doing it. He is a great teacher. If you are into or want to get into Chicken Picken get Johnny's video first. After you have become comfortable with Johnny's video get Brent's. Johnny describes the techniques that he and Brent use. I am in no way questioning Brent's talent or video. It is for the advanced player. I was talking to Johnny about his video and he actually told me that he was told that on the next one he should "show off" more and not talk as much. I don't want to put words in his mouth but I got the feeling he was happy with the way it came out. He also told me that Brent told him that he was very nervous while recording the video and it didn't come out the way he wished it did.
------------------------------ I have the gear, now all I need to do is learn to play music with it!
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John R.
Registered: March 2003 Posts: 267
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Review Date: Tue June 17, 2003
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $30.00
| Rating: 4
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Pros:
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Johnny's good at breaking the exercises down
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Cons:
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I watched the Johnny Hiland Hot Licks video last night. Johnny’s talented and seems like a genuinely nice guy. He appeared to be having fun jamming with Arlen Roth and the sax player (Holiman) and drummer (Ford) who used to play with Danny Gatton and a bass player, whose name I don’t recall. Johnny’s great at slowing down and showing you what he’s doing. I found it easy to follow and a good starting off point for some chicken pickin' technique. His role models include Danny Gatton, Albert Lee and Brent Mason. He claims to be Danny Gatton’s biggest fan, but adds that some others might argue with that.
Johnny uses a flatpick and 2nd and 3rd fingers on which he has long acrylic nails to achieve the same attack as the pick. He starts off with a couple of rhythm techniques for playing in the key of ‘A’. Then he does a couple of Gatton techniques, one being a ‘sweep’, which, I believe, is kind of a trill that Gatton picked up from listening to Les Paul. He then played some Albert Lee licks, including a pedal steel inspired lead in ‘D’. Other techniques include what Johnny calls his “High, Low, Low, High” method of designing solo runs, double stops, and more.
Johnny talks some about his equipment, first his custom shop Fender Tele, which is based on the Danny Gatton model, sparkle gold body, figured maple 1 pc. neck, Kluson tuners and 3 Barden pickups with a 5 way switch. He has his bendable, rubber slide holder attached to the lower horn and uses a tapered Dunlop slide. He gigs through a ’65 twin reissue, but in the video he was using a real ’65 twin, which he commented on how nice it sounded to him. His effects were a Boss C-3, blues driver, Line 6 DL4 delay modeler and expression pedal and, I believe, a Line 6 MM4 with expression pedal, which includes a Leslie rotary speaker feature. Other boxes were a Boss TU-2 stomp box tuner and a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2.
As a non-gigging, intermediate player who has been working at a hybrid picking technique, I found I was able to follow along and accomplish the exercises with a little practice and not too much difficulty. I’m only up to the Albert Lee inspired pedal steel lick, but from my recollection the rest of the exercises appear very doable. Johnny shows how he structures a solo in a typical progression and how he determines his tonic note choices and offers some great tips on right hand technique. Like any instructional video, you see a fraction of what Johnny can really do in the exercises, but the jams at the beginning and the end really shows his ability. All in all, a good informative presentation for someone wanting to develop their hybrid picking and get started at chicken pickin’.
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