The Gospel Guitar of Rev. Gary Davis on DVD
Taught by Ernie Hawkins
Rev. Davis taught me, by example, to completely throw out my preconceptions of what can or can't be done on the guitar. Bob Weir (The Grateful Dead)
He was the most fantastic guitarist I'd ever seen. Dave Van Ronk
Gary Davis took you out of playing baby guitar and made you play it like a grown man. Taj Mahal
Rev. Gary Davis was a musical genius. His music and guitar playing spanned a century of different techniques, styles and ideas and touched on so many musical formats, i.e. blues, ragtime, folk, gospel, marching songs and tin pan alley hits. In this series of four lessons, Ernie Hawkins teaches fourteen of Rev. Davis's most requested and famous gospel guitar arrangements. Rare footage of Rev. Davis playing many of the tunes taught in this collection is featured.
Ernie gives you a detailed rundown of each arrangement, analyzing the structure and timing of each phrase, verse and chorus and then replaying everything slower on a split screen with close-ups of both hands. A comprehensive 80 page tab/music booklet is included. All in all, almost six hours of instruction is presented.
Lesson One: Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, Samson and Delilah (If I Had My Way). Running time: 82 minutes
Lesson Two: Children of Zion, Oh Glory How Happy I Am, I Belong To The Band, Goin' To Sit Down On The Banks Of The River. Running time: 92 minutes
Lesson Three: Death Don't Have No Mercy, Twelve Gates To The City, Let Us Get Together, Right Now. Running time: 93 minutes
Lesson Four: I Heard The Angels Singing, Crucifixion, I Am The Light Of This World, You Got To Move. Running time: 87 minutes
"I have seen many teaching videos over the years. Videos are not the way I like to learn - but there is an exception. Your Ernie Hawkins videos are absolutely superb. You cover the material in detail and with a style that shows love for both the music and its creators. People who do not know Ernie will be amazed at the exact note for note faithfulness of the work to the playing of these three blues greats. From a practical standpoint -- the video demonstrations of every left and right hand movements are so clear that I never had to go mess around with the tablature. This is particularly nice for me because I find reading tab an unpleasant experience. This is simply the best set of teaching videos I have ever seen. With this single act, you have done more towards passing along this music than has the entire history of the revival in interest in rural blues from the 60's up to the present day."
- Bill Locke
?2002 Stefan Grossman's Guitar Worshop, Inc.
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