Dana Rasch is most known as the guitar program director for the renowned Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, where he created the guitar curriculum. He also co-created the Dick Grove School Without Walls.
Over the years, I’ve been curious about Dana’s educational material but have only checked out some of his introductory & free resources.
This video is the first one that I studied and am reviewing for the website.
And… all I have to say is… wow!
This is really good stuff.
Dana is clearly a passionate educator and is focused on explaining one concept clearly in the video. He introduces an alternative to our beloved minor pentatonic, the dominant pentatonic and goes on to explain how versatile this particular sound is.
Dana demonstrates the various exercises he recommends to master the fingerings so that you can start to really improvise using these note choices. With Dana, it’s not about licks but about the colors and sounds possible within the tonality.
This reminds me a bit of what Wayne Krantz recommends in his Improvisors OS book (reviewed here and here).
I personally got a lot of mileage from going through this video. It’s probably the best explanation I’ve seen about using the dominant pentatonic and how it opens up different sounds in melodic improvisation.
In conclusion, I recommend this video for any guitarist who is bored sick of playing the same minor pentatonic licks for years. Perhaps it is time to explore the dominant pentatonic!
Pros: Great teaching, straightforward, no BS video.
Cons: No PDF or written material included.
TLDR: If you want to get new ideas for soloing on the blues, get this video.
You can get this at: https://visualguidetones.gumroad.com/l/rvYxS
[Submissions for Review Consideration]
- Are you an author who wrote a jazz, guitar or music book?
- Have you created a DVD or an online video course or subscription based website?
- Would you like me to review your book/course?
Please send me a message at azsamad3 at gmail.com with:
For courses: a link to the course/video/product + access info etc.
For books: a link to the book (Dropbox) or PDF attachment (if it’s small) for review consideration.
Depending on whether I dig the book/course, I’ll let you know if I do plan to review it!
I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review that for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p
NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig?
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