fretboard logic question

[driches]

i have the fretboard logic book, but could never seem to focus enough to make it through all the lessons.

my question is: is it worth the $50 for the companion DVD? how is the DVD?

 

[Kappy]

Hell no! Waste of money IMO. That DVD, like the book(s), is a stinker. Spend your money elsewhere. Scales are a subject beaten to death by guitar players, there are tons better books covering CAGED or just scales, or scale theory. I swear when I watched that video, I was 10 minutes into it and I wanted sewing needles gouged deeply into my eyeballs. It was just painfully boring and bad.

 

[driches]

Hell no! Waste of money IMO. That DVD, like the book(s), is a stinker. Spend your money elsewhere. Scales are a subject beaten to death by guitar players, there are tons better books covering CAGED or just scales, or scale theory.

okay...what are those books?

and i'm not convinced the whole system is a stinker--anyone who has used and gotten something out of Fretboard Logic want to comment on the DVD?

 

[tomb]

okay...what are those books?

and i'm not convinced the whole system is a stinker--anyone who has used and gotten something out of Fretboard Logic want to comment on the DVD?

I don't know about the DVD, but I'm using the book right now and am finding it both helpful and fascinating. But then again I'm a techie who enjoys reading TCPIP books also.

 

[jzucker]

IMO, the most interesting thing about those books is the tremendous success he's had. From a classified ad in the back of GP magazine to 4 color double page ads in GW and GP. Those ads are not cheap. He has transformed a home-brewed garage shop into a major enterprise.

 

[Thwap]

okay...what are those books?

and i'm not convinced the whole system is a stinker--anyone who has used and gotten something out of Fretboard Logic want to comment on the DVD?

Sorry, gonna have to agree with Dave on this one.

The Dvd's...well, I couldn't stay interested, ie. awake.

One of the really good dvd's I've had that works around the caged system is this one from licklibrary. Jamie Humphreys...from guitar techniques gives the "class" and it clicked with me really well. It actually comes in two volumes...and definitely worth the dough...IMO


http://www.licklibrary.com/ProductDetail.aspx?Product=zsHNkEiNkRs%3d

 

[Kappy]

I don't know about the DVD, but I'm using the book right now and am finding it both helpful and fascinating. But then again I'm a techie who enjoys reading TCPIP books also.

I think Stevens' TCP/IP Illustrated volumes are still the best ones going. But they're simple and easy to understand. Liking things that are simple and easy to understand is probably why I hate the Fretboard Logic books/DVD so much. Plus, is there any music happening in these books? I mean, does he give you anything useful? It all seemed so bland and dry to me.

Anyway, if the OP is really looking for opinions on good books to systematically learn how to approach scale theory (that don't stink) and not just looking for people to agree that he should buy the horrible accompanying DVD, I'd recommend Ted Greene's Single Note Soloing books (Vol II is supposed to be re-released soon). Great, chord tone oriented approach with real, musical examples out of each of the 5 CAGED patterns (TG doesn't call them CAGED though).

Any of Don Mock's "Guitar Secrets Revealed" books are awesome sources for learning scales and full of useful, again musical, examples. He's a CAGED based teacher too, and his books go from diatonic, melodic minor, harmonic minor, symmetrical, etc. etc. At about $10. each they're a great value too (each comes with a CD).

One off the beaten path is James Blackthorne's "Ancient Secrets of Scales and Modes". Not really a CAGED book, but if you can get through the above recommendations, this will be easy.

Also, don't forget to check out good books for all instruments by guys like Jerry Coker and David Baker or Yusef Lateef or Nicolas Slonimsky.

But if the Fretboard Logic does it for you, who's arguing? I still think those books stink. Hell, I hate the Grimoire books too, but even they're better than FL, IMO.

 

[on a wave]

ive had the fretboard logic book as well, and i find that i keep trying to come back to it, to increase my knowledge of theory and the fretboard.

so if fbl isnt high up on peoples lists here, then whats the best one to replace that book?

i currently do everything by ear, with just about no sense of theory....

 

[on a wave]

on this topic? why didnt fbl work for you or why do you think its bad?

 

[Kappy]

on this topic? why didnt fbl work for you or why do you think its bad?

I'll have a look at my copy and try to do a proper review. I have .avi files of the DVD too, so maybe I'll review the book & DVD together.

In short, based on my recollection, it's needlessly complicated (the CAGED system is a very simple system based on 5 chords every guitar player knows. It shouldn't need a book --Correction, 3-5 books and a DVD!!!--- to explain), the diagrams were piss poor aesthetically and not very good at conveying the information, it took too many pages of reading to convey one small bit of information (see my first point in parentheses above), and there's no useful music happening in any of it. Not to mention the fact that it seemed from what I recall of the video (which looks like it was cheaply made in someone's basement) that the teacher himself can hardly play. Also, it's not about learning CAGED and that's it, you're done learning and you can make music, CAGED is just a vehicle, not an end in itself.

What REALLY bugged me, though, is that his ads somewhere in some magazine were making fun of really great books like Chord Chemistry and possibly even The Advancing Guitarist, as if the FL series was much simpler and better than these other books. If I started a thread like this very thread about either one of those two books, half the gear page would be raving about those books (in fact it's already happened in other threads about people's favorite guitar books). Those books have a much deserved rep as being essential to any serious guitarist's collection. This thread has like 2-3 people actually speaking highly of FL, and at least as many saying it's BS.

 

[Speed_Racer71]

good thread
i sat last night for a while deciding if i wanted the FBL stuff or the Guitar Grimoire products or something else. i took a few lessons then just bought a bunch of tab books of my fav artists. so i dont know any theory. its all memorized notes and muscle memory for me. if i was asked to improv id be done for because i wouldnt know where to go on the neck. that was in '85 so flash forward to recently i bought the emedia beginner & intermediate guitar method, but wanted something after i finish those.

my big question is on either of the products i listed above, do the dvd's give you a run through so you can hear how its supposed to be played? that seems to be a big help for me, just looking at stuff on a book without an actual live playing is boring to me

 

[spjoker]

I think the books are needlessly complicated. But hang in there and make yourself go through it. They are good and it does help someone visualize the fretboard. I didn't buy the dvd....because the book is so bad. But I did buy Ernie Hawkins caged system made easy. I think the book and the ernie hawkins dvd are what you need. Then lock yourself away and focus on those items only. Worth the effort.