lessons
NEW GUITAR VIDEO FROM HOMESPUN TAPES
This easy-to-follow DVD teaches complete arrangements to seven songs, including both rhythm and lead parts. It includes acoustic favorites “Friend of the Devil” and “Black Peter”; classic ballads “Brokedown Palace” and “Stella Blue”; and the great jam tunes “Fire on the Mountain,” “New Speedway Boogie,” and “Cassidy.”
Musician/journalist Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers interviewed both Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir in depth about their guitar and songwriting styles, and draws on insights from those conversations to capture the soul of these timeless songs.
Jeffrey shows you not only how to play the chords and create powerful grooves behind your singing, but also how to add cool embellishments, percussive effects, bass lines, and lead breaks inspired by the Dead’s live and studio performances. These arrangements (in standard, dropped-D, and D A D G A D tuning) are specially designed for intermediate pick players (one song is played finger style) and are packed with accompaniment ideas that you can use in other songs as well.
Available from Homespun Tapes on DVD or direct download.
VIDEO PREVIEW
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
Learn Grateful Dead songs firsthand in these one-day guitar workshops. More info. >>
LISTEN to sample songs from Dead to the Core. More about the album. >>
ABOUT THE TEACHER
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, a grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, has combined his twin passions for words and music into a multifaceted career as a musician, writer, and editor. His most recent recordings are Stop, Drop, and Roll, a set of original songs, and Dead to the Core, which features six of the Grateful Dead songs on this video performed live in the studio.
Jeffrey is the founding editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, a contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered, and author of three books: Rock Troubadours, a collection of his conversations with Jerry Garcia, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, and more; The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour’s Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business; and Teach Yourself Guitar Basics.
He teaches courses at Syracuse University on songwriting, nonfiction writing, and magazine editing, and leads workshops for guitarists and songwriters.
