Learn To Play Bottleneck Blues Guitar
HOMESPUN
The Basics, Advanced Bottleneck Technique and Repertoire
Taught By Bob Brozman.
Level 3
Three DVDs or VHSs, includes tab

One of the most compelling sounds in American music is made by glass or steel sliding on the strings of an acoustic guitar. On these three DVDs, the powerful blues of legendary players of the Mississippi Delta -- Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton Bukka White, Skip James, Tampa Red and others -- are taught by a true master of the bottleneck. Bob Brozman's remarkably detailed instruction starts with the basics of the form, including open tunings needed to get the true bottleneck sound.

Bob Brozman’s three-DVD course presents a complete picture of bottleneck blues guitar, from the basics of slide technique to the advanced repertoire of the masters. You will receive a wealth of ideas to work on and be able to use the tools you have learned to build your own arrangements of bottleneck blues favorites.

The Basics
Level 3
90-minute DVD or VHS, includes tab

Bob Brozman's remarkably detailed instruction starts with the basics, including the open tunings needed to get the true bottleneck sound. Through careful explanations of essential left- and right-hand techniques, exercises and songs, this video reveals the secrets of traditional blues/slide guitar.

Beginning and experienced slide players alike will benefit from this presentation of powerful licks and runs, rhythm techniques, use of vibrato and harmonics and other ways to get the true Delta sound. Before you know it, you'll be playing dynamic tunes made popular by the blues greats! Bob covers the early Delta blues sound of Robert Johnson and the driving rhythm and slide of his composition "Walking Blues."

Bob illustrates additional runs and rhythms, and guides you through the dynamic Muddy Waters tune "Can't Be Satisfied." He then uses "Cross Roads Blues" to take you into even more complex rhythmic devices.

This video presents a complete picture in the art of bottleneck blues guitar. You’ll receive a wealth of ideas to work on and be able to use the tools you have learned to build your own repertoire of bottleneck blues favorites.

Advanced Bottleneck Technique and Repertoire
Level 4
Two DVDs, includes tab

On this two-DVD set, Bob Brozman provides a complete toolbox with which to dramatically enhance your blues arrangements. You’ll expand your repertoire and master a breathtaking variety of licks and techniques. Bob provides both a historical and a technical analysis of the styles, innovations and techniques originally created by Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, Bukka White, Tampa Red, Skip James and other Delta slide masters, and he offers a multitude of suggestions for creating your own variations.

You’ll learn to play in a variety of tunings, add descending bass lines, string snapping, rolling triplets, bar technique and numerous turnarounds to your blues arrangements. Bob adds his own unique touches - percussive guitar body slapping techniques, hammer-ons, pull-offs, palm harmonics, the “scrunch” stroke and other variations to give you a real musical workout.

Bob highlights the subtleties of the rhythm, phrasing and bottleneck technique of each tune, adding, as always, his own unique contemporary touches to the music.

Songs include "Come On In My Kitchen," "Delta Memories," "Rollin' And Tumblin'," "Old Dog Blues," "Jitterbug Swing," "Cypress Grove," "Denver Blues," "Green River Blues," "Pony Blues."

About Bob Brozman
Bob Brozman is a master of bottleneck blues as well as Gypsy swing, calypso, ragtime, Hawaiian, Indian, African, Japanese/Okinawan, Caribbean and other World Music styles. He has been called "an instrumental wizard" and "a walking archive of 20th Century American music." Bob maintains a nearly superhuman schedule throughout the year, touring constantly throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. He has recorded numerous albums and has won the Guitar Player Readers' Poll two years in a row in both the blues and slide guitar categories. In 1999, he co-founded International Guitar Seminars, which hosts over 120 students annually at sites in California, New York, and Canada.
Bob is also a linguist, anthropologist, and ethnomusicologist, lecturing part- time at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He is starting a foundation for the purpose of getting some of the western surplus of instruments and other musical supplies directly into the hands of musicians in third world countries in Africa and Oceania. For more info: www.bobbrozman.com