How to Become a More Creative Guitarist – Adrian Legg

This terrific DVD will give you all kinds of musical ideas and new ways to approach your guitar playing. Adrian Legg explores nine of his most popular instrumentals, teaching some of the devices that he has pioneered to achieve his thrilling sound.

His easy but inventive arrangement of Silent Night in open D tuning gets you off to an enjoyable start. Moving to open G, he introduces you to one of his trademark devices, his use of banjo tuners on the guitar (his preferred brand is the one designed and manufactured by Bill Keith). Teaching his composition Born Again Idle, he shows how he uses the tuners to generate key changes and startling melodic effects.

You’ll learn how to imitate the sound of the pedal steel guitar with string bends and moving chord blocks, using these sounds on an arrangement of Auld Lang Syne. The intro to Adrian’s Hymn for Jaco uses similar bends in a different tuning (CGDGBD). Double-string bends give us yet another powerful sound on the lovely Celtic-sounding Norah Handley’s Waltz.

Another of Adrian Legg’s tricks is the use of partial capos, which are cut down so that they only cover three or four strings, leaving the rest open. After the Gig (EGDGAD) and Pieta (EGDGBE) both use this device. Adrian then shows you his spectacular show stopper Brooklyn Blossom, played in banjo frailing style with multiple pull-offs. Finally, you’ll learn Pace Doc in standard tuning, a traditional-sounding fingerpicking tune full of tricky hammers, bends and chord shapes.

Magazine Review:

“In this enlightening DVD, Legg reveals many of his secrets, and the determined student has much to learn from his knowledge…. Legg’s quick wit is familiar to all who have seen him in concert, and it contributes nicely to his engaging and effective teaching style.” – Dirty Linen