Problems with horne's mando book/dvd?

**Alex Orr** · Dec-19-2006, 9:24am

I got my copy of the new DVD/book set of Greg Horne's beginning mandolin. Aside from being a little bummed about how little of the stuff in the book is covered on the accompanying DVD, my copy was seriously screwed up in publishing. I'm missing about thirty pages from the thing!! In their place are about thirty duplicated pages! Anyone else have this problem? It could be a really limited glitch in the publishing run but my advice is that if you plan on buying this in person, leaf through the thing and make sure all the pages are there...mine is missing almost the entire bluegrass section. Furthermore Elderly has been really non-responsive about replacing my defective product.

Overall I have no real problems with Horne and the actual material, just with the screw-ups at the printing factory.

**gschmidt** · Dec-19-2006, 9:33am

That's too bad. The Horne Beginner book is really fanstastic.

Stick with it and get yourself a good copy. You'll enjoy it.

**gnelson651** · Dec-19-2006, 12:27pm

Since Elderly is nonresponsive, call the publisher, maybe they will make good.

**Alex Orr** · Dec-20-2006, 1:27pm

Originally Posted by (gnelson651 @ Dec. 19 2006, 13:27)

Since Elderly is nonresponsive, call the publisher, maybe they will make good.

Good idea. I haven't tried that route. Thanks for the advice.

**mando.player** · Dec-20-2006, 2:02pm

Define non-responsive?

The Hone Books and the third in the series are all great. What is on the DVD? I often wondered if I was missing out on anything.

**Alex Orr** · Dec-21-2006, 11:31am

Originally Posted by (mando.player @ Dec. 20 2006, 15:02)

Define non-responsive?

The Hone Books and the third in the series are all great. #What is on the DVD? #I often wondered if I was missing out on anything.

I've called them twice to ask for replacements. They seem skeptical about my complaint and tell me they have no more of the DVD/Book packages to verify whether there are mistakes and to send me a new one. I ask if they will just send me the regular book/CD and to verify that it has all the pages. They tell me they will eventually get more book/DVD sets in and to call them back and check.

The DVD basically has the first 30 pages taught by Horne. How to hold the mando and pick, a little on tremolo, playing notes, basic scales, some rhythm patterns, etc... Horne comes cross as a likable guy and a darn good teacher. Furthermore, the video is shot very well, with frequent split screen of the right and left hands, some overhand shot, and frequently displaying the music (tab and standard notation) on the bottom of the screen while Horne's playing the example. I wish all instructional DVDs were as well done visually, but I also wish they had done a DVD for the whole book. I know, it's not really necessary, but the more senses that are brought into play via an instructional device, the better the instructional tool.

One other suggestion is that I would love the company that puts this out to ship an audio CD along with the DVD package, because if you only have the DVD then have to constantly refer to it for the audio examples. If you have a laptop or desktop computer that plays DVDs or you don't mind throwing the DVD on your TV everytime you practice just so you can hear the audio tracks, then I guess that's fine. However, if you'd prefer to use a boombox when working out of the lessons, then you're screwed. CDs are cheap and they are already charging more for the DVD/book set than they are for the CD/book set, why not just include both the DVD and the CD?

**JoeD** · Dec-21-2006, 2:22pm

Hmmm. You should be irritated. Who's the publisher?

Never had to deal with Elderly on this, but I can say I had a similar problem a month ago with Steve Kaufman's "A Smoky Mountain Christmas for Mandolin." My copy was missing several pages. I sent Steve an e-mail offering to return the book for an exchange, and got a response to sit tight and it would get taken care of. Two days later there was a replacement copy in my mailbox, no questions asked. Steve refused any thanks, and gave credited the customer service folks at Mel Bay. That's the way it ought to be done.

**gnelson651** · Dec-21-2006, 4:57pm

Alfred Publishing Co.
http://www.alfred.com/

Alfred Los Angeles
P.O. Box 10003
Van Nuys, CA 91410-0003
Phone (818) 891-5999
Fax (818) 830-6252
Email: customerservice@alfred.com