I recently bought a copy of The Mandolin of Norman Blake video, and, as has been said before, this is a real good video for "intermediates" interested in his style. Blake gives a lot of instruction on ornmanentation on the first tune, and then a little scattered here and there on the rest. I think if you were just starting out playing it might get over your head quick, but if you've got the basics down, its not hard to follow just from watching and listening...the transcription is pretty well written, as well. The real value of the video, I think, is just seeing how Blake plays, and hearing where he chooses to place drone notes, triplets, crosspick rolls, slides, and such. Also all the tunes are very fun to pick through...I believe there is an unintended lesson on song selection here, too.
I was thrilled to hear a version of "Campell's Farewell to Red Gap", probably my favorite song that I've never heard anyone play (until now).
There is a brief section where he displays samples from his self-titled "World's Worst Mandolin Collection".
I think first he starts out with a Lyon & Healy Style B (which he uses for most of the video), then moves to a Martin flattop, then a Gibson A-4, then says something like "Moving right on down the line in the world's worst mandolin collection, here's a Lloyd Loar Gibson F-5". I just about lost it.
I've read somewhere else that he doesn't care for snakeheads either. Well, its nice to see we all aren't Loar junkies.
Bookmarks