Customer Review: History of the Fender GuitarThis is not really an instructinal DVD it is more of a history lesson about the Fender Stratocaster Guitar and its rise from the early 50's to today. Tom Kolb explains such mundane things as the Bridge section of the guitar and control knobs, tremelo,pickup's...ect.But the highlite is when he plays in different styles such as Jeff beck, Eric Clapton,Ritche Blackmore,and other great Strat players.Fun to watch if you are a huge Strat fan like me... but may bore others who were hopping to glean some riff's off of this DVD. After watching this dvd you do realize just how important the Strat has been to Rock and music in general.Its the only true example i can think of where they got something right the first time! the body and structure of the Srtat has not changed in 60 years....thats beacause it was perfect to begin with.
Customer Review: Don't waste your cash
I've played keyboard for over 25 years. I've now decided to start playing guitar and purchased this video. No doubt that Tom Kolb knows how to play a guitar. If I didn't have any previous musical knowledge I would have been completely lost watching this DVD. What it shows to you is a bunch of information about various styles of various guitar players. That's what it is suppose to do right? Well what is shown to you is a guy playing his guitar really fast and talks about nothing on how to apply techniques and use them. Then you are referred to look at a cheezy photocopied handbook that is suppose to explain everything. Wrong! Every "technique" that is shown... if you can pick it out during his fast playing... would already be known by an experienced player. Beginner.... forget it, you won't see anything that will help you. I could go on for hours on how useless this video is. But I'll keep it short. Spend your money on something else.
Between 1817 and 1823, Ludwig van Beethoven composed Symphony No.9 in D Minor, Opus 125 "Choral." Nestled in the fourth movement of this classical masterpiece is 'Ode to Joy.' It's a composition of exquisite beauty, which to this day continues to give pleasure to listeners of fine music.
Beethoven finalized this masterwork of symphonic construction in 1824. The Ninth Symphony was the last complete symphony he composed.
The Ode to Joy section of the music originates from a work by Friedrich von Schiller. This German poet, playwright, and historian wrote a poem entitled 'Ode to Happiness' in 1785. Beethoven, inspired by this poem, used it as the basis for Ode to Joy as the finale of his great symphony.
Beethoven's attraction to Schiller's poem began in his more youthful days. When he was twenty-two, he had a desire to put music to the poem. In fact, by 1811, some of the text of Ode to Happiness found its way into the sketches for Beethoven's seventh and eighth symphonies.
Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. He was the second-oldest child of Johann van Beethoven, a man of musical background himself. Johann was a court musician and tenor in Bonn's Electoral court. Ludwig followed into music and gave his first piano performance in public at the tender age of eight.
For a short period, Franz Joseph Haydn taught Beethoven. The young Beethoven even had the opportunity to play for Mozart. By 1795 Beethoven's reputation as an excellent pianist was solid. His talents as an improviser were impressive, and he had the gift of composing 'off-the-cuff' with flair.
Beethoven began to notice signs of hearing loss around 1798. In 1801, he wrote a letter to his friend Karl Ameda that stated:
"My greatest faculty, my hearing, is greatly deteriorated."
When his Ninth Symphony premiered on May 7, 1824, he could not hear its performance. This first public performance took place in Vienna's Karntnertorm Theater. Of necessity, Beethoven's deafness required another conductor to direct the symphony orchestra. Beethoven did stand next to this conductor during the performance in order to give tempo directions.
When the performance ended, and the audience erupted with emotion and applause, Beethoven didn't notice. He stood with his back to the audience, facing the orchestra, still regulating tempo. Not until Fraulein Unger, a contralto, had him turn around did Beethoven witness the reception to his masterpiece.
The symphony as a whole is the work of a musical genius who labored over every facet of it. The famous Ode to Joy choral melody involved nose-to-the-grindstone work by Beethoven. It developed over many years draft by draft until he deemed it right. Although written for solo voice and chorus, Beethoven did consider an instrumental only version of the melody.
Through the years, the Ode to Joy has been a source of inspiration to peoples and cultures around the world. During China's Cultural Revolution, it received some distinction as a work that speaks of progressive class struggle.
It was the Ode to Joy that provided musical inspiration in Europe in 1989. That year, after the Berlin Wall came crumbling down, Leonard Bernstein performed the piece in Berlin. It was renamed Ode to Freedom, the word 'freedom' replacing the word 'joy' in the text. This beautiful melody filled the air to celebrate the end of the dividing wall between East and West Germany.
Today the music of Ode to Joy is the official anthem of the European Union. Its German lyrics, however, are not, out of deference to the many languages that make up the Union.
Ode to Joy remains a piece of pure art. It continues to give hope, inspiration, and plain old musical joy to peoples all over the world.
Duane Shinn is the author of the popular DVD home study course on playing piano titled The 52 Week Crash Course In Exciting Piano Playing!
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