A Note on Shipping & Postage

Orders shipped outside the U.S.A.

Basic Swing Guitar

Just released on DVD!

Swing and Jump Swing music has enjoyed a phenomenal popular resurgence in the last few years. Both modern and classic bands build their sound on swinging guitar rhythm.
Dix Bruce will teach you all the basics that you need to play this fun and energetic music:

• Moveable closed position chords in many keys
• How to get that "swing feel"
• How to back up a soloist
  
• Eight classic swing tunes in several keys
• Right and left hand technique, and much more

Learn eight carefully chosen and well-known songs that every swing musician plays. Dix starts you off with easy-to-learn two and three chord songs and gradually works through some of the greatest hits of the era with more advanced chord changes in the keys of G, A minor, F, Bb, and Ab. By the end of the session you'll know moveable swing & jazz chord forms and be able transpose thousands of songs to any key! You'll have the confidence and basic tools to play with any swing or jazz band. Dix Bruce is a well-known musician and music educator who has authored over thirty books and recordings. For the past ten years he has toured and recorded with San Francisco's Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. He is joined on this video by the exceptional jazz violinist Jeremy Cohen for a hot, swinging, full performance of each song. Great music, great instruction! Titles: Lady Be Good, Take Me Back to Tulsa, Minor Swing, Careless Love, Sweet Georgia Brown, Honeysuckle Rose, Blues in Bb #1, Blues in Bb #2, Rose Room, I Got Rhythm. "…one of the best introductory pieces for guitarists anxious to move beyond open chords. Highly recommended…" Flatpicking Guitar mag.

Basic Swing Guitar DVD by Dix Bruce $24.95.

Add $2.13 for Media Mail (ten days to two weeks or more); $4.60 for Priority Mail (two to three business days).

Dix, I just got your new(er) Basic Swing Guitar DVD from Mel Bay.  Great video, so thanks for doing it.  I’ve been fooling around with that stuff for years, without really getting too far.  You illustrate a lot in those 10 tunes on the video, and it makes sense.  I’ve known the chords for 20 years, but just hadn’t seen anyone explain and show how they fit together until now.

Thanks for your help.

DV, Anoka, MN

Basic Country Flatpicking Guitar

Now available on DVD!

Hot guitar licks abound these days but simple melodies played along with chord strums on the low strings of the guitar have never lost their appeal. Pioneered in the 1920s by the great Mother Maybelle Carter, this combination of lead and rhythm guitar playing is the foundation upon which all traditional country, folk, bluegrass, and hot flatpicking guitar is based.

Dix Bruce, noted acoustic guitarist and teacher, carefully teaches lead and backup guitar to nine classic country, bluegrass, and folk standards, ballads and hot breakdowns played by musicians the world over. Dix demonstrates the basic 'bass note/strum' technique and shows how melodies can be easily integrated into known chord patterns. Master leads on "Worried Man Blues" "Lonesome Valley," "Bury Me Beneath the Willow," "Storms are on the Ocean," and "Handsome Molly" in a variety of different keys. You'll also learn the all-time guitar hit "Wildwood Flower" and how to transpose it from the key of G to the key of C. Dix demonstrates more complex leads on "Redwing," "John Hardy," "Jimmie Brown the Newsboy" and more on the invaluable skill of transposing a song from one key to another. The instruction in this video will prepare you to play flatpicked leads in virtually any country, folk, and bluegrass ensemble.

Click here to go to "Downloads" & download a sample page of music from this DVD: "John Hardy."

First Lessons: Mandolin DVD

It doesn't get any easier than this!

If you've never had a mandolin in your hands before but want to learn to play it, this is the book/CD/DVD set for you. "First Lessons Mandolin" teaches the absolute basics of learning to play mandolin. Covers everything from holding the pick to performing easy mandolin tunes. You'll learn basic picking technique, how to tune the mandolin, all the important major, minor, seventh, and "bluegrass" mandolin chords, how to play easy melodies in several musical styles, and much more. The main goal is to get you up and playing the mandolin as quickly as possible and to have fun doing it. Jazz Review.com calls "First Lessons Mandolin" an "...excellent instruction book...a quick and entertaining way to learn how to play... invaluable!"

Choice of book and CD set OR book, CD, and DVD in one package!

Full description of book & DVD/ video content

Gets you started playing the world's most fascinating, yet small, stringed instrument.

Full description of book & video content.