I have found my ideal jazz teacher on YT

Danny1969

In a world of ultra polite generic Helix patching guitar teachers,  this guy is like a breath of fresh air. Someone completely real who literally doesn't give a fuck 

blobb

Great stuff. One finger per fret, you have a right hand as well as a left hand, learn where notes repeat themselves and finally link it all together. That's basically his lesson here and coincidentally was the first advice I was given when I started playing. Funny how accurate that turned out to be. Thanks for sharing.

greejn

Jimmy Bruno is great, check out his playing with Frank Vignola too.

joeW

Best dressing gown in the business.  What a dude. 

greejn

Youtube: Frank Vignola and Jimmy Bruno playing some blues in Bb.

Brad

Jimmy is the man. In the Buddy Rich Big Band at 19, playing with Sinatra or the session scene with Tommy Tedesco, that’s not even scratching the surface. He’s really done it all. 

I’d highly recommend the albums Sleight Of Hand, Burnin’ and Like That, with the late, but incredibly great Joey DeFrancesco. 

He’s the last of a dying breed is Jimmy. I could listen to him all day. 

susbemol

I think Jimmy Bruno is an incredible guitarist but I'm not sure about his teaching.

Maybe it's just me or where I was at the time musically as there are plenty of people out there that seem to really like his material.

I like his no bullshit approach and personality but I didn't find much of the content on his DVD (remember those?!) helpful or inspiring the last time I tried to study it many years ago.

There was some good stuff on it tbf but it was more the way he seemed to want to reinvent the wheel, wanting to use his own nomenclature for standard stuff (so scales are now "pitch collections", etc) which I felt was just odd and not very helpful.

Brad

susbemol said:

I think Jimmy Bruno is an incredible guitarist but I'm not sure about his teaching.

Maybe it's just me or where I was at the time musically as there are plenty of people out there that seem to really like his material.

I like his no bullshit approach and personality but I didn't find much of the content on his DVD (remember those?!) helpful or inspiring the last time I tried to study it many years ago.

There was some good stuff on it tbf but it was more the way he seemed to want to reinvent the wheel, wanting to use his own nomenclature for standard stuff (so scales are now "pitch collections", etc) which I felt was just odd and not very helpful.

That’s definitely a fair appraisal. I think as long as one has confidence in their own knowledge and playing, then it's easy enough to apply all the good stuff he offers, regardless of what he might call things or how he goes about explaining it.

But for those that maybe are still unsure of music, knowing the fretboard etc I can fully appreciate his approach (and manner ) being somewhat difficult to navigate. 

Blueingreen

One thing Bruno said that stuck with me, that he never felt he cut it as a top session guy because it wasn't a good fit for his talents - he made too many mistakes.  A reminder that even the top guys aren't necessarily good at everything.  Most of the top session guys probably couldn't touch Jimmy as a jazz player, but he wasn't as good as them at what they did either.