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Reviews

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4961 reviews
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Vol. 1 Signature Chord Melody Arrangements
Dr Kenneth Louis - Tampa, FL
He gets you playing

I have all of his stuff and have met him and Mike, part of his sales organization. I have almost every jazz method - my wife can attest to that. He lived in Jacksonville FL for awhile. I particularly like his chord melody material. Controversial using an extremely thin pick (Dunlop .38 mm). Almost a Suzuki approach - he gets you playing complete songs first, then adds back in the theory

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Entrada Archtop Guitar
James P Burke III
Plays so smoothly…Outstanding Customer Service

My Conti Entrada plays so smoothly and is so BEAUTIFUL too. Thank you for providing outstanding customer service. Including the personalized video of Robert Conti playing my actual guitar was so SPECIAL. No other guitar company has ever provided this HIGHLY INDIVIDUALIZED customer service. This was one of the best online guitar purchases that I’ve ever made. Thanks Mike for answering all of my questions and assisting with my patience during the building and processing period. I am now a PROUD owner of a CONTI GUITAR!!
James P. Burke III
Accokeek, Maryland, USA

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Entrada Archtop Guitar
Protean Polymath
A much-needed dream come true...

2024 - 2 Entrada Archtop Guitars

Wonderful guitars. I call them my “fraternal twins”. Both of my Robert Conti designed guitars play magnificently, and carry the sound of a full size electrified arch top with the amazing dual Kent Armstrong pickups, Fantastic workmanship. They are both stunning beauties. One cannot go wrong with purchasing such a guitar that is in the superlative. The best design of a guitar that has ever existed, a much-needed dream come true for the working, professional guitarist, or hobbyist. A special thank-you goes out to Robert Conti, for the videos showing these guitars in action, as well as Mike, and Steve for all their help and correspondence regarding my purchases of these very fine guitars. Plus, all the course materials that I have purchased over the years are available on the site to all who want to improve their improvisational skills.

2009 - Equity Model

Case closed, this is the guitar of the future. The appointments far exceed all my expectations and make all of my studies pertaining to jazz guitar a monumental pleasure. Many bell-like tones, bone nut, perfect neck, solid woods. All my other guitars are now on probation. Once you get your hands on a "Conti/Equity" guitar, there is no turning back.

-Protean Polymath, Kingston, NY USA

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Entrada Archtop Guitar
Scott Tarulli
Berklee Professor Reviews Lefty Entrada

See Attached Video Review by Scott Tarulli of Boston, MA

Judge.me YouTube video placeholder
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Vol. 4 - Ticket To Improv
gerald mckinnon
volume four

Super excellent

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The Jazz Lines
Jack Marchewka
Just getting started

Worked though the first two lessons of the Jazz Lines book (more to go), but it opened a door for me. I’ve come to understand there is a difference between theory and harmony. This is about learning harmony. If you want to play jazz learn harmony.

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Vol. 4 Wave
Mike Sanders - Las Vegas, NV
One of Conti's Best Solo Lessons

All of the Robert Conti DVDs are top-notch, but this one takes the cake. He takes what some consider to be a harmonically complex tune and breaks it done into the simplest of terms. From here, the viewer is taken through the lesson a few measures at a time, with each concept explained in detail and with care. Once you have the lesson under your hands, you not only have an impressive solo but an increased vocabulary of lines to use on other songs and a better understanding of how to approve improvisation over any song. Great fun and well worth the effort. If you are new to improvisation, I recommend learning from a few of Conti’s “Ticket to Improv” DVDs first as you will internalize the lesson much faster and have a greater understanding of the concepts presented.

Play Pro Chord Melody Today Review – Vols. 1 & 2

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Having just gotten Robert Conti’s new DVDs “Since I Fell For You” and “God Bless the Child”, I thought sme here might be interested in what these are like. Both these DVDs follow the same format in print and intent as his books on chord melody. Each DVD only treats ONE tune, the title of the DVD. That way, he has a lot of time to devote to making sure the student “gets it”.

As with his books, his approach is to get the music into your hands first and foremost, and then to explore what he is doing and why. He references his two chord melody books “Chord Melody Assembly Line” and “The Formula”, as these are an integral part of understaind what is going on and why. However, it is not necessary to have either of these books to learn to play the tune that is the primary subject of each DVD.

Each DVD has a PDF file that contains the arrangement in the same printed format as Conti’s books of chord melody arrangements,
along with a page or two of tips for approaching the music and DVD. If I can access and print these easily on my Linux system, I am sure there will be no compatibility issues with Windows or Mac. On the inside cover of the DVD, he tells you how to access the PDF on these two systems.

In addition to thoroughly teaching the designated tune, Conti also talks about how to determine the audience and play to them. He clearly has a professional attitude toward workig as a musician. He said that he loves to “burn at 300 BPM”, but there is a time and place for that. Often, “society” and corporate gigs require playing “nice” music where you tend to stay with the melody, rather than “blowing”. His chord melody work is for that, though instead of “blowing”, he does creative things with the harmony and adds some fills and interesting things around the melody. He stresses that keepng a “pulse” so the listener knoews where you are in the tuneis important too.

Conti takes the tune measure by measure, and spends time talking about various ways to harmonize it, embellishments, etc. The DVD menu has the measures grouped in a sensible way, based on how he approaches teaching it. So, he may have a two measure intro, and that is one selection, followed by one or two measures, a bridge, etc. The menu is well laid out and makes going between sections of the tune quite easy to do.

To me, while these DVDs easily stand on their own, I also thinkthat they are really an excellent addition to his chord melody books. DVDs are another way of viewing the material and brining it home. Conti’s teaching style is really well suited to this medium.

I have a lot of various books, DVDs, and CDs teaching various aspects of guitar, and once agian, I have to say that Conti’s materials are far and away the most effective, especially for self-learning. These new DVDs really bring his chord melody teaching to life, and he is able to provide a lot more insight on these that really builds on what his books teach.

Tony Beltran
Posted in rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz
September 16, 2006

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