Reviews

Worldwide Students Speak

4955 reviews
91%
(4507)
9%
(448)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
S
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
g
Vol. 4 - Ticket To Improv
gerald mckinnon
volume four

Super excellent

J
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.

M
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.

Preferred Gauge Strings

J
Preferred Gauge Strings
Jack Marchewka
My choice of strings

For my Entradas. These strings came with my Entradas so I’m sticking with them. Live the wound 3rd string. Great tone and playability!

Chord Melody at Its Best!

This is a great DVD to start building your chord melody repertoire. Mr. Conti walks you thru the classic “Since I Fell for You” and provides you with several ways to approach the tune using a series of different chordal harmonic arrangements. Besides learning to play the song several different ways, Mr. Conti is at the ready with his famous “Off the Sheet” tips. These are items that not part of the regular lesson plan, but are sure to help take your chord melody playing to an even higher level. Of the Chord Melody arrangements, this is my personal favorite, but after finishing the DVD, I purchased ALL the other Chord Melody DVDs as I was so inspired to learn more.

Vintage Guitar Magazine Interview

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on pinterest

Anybody so into jazz guitar that they think they’ve seen it all may want to take a gander at the video clips on Robert Conti’s website.  Chances are they’ll end up joining the growing ranks of those who start wondering where he – or we – have been.

It could be chalked up to the “flying under the radar” maxim, but get to know  Conti’s inconceivable chops, astounding technique, and downright revered teaching materials, and it seems more likely he’s simply been flying above it.  A Philly native, Conti grew up with  fellow jazzer Pat Martino, was gigging on the road by his early teens, has released a number of recordings (including The Living Legends with Joe Pass), and spent years playing and teaching in Florida and L.A. Now settled in Las Vegas, Conti is still gigging and has a flourishing internet-based business through which he markets instructional books and DVDs.  He recently celebrated his 60th birthday  with the release of a new CD and the fifth volume in each of three instructional DVD series.

Vintage Guitar: Walk us through the new CD a bit.

Robert Conti: To The Brink was recorded in Vegas and contains several originals, a couple of Mark Stefani tunes, and a couple of standards – “Our Love is Here to Stay” and “Here’s That Rainy Day.”  Billy Moran played Hammond B-3 and is one of my regular sidemen in Las Vegas.  Rocco Barbato, a rather new discovery of mine, is on sax.   And Aldo Bentivegna was the drummer in my L.A. quartet.

What guitars and amps did you use?

My preferred six-string is the Höfner Jazzica.  The carved top is extremely activeand micro-responsive; that instrument reacts instantly to every nuance from the player.  I’m working with a luthieron a hybrid design of it that I’ll present to Höfner for consideration. The amp is a Polytone Mini-Brute IV.  It produces a very warm sound, even though it’s solid state.  A few years ago, I discovered the Bluetube by PreSonus, a preamp that  has become a staple for me, as it does two things extremely well – the tube substantially warms up the top end, and it boosts the usually weak signal from the guitar pickup, hot as a firecracker if you need it. The Bluetube is the perfect fix for cold-sounding amps.  And I used to use very heavy string gauges, starting with a .016 on top.  But the tips of my finger started bleeding, so  I settled on .011-.048 for my six-strings.  On my eight-string guitars, I add a .090for the low B and a .12 for the low F#.  I’ve always been happy with plain nickel GHS strings. I see guitarists buying far more  expensive strings, but to my ears there is no appreciable difference in sound.

Tell us about the new DVDs.

There are 15 total.  Each series of five is focused on single-note improvisation, but Big City Blues is geared to blues tunes and changes; The Smoking Lineman is focused on bebop, and The Sound Of Rio is focused on bossa nova tunes.

Many of your students say that with your material, things finally clicked.  How have you been able to break the theoretical into workable tools?

Before production, I watched several videos.  With rare exception, the player/instructor would present some abstract  idea followed by a directive to “go make music.”  That’s not the type of video I wanted to present, so each of my DVDs is focused on a tune selected based on the level of improvising difficulty. In the opening segment, I play an improvised solo with a rhythm section.  Then I begin breaking that solo down into easily understandable two-measure segments.  The camera zooms in on my left hand and I explain every note of the subject line.

Talk about your right-hand technique and why you stress the importance of using the proper pick.

It generally comes as a shock to most players that I use a .38mm pick.  Although a little more rigid, it’s not much thicker than a piece of paper.  The up/down stroke of the pick in my right hand is restricted to little more than the thickness of the string.  Any additional space in the up/down pick stroke is wasted motion, especially at an upper-level tempo where one is playing eighth or 16th notes.

What’s your next project?

The time demands of performing and developing my learning products haven’t allowed me to record as much as I should have during the last 15 years.  I’m still performing, but I’m also now in an aggressive recording mode.  I’ve received a truckload of requests for an improvisation DVD directed at entry-level jazz guitarists.  It’s in production.

–Ann Wickstrom

Share this post with your friends

1 thought on “Vintage Guitar Magazine Interview”

  1. Amazing how much difference pick choice makes.
    Was on the thick and heavy as possible band wagon for years, but then tried Conti’s approach.
    Little or no wasted motion in picking and a thin pick.
    Dumped the heavy picks and now only use Dunlop 500s 0.46mm. or Tortex Reds. 0.50mm

    Reply

Leave a Comment

black friday sale Details

Take advantage of this great opportunity to save big on the most effective jazz guitar learning resources on the planet – as verified by nearly 5000 reviews.

Through November 30, 2023, use coupon code BFCM23 at checkout (be sure to click the apply button!) to save 30% on all learning resources, both shipped and streaming. Please note that Conti Guitars are not included in this sale event, but we still have a couple of the heavily discounted Entrada prototypes available!