Sierra Hull: Mandolin DVD

Published by Brance on February 18th, 2010
Filed under CD and DVD releases
Tags: AcuTab, mandolin

Set to be released in March of 2010, the new Sierra Hull DVD, Secrets Songs & Tunes, is now available only through AcuTab Publications and directly from Sierra herself.

The project is a 2 disc instructional DVD set featuring instruction from one of bluegrass music’s brightest young stars. Sierra teaches the mandolin solos from her CD Secrets, as well as a few instrumental tunes she had previously recorded.

From the back cover of the DVD:

Sierra teaches these songs carefully and in great detail. She and John discuss each solo before it is demonstrated by an all-star band, and then she breaks it down, piece-by-piece. Even though a few of the solos are fairly difficult, the way she teaches puts them within the reach of most pickers.

Even at this relatively young age (we filmed 2 years ago and Sierra was only 16 at the time), Sierra proved to be a professional in the studio. Shooting this project was easy, due in large part to Sierra’s preparedness coming into the studio. She knew the material and went through it easily. Editing was made easy because, well…she just doesn’t make mistakes!

Here’s the trailer we put together for the finished product. Remember, the two disc set includes 4 hours of instruction!

Jim Van Cleve Fiddle DVD

Published by Brance on September 19th, 2009
Filed under CD and DVD releases
Tags: AcuTab, fiddle, Jim Van Cleve

Recently finished and just released, the new 2 disc fiddle instructional DVD from AcuTab Publications, Jim Van Cleve: become a more complete fiddler.

This two DVD set includes some great material on learning to find the melody in any key, transpose to another key, finding your place in the band, etc. And of course, Jim teaches several of his acrobatic tunes!

Shooting this DVD was a lot of fun, and we edited two trailers for it. One is completely serious and intended to show you what’s on the DVDs, the other was just for fun and gives you a brief glimpse behind the scenes at the fun we had in the studio.

The product is available from AcuTab for $50.

First, the real trailer.

Now the fun trailer!

Ron Block DVD

Published by Brance on November 24th, 2008
Filed under CD and DVD releases
Tags: AcuTab, banjo

Just today we finished editing the new AcuTab DVD featuring Ron Block. The DVD is titled Ron Block – A Fresh Look At Bluegrass Banjo, and is available for purchase from AcuTab’s online store.

Shooting this DVD was a lot of fun. Ron is a great player, and a great person. He is very detail oriented and his DVD ended up being so long we had to decide between cutting out a bunch of stuff, or making it a two disc set. The discussion and material were so good we just couldn’t bring ourselves to cut much out, so we ended up with a two disc set that runs just over 3.5 hours in total length.

It includes nearly an hour of discussion between Ron and AcuTab’s John Lawless. Topics covered in the discussion include Ron’s background, influences, practice routine and tips, Ron’s unique take on positions and scales for banjo, dynamics, bends, tone and setup.

Following the discussion is 2.5 hours of Ron teaching, in detail, his breaks to seven songs from the Alison Krauss & Union Station repertoire.

To give you a taste of what it looks like, we put together this 5 minute trailer for the DVD set.

Get To Know Your Acoustic Guitar

Published by Brance on March 19th, 2008
Filed under CD and DVD releases
Tags: AcuTab, guitar

Not long ago we finished up the latest AcuTab release, Get To Know Your Acoustic Guitar. This DVD is an exploration of the care and maintenance of an acoustic, steel-stringed guitar. The on-screen personality is renowned guitar builder and repair specialist, Marty Lanham.

Marty is extremely knowledgeable about what makes a guitar work. And on this DVD he explains a lot of the physics behind the guitar and lets you, the owner, know how to care for your guitar, when to have it serviced by a professional, and what to look for when purchasing a new guitar.

We traveled to Nashville and recorded this in Marty’s repair shop. He had a number of vintage Martins and other guitars on hand to use as demonstrations during the presentation. If you are into the guitar, you’ll want this DVD. It’s available from AcuTab.com for $35.

Adam Steffey DVD: clip

Published by Brance on May 21st, 2007
Filed under CD and DVD releases
Tags: AcuTab, mandolin

Here’s a video clip from the soon to be released Adam Steffey DVD. We’ve finished production and the DVD, actually it’s a two disc set, will be available from AcuTab Publications in early June. I’ve got a write up about in over on The Bluegrass Blog.

This clip features Adam performing Daybreak In Dixie and being accompanied by Barry Bales and Kenny Smith. On the disc of course, he goes on to teach his break to the tune. Enjoy!

Ron Stewart Fiddle DVD

Published by Brance on January 4th, 2007
Filed under CD and DVD releases
Tags: AcuTab, fiddle

Recently completed and currently available for purchase through AcuTab.com is the latest DVD production to be completed here at CBP, Ron Stewart – Playing Fiddle In The Bluegrass Style. Ron is a great fiddler who plays with bluegrass legend J.D. Crowe and The New South. He’s also a sought after session player for many bluegrass recordings. The DVD is roughly 90 minutes in length and covers everything from basic technique to advanced solos to some of his own songs. You can read more about it on the Acutab site.

Ron is accompanied on the disc during his performance of each tune by Kenny Smith and Harold Nixon. I was very pleased with the audio we got on this recording.

Another nice feature is something we’ve done on the last several AcuTab DVDs. During the teaching of the tunes we present a fast and slow version of the artist playing through the song in a split screen, or dual frame, set up. On this DVD, as well as the last several, we’ve included alternate angles of this portion of the presentation. This allows the viewer to switch between several different views of the artist’s hands.