#36389  by old man down
 
I've been following his vids now for about 4 months on You Tube, and hands down, compared to everyone else making GD vids, he is the most enjoyable to watch.

Why?

Because he is a self deprecating, sincere, passionate devotee to the guitar work of Jerry Garcia. And, more than this, he is a comedian teacher. He makes you interested in all things Grateful Dead by realy knowing his stuff, and by adding humor to his posts.

An example: I was following one of his lessons this morning and he said,

"You want to know the secret to playing like Jerry Garcia?"

Now I still use dial up for a modem, so I have to wait for each little nano second to download, and so I wait for the secret to be revealed ever so slowly, and it adds to the excitement, to the anticipation.

But what does he do? He keeps me waiting! He acts as though it is THE secret, and so he looks both ways, side to side, to make sure no one will hear him.

"The secret is..."

Again he looks from side to side and then looks you in the eyes like here it is, the big SECRET!!!, that only you and him will know. (yet he's posting it on the Internet for the whole world to hear)

And then he tells you what the secret is (I'm not going to give it away.) and proceeds to give a guitar lesson along the lines of Jerry Garcia.

Just great!!!

I've followed him out to Tucson, AZ listening to him call his pretend road crew asking where the hell are they for his Jack Straw low down.

Followed him to Woodstock, watched him explain all sorts of songs, and he'll always throw in the coolest snippets of sound or video to drive home his point.

He's the master of Grateful Dead tutorial in the 21st century.

 #36393  by LazyLightnin
 
love jdarks. although ive kinda gotten lost with those vids, he did give me a shot out in one of them. cool to get a thank you from the man himself. his tab page also has helped me immmensly. the man deserves all the credit in the world. wish i had a cam...

 #36420  by Pete B.
 
Yes, I am a big JDarks fan, too.
I have spent a fair amount of time deciphering some of his tabs, and they are very good, although tab can be a bear to figer out sometimes.

I recall the vid with the secret, but can't remeber what it was.
Which vid was that?

 #36422  by IamDocWatson
 
it seems darks has had a re-birth of interest in getting good on guitar.....check out some of his first vids...i remember watching those thinking..this guy has a great ear, but he is sloppy or rusty or something...the guy could barely pull off his own tabs up to speed...he was slowing them down or not on beat or just a little rough and sloppy...over time u can see he has been practicing steadily again and getting his chops back...its been fun to watch...

 #36436  by Pete B.
 
Oh Yeah... That part of the secret about being able to hear music, melody, etc, and giving your self the tools to be able to play it, chords, scales, arppegios, etc, as he says, is a pretty strong point, and well taken.
When I was first learnig to play pedal steel, the book I was using used the same coupla songs, with beginner, intermediate, and advanced versions of each song.
I think this is a good idea for learning Jerry stuff, because it is heard to go from never having played Slipknot, for example, to being able to play it exactly like Jerry, at full speed.
For example, I find leaving off the last note of the ascending diminished runs, and the last note of the decsending run just after the "slipknot", allows you to get your hand in place for the next position, and it still sounds just fine. After you master that, start adding in the extra note(s), and get that up to speed.
~pb
Last edited by Pete B. on Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 #36440  by IamDocWatson
 
hey man i play dobro and really been itching to progress to pedal steel also...but im having a problem finding a nice steel...the "beginer" ones are only about 800-1000 but they look like they will break in 2 days ya know...but really the only other kind i find are super expensive and all custom etc....do u have any brands or stores in mind that i could check out for a beginner but not cheaply made steel...like if i catch on i want it to last me through my learning period, and not break...but i dont want to spend 5,000 on my first one just in case i wouldnt stick with it...(not likely but i cant spend that much on an instrument ive never even tried to play yet)

 #36447  by caspersvapors
 
Im proud to have been mentioned in a couple of his vids, hes awesome. really looking forward to his eyes vid, since I remember sending him an email requesting that.

he also sent me a dvd of his first 40 youtube vids :cool:

 #36470  by deadguise
 
JDarks is totally cool. I'm glad this thread was started so we can show our appreciation. It take a good ear and a lot of work to figure out all the Jerry & Bobby riffs, then to top it off, he tabs it out and shares it to all.

 #36958  by amyjared
 
Funny, I like the vid's but they don't really help me much. I wish he would slow things down and play it again at half speed. That would help me more.

 #36998  by Tennessee Jedi
 
The Darkness is the man!
His vids are so entertaining.
I love peoples stories and he should do more of his life shit now that everyone has gotten to know him.
Like when he breaks out the ticket stubs and looks back on the shows he saw...
The little road trip episodes...
He introduced me to Resurrection guitars with his awesome little number.
Hes turned me onto Steal Your Face, an album I pretty much have ignored but he uses for some tab.
Love how he shows up in all those vids with different git boxes-Fenders,PRS,the Resurrection,acoustics,etc.
Would love to met that cat someday.
Maybe he could do a "Guest star" on RUKIND someday.
Yo Darks You the Man!
Thanks man !
Dude can you do Let It Grow sometime?
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 #37033  by nicolasalk
 
amyjared wrote:Funny, I like the vid's but they don't really help me much. I wish he would slow things down and play it again at half speed. That would help me more.
happens the same with me

 #37084  by ebick
 
Tennessee Jedi wrote:Maybe he could do a "Guest star" on RUKIND someday.
Not exactly sure what you mean by that but he is always welcome here.

 #37088  by Tennessee Jedi
 
Could be like when Sam from Cheers was on Frasier!
"Hey all you RUKIND Heads out there!"
No No...More Like when Santana would sit in with the Dead!Yeah thats it.
Actually I was hoping he would throw a big party on his spread for all us Hippies.
:lol:
He does mention TigerStrat in the notes for CandyMan and he provides a link so you know hes ruKIND.
Hey Ebick bet you got some good stories about the good ole days.huh?

 #37129  by jck_strw
 
jdarks is good, but he does tend to go a bit fast for me. And reading his tabs are sometimes difficult--his formatting is all over the place sometimes. But he's a good resource if I ever decide to play again.

And I think he's very much in love with himself on the camera. Billbbill mentioned it awhile back (I think) and it was subtle then, but now (with his road trips, etc.) it's much more obvious. There's a man who's not afraid of the camera, that's for sure. :)

But he knows his shit and has an excellent setup.