So, you want to play just like Robert Johnson? Well, thanks to Scott Ainslie, you may be able to make a better deal than Johnson is reported to have gotten…This is an engaging and well-made instructional DVD and worth giving a try if you have the urge to play the blues.

-Dirty Linen Magazine

Robert Johnson’s Guitar Techniques
taught by Scott Ainslie

So, you want to play just like Robert Johnson? Well, thanks to Scott Ainslie, you may be able to make a better deal than Johnson is reported to have gotten. In the course of this one-hour video, Scott Ainslie analyses the techniques that Johnson likely employed in seven of his recordings: Kindhearted Woman Blues, Sweet Home Chicago, Drunken Hearted Man, Ramblin’ On My Mind, Walkin’ Blues, Come On In My Kitchen and Crossroad Blues.

These lessons will probably be most easily put to use by folks who have been playing guitar for awhile. Beginners are likely to find them difficult and/or dangerous to the rewind motor of their VCR. Ainslie does a good job of demonstrating the songs generally and, in particular, gives a very useful display of left-hand (fretting) technique. There is somewhat less to go on for the right (picking) hand technique, and a little more general information about slide-playing techniques (string damp, etc.) would undoubtedly be helpful.

On the whole though, this is an engaging and well-made instructional [DVD] and worth giving a try if you have the urge to play the blues.

–Dirty Linen Magazine