In our recent mad dash to learn everything possible about the instrument, I've watched over a dozen titles from the Lick Library DVD series now. Odds are pretty strong that I will never watch another one in my life. There's probably hundreds more of them out there, I just can't bring myself to do it again. Based on what we've seen, the Wombat Radio staff agrees: the Lick Library brand is the reliable warning sign of a mediocre product.
That said, they're also pretty great.
It's always tempting to do a savagely sarcastic critical review, but 7th grade was a long time ago, so the sad legacy of the Lick Library is presented here as food for thought. What the hell are we learning guitar for?
Lick Library knows their target demo and they have their template down. Their approach is starkly simple: everything is black backgrounds and long single camera shots, but of course that's not inherently bad. The problems begin with the teachers, who are generally as engaging and competent as the average Guitar Center employee. Lessons are rambling, theory is sparse, and the overall feel is approximately public access cable. Lick Library stands as a contrast to the much beloved library of Homespun Tapes, which was a labor of love by one Happy Traum, who made it a point to feature the best musicians in their field.
Yet Lick Library excels, not as teaching material, but as a business model. By the dying standards of music publishing, their output has been huge, and it's instructive to look at the products in question. Success is shaped by demand, and the bulk of what gets sold under their banner falls into two categories: Styles for Dummies and Artists for Clones. Neither is intended as an insult, let me explain...
"Styles for Dummies" is exemplified by a DVD like "Rock Guitar in 6 Weeks" -- which is as close to a real life version of "Guitar for the Practicing Attorney" as real life gets. The focus is on shortcuts and paint-by-numbers examples, and the instruction was confusingly shallow until I realized the aim was looking good. Now, that's the valid goal of a big damn demographic, and they're all clearly buying up DVDs on Amazon in 2012.
"Artists for Clones" is a genre I can personally relate to more. I wanted to be a clone of everyone who inspired me to play and learn guitar, from David Gilmour to Leo Kottke to Ali Farka Toure. There is great value in learning every part of a Metallica song because those cats were outstanding songwriters. This is where Lick Library really shines and redeems itself, too. Teaching hit songs is exactly what the average Guitar Center employee is qualified to teach, after all, and giving people songs in context is a world away from the autopsy pointlessness of something like "50 Metal Killer Licks," which is actually not a joke title.
As much as Top 40 radio is synonymous with brain death, the canon of American Radio Rock actually has a ton of beautiful gems. The vocabulary of your average sports bar cover band is a simple one, but the jukebox always has room for immortal wizardry like Pink Floyd, Boston, Journey, Steely Dan -- really serious musicianship and ambitious song structures. Hell, I could have just brought up "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and left it at that.
Wagner and Schubert and Bach leak into pop music like it was a wooden basement, and the Old Masters hang out on vinyl and perpetually resurface like drug dealers on a college campus. Coltrane is always luring away lead guitar players for years at a time, and every metalhead shred technician I've met is obsessed with Django Reinhardt because they know. Even animals know. Everything loves good music, even plants.
These days, both Homespun and Lick Library have transitioned into online businesses, with podcast lessons, Facebook pages, all manner of shiny horseshit. No sense in bemoaning the progress of market logic, though. For instance, guitar magazines are glorified catalogs and hero worship and worse, but they're also the vehicle for a lot of quality information, not to mention the steady employment of a great many sketchy musician types. Taco Bell might be crap but they do feed people.
Still, distinctions are good, especially at the outset of a new project. Whatever this grows into, we're interested in the deep end of the pool...the heavy lifting, the really weird stuff. If there's anything I can say with certainty, it's this: I am writing for songwriters, not cover bands.
Either way, though, I love you all. Except for Aaron Gilmartin.
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