Rusty Cooley Fretboard Autopsy
I’ve probably said this before so stop me if I have, oh you can’t ah well, when I started playing guitar waaaaaay back in the late 80′s instructional videos were on VHS cassettes which meant it was a linear experience. You had a certain amount of control such as slow motion playback, rewind and fast forward and of course pause but the more you did all this the more the tape wore out and you ended up with noise lines all over the picture! Also the audio quality was pretty questionable to start with compared with today’s standards and that also deteriorated if you kept watching the tape over and over! These days of course instructional DVDs have much more to offer and Rock House Method have created some great products for Rock and Metal guitarists from beginner to advanced. I will cover some of the other titles in the coming weeks but I’d like to start with the DVD that caught my attention recently “Fretboard Autopsy” by shredmeister Rusty Cooley.

Fretboard Autopsy is a 2 DVD series that can be purchased separately or if you would like to save a few bucks as a package deal in the Rock House Method online store, you will save $15 buying both at the same time. So what is it? Well as the title suggests Rusty has created a complete tutorial to help you visualise the fretboard by first playing all 7 modes moving up the fretboard (which is also included in a tab booklet inside the DVD cover) and then by creating patterns that overlap the different 3 note per string mode patterns to help you see the relationships. Now don’t expect this series to be an in-depth tutorial on Rusty’s incredible speed shredding style, you do get to see a lot of his techniques as he plays the examples up to speed (and I mean speed!) but he doesn’t dwell on the technical points of his playing, this video is purely mode examples to help you get out of the box positions. Once he has finished going through all the modes Rusty introduces some patterns which use 12 notes in the root position and then shift up to the next position for the next 12 notes. Now you could quite easily play these examples and not realise what you have just done but Rusty keeps emphasising how you are shifting up and using notes from the next mode position again to help you visualise the modal patterns and make you realise how easy it is to move around the fretboard. Another set of patterns Rusty uses are the modes minus the 7th which creates a set of repeated 6 note (3 notes per string) patterns which are simple to memorise and have you leaping from the 3rd fret on the bottom E to the 12th fret on the top E without having to change your fingering. I wish someone had shown me these simple ideas when I was starting out it would have helped me get out of my pentatonic rut when it was time to improvise!

The second DVD takes the pattern based ideas further although there does seem to be quite a lot of overlapping content that is the same which I found a bit weird especially if you had bought the 2 DVDs separately. Anyway once you get past the repeated section there are some cool reverse linear patterns which I think every guitarist would find very useful and certainly help you move around the fretboard with much more confidence. These DVDs are no quick fix, as with any lesson it is a matter of digesting the material and then committing it to memory in every possible position, something I hate doing but I really need to! If you were to take everything on board in these videos you would have a pretty solid arsenal of patterns to use in your improvisations or riff writing.

UPDATE: Joe from Rock House Method updated me on why there is some overlapping content:
There are just a few things that purposely overlap, they have to just in case someone only purchased level 2, they must have the foundation for all the patterns and sequences in both. If someone just purchased level 1 or level 2 they would need this as the building blocks for each program.
Thanks for the update Joe, that makes sense.

Another nice feature of the DVDs are the extras that come as part of the package. First of all you get a 30 minute interview with Rusty Cooley, unfortunately both DVDs contain the same interview but it is very interesting and gives you some insight into Rusty’s influences and how he focussed on practice at an early age. At the end of the 1st DVD Rusty takes you through his gear and explains how he designed his signature RC7G 7 string Dean guitar too. You also get a Rusty Cooley music video to watch and you also get access to the Rock House Method online members area where you can access the forums, extra tabs, backing tracks and applications to help you out like a metronome and a guitar tuner.

These DVDs are aimed at guitarists with some theory knowledge you should know what modes are if you are to fully appreciate this course but it is not essential it may even teach you everything you need to know about modes in the process of watching. I think Intermediate and Advanced players would both benefit from this excellent series, Rusty is a good teacher who instructs clearly and concisely which, considering he is self taught shows how much of a natural musician he is. The only thing I find annoying is that Rusty has his guitar tuned down a half step for both videos, which although he explains and gives you the tuning notes for, if you are like me and have a floyd rose style trem you aren’t going to want to tune down to play along to the examples. I don’t really understand why he didn’t have his guitar setup to standard tuning just for the video.

Rock House Method
Rusty Cooley Official Site

Rock House Method issued a press release last week stating that the legendary Metal and Jazz master Alex Skolnick and Brazillian sensation Kiko Loureiro have signed up to do Instruction DVD’s too!