New Orleans Fingerstyle Blues Guitar features a mix of New Orleans-flavored fingerstyle guitar tunes. Cory Seznec takes you through songs such as Lookin' For A Woman and High Society inspired by the virtuosic playing of Snooks Eaglin, a laid back Latin rumba style version of Corrina, Corrina, a punchy brass band tinged, harmonically interesting rendition of the gospel tune Give Me Dat Ol' Time Religion, and an arrangement of the piano prodigy James Booker's scorching tune Classified.

The goal of the lesson is to help develop different right hand rhythmic techniques - rumba style, thumb dragging, bass movement, flamenco-esque strumming; and help the player develop passing chords and inversions, incorporate classic bluesy, New Orleanian ornamentation, and generally spice up left hand techniques. Within each song Cory breaks everything down and slowly walks the player through the arrangement. For any guitarist looking to branch out and try a new "feel"!

A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD. Each tune is taught phrase by phrase and played slowly on a split-screen.

Titles include: Lookin' For A Woman, High Society, Corrina, Corrina, Give Me Dat Ol' Time Religion and Classified

113 minutes - Level 3 - Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Review: Well here's a new teacher from Guitar Workshop with some really fresh approaches to fingerstyle Blues guitar! The syncopation and Rumba groove underpinning so much of the great New Orleans music is explored to great effect on ‚ "Corinna, Corinna‚" and ‚ "Looking For A Woman," and Seznec also brings Ragtime Jazz into a couple other tunes plus he's also adapted one of brilliant pianist James Booker's pieces to guitar.  

Five different tunes are taught, things that you can use to amaze yourself and your own audiences, and the techniques and chord inversions shown can also creep into your own compositions and arrangements. As is always the case with these DVD courses, there is a file with tablature showing exactly where each note is fingered on the neck, and once Cory plays the pieces, he breaks them down into sections teaching each part, then playing them back slowly with two cameras on his hands. Even a non- player could enjoy just playing through the performance segments as these are nice pieces of music, and in fact there's another unnamed one he plays while the credits roll! Guitar Workshop DOES have a few DVDs that are just performance without teaching, but none I know of yet on Cory Seznec - something to look forward to! Recommended to any fingerstyle guitarist and especially to those who love that New Orleans sound. - Blue Suede News 

Review: Franco-American musician Cory Seznec plays blues, early jazz, gospel and African music. Seznec's focus on complex rhythms and jazz chording should greatly interest intermediate and advanced fingerstyle guitarists. He presents the first tune, "Corrina, Corrina", as a rumba, which will challenge guitarists who favor solid 4/4 time. Learning to sing over his bass line will give the student a foundation in playing polyrhythmically - likewise the treble lines in the guitar breaks. Snooks Eaglin's "Lookin' For A Woman" delves further into rumba, including a triplet accent borrowed from New Orleans snare drum technique - think of Albert King's version of "Crosscut Saw", played solo. He uses a rubato approach for "Give Me Dat Ol' Time Religion", based on a published piano arrangement by J. Rosamond Johnson. Seznec's accompaniment to the vocal resembles a Gary Davis gospel arrangement, with melody played in unison with the voice, but the guitar breaks are much jazzier. Guitarists who absorb the ideas introduced here will have a good basis for creating their own bluesy, reflective arrangements. "Classified", inspired by the playing of pianist James Booker, has a light-hearted, danceable feel. The final tune, "High Society", comes from a 1961 recording by Snooks Eaglin, with Seznec adding some riffs from Blind Blake's "Blake's Breakdown" for good measure. This lesson follows Stefan Grossman's established format: full performance of a tune, discussion and demonstration of distinct sections, then a split screen run-through of the segment at a slow tempo. The download and dvd comes with a 31-page booklet of transcriptions in standard notation and tablature. Seznec progresses logically from simple to more complex rhythmic concepts throughout the lesson, so I recommend following the segments sequentially. It will take guitarists some time to master the techniques shown here, but the payoffs are greater rhythmic and harmonic facility that's applicable in many settings. - Patrick Ragains/Minor 7th

Review: Looking to hip-up your traditional repertoire? Meet cool cat Cory Seznec. He-along with other fresh faces like Dom Flemons, Erin Harpe and Alberto Lombardi-is infusing Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop faculty with young blood. And his "New Orleans Fingerstyle Blues Guitar" wastes no time pumping that oxygenated zing into your strings. Under Seznec's plan, the venerable earworm "Corrina, Corrina" slyly dips and stumbles its way past the pitfall of becoming the millionth rehash. His is the hippest overhaul you'll ever hear, stemming from the right-hand thumb locking down a rumba groove while the left hand engages in string rolls and bluesy flourishes-all without hindering the singalong chorus. "Lookin' for a Woman" also has rumba on its mind and fingers, likewise elevating the right hand into as much a star as is the left. Figuring heavily into that attack is the design of hometown bluesman Snooks Eaglin, right down to his flair for New Orleans flamenco. "High Society," the jazz standard upon which Eaglin built his reputation for blistered solos, remains just as imaginatively amphetamined. "Classified" converts the pianistics of James Booker, another local legend, into Blind Blake thumb drags and neck-long string strikes meant to flash like a keyboard glissando. And as for just how deeply rooted this lesson is: Seznec creatively springboards "Give Me Dat Ol' Time Religion" from an arrangement no younger than 92 years old. - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag 

Cory Seznec is a Franco-American musician who focuses on fingerstyle guitar and clawhammer banjo. He has released two solo albums and appears on numerous other recordings. Extensive travels, music tours with several different bands, musical encounters with amazing musicians from around the world and a passion for music history have helped him to develop his own distinct style that reflects his broad interests. After a 3.5 year stint in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Cory is now based in Paris, France.

Some time ago Cory began delving fairly deeply into the rich repertoire that is African-American Spirituals. Listening to the jubilee singers of yore, and some of the terrific recordings by Alan Lomax of vocal groups spurred him to find old hymnals and songbooks in order to arrange tunes for the guitar. Give Me Jesus is a soulful number that ended up being somewhat inspired by the playing of John Fahey, with down tempo strumming followed by more classic alternate bass picking. Roll De Chariot has a rollicking, syncopated feel that never really stays in one place, bouncing up and down the neck à la Revered Gary Davis. Lift Every Voice and Sing, aka the Black National Anthem, has a beautiful, harmonically rich feel and the 6/8 tempo allows the guitarist a fair amount of room in which to maneuver. Also included is a spirited version of This Train, originally inspired by Big Bill Broonzy's walking bass line, an arrangement of A Closer Walk With Thee that taps into the feel of a New Orleans brass band funeral procession, and a heavily swung and syncopated take on Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey's heart-wrenching piece Precious Lord, Take My Hand.

Titles include: Give Me Jesus, Precious Lord, Take My Hand, LIft Every Voice And Sing, Roll De Ol' Chariot Along, A Closer Walk With Thee, This Train Is Bound For Glory

100 minutes - Level 2/3 - Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Review: Cory Seznec is a skilled multi-instrumentalist living in Paris, France. He created this lesson soon after releasing the tutorial, New Orleans Fingerstyle Blues Guitar, this time covering six African American spirituals. The lesson is appropriate for intermediate and advanced fingerstyle players who already use some chord fingerings beyond the first position. For each piece, Seznec teaches accompaniments and instrumental breaks arranged for steel-string acoustic guitar. He used piano scores in several early black hymnals as sources, although New Orleans piano is another strong point of reference. The lesson follows Stefan Grossman's established format: Seznec performs each tune in its entirety, then teaches it section by section, including split screen examples showing his left and right hands as he plays at a slow tempo. A pdf file with each piece in standard notation and tablature accompanies the video. Introducing the first tune, "Give Me Jesus," Seznec cites John Fahey's arrangement of "Christ There is No East or West" as an influence, although, unlike Fahey, he incorporates both syncopation and melodic ornamentation. "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" may be the most familiar song in the lesson, and he teaches a pleasing arrangement with a chord melody-style break. Seznec also teaches a nice variation In "Lift Every Voice and Sing", in which he alternates between a chord melody approach and more traditional fingerpicking. "Roll De Old Chariot Along", "Just a Closer Walk With Thee", and "This Train is Bound For Glory" round out the lesson, and he closes with a short performance of "Death Don't Have No Mercy". Throughout, Seznec names and explains most chord voicings, an approach that should help guitarists develop effective voice leading in their accompaniments and instrumental breaks. Seznec's varied rhythms are no less important, as they lend liveliness to the music - think of Professor Longhair and James Booker for comparisons. He teaches these elements quite well while providing an in-depth look at his individual style. To sum up, this is a high-quality lesson that addresses some common needs of fingerstyle guitarists who sing or accompany others and want to spice up their playing. I recommend focusing at first on one or two of the pieces he teaches, then integrating the techniques into one's existing repertoire. – Patrick Ragains/Minor 7th     
  

This lesson features a mixed bag of seven songs that I’ve arranged in a variety of ways, employing tricks and licks that I’ve picked up over the years in my quest to find my own “style”. Each song has it’s own built-in exercises for fingerpicker’s looking to head in new directions. The old standard A Sin To Tell A Lie becomes a highly arpeggiated waltz with some fun licks up the neck. Somebody Stole My Gal incorporates counterpoint, chord inversions, and nice bass movement. The old jug band tune Sadie Green (The Vamp of New Orleans) gets revamped with a feel that bounces from down low New Orleans rumba to punchy ragtime picking and back again. A highly unorthodox treatment of Blind Willie McTell’s East St Louis

Blues gets deep into Cooder-esque syncopation, and a chorus was added to make it a little less repetitive. The instrumental “showpiece” No Hiding Place was influenced by Cool John Ferguson’s virtuosic zinger off of a Music Maker Relief Foundation music compilation (likely Ferguson’s take on the old gospel number No Hiding Place Down Here), and then taken on a bunch of detours. Those looking to “Africanize” their playing will enjoy Cory’s take on The Parting Glass, which takes this old Celtic drinking ballad on a trip to east Africa, featuring funky polyrhythms and muted strings in This lesson features a mixed bag of seven songs that I’ve arranged in a variety of ways, employing tricks and licks that I’ve picked up over the years in my quest to find my own “style”. Each song has it’s own built-in exercises for fingerpicker’s looking to head in new directions. The old standard A Sin To Tell A Lie becomes a highly arpeggiated waltz with some fun licks up the neck. Somebody Stole My Gal incorporates counterpoint, chord inversions, and nice bass movement. The old jug band tune Sadie Green (The Vamp of New Orleans) gets revamped with a feel that bounces from down low New Orleans rumba to punchy ragtime picking and back again. A highly unorthodox treatment of Blind Willie McTell’s East St Louis

Blues gets deep into Cooder-esque syncopation, and a chorus was added to make it a little less repetitive. The instrumental “showpiece” No Hiding Place was influenced by Cool John Ferguson’s virtuosic zinger off of a Music Maker Relief Foundation music compilation (likely Ferguson’s take on the old gospel number No Hiding Place Down Here), and then taken on a bunch of detours. Those looking to “Africanize” their playing will enjoy Cory’s take on The Parting Glass, which takes this old Celtic drinking ballad on a trip to east Africa, featuring funky polyrhythms and muted strings in 12/8.12/8.

Titles include: Somebody Stole My Gal, A Sin To Tell A Lie, No Hiding Place, East St. Louis Blues, The Parting Glass, Sadie Green (The Vamp of New Orleans)

240 minutes - Level 4 - Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD