Vol_18_No_1

$6.00

Magazine Volume 18, Number 1 November/Decem November/December ber 2013

Joey McKenzie

Michael Daves Dave Keenan Winfield 2013

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

November/December 2013

1

“I love the longevity that I get out of GHS Strings. Strings. They outlast any string I’ve tried. Top that off with the tone and brightness they contain and I have it all. You may have a good sounding sounding instrument, instrume nt, but GHS Strings Strings will make make it sound better!” Bull Harman

www.bullharman.com

GHS Corporation 2813 Wilber Ave. Battle Creek, Creek, MI 49015 49015 / / 800 388 444 4447. 7. fax 800 800 860-6913

ghsstrings.com 2





1

CONTENTS

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Volume 18, Number 1 November/December 2013 Published bi-monthly by: High View Publications P.O. Box 2160 Pulaski, VA 24301 Phone: (540) 980-0338 Fax: (540) 980-0557 Orders: (800) 413-8296 E-mail: highview@atpick.com Web Site: http://www.atpick.com ISSN: 1089-9855 Dan Miller - Publisher and Editor Connie Miller - Administration Jackie Morris - Administration Contributing Editors: Dave McCarty Chris Thiessen

Subscription Rate ($US): US $30.00 ($60.00 with CD) Canada/Mexico $40.00 Other Foreign $43.00 All contents Copyright © 2013 by High View Publications unless otherwise indicated Reproduction of material appearing in the Flatpicking Guitar Magazine is forbidden without written permission Printed in the USA

FEATURES

Joey McKenzie & Western Swing Rhythm Flatpick Profile: Michael Daves & “John Henry” Flatpicking Highlight: Dave Keenan & “Old Pie Cherry 2013 National Flatpicking Championship

6 30 45 54

COLUMNS

“First of May” Craig Vance Roots of Flatpicking - Lonnie Johnson: “Handful of Riffs” Joe Carr Beginner’s Page: “Nellie Kane” Dan Huckabee Kaufman’s Corner: “When You’re Smiling” Steve Kaufman Taking It To The Next Level: “Silent Night” John Carlini Nashville Flattop: Crosspicking Accents Brad Davis “Ages and Ages Ago ” Kathy Barwick “John Hardy” Orrin Starr “Whispering” Dix Bruce “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes” Mike Maddux Western Swing Comping Jerry Carris Sharpening the Axe: The Power of the Etude Jeff Troxel Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes: “Cattle in the Cane,” “Rabbit in a Pea Patch” &“Sheep & Hogs”, “Turkey in the Cotton Woods” Adam Granger Diversity in Soloing: “Plain of Jars” Shawn Persinger Across the Tracks Dan Crary Chosing A Song Kacey Cubero

14 17 20 22 25 28 37

Reviews: Editor’s Picks Gear

39 41 49 58 58

61 63 66 67

69

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Podcast We are now broadcasting a new Podcast every month

Interviews, fatpicking tunes, and more. Check it out: http://www.fatpick.com/podcast.html 2



The Flatpicking Essentials Series

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 1: Rhythm, Bass Runs, and Fill Licks In the “Pioneers” issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Dan Miller laid out a atpicking learning method that followed the chronological developme nt of the style. This step-by-step method started with a solid foundation in the rhythm guitar styles of atpicking’s early pioneers—a style that includes a liberal use of bass runs and rhythm ll licks, combined with rhythmic strums. Volume 1 of the Eight Volume Flatpicking Essentials series teaches this rhythm style and prepares you for each future volume. If you want to learn how to add interesting bass runs and ll licks to your rhythm playing, check out this 96-page book with accompanyi ng CD. This book and CD are available in spiral bound hardcopy form, on CD-Rom, or as a digital download.

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning to Solo—Carter Style and Beyond

Hardcopy: $24.95 Digital: $19.95

The second book in the Flatpicking Essentials series teaches you how to arrange solos for vocal tunes by teaching you how to: 1) Find the chord changes by ear. 2) Find the melody by ear. 3) Learn how to arrange a Carter Style solo. 4) Learn how to embellish the Carter Style solo using one or more of the following techniques: bass runs; hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, & bends; tremelo; double stops; crosspicking; neighbori ng notes; scale runs and ll-licks. Even if you are a beginner you can learn how to create your own interesting solos to any vocal song. You’ll never need tab again! This material will also provide you with the foundation for improvisat ion. This book and CD are available in spiral bound hardcopy form, on CD-Rom, or as a digital download.


Flatpicking Essentials Volume 3: Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes Flatpicking and ddle tunes go hand-in-hand. However, in this day and age too many beginning and intermediate level players rely too heavily on tablature when learning ddle tunes. This becomes a problem in the long run because the player eventually reaches a plateau in their progress because they don’t know how to learn new tunes that are not written out in tablature, they do not know how to create their own variations of tunes that they already know, and it becomes very hard to learn how to improvise. Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 3 helps to solve all of those problems. In this volume of the Flatpicking Essentials series you are going to learn valuable information about the structure of ddle tunes and then you are going to use that information to learn how to play ddle tunes by ear, and create your own variations, utilizing the following a series of detailed steps.


Flatpicking Essentials Volume 4:

Understanding the Fingerboard and Moving Up-The-Neck

The fourth book in the Flatpicking Essentials series teaches you how to become familiar with using the entire ngerboard of the guitar and it gives you many exercises and examples that will help you become very comfortable playing up-the-neck. With this book and CD you will learn how to explore the whole guitar neck using a very thorough study of chord shapes, scale patterns, and arpeggios. You will also learn how to comfortably move up-theneck and back down using slides, open strings, scale runs, harmonized scales, oating licks, and more. If you’ve ever sat and watched a professional players ngers dance up and down the ngerboard with great ease and wondered “I wish I could do that!” This book is for you!

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 5:


Improvisation & Style Studies

Are you having trouble learning how to improvise? To many atpickers the art of improvisation is a mystery. In the 5th Volume of the Flatpicking Essentials series you will study various exercises that will begin to teach you the process of improvisation through the use of a graduated, step-by-step method. Through the study and execution of these exercises, you will learn how to free yourself from memorized solos! This Volume also includes “style studies” which examine the contributions of the atpicking legends, such as Doc Watson, Clarence White, Tony Rice, Norman Blake, Dan Crary, Pat Flynn, and others. Learn techniques that helped dene their styles and learn how to apply those techniques to your own solos.

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Improvisation Part II & Advanced Technique


Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 6 is divided into two main sections. The rst section is Part II of our study of improvisation. Volume 5 introduced readers to a step-by-step free-form improv study method that we continue here in Volume 6. The second section of this book is focused on advanced atpicking technique. We approached this topic by rst having Tim May record “advanced level” improvisations for nineteen different atpicking tunes. Tim selected the tunes and went into the studio with a list of techniques, like the use of triplets, natural and false harmonics, note bending, quoting, alternate tuning, syncopation, twin guitar, minor key tunes, hybrid picking, advanced crosspicking, string skipping, etc. There are a ton of absolutely awesome atpicking arrangements by Tim May in this book, with explanations of each technique.


Flatpicking Essentials Volume 7: Advanced Rhythm & Chord Studies Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 7 is a 170 page book, with 67 audio tracks, that will show you how to add texture, variety, and movement to your rhythm accompaniment in the context of playing bluegrass, ddle tune music, folk music, acoustic rock, Western swing, big band swing, and jazz. The best part of this book is that it doesn’t just present you with arrangements to memorize. It teaches you how you can create and execute your own accompaniment arrangement s in a variety of musical styles. Don’t rely on the arrangements of others, learn a straight-forward and gradual approach to designing your own rhythm accompaniment.

Hardcopy: $29.95 Digital: $24.95 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


3

Flatpicking Essentials

EDITOR'S PAGE We’ve Updated, Overhauled and Combined our Web Sites We had to face it folks, our old websites were all outdated. We have nally xed that problem, plus we’ve combined all of our web sites into one (atpick.com). Now you can nd out more about our magazine, order any instructional items, back issues, or guitar accessories from our catalog, and/or download all of our digital instructional items and backs issues from one web site! Additionally, over the past month we have added literally hundreds of new instructional items, guitar accessories and gear to our catalog. Our goal is to be the one place you can go for all of your atpicking needs. We’ve recently added items that atpickers love - like Tony Rice Monel Strings, and Blue Chip Picks - plus guitar stands, straps, capos, tuners, metronomes, and much more. This is just the start. If there are items on our old sites that you don’t see on the new site, don’t worry, we are still working hard to transfer and update everything. Plus, in the near future, we are going to offer new features such as single song and tab downloads, streaming and downloadable video lessons, live streaming video workshops, and more. Please check us out at www.atpick.com. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or general feedback, let me know by sending an email to: dan@atpick.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

2014 Jam Cruise In January of this year I went on the 2013 Jam Cruise that left out of Long Beach, California, and went to Catalina Island and then down to Mexico. It was so much fun, I’m going to do it again next year and I’d love for you to consider joining me! You’ll have four days of workshops and jamming, plus all of the other events that are available on the cruise ship, for a very reasonable price. There are even pre-cruise concerts, workshops, and jams on the Queen Mary in Long Beach the weekend before the cruise ship leav es. To nd out more about all of the events, see the ads that appear in this issue (pages 14 and 59), or visit the cruise2jam website: http://cruise2jam.com/

(800) 413-8296 www.flatpickingmercantile.com 4



Flatpicking Guitar Digital Academy Flatpicking Guitar Digital Academy is an amazing self-contained software environment where you can browse, purchase, instantly download, and enjoy high quality atpicking video titles. You get every bit of the quality of a DVD, and in some cases better! We currently offer over 70 atpicking guitar titles from Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, Homespun, Mel Bay, Accutab, and more! Learn instantly from Tony Rice, Doc Watson, Bryan Sutton, David Grier, Tim Stafford, Wyatt Rice, Dan Crary, Norman Blake, Tim May and many others. And we will continually be adding new titles!

Go to: http://www.atpick.com/digitalacademy/

Study with your Flatpicking Heroes Instantly, at Home, High Quality, on your Computer! Over 70 Video Titles Now Available!



5

Joey McKenzie During the past ve or six years, The Quebe Sisters Band has taken the acoustic music world by storm. Their high-energy triple ddles and tight vocal harmonies deliver the excitement and beauty of Western swing style music at its best. Everyone who hears them play is simply blown away by their talent. Here is what a few of their celebrity friends are saying: “The Quebe Sisters Band simply stopped me in my tracks when I heard them the rst time. Their blend of swing with a dash of contemporary color is unique in today’s music world. They project a cannonball of stage presence and man can they play.” — Jimmy Buffett “It’s an honor to live on the same planet as the Quebe Sisters Band. They represent everything that I love about pure American music and I’m probably their biggest fan.” — Marty Stuart “The Quebe Sisters are some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. They do Texas 6

proud. They live in Texas, sound like Texas and they’re prettier than Texas Bluebonnets, and sweeter than sugar cane. I love the Quebe Sisters Band.” — Ricky Skaggs “Imagine if you will the three cutest girls you’ve ever seen playing ddles and singing everything from western swing to jazz to bluegrass in virtuoso fashion and you have The Quebe Sisters Band. Get ready to be amazed!” — Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) “No one who I have ever introduced to the Quebe Sisters Band’s music has failed to fall in love with them. They have enormous talent, enormous charm, enormous musicality, and an enormous future. Count me in as one of their very biggest fans.” — Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky)

“The Quebe Sisters Band plays the best feelgood music I’ve ever heard. When they’re playing, I can’t stop smiling! I’d drive a thousand miles to hear them again.” — Ed King (Original Member of Lynyrd Skynyrd Writer of “Sweet Home Alabama”)

by Dan Miller

Outside of the three Quebe sister’s hard work and dedication to their art, the two people who are largely responsible for the talent and success of the Quebe Sisters are their guitar player, Joey McKenzie and his wife, Sherry. Joey and Sherry (both champion ddlers) taught the three sisters (Hulda, Grace & Sophia) how to play their ddles from the time that they rst started taking lessons. Joey also taught them how to sing harmony and he writes all of the vocal and ddle arrangements for the band. On top of that, Sherry books and manages the band. Rounding out the QSB’s lineup is upright bassist Gavin Kelso. A Missouri native who now makes his home in Dallas, Texas, Kelso earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Double Bass Performance from the University of North Texas, which is the largest double bass program in the world. Together, McKenzie and Kelso comprise an electrifying and hard swinging two-man rhythm section. If it wasn’t for Joey McKenzie’s life-long passion and commitment to acoustic music,



this band most likely wouldn’t be getting all of the accolades that are being heaped upon them today. The three talented sisters stand out front and receive the attention and applause while Joey is content to stand in the back and lay down his rock-solid rhythm guitar. But he is the mastermind behind the scenes and his story is inspiring because it shows how passion, determination, and a lot of hard work can lead to great success. When Joey McKenzie was growing up in McMinnville, Oregon, his home was full of music and musical instruments. Although his father was not a professional musician, he was a big fan of old-time acoustic music and would take young Joey to ddle contests, bluegrass events, and folk festivals. Joey remembers musical instruments, such as a tenor banjo, a six-string acoustic guitar, a mandolin, and a tenor guitar lying around the house. Regarding his musical upbringing, Joey said, “I had piano lessons when I was ten, but the piano was just not a good t for me. When I was about eleven, I started trying to gure out a few chords and licks on the instruments we had lying around the house. I never had formal lessons on those instruments but it didn’t take long for me to gure out that they came much more naturally to me.” Joey’s father began taking him to music events when he was nine or ten years old. The event that he remembers as being the one that most inspired him to try and learn how to play music was a Johnny Cash show at the Oregon State Fair. The show included the Carter Family and Carl Perkins. The rst thing that Joey recalls trying to accomplish musically was playing guitar and singing Johnny Cash songs. He said, “Johnny Cash was very inuential.” Joey also remembers going to see Bill Monroe every year when Bill and his band would come through Oregon. By the time he was 12 or 13 Joey was starting to gain notoriety as a good young mandolin player. As a thirteen-year-old Joey was thrilled when he was invited on stage to play “Old Joe Clark” with Ralph Stanley’s band. He recalls trading solos with Curly Ray Cline and hanging out with a young Keith Whitley, who was a Clinch Mountain Boy at that time. Joey also credits Bill Yohey, another McMinnville, Oregon musician as an important early inuence. Although relatively unknown outside the Pacific Northwest, Yohey was a master on the mandolin, ddle, tenor guitar, and tenor banjo. Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

When Joey was growing up, his family would take vacations that were centered on ddle contest and music events. He said, “My family would go to week-long ddle contests or music festivals and I always took a tape recorder. I would tape what people were playing and I’d go home and woodshed on my guitar and mandolin. I was learning a lot of bluegrass style mandolin, but I also loved the swing playing of Homer & Jethro. I loved Homer Haynes’ guitar playing, too. He is one of my idols to this day.” A couple of the events that the family would visit included the National Old-Time Fiddler’s Contest in Weiser, Idaho, and the Walnut Valley Festival in Wineld, Kansas. Joey’s father had started taking him to watch ddle contests when he was 9 or 10 years old. By the time he was 12 or 13, he was backing up ddlers in the contest on his guitar. When Joey was seventeen he decided that he wanted to learn how to play the ddle and, shortly thereafter, he started competing in the ddle contests. Joey recalls, “Even when I was a young teenager, fiddlers who were in their 60s, 70s, and 80s were asking if I’d back them up in the contest. I was completely satised with going to the contests and being the rhythm guitar player until I was exposed to Benny Thomasson’s ddle playing. He was a game changer for me. His spark lit the re. I loved his Texas

style ddling and I wanted to learn how to play the ddle that way. Once I heard him play, all I wanted to do was play the ddle.” Joey said that most of the ddle styles that he was exposed to at festivals and contests in the northwestern part of the country were old-time, bluegrass, and Canadian styles. He said that he always loved ddle music, but was not inspired to actually learn how to play the ddle himself until he heard Benny Thomasson play the Texas style. Joey worked very hard to learn how to play Texas style ddle. He didn’t have a formal teacher, but he learned from various players along the way, including Benny Thomasson. Joey said, “I worked and worked on my own and sometimes I developed bad habits. Then I’d get around someone who would correct my bad habits and then I’d work again. Benny Thomasson was very kind and helpful, especially with his complex bowing patterns. We became friends and I even played the guitar for him in a few contests.” Benny had moved from Texas to Toledo, Washington. Joey had relatives in Toledo and he would visit with Benny anytime his family took the trip in that direction. From the time Joey was 16 or 17 he started entering ddle contests and was quite successful over the course of fteen years of contest ddling. His rst entry was in 1981

A four-year-old Joey McKenzie with the tenor banjo


7

Joey McKenzie (center) with two of his musical heroes, Eldon Shamblin (right) and Speedy West (left) at Forest Grove, Oregon, where he played “Tom & Jerry,” “Festival Waltz,” “Cotton Patch Rag,” “Dusty Miller,” “Martin’s Waltz,” and “I Don’t Love Nobody.” His performance earned him 3rd place. Since then Joey has been the World Champion Fiddler three times (twice at Crockett, Texas, and once in San Antonio, Texas). He has also won the World Series of Fiddling Championship, and he is a ve-time Oregon State ddle champion, and he has won many other contests in California, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. He has also won the U.S. Open ddle championship, and the Western Open ddle championship. Many of the Texas style ddle competitions also include a guitar accompanist contest. When Joey was competing on guitar he was a force to be reckoned with. Over the years he has won dozens of rst place awards including ve Texas State Championships. Additionally, Joey has judged many contests over the years, including the Nationals at Weiser, Idaho. During his early contest days, Joey would drive his 1973 Cadillac Sedan DeVille down to Texas three or four times a year to enter contests. He would also seek out legendary Texas ddle players and bring along his Fostex four-track recorder. He said, “They were all very welcoming and encouraging. I would go to their homes and record them. I made a lot of great friends. Two of my best friends in Texas in those days were Terry Morris and Jimmie Don Bates. Tragically, Terry died young, but I still play with Jimmie Don Bates and he is still an inspiration to me. He is the greatest 8

ddle player you’ve never heard of—a scary talent and a musical brother.” During a trip to Texas in 1988, when he was twenty-ve years old, Joey was invited to play in a Western swing band and decided to make Texas his home. Exposure to Benny Thomasson’s Texas style ddle playing also gave Joey exposure to the Texas style of guitar rhythm accompaniment. Joey said, “When I rst started backing up ddle players in contests I was using a bluegrass and old-time style with bass runs and open chord strums. It wasn’t a complex back up with passing chords. Benny gave me some cassette tapes and I fell in love with the guitar rhythm of masters such as Omega Burden and Royce Franklin (son of Texas ddle legend Major Lee Franklin). I was enamored with the bass lines and passing chords that I heard. I started to learn how to play diminished chords and any other chords I could get my hands on. From there I learned by exploring and nding my own answers. I think that helped develop my style. What I play is not an exact replica of the way the greats, like Eldon Shamblin, played. My style is a little different, but inspired by the greats.” Prior to hearing Thomasson and the great Texas style players, on both ddle and guitar, Joey was playing a Martin D-28 guitar. About the same time he started learning how to play Texas style ddle, he bought himself a 1948 Gibson J-50 guitar to learn how to play the Texas style backup. He jumped into the Texas style of ddle and guitar playing with both feet. In addition to Benny Thomasson, Joey started listening to

other Texas greats like Major Lee Franklin, Norman and Vernon Solomon, Orville Burns, Louis Franklin, and many others. As a young guitar player, Joey was learning how to accompany fiddlers in contests, but he was also learning how to atpick and would enter atpicking contests wherever he could nd them. He said that in those days he was inspired by atpicking legends like Doc Watson, Norman Blake, and Tony Rice. He was also inspired by Mark O’Connor as Mark and Joey are just a few years apart in age and they grew up about four hours apart from each other. Joey frequently ran across O’Connor at bluegrass festivals and ddle contests. During the mid-1970s, many of the bluegrass players that were Joey’s age were starting to get excited about a new and more modern style of acoustic music that was being recorded and performed by David Grisman and his Quintet. About that same time, Joey’s Aunt, who was from Wichita, Kansas, asked Joey if he’d ever heard of Bob Wills. She gave him a two record set called Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys For The Last Time. Joey said, “That was another game changer for me. I loved the way the band sounded and the way everyone played. I was absolutely stunned. I sat down right away and tried to gure out what Eldon Shamblin was playing on the guitar.” After receiving that initial Bob Wills album from his Aunt, Joey started exploring “everything Bob Wills.” This journey led him to also discover other Western swing style performers like Spade Cooley and Billy Jack Wills. He said, “I became fascinated and obsessed with Bob Will’s music. While my friends were into Newgrass and Dawg music, I was listening to Bob Wills, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, and Count Basie. I was discovering guitar players like Eldon Shamblin, Homer Haynes, Charlie Christian, Oscar Moore, and Freddie Green.” When asked why he was drawn to swing music and the rhythm guitar masters who played that style, Joey said, “I loved the swinging beat and the drive. I think a lot of that old-style swing is lost these days. Much of today’s swing bands can swing, but the music doesn’t have the same enthusiastic drive. To me, timing is number one. It doesn’t matter how cool the chords are, dependable timing and a rock solid beat have to be there. Those older guys understood that. They had fantastic on-top-of-the-beat timing, even on slow songs. They played for dancers and knew



how to give the music a great dance beat.” Joey feels like some modern bands can play a Benny Goodman tune and play the exact same notes that the Goodman band played, but the feel is often lacking. In the Quebe Sisters Band, he strives to bring back that vintage feel and old school rhythm philosophy to the music. One of the highlights of Joey’s early years in Texas came in 1989 when he got a chance to meet the legendary Bob Wills guitar player Eldon Shamblin. Joey was playing the ddle in the staff band at a steel guitar convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and had the opportunity to back up steel guitar legend Speedy West and meet his hero Eldon Shamblin. After the gig Joey sat and talked with both Eldon and Speedy for about an hour. The two music legends told stories about the old days and spoke about music. Joey said, “They were both very encouraging. They told me that I was ‘doing it right.’ They said that I should do it my way, but not forget about the history. It was nice to get a shot in the arm from my idols!” During his rst ten to twelve years in Texas, Joey played the ddle in a series of Western swing and classic country bands. Most of the music he played was either Wills’ style Western swing or Ray Price style country shufe music. Joey said, “I learned a lot and it was a fun education. I had the opportunity to play with a bunch of very talented musicians.” In addition to playing in bands, Joey also taught lessons and performed in contests. His last contest was in 1997. Although the majority of his professional performance time was spent on the ddle, Joey said that when he was at home he spent a lot of time working on the guitar. About fteen years ago, Joey married his wife Sherry. Sherry was also a champion ddler who Joey had actually met at the National Old-Time Fiddle Contest in Weiser, Idaho, when he was thirteen years old and Sherry was eleven. Joey said, “After I rst met her in Weiser, we’d cross paths three or four times a year at ddle contests.” The two ddlers stayed in contact with each other and eventually married. In 1998, Sherry McKenzie won a ddle contest at the North Texas State Fair in Denton. Sitting in the audience that day were three young girls—Hulda, Grace & Sophia Quebe. What they heard Sherry play that day excited them. Their mother reached out to Sherry to see if she taught lessons. At that time both Sherry and Joey had all of the students that they could handle, however Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

the Quebe’s mother said that the girls were home schooled and she could bring them at any time of the day. Soon thereafter the Quebe girls began ddle lessons with Sherry. At the time the Quebe family lived in Krum, Texas, and the McKenzies lived in Burleson—about 55 miles away. By 2000, the Quebes were so dedicated to learning the ddle that the family moved to Burleson to be closer to the McKenzie home. They actually moved on the same road as the McKenzies and they were practicing six to eight hours a day. For the rst year, Sherry taught the three sisters, but after that Joey took over as the girls ddle instructor. Since both Joey and Sherry loved swing music, they introduced the Quebe sisters to the music and the girls became infatuated with it and began listening to Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, The Sons of the Pioneers, Django Reinhardt, Benny Goodman, and more. After each of the girls had been taking individual ddle lessons for a while, Joey asked them if they would like to learn to play triple ddles in three part harmony. The girls were up for it so he started teaching them tunes like “Faded Love,” and “San Antonio Rose.” In 2001 Joey got a call from a local Rotary club who asked if he had any students that could play at an event. He took the Quebe Sisters. From there more and more local venues wanted the girls to play for them. The girls played at regional events, festivals, and performing arts centers, with Joey on guitar, for about three years. Sherry started managing and booking the band and in about 2004 the band started to travel nationally as an all instrumental group. In 2005 the Quebe

Sisters started singing and added a whole new dimension to their music. Today the QSB is one of the most sought after acoustic bands in the country. I remember the rst time that I saw The Quebe Sisters Band perform. I was at the 2007 Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. The band was playing in a small hotel room showcase when I saw them. When they nished performing everyone who walked out of that hotel room, and those who were listening in the hallway, were astonished at the incredibly tight triple ddles and vocal harmonies. People were shaking their heads and saying, “Those girls are unbelievable!” The band continues to get that kind of reaction everywhere they go. As I stated in the beginning of this article, I think a big part of the band’s success is due to Joey McKenzie. Without his passion for the music and skill as a performer and instructor, the three talented Quebe sisters may not have come so far. I talked with Joey about his teaching methods and he indicated that he had “strong thoughts” about teaching and stated that he teaches “differently than most other teachers.” He said, “Looking back over the years as a self-taught musician, I look at the things that made a difference in my playing and I cut out the fat. I think that fundamentals are very important.” To Joey, the most important fundamental of music is timing. He said, “Your cool song or chord progression doesn’t matter without timing. All of my musical heroes had this philosophy. I work hard to teach my students timing and feel. Most musical instruction today is dominated by the left hand. Students are focused on learning the

Joey McKenzie with the Quebe Sisters Band at the Grand Ole Opry


9

Joey McKenzie with Warren Buffett. Although Buffett plays the uke, and has performed on stage with the Quebe Sisters Band, he probably will not be giving up his day job. notes that the left hand is playing. But I feel that the right hand should be dominant and the left hand should follow. I teach my students to make the left hand t a solid right hand.” When asked how he goes about teaching students how to develop a solid sense of time, Joey said that one of the tools that he uses is making a recording. He will rst record himself and then he will record the student. Then he will have the student listen for the difference. He thinks that it is important to listen and try to understand feel and groove. He talks with his students about the various reasons that their recordings do not sound like his recordings. Joey also encourages his students to listen to lots of recordings of good musicians and bands. He talks about style and he points out the differences between bands and players that have great time versus bands and players that may be technically procient, but their music sounds at or mechanical. He says, “I preach that it is not what you are doing, it is how you are doing it. My lessons are based on that philosophy.” Joey also spends time with each student focusing on both their individual strengths and their weaknesses. If any of his students are having trouble with something, he works hard to help them nd solutions. He said, “When it comes to learning music, one size 10

does not t all. If I think that one version of a song does not t a particular student, I will write another arrangement for them. I don’t force something to t that doesn’t t. I nd something that ts that student stylistically. For instance, some guitar players are suited to the Tony Rice style, while others are more suited to the Norman Blake style. So I think that it is important that each student’s individual lessons are customized just for him or her. As a teacher I try to help my students achieve their goals and dreams as musicians and not become discouraged. I try to teach them to become good musicians and to have music be a joy in their life.” As a teacher, Joey has accumulated an impressive track record having taught multiple National Champion fiddlers (Oregon native and successful Nashville-based musician Laura Weber Cash, and most recently 2012 Weiser Grand National Fiddle Champion Mia Orosco) and other musicians who have gone on to professional music careers, as well as those who play purely for the fun of it. “I love teaching. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d still be teaching. Working with students denitely makes me a better musician.” Over the years, Joey has owned and collected a number of great instruments. When he was growing up, he couldn’t afford high quality or vintage instruments, but he became fascinated with repair work

and formed a friendship with luthier and builder Bob Steinegge r. While still a teenager, Joey started buying old Gibson and Martin guitars that were broken and in need of repair. Bob gave him pointers and he’d x up the guitars and sell them. Joey said, “I was patient and meticulous, so I had a knack for working with instruments. I became infatuated with old instruments, but I had modest means. They only way I could afford them was to buy broken instruments and repair them.” Today Joey has a collection of vintage guitars, ddles, mandolins, and ukuleles. His main stage guitar is a 1948 Gibson L-5N. In order to help our readers learn a little about western swing style guitar, I asked Joey if he could play some guitar accompaniment that would represent something he might play in a show. He selected progressions that would fit the tunes “Home in San Antone” and “Right or Wrong.” You can listen to Joey play these rhythm parts on the audio CD companion to this issue and you can read the charts that we have provided on the pages that follow this article. If you ever get an opportunity to see the Quebe Sisters Band, do yourself a big favor and don’t pass it up. They are truly phenomenal. You can also watch them on youtube, but you can’t beat the excitement and energy of a live performance. You can find their performance schedule on their website: www.quebesistersband.com. Although the focus of the music and the show will be placed on what the three sisters are doing out front, don’t forget to take a close look at the rhythm section and guitar player and check out what he is doing. I guarantee that you’ll learn something. Joey McKenzie Contact Info [email protected] Joey McKenzie 204 SE Robert Burleson, TX 76097



First of May by Craig Vance I heard this rare old Irish ddle tune on David Bromberg’s 1972 album titled Demon in Disguise. It is the nal part of a three-piece Celtic ddle tune medley that Bromberg titles “Medley of Irish Fiddle Tunes.” By the time the medley comes around to “First of May,” the tempo and the dynamics are pretty ramped up. I would also consider pairing this one with “Red Haired Boy” as they are somewhat similar.

Share Tunes, Videos, and discuss Flatpicking Topics with 4000 Flatpickers! Join the

Flatpicking Guitar Network http://atpick.ning.com/

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 4: Understanding the Fingerboard & Moving Up The Neck The fourth book in the Flatpicking Essentials series teaches you how to become familiar with using the entire ngerboard of the guitar and it gives you many exercises and examples that will help you become very comfortable playing up-the-neck. With this book and CD you will learn how to explore the whole guitar neck using a very thorough study of chord shapes, scale patterns, and arpeggios. You will also learn how to comfortably move up-the-neck and back To Order: down using slides, open strings, scale runs, harmonized scales, oating licks, and more. 800-413-8296 If you’ve ever sat and watched a professional www.flatpickdigital.com players fingers dance up and down the ngerboard with great ease and wondered “I www.flatpickingmercantile.com wish I could do that!” This book is for you! 14



16



œ

Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar

œ œ œ œ œ#œ œ H.O.

by Joe Carr

0 0

1

2

0

2

0

3

The Roots of Flatpicking – Lonnie Johnson (1899-1970)

Lonnie Johnson was a talented and inuential blues guitarist and singer from the mid 1920s through the 1960s. He performed and recorded with many of the most notable 1920s and 30s jazz musicians including Hoagy Carmichael, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and guitarist Eddie Lang. On recordings with Johnson, Lang used the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn. Recording sessions featuring black and white performers were not common in the 1920s. Johnson also recorded many blues selections under his own name. Under the names Blind Willie Dunn and his Gin Bottle Four and Blind Willie Dunn and Lonnie Johnson, the duo recorded many exciting guitar instrumentals that, for the most part, featured Lang playing rhythm behind Johnson’s driving and soulful lead. Although he continued to record periodically, Johnson dropped into obscurity in the 1940s until he was “rediscovered”

in the 1960s folk revival. His stellar musicianship solidly places him with Nick Lucas and Eddie Lang as a major gure in the early development of atpick style guitar. Transcription notes: Recorded in 1929, “A Handful of Riffs” is listed as being performed by Blind Willie Dunn and his Gin Bottle Four. It clips along at 210 or so beats per minute. This recording only features Dunn (Lang) and Johnson on guitars. Johnson plays the lead on 12-string guitar and is tuned down a whole step (plus a little more), so that his rst string sounds a D note, approximately. It is likely that this tuning resulted in lower string tension for a slinkier, string-bendy sound. A period photograph shows Johnson with a Stella or some other low-quality twelve-string guitar. Lang provides rhythm, apparently in standard tuning. The half-step string bend from G (15th fret) to G# (16th) in measures 1, 3, and 5 can be played with the third nger with the second and rst nger placed on the same

string to help bend. The G to F# release bend in measure 17 is difcult with medium gauge strings and could be played without the bend. Alternately, it could perhaps be moved to the 2nd string. The positions shown in the transcription are all my best guesses. If Johnson had a standard 12-string set on his guitar then he never plays the 3rd string. I don’t hear an octave double string on those notes. He possibly had a single 3rd string or he managed to play everything on the 1st and 2nd! These are the challenges of a transcriber and the results are only educated guesses. Please experiment with your own ngerings. We do not have a recording on the audio CD to accompany this transcription. But it can be found for free on the internet. The original recording of this tune can be heard at redhotjazz.com and on youtube. It is also available on iTunes. And for those who want even more, the 4-CD boxed set The Original Guitar Wizard by Lonnie Johnson

is available on the Proper label.

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine & SimpleFolk Productions Present:

Jo s h

A nd y

C h r is

Williams, Falco & Eldridge Live at the Station Inn “Guitarmageddon” In this one-hour DVD Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and SimpleFolk Productions present three of today's top young flatpicking guitarists performing together in a live concert setting at the “World Famous” Station Inn in Nashville, Tennessee. Josh Williams, Andy Falco, and Chris Eldridge perform in a trio setting, as duo pairs, as solo performers, and with a full bluegrass band (with guests Cody Kilby and Mike Bub). Guitar players will appreciate the left and right hand close-ups that are prevalent throughout this DVD.



17

Handful of Riffs

Transcribed by Joe Carr

E

1/2

1/2

15

T A B

12

12

12

0

15

12

14

12 14 12

0

0

0

A

E

5

1/2

15

12 13 14 12

14

12 12

0

14 12

0

12 13

0

2

0

0 2

0 8 9

7 8

B7 E

9

9 7

7 10 7

8

7

0

8

9

7

8

9

0

2

2

2 0

2

2 0

2

5 0

13

E

8 9

7 8

9 7

9

9

9 7

A

0 2

0

0 9

7 9

10

9 7 8 9

E

17

0

18

2

3

(2)

0

2

2

0

10

12

12

12 14

12

12 14

12


14

0 12

2


Handful of Riffs (con’t) B7

E

21

9 6

7

7

8

10 7 10

7

8

0

7

7

8

9

5

5

6

5

6

5

Check Out our New Store at www.flatpick.com! We now have all the items that Flatpickers love, including the Tony Rice monel strings from Martin, Blue Chip Picks, Wegen Picks, Straps, Capos, Tuners, Gig Bags, Cases, and much more!

And also. . .

GRANGER’S FIDDLE TUNES for GUITAR

COMPANION CDs

for Granger’s

508 TUNES • 1027 TITLES • FULLY CROSS-REFERENCED • REPERTOIREBUILDING AND REFERENCE TOOL This is the largest collection of ddle tunes in guitar tab in the world. You can learn a tune a week for ten years (by then, you’ll have forgotten the rst ones and you can start over!)

29.95 plus p & h

Fiddle Tunes for Guitar

•Instantly access any tune •Set your CD player to “Repeat” and learn new tunes •Challenge yourself! Set your CD to “Shufe” and try to play rhythm (or lead!) with whatever comes up •Not dangerous, illegal, discriminatory or fattening Back in the dark ages, our ve-cassette set allowed pickers to hear all 508 Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar . Our 21st-Century CD sets are even better. tunes in

Each CD contains about 75 tunes. The title is announced, then the tune is played once at a moderate tempo, with rhythm on the left track and lead on the right. The 7-CD set comes in a black plastic box, and includes separate indexes for each disc.

CD SET/99.95 plus p&h

www.granger-music.com 1 • 800 • 575 • 4402 granger publications • box 270115 • vadnais heights, mn 55127 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


19

Gcdgcdgcdgcd

Beginner’s Page

gcdgcdgcdgcd by Dan Huckabee

Nellie Kane

This issue I’ve chosen the Hot Rize classic “Nellie Kane,” written by Tim O’Brien. Hot Rize recorded it in the key of E and Charles Sawtelle played out of C-position, capoed to the 4th fret, which put him in the key of E. My arrangement is a two-round solo that sticks close to the melody on the rst round, then deviates on the second round. When you play it in jam sessions or with your group, they could ask you to play either one or two rounds. If you prefer to only learn the rst round, you could give it enough time to settle in before starting work on round two, because if you’re anything like me, you’ll be more successful avoiding confusion whenever possible.

20

This solo is all in rst position and sticks closely to the style of traditional bluegrass, with a touch of contemporary licks to keep it up to date. As always, practice one phrase at a time, keep your pick directions correct, keep your powder dry, and keep your woman at home. If you have any questions, give me a call at (512) 328-5055 and check out our Musicians-Workshop.com ads in the back of this issue.

www.atpickingmercantile.com 800-413-8296



Nellie Kane

Audio CD Tracks 7 & 8

Written by Tim O’Brien Arranged by Dan Huckabee

C

œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 œ œ œ Œ & 4 œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ 1

T A B

0

0

1

0 1 0

1

H

2

0

0 1 0

1

2

0

2

0

0 1 0

1

0 1 0

A m

0 1 0

1

2

0

0 1 0

0

H

2

0

2

2

0

0

œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

0

0

2

0 1 2 2

0 1 2 2

H

0 2

3

0 0

2

2

0

3

C

2

G

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ 0 1 0

0

0 1 0

2

6

1

2

2

0 1 0

0 2

C

œ &œ œ

œœ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœœ œœœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ

11

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2

0 1 0

1 0

2

0 1 0

0 1 0

0 1 0

2

0

0 1 0

0

3

1 2

0

2

H

0 2

0

1

0

2

0

2

3

A m

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œœ œœœœœ œ 16

0 1 0

1

0 1 0

1

2

0

0 1 0

0

0

1

H

2

0

0

2

2

0

0

2

2

2

3

œœœœœœœœ œ œ & œ œœœ œ G

C

20

3

0

1

0 3

1

3

0

1 0

2

0 2

0 3



œœ

œœ œœ œœ œœ

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2

˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙

0 1 0 2 3

Ó Ó 21

Kaufman’s Corner ”When You’re Smiling”

Hi friends, and welcome back to my section of the magazine! When I was in my hard-core learning process, I worked on Doc Watson, Dan Crary, and Norman Blake tunes, memorizing every instrumental they ever recorded. I had heard Clarence White but never really got into that style with the exception of a few songs that Clarence did (“Soldiers Joy,” “Alabama Jubilee,” “Dark Hollow,” “I Am a Pilgrim,” and the like). This arrangement of “When You’re Smiling” is also one I learned and morphed into my solo style. I hope you enjoy it. The strums you see in the rst line measures 1 and 3 are sustaining strums. Strum them through with the pick deep into the strings and let them ring out as you play the rest of the measure. Notice the crosspicking pattern in measures 1 and 3 are the same. Measure 5: The best way to hold this chord is to picture holding an Am and add your little nger to the 5th string 3rd fret. You can hold your rst nger down or not. It only matters if you swing wide and hit the 2nd string by mistake. You don’t want to do that because the 3rd string A note is your melody. If you strum past it, you will bury the melody in the chord.

by Steve Kaufman

At the end of the measure is a hammer-on triplet: one hit with the right hand but the left quickly sounds the 2nd and 3rd frets in one beat. Measures 9 and 11: Here we have another crosspicking roll. Hold down all the frets listed in each measure and let the right hand do all the work. We have a lot of symmetries on the 3rd line. Measures 9 and 11 have the same rolls and measures 10 and 12 also have the same pattern. I think this is important when arranging your solos. I look at these phrases as syllables. You don’t want everything the same per each measure, but you do want some kind of semi complicated pattern. Measure 15: You will have two up-swings in a row due to the hammer on in the eighth notes. Remember the numbered beat in the measure is always a down-swing and the “+” beats are up-swings. Measures 17-24: This is a nice rolling passage of connecting runs. They go right around “the circle” or lead chord from one to

the next. Use them as two measure runs (two measures of C that lead to F, two F measures that lead to D, two D’s to G). Very useful when you can insert them into other songs. The rest of the song is made up of patterns earlier discussed so you should be fine nishing this one up. Enjoy and have fun. See you in June at Kamp Bye for now, Steve Kaufman Come to the Gold Award Winning Acoustic Kamps Old Time and Traditional Week: June 8-14, 2014 Bluegrass Week: June 15-21, 2014 www.atpik.com

FGM Records Presents:

Andy Falco Sentenced to Life With the Blues This is a long awaited recording from one of the top young atpickers in Nashville, the Infamous Stringduster’s Andy Falco, and includes some of Nashville’s most outstanding bluegrass performers in support, including Josh Williams, Cody Kilby, Adam Steffey, Luke Bulla, Jason Carter, Andy Hall, Noam Pikelney, Jim Van Cleve, Andy Leftwich, Alecia Nugent, Rob Ickes, Tim Dishman, and more.

Call 800-413-8296 to Order

www.atpickingmercantile.com 800-413-8296 22



When You’re Smiling

Audio CD Tracks 10 & 11

Arranged by Steve Kaufman

Key of C

C

C

C Maj 7

C Maj 7

4 & 4 œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ 1 0 2

0

2

1

1

0

1

0

2

1 0 2

2

1

0

0 0 2

0

0

0 2

0

0

0 0 2

2

0

0

œ & œ œœ œœ œ œœ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ C6

C6

3

Dm

G

5

2 2

3

2 2

2 2

3

0 2

0

3

2

0

2

2

0

2

0

3

2

0

3

0

3

2

3 0 0 0

0

3

2

3

3

+ + œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ Dm

Dm

F

F

9

3

2

3

2

3

3

2

3

3

3 2 0

3

2

2

2

2

2

2 3

2

2

2 2 0

3

2

2

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œœœ œ bœ nœ Dm6

G7

C

3

C

13

1

2

1

2

3

2

1

0

3

1

0

2

0 2

3

0

3

1

2

0

1

2

0

2

0

1

0

0

2

3 (C) 2013 Steve Kaufman Enterprises Inc 800-FLATPIK Single Song Lesson Downloads at www.flatpik.com



23

When You’re Smiling (con’t)

œ œ œ b œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ C7

C7

F

F

17

1

3

3

2

0

2

0

3

2

0

3

2

3

1

0

3

1

0

3

3

1

0

3

2

3

0

2

1

1

3

1

2

œ b œ n œ œ œ œ œ # œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ#œ D7

D7

G

G7

21

0

2

4

2

3

0

2

3

5

4

3

5

2

2

3

5

3

0

1

0

3

1

0

2

0

0

2

0

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œœ œ & œ œœœ œ C

C

A7

A7

3

25

1

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

1

3

1

0

0 2 2 2

1

0

2

0

2

2

1

0

0

3

0

3

œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ œ œ œ & Dm

G7

C

C

˙

29

1

24

3

2

3

3

3

1

3

0

1

2

3

0

1

3

0

1

0

3

2

0

3

2

0


3


Taking It To The Next Level: Arranging “Silent Night” by John Carlini My last few columns were about gospel-style playing and accompaniment (comping). Now that the holiday season is here I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to tie those topics together by explaining how Bill Robinson and I came up with our arrangement of “Silent Night” from the CD, A Christmas Gift . Our plan was to record a group of traditional Christmas and holiday pieces, but to put a different “spin” on each one. Bill’s ability to “tell a story” as he sings is a special gift. I wanted to make that “front and center”. We tried “Silent N ight” as a slow swing 3 (waltz) groove, but it wasn’t working and it sounded somewhat contrived. As soon as we did it with a gospel feel it practically played itself and we knew that’s the style we were going to use. From an orchestration perspective, to complete the arrangement we asked the

incredible blues harp player, Rob Paparozzi, to add his unique sound. Notice in the rst two choruses how sparsely but effectively Rob adds a few phrases. As mentioned in my earlier column on comping, Rob is listening to every note, every word, and he lays those ideas in exactly the right spots! He follows with the perfect solo – beautiful, bluesy, and heartfelt. In following along with the sheet music, I notated the melody of the rst chorus as Bill phrased it. If you listen and watch it should help you to see how standard notation can be very specic. But there are some things that simply cannot be notated precisely, especially when the phrasing is natural and intuitive as it always is with Bill. You should be able to identify those places. The guitar accompaniment (see page 27) is a combination of specic chord voicings

and natural rhythms. If you played it exactly as notated using three quarter notes to each bar that would be ineffective. Express the chords with some freedom and dimension but, again, as mentioned in an earlier column, it is essential to listen to the vocalist and phrase naturally. Thanks very much for your feedback and comments and I wish you all a great 2014! Please visit John’s web site (www. johncarlini.com) to sign up for the latest performance and teaching info and acoustic music news. John is now giving live oneon-one lessons on guitar and 5-string banjo using Skype technology. More info is available on the web site.

All-Time Favorite Parking Lot Picker s Guitar Solos

M a g a z i n e •

•

•

•

•

•

•

The Magazine for Mandolin Players & Enthusiasts

Bluegrass • Celtic • Jazz • Basics • Blues • Rhythm & Chords T exas-Style Fiddle Tunes • Classical & Much More Features on Builders, Repair, Product Review, Mandolins Around the World, CD, video & book reviews.

Subscribe Now...Don't Miss Another Issue! Send U.S. check or money order payable to Mandolin Magazine, PO Box 13537, Salem, OR 97309. Ph. 503-364-2100 Fax 503-588-7707 Email: [email protected] Include your name, address, phone and e-mail address. V isa

& MasterCard accepted, include type of card, card number & expiration date.

One-year USA subscriptions (4 issues) are $27 Ask about Overseas/Canada Delivery — requires additional shipping.

See us online at www.mandolinmagazine.com Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


43 guitar solos of Favorite Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Gospel Songs! Aimed at beginning and intermediate guitarists, this book is packed with songs, solos, and techniques that every guitar player should know. Carter style solos, back up guitar parts, crosspicking solos, harmony parts, ddle tunes for gui tar, & much more! Solo list and complete details online.

All-Time Favorite Parking Lot Picker’s Guitar Solos book/ CD set by Dix Bruce. $24.99 plus shipping. Be sure to check out our crosspicking, Christmas, and gospel guitar solos book/CD sets.

Musix, PO Box 231005, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

Order online: www.musixnow.com 25

Silent Night

Audio CD Track 12

# 3 & 4 1

j œ. œ œ

Si

T A B

# &

0

-

.

J Œ

6

˙

Œ Œ œ . œj œ œ Œ Œ . J Œ œ œ ˙

lent

2

night,

0

Ho

All

Œ

4

is

0

# &

0

11

j œ. œ œ œ . J # & ˙ Œ moth - er and

2

Ho

-

2

2

2

˙ Sleep

Œ

in

ly

œ œ œ œ

˙ Round

yon

2

2

vir

1

2

# j & œ œ . ‰ œj œ œ œ ‰ . J 26

in

0

gin

0

4

2

3 so ten - der and

0

2

4

0

2

peace

0

2

0

0

4

-

.

2

hea

0

-

ven

3

-

ly

0

.

˙

peace.s

3

.

Œ

0

21

0

0

2

In - fant

hea - ven - ly

‰ J

2

2

Sleep

2

3

16

mild.

is

Œ ‰ j œ œ ˙ œ œœœ œ Œ Œ ‰ J j ‰ œ œ œ œ ˙. ˙ Œ

Child.

3

œ

œ

All

Œ Œ

Œ

0

˙

night

0

bright.

2

œ

ly

2

Œ Œ

Œ

˙

0

-

0

2

˙

calm,

0

Arranged by John Carlini and Bill Robinson

Melody

Œ ˙

Œ 3



Silent Night Chords G

C

G

C

G

C

# D /F

G

G

C

G

1

T A B

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

3 2 0

3 2 0

3 2 0

3 2 0

3 2 0

3 2 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

3

F/A

C

C

9

5 5 5 3

F/A

C

6 5 3

5 5 5 3

5 5 5 3

G 5 5 5 3

5 5 5 3

5

16

G 0 0 0

0 0 0

3

3

3

7 7 7 5

G

C

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

3

3

3

3

3

3

D

0 0 0

C

C

D

8 7 7 5

7 7 7 5

7 7 7 5

D

5 5 5 3

5 5 5 3

6 5 3

G

5 5 5 3

5 5 5 3

5 5 5 3

5

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

3

3

3

Em 7 7 7 5

C

7 7 7 5

0 8 9 9 7

G

C

A7 8 9 9 7

8 9 9 7

C

5 6 5

5 6 5

5 6 5

5

5

5

G

21

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

3

3

3

7 7 7 5

7 7 7 5

8 7 7 5

0 0 0

0 0 0

1 0 2

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

3

3

3

3

3

3

Become A Better Rhythm Player. Take Orrin Star’s Workshop In The Comfort of Your Home. Call 800-413-8296 to Order Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


27

By Brad Davis Accents in Crosspicking Playing great music is not just about the notes that are played. How you play those notes also has a lot to do with how well your solo will connect with your audience. Dynamics, phrasing, and articulation have a lot to do with how the notes you choose to play are felt by the listener. If these elements are not present, you can play all the right notes, yet sound at or mechanical. If these elements are present you can take any sequence of notes and create a great groove and develop effective emotional content in your solo. Once you learn how to play the sequence of notes that will form your solo, it is always a great idea to go over that solo again and again and create variations based on changes in phrasing (note timing changes), dynamics (volume or accent changes), and articulation (transition or continuity changes). These are the elements of music that are going to help you express your solo, make it your own, and help you communicate with the audience.

As a dynamics, or accent, exercise, I’ve written out four lines of crosspicking tab (shown on the next page). The rst line is a typical phrase that you will hear atpickers play over the B part of “Beaumont Rag.” I’ve put the accented notes in bold and I’ve written a “>” over the note that you’ll most likely accent in this phrase. First play all the notes with equal volume and then play through the tab and accent the notes that I’ve indicated. You should hear a big difference in how the line is communicated. In the second line, I’ve written out a simple crosspicking roll over a C chord. Here I’ve accented the rst note of each roll. Again, play through this line without accents, then try it with the accents. In line three I’ve written out a crosspicking roll over a D chord. This time I’m accenting the middle note of the roll. This is a little trickier. Take your time and you’ll get it. Again, you’ll see that accenting a crosspicking roll this way will provide a different feel. Before you move on to the fourth and nal line, try going back over lines one

through three and accent different notes than the ones that I’ve indicated. For each line rst try accenting the rst note of the roll, then the second, then the third. Get a feel for what kind of emotion or groove each of these different accents communicate. Finally, give line four a try. I’ve not indicated any particular accents here because I want you to experiment and see what kind of accents and dynamics you can discover. Different types of accents will work better in different songs and situations. If you practice a variety of ways of accenting your crosspicking rolls, you will be ready to apply the accents that you feel will best t a particular situation. Have fun with it!

The Bluegrass Guitar Style of

Charles Sawtelle In addition to the tablature and standard notation of 27 Sawtelle solos, this book also includes: A detailed Sawtelle biography, An in-depth interview with Charles, A section on Charles’ rhythm style, Charles Sawtelle Discography, The rst ever Slade biography, Notes on each solo transcription, and Dozens of photographs. A must for all Sawtelle and Hot Rize fans!

1 (800) 413-8296 or visit www.fatpickingmercantile.com CALL

to order with Mastercard, Visa, or Discover

Now Available as a digital PDF Download at www.flatpickdigital.com! 28



Flatpick Profle:

Michael Daves by Dan Miller

Several years ago people started to ask me, “Have you heard this guy Michael Daves that Chris Thile is performing with?” When I heard this question, knowing the type of music that Chris was playing postNickel Creek, my rst thought was, “This guy must be some great jazz player.” When I rst got those inquires I hadn’t heard of Michael, nor had I heard he and Chris play. But not too long after I started hearing about the duo, I heard them perform at the Grey Fox Festival in upstate New York. Since leaving Nickel Creek, Chris Thile has been known to push the musical envelope and what I expected to hear out of the duo was more of Chris’ explorations into musical worlds beyond tradition. What I did hear was just the opposite. Although Michael Daves is a very talented guitar player and singer who is well-versed in jazz improvisation and musical exploration, he tends to keep his exploration within a traditional roots music framework. The result is music that solidly retains the raw energy and power of traditional mountain music. Michael said, “My musical tastes are more traditional. Chris is not known for that, but he loves it. What I did was help him connect back to the roots in a way that still leaves the door open for spontaneity. We use standard bluegrass as a jumping off point for getting a little weird and spontaneous.” Actually, a lot of the music that the duo plays predates bluegrass. Much of it comes from the “brother duet” tradition of groups like the Louvin Brothers, the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and the Blue Sky Boys. It is great stuff! Michael Daves does not travel to perform too often because he focuses most of his time on teaching. His waiting list for private students is almost 2 years long. He also teaches a weekly group class on Thursdays as well as weekend one-off intensive lessons. This summer I met a few of Michael’s private students at music camps 30

and they sang high praises of his teaching abilities. After talking with Michael about his approach to teaching, I can understand why his students are so enthusiastic. I think his approach to teaching the guitar is superb. But before I talk about his teaching, let me ll you in on a bit of Michael’s background. Michael Daves was born into a musical family and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He started taking Suzuki piano lessons at the age of four. His parents each played multiple instruments in the traditions of folk and bluegrass music. Michael started guitar lessons at the age of ten, but was more interested in learning how to play rock music than the music that his parents enjoyed. About the same time Michael started learning how to play the guitar, his mother—who played guitar and banjo— also began learning how to play the ddle. Michael said, “Because my mom was taking ddle lessons it was like I was taking them passively in my head. I had developed a good ear from my Suzuki training and when I heard my mom practicing her ddle tunes,

my ear would pick up those tunes. I was hearing her practice over and over and so those tunes stuck in my head.” The main reason that Michael began playing bluegrass was because his parents needed a back-up player. He started backing them up at home and at various picking parties. Even though he was mostly interested in rock music, old-time ddle tunes and bluegrass was a part of his early musical development. His website states: “He grew up in the grand tradition of staying up late & singing real loud.” Eventually Michael became more excited about playing bluegrass and one of the things that piqued his interest was the jamming and concerts that occurred at a venue called The Freight Room in Decatur, Georgia. As a high school kid Michael got to jam with some of the best musicians in the music-rich Atlanta region, and he was able to see performances by folks like Norman Blake, Del McCoury, John Hartford, Tim O’Brien, Larry Sparks, David Grier, and many more. He said, “I was underage, but they would let me in to work the door.” While he was growing up in Atlanta, Michael took lessons from Ray Chesna, a New Yorker who had performed with Bela Fleck while Bela was still in high school. Michael said that Ray taught by ear, but he also had a background in theory. Ray played and taught everything from ngerstyle blues and ragtime to Western swing and Charlie Christian style jazz. Michael also studied with a jazz guitarist in Atlanta when he was in high school and learned a lot about chord-melody style playing while he was



still a teenager. He said, “I was learning jazz in parallel with bluegrass and living in both worlds.” Michael graduated from high school in 1995 and moved to Massachusetts to study arranging and composition at Hampshire College in Amherst. While in college, Michael studied jazz with Yusef Lateef. Lateef (born in 1920), is a multiinstrumentalist whose main instruments are the tenor saxophone, ute, and oboe. He is perhaps best known for his innovative blending of jazz with Eastern music. Some say that Lateef’s sound was a major inuence on the saxophonist John Coltrane, whose later free jazz recordings contain similarly Eastern traits. While many who follow the standard college jazz curriculum are taught a rigorous program of learning traditional heads to tunes written by the jazz masters, Yusef’s approach in teaching Michael was different. Michael said, “Some teachers teach students to play jazz in a standard way and only later on encourage the student to develop their own style. Yusef encouraged me to sound like myself right from the beginning. He said that bluegrass and string band music was part of who I was and that I should work on making a connection between jazz and bluegrass. He said that since bluegrass was a natural part of my upbringing, that I should use that when playing any style of music. I worked very closely with him and it was inspiring. He emphasized cultivating what was already a part of me and looking for new sounds within that.” Michael graduated from college in 1999. He and his wife had a baby during his senior year. Not wanting to disrupt the new family, they stayed in Massachusetts for a few years and Michael began teaching guitar lessons at Fretted Instrument Workshop in Amherst. By 2003, however, the couple felt the urge to move to the city in order to develop more professional and creative opportunities. So, in 2003, they moved to New York City. When he moved to New York, Michael “left jazz behind” and focused on playing and singing bluegrass. He said, “I love to sing and I didn’t want to sing jazz. And I didn’t want to be a dime-a-dozen jazz guitarist when I thought I had something more unique to offer playing bluegrass.” Michael moved to Brooklyn, New York, at a time when there was an increasing interest in bluegrass music in that area. Since that time many other professional acoustic musicians have moved to the city, including Ross Martin, Chris Eldridge, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

Noam Pikelny, Chris Thile, Grant Gordy, Alex Hargreaves, Sara Jarosz, Dominick Leslie, Mike Barnett, and others. After moving to New York, Michael quickly developed a group of private students, started teaching group lessons once a week, and offered weekend intensive lessons. Additionally, he started performing every Tuesday night at the Rockwood Music Hall. Although most of his performances at Rockwood are solo, guests such as Chris Thile, Noam Pikelny, or Chris Eldridge will sometimes join him. Regarding the music scene in New York, Michael said, “There is a good amount of bluegrass in New York, but there is also so much of everything else that can inspire you. No matter how good you are, there is always someone better. It serves to inspire and keep you humble.” When asked about bands he has performed with over the years, Michael said that during high school he was in a band called Magic Truck. Magic Truck was led by Jim Tolles (a former member of the band Breakfast Special, which also included Tony Trischka, Kenny Kosek, Roger Mason, Stacy Phillips, and Andy Statman). In addition to playing with Magic Truck, Michael also performed in his own band with friends who played rock, jazz, and bluegrass. Later, when he was in college, Michael performed with banjo player Gordon Stone. Gordon is well known in the jam band world and played on some early Phish albums. When Michael and Gordon performed as a duo they played mostly traditional bluegrass. Michael first met Chris Thile in 2005, before Chris had moved to New York. The two met at a jam session in Greenwich Village and ended up picking together for three solid hours. Michael said, “For a while we would just get together and pick for fun and it never occurred to us to perform or record. It was so much fun to just pick and enjoy the spontaneity of playing music. The two didn’t start touring together until 2007. Then it took until 2011 before they recorded an album together. That CD, Sleep with One Eye Open, was released on Nonesuch Records. One reason for the delay in releasing a recording was that the two didn’t have a “concept.” Michael explains, “Most times when you start a band, you have a band concept. Our only focal point was spontaneity. We used traditional songs as a jumping off point to be spontaneous. Even after talking about recording an


album for three or four years we had no concept other than a strong love for brother duets, especially the Louvin Brothers. Finally, the record label told us to go into the studio and ‘do what you do.’ So that is what we did.” Explaining his collaboration with Thile, Michael said, “We had both spent time playing music that was more cerebral. Traditional music can be more direct and visceral. In their time players like Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin had a real intensity in their music. Chris and I were both frustrated that, to some degree, bluegrass music has turned into a museum piece. Some people have become overly reverent, and that is understandable. But that is not what made the music interesting in the beginning. So, we wanted to put a New York rock and roll intensity and fresh energy into traditional music. That was our mission.” The CD contains 16 tunes mostly taken from the classic bluegrass and oldtime catalog and the CD denitely contains a lot high energy and intensity. Although Michael still occasionally has the opportunity to perform with Chris

31

Thile and some of the other young, talented bluegrass players in the New York area, he commits most of his time to teaching. When teaching students, Michael likes to start them learning classic source material — Kenny Baker and Bill Monroe melodies and traditional jam tunes. He feels that it is important to teach guitar students to get away from lick-based playing. He said that guitar players in bluegrass tend to learn everything in the G or C forms and the consequence of that is that it becomes too easy to rely on the same licks over and over without really connecting with the sound of what they’re doing. Michael teaches several things that help steer students away from lick-based playing. The rst is that he requires all of his students to learn how to sing the tunes and then use vocal qualities to inform their guitar playing. He also requires them to learn tunes in open E and A, and other keys besides G and C. Additionally, he teaches students how to play lines that are natural to other instruments. Michael’s ultimate goal is teach students how to teach themselves, and using the voice as a guide is one of his strongest messages. Michael said, “I am strong on ear training. All of my students learn vocal ear training. I want them to be able to internalize what they are playing and then be able to take the notes that they hear in their head and put them on their instrument. I believe that muscle memory licks can get disengaged from melody. I want to make sure that people can fully hear and feel what they are playing, not just be analytical and cerebral, or just physical.” The key to success with Michael’s approach to teaching the guitar is to teach his students to play what they sing. Michael said, “When you can learn to mimic on your guitar with what your voice does when you are singing, your guitar break sounds more natural. The genius of bluegrass is in the subtle ornamentation of the vocal delivery. The complexity is not in the chords, the complexity is in the vocal movements. People will connect to your guitar playing if you can play like you sing. Unfortunately, a lot of guitar players get tied up in nger habits and licks.” Michael’s goal for his students is to get them away from being tied to playing what they have memorized. He said, “Once you understand the fundamentals of music, it is easier to ad lib than it is to memorize. I want my students to learn how to have a seamless experience between hearing and 32

playing. It is the quickest way to learn and it is the most fun.” The method would be to rst learn how to sing the tune, and then nd the melody on your guitar by ear. Next, you’d learn how to embellish the melody by using various slurs that create a guitar solo that mimics a vocal delivery. Once that is accomplished, then you’d learn to dress up the solo with various ornaments. Michael feels that this process helps internalize the tune and thus take it out of the realm of pure memorization. The tune will then reside in your head and not just your ngers. It is an excellent approach to teaching. These days when Michael does leave the teaching studio, he is mostly playing in a band with banjo legend Tony Trischka. He has been playing and singing with Tony since 2006 and appears on several of his recordings, including his 2007 Rounder release Double Banj o Bluegra ss Spectac ular , his 2008 Smithsonian Folkways release Territory and his upcoming Rounder release, Great Big World . Through Tony, Michael has also had the opportunity to work with Steve Martin on his 2009 Rounder album The Crow and he performed with Steve on Saturday Night Live (January 2009), with Steve and Tony on Ellen DeGeneres, Regis & Kelly, and with Steve, Tony, and Bela Fleck on Letterman. Michael currently performs on two main guitars. The rst is a 1960 Martin D-18. This D-18 has been modied to resemble a D-45. It has a bound neck and a D-45 headstock faceplate and ngerboard inlay. Michael likes the guitar because it has a strong upper mid-range and a focused sound, which helps it cut through in a full band setting. He said the guitar also sounds great through a microphone. Michael’s second guitar is a plywood Trutone guitar that was probably built in the late 1950s. He uses heavy gauge strings (14 to 60). In the past he has tuned the guitar down a whole step, but currently he likes to tune it down a minor third. He said that this gives it a sound “kind of like a baritone guitar.” He uses this guitar when playing solo and he used it on 4 or 5 songs on the album with Chris Thile. He said that although the guitar has a “jangly and rattley” sound, it works well for playing solo because “the buzzes and rattles sound like cymbals.” He said, “the guitar sounds trashy and ferocious.” In 2007 Michael released a solo album, Live At Rockwood , that came from sound board recordings taken from his solo shows at the Rockwood Music Hall during 2006.

He said, “I released a live, solo album as my recorded debut because I wanted to document the shows of my every-singleTuesday Residency at the Rockwood Music Hall. So I made an album all by myself, just singing & playing the good bluegrass music. You can’t fake a live show or live album. It is what it is.” What “it is” is high energy, strong emotion, great grooving music. Michael lives what he tries to teach his students. If you are at all confused about Michael’s approach to teaching, go to YouTube, search on “Michael Daves” and then watch and listen. In an instant you will get a feel for what it means to internalize a song. He is not analyzing, he is not obsessing about technique, he is not trying to impress other musicians with hot licks; he is playing and singing music from his gut. Certainly there is plenty of technical skill to admire in Michael’s playing, but he uses that technique appropriately to support the energy, intensity, and message of the song. Michael’s music is ferocious bluegrass and it will take you back to a time when people played and sang on the front porch at night after spending a long day in the factory or the elds. That music was something that was inside of the people who played it and they just had to let it out. In a day and age when too many players are overly concerned about pushing the borders of complexity, technical skill, and “hot” playing, I’m glad the Michael is out there showing us how it is done “old school.”




John Henry

Audio CD Track 14

## # 4 Œ ‰ j œ œ # & 4 nœ #œ

E

œœ .. œœ . œ .. ... ..

1

Œ‰J

0 0 1 2 2 0

H

T A B

0

0

## # # &

2

1

œœœ œ

6

˙ ˙ ˙ ˙

˙

0

0

0

## # # &

2

0 2

S

3

0 2

3

0

œœ .. j n œœ œ œ ... œ . J œœ œ Jœ œœ œ œ n œ œ œ œœœ J œ J J 0

0 0 1

S

0

0 0 1 2

2

œJ œ n œœ œ œ œ œœ œ n œ # œ œ œ œ œ œœ .. J œ. J ... J j œœœ .. œœ œ œœ œœœ .. Jœ œœœ œ œ œ œ ... ... . J . J œ n œœ œ œœ œ n œ # œ œœ œœ j œ . œ œ . J œœ œ œœ œœ œ œ n œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ S

0

0

0 3

0 0

0 0

2

0

0 0

2

0

1

0 3

2

0

2

1

2 2 0

B7

0 2 1 2

0 2

0

0 2 1 2

2 1

0

0 2 1

0

0 3

2 2

2

0 0

2

0

X

2

E

0 0 1 2 2 0

14

0 0 1 2 2 0

œ nœ œ œ

2

# # œœ œ œœ œ œ # # & œœ œ 10

J

œœ .. œœ . œ .. ... ..

0 0

0

œ

˙

0 0 1 2 2 0

œJ œ œ œ

Arranged by Michael Daves

2

0

0 0 1

1

0 0 1

0

2

0

H

0 0

0

2

0 0

0

0

S

5

H

4

2

2

2 0

0 0

0

0 0

X S

4

6

0 0

S

4

6

5

4

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

2

4

# # œœ œ œ œœ œœ b œ œ œ œ œ # # & J J n œ . œj œ œ n œ œ nœ #œ œ œ œ . J J J B7

18

H 0 0 2

0

0 0

E

0 0

S

3 5

3 5

3 5

3 5

2 4

2

2

2

4

2

2

3



0

3

4

4

33

Ages and Ages Ago by Kathy Barwick For this issue, I give you “Ages and Ages Ago,” a great song written by Fred Rose, Ray Whitley, and Gene Autry. This song was recorded by Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen. On this version, the initial solo is split between guitar, mandolin, and banjo. My arrangement is derived from the great recording by (Josh) Crowe and (David) McLaughlin, titled Going Back . This record is a must-have for us crosspicking acionados, as it is packed full of great guitar playing, including lots of our favorite crosspicking technique. Perhaps in tribute to the Country Gentlemen version, Crowe and McLaughlin trade lines on the guitar leads. A few words about pick direction. I pondered measures 2, 5, 8, 10 and 13 for quite a while. I play those with a DUDU pattern, rather than the Clarence White-style DDU. I’m not sure why, other than with the medium tempo of this song, it just feels swingier. swingier. Do note Example 1 (at the bottom of the next page), which is an alternate measure 8. In this measure, you would make

that rst strong melody note a quarter note, then ll the rest with a short snippet of the DDU Clarence White-style crosspicking roll. Notice that it starts on the last note (the “up”) of the pattern! The second note in the pattern (on the 2& beat) is a rest stroke. The next “D” is NOT a rest stroke, setting you up to scoop under the B string for that 3& beat, which is an upstroke. (This alternative is not on the sound le. Please refer to my column on “Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” in Volume 13, Number 6, September/October 2009, in which I cover this crosspicking approach in detail.) One more comment: the extended forward rolls in measures 2, 5, 8, 10 and 13 all serve to highlight the melody (which is on the 4th string 2nd fret). By starting on the top of the measure, and repeating that note in the roll, we emphasize the melody, which is held for 3 counts in that measure. This it for this issue! Be sure to procure a copy of this ne Crowe & McLaughlin recording!

Kathy Barwick has played guitar since the late 1960s, when she learned folk-style finge fi nge rpi cki ng. Kat hy also al so plays pl ays ban jo, resophonic guitar, mandolin and acoustic bass, and has performed over the years with bluegrass and Irish bands. A founding member of the bluegrass band The All Girl Boys, Kathy now plays guitar and Dobro in the duo Barwick Barw ick & Siegfrie Sieg fried, d, and resophonic guitar and mandolin with The Mike Justis Band. Kathy’s criticallyacclaimed solo recording In My Life was released in 2011 on the FGM label. A new solo project is in the works. A Grass Valley, California Califo rnia resident, Kathy teaches at music camps and gives private lessons on guitar, guitar, resophonic resophonic guitar, guitar, and banjo. She welcomes your feedback and/or comments; you can contact her at [email protected] or visit on the web at www.kathybarwick.net.

The Guitar Player’s Practical Guide to Scales & Arpeggios by Tim May & Dan Miller This new 160 page book (with 136 audio tracks on 2 CDs) by Dan Miller and Tim May not only teaches you how to learn scales in a way that is easy, fun, interesting, and informative, it also shows you how to practically apply scales when learning new melodies, embellish ing those melodies to create your own solos and variations, and in exploring improvisations. The scale study method in this book uses six phrases as follows: 1) Scale pattern study and practice 2) Melody Melody recognition practice 3) Improvisation Improvisation practice 4) Scale mode practice 5) Scale interval practice 6) Ear training practice

The book book is broken down into four four sections sections (“The (“The Big Big Four”): Four”): straight straight scales, scales, folded folded scales (scale patterns), harmonized scales, and crosspicking arpeggios. By presenting scale and arpeggio knowledge in these six phases and four categories, the authors are able to clearly demonstrate how a knowledge of scales and arpeggios can be easily and practically employed.



37

THE

O

John Hardy Deciding what to cover in my column is an interesting process. Sometimes I get an inspiration well in advance. Other times I wait until I need to get cranking. But it’s intriguing how the simple intention to work on it always results in something I feel I can get behind. So it was that I picked up the guitar the other day while thinking “what’s my next tune?” and “John Hardy” just started appearing. (Followed then by a few days of honing and arranging.) As many of you probably already know, “John Hardy” is a classic bluegrass ballad that can be done either as a song or as an instrumental. To the casual listener this might be considered a “crosspicking arrangement,” since there’s quite a bit of it and crosspicking does kind of dazzle the ear. But I think it’s as important to note how

- ZONE by

Orrin Star

many strums and Carter-style licks also populate this solo. Crosspicking isn’t an either/or proposition: unless you’re specically trying to emulate a Stanley Brothers guitar sound you need not employ it throughout an entire solo. In fact balancing crosspicking with strums and linear phrases makes the crosspicking more interesting by offering some contrast. Let’s now focus on the strums: they are important. They should have a full and loose sound of their own. As a guitar teacher the most common thing I nd myself correcting students on is the shortchanging of strums within a solo; they are all too often clipped or tight sounding and simply not integrated into the rest of the lead. Strums are not afterthoughts or llers—they deserve your attention and love.

A few technical asides. During the crosspicking sections over the C chord I use my pinky to add the F note. Whenever I’m playing a D chord and hitting the second fret on the low E string I’m using my thumb for that note. And when strumming a G I am using the modern G chord (the one with the D at the third fret of the second string). Lastly, it’s always a good idea to think vocally and try to communicate each syllable of each line of lyrics as you’re playing a song like this. Orrin Star is an award-winning guitar, banjo & mandolin player based in the Washington, DC area. The 1976 National Flatpicking Champion, he has toured and recorded widely, is the author of Hot Licks for Bluegrass Guitar, and performs mostly solo and duo. He offers private music instruction both in person and online. See www.orrinstar.com.

Orrin Star’s

Flatpicking Guitar Primer What The Tab Won’t Tell You

A comprehensive introduction to bluegrass lead guitar p laying by one of America’s top atpicking teachers, this video brings to light vit al, yet often overlooked, subtleties that are at the heart of this exciting style—those things that the tablature won’t tell you. Among them: • how to think like a ddler and get the “dance pulse” into your playing • the central role of strums in lead playing (as applied to Carter-style and Blake-style) • right hand fundamentals like: how to properly alternate your pick, how to modify your right hand technique when strumming, performing double-stops, and rest strokes • the role of double-stops and harmonized leads • using lyrics & singing styles to guide your solos Starting with a simple scale and then progressing through eight cool arrangements of classic tunes, this 2-hour video doesn’t just spoon feed you solos—it provides a systematic guide to the thi nking behind and within the style.




$24.95

39

“Whispering” by Dix Bruce In this column we’ll look at the old pop tune “Whispering.” “Whispering” has been played by all types of bands in many different genres of music since the early 1920s. It’s got a wonderful chord progression and a melody that has made it a hit with generations of musicians and listeners. Notice that I referred to “Whispering” as a “pop” tune and not a “jazz” or “swing” tune. That’s because most of the songs we think of as jazz or swing tunes originated in the pop market. Musicians adapted them after they were well-known hits and used them as vehicles for their improvisations precisely because they were so recognized by the general public. If you start with melody that’s recognized and loved you can take it to all kinds of different places and the listeners will follow. Of course you have to deliver the new material within the parameters of what that audience wants, likes, and recognizes as good. A typical bluegrass audience would likely prefer a different style of improvisation than a bebop, rock, country, or rap audience. I used to think of songs played in the swing or jazz style as swing or jazz tunes. That is until I met the great jazz mandolinist Tiny Moore in 1978. Tiny played with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and was a jazz genius on the ve-string mandolin. When I interviewed Tiny for Mandolin World News magazine I asked him about playing “jazz tunes.” He replied, “Now, what do you mean by ‘jazz tunes’?” I answered, “You know, tunes like ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ ‘Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,’ ‘Oh, Lady Be Good,’ tunes like that.” Tiny answered, “I think of those as pop tunes. They were on the radio when I was a kid and we all learned them.” I was confused. He asked another question, “What do you mean by jazz? Do you mean take-off?” I began to see what he was getting at. The term “jazz” applies more to the process of improvising than to a set of tunes or a style of music. Any pop tune could be used as a vehicle for improvisation (“take-off” or “jazz”) in any style like swing, bebop, Latin, western, or any number


of others. That information made me think of music in a whole different way. Speaking of improvising, let’s look at an improvised solo on “Whispering” and compare it to the tune’s melody. I came up with this solo by playing along with the band rhythm track from my Gypsy Swing and Hot Club Rhythm for Guitar, Vol. II , book and CD set. I recorded the solo through a few times and picked the version I liked best, then transcribed that solo which you see on page 43. My goal was to play a solo that still had a lot of the original melody shining through it. If I played subsequent solos I might stray a bit more from the melody, or play in different octaves, or use some different techniques like chord melody or octaves—whatever I might be feeling at the time. I demonstrated that process in a YouTube video of “Whispering.” www. youtube.com/watch?v=eKxxPTmVH3s. My point here was to play a solo that used the melody and kept coming back to it. I wanted listeners who were familiar with the tune “Whispering” to be able to follow it throughout the solo. Before you try playing the solo, listen to and download the excerpts I posted online. There you’ll find slow and up-to-speed recordings of “Whispering” plus the sheet music and tab to the melody being played. The slow melody is backed up by guitar, while the up-to-speed melody is played along with a Gypsy Swing/Hot Club style band. This is how I present all the tunes in both volumes of Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm. Listen to the recordings and follow along on the music/tab. “Whispering” has a lot of great chords and you may not be familiar with them. Don’t worry about that now, just concentrate on the ow of the chord progression and melody. Once you feel familiar with them, look at the new solo that I’ve presented here. The recordings of it, both slow and up-to-speed versions, are on the CD that accompanies this issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. Again, the slow solo is backed up by guitar and the up-to-speed solo is played along with a Gypsy Swing/Hot Club style band.


The song is also written in the key of Eb. I’m not sure exactly why but Eb is the usual key. That might be because it developed to be such a horn-based vehicle for improvisation that the horn players got to call the key. Or, it may have been made famous by a singer who performed it in this key. Yes, the key of Eb can seem daunting if you’re not used to playing in it. The only way to settle down and enjoy Eb is to play in Eb. With a little work, you’ll nd that every key works about the same as every other key. The solo, like the melody and chord progression, is in the key of Eb. I wrote out the solo in the position I played it in, which was a closed position, with all fretted and no open string notes. That can also seem daunting but the great thing about learning a solo in a closed position is that you can easily move it to other keys up and down the ngerboard. There’s a bit of a learning curve to doing this but once you have it, it’s an awesome and wonderfully useful skill. Let me mention a few of the things that I hear in the solo that take it beyond the melody. First of all, in the pickup measure, I walk up to the rst full measure melody note (an Eb). From measure 1 through 6 I stay close to the melody notes but play notes above and below. This is kind of the main theme of the solo. Again, I’m trying to stay really close to the melody throughout

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Podcast We are now broadcasting a new Podcast every month

Interviews, fatpicking tunes, and more. Check it out: http://www.atpick.com/ podcast.html 41

the solo. In measure 7 I introduce a triplet rhythmic gure, again something I’ll add in throughout the rest of the solo. With a triplet you play three notes in the space you usually t two notes. In this solo the triplets are quarter notes and we’ll t three in the space where two are usually played in 4/4 time. I kind of work these ideas through the changes and melody. Compare the solo to the original melody. How would you approach the solo? What different musical ideas would you bring to the melody? When you play through the solo, pay attention to the suggested fretting nger numbers between the staffs. These will keep your fretting hand in the proper position to reach all of the notes of the solo. In the process you’ll dene a closed Eb region in that area of the ngerboard. You’ll play a fair amount of notes with your 4th fretting nger. Big deal! Teach that pinkie who’s boss! Explain that it, like the other ngers, has to do its part. No slackers! You may eventually want to look at the chords to “Whispering.” Let me or Dan Miller know if you’d like them covered in a subsequent column. All the chords to

“Whispering” and 23 other similar songs that all the swing and jazz players jam on are included in my two volumes, 12 songs in each, of Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm for Guitar and Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm for Mandolin. Good luck!

Learn to

Improvise!

Dix’s latest CD is “Look at it Rain” with Julie Cline. It’s available from his website, www.musixnow.com/dixandjulie.html, where you can preview all the songs, from iTunes and from CD Baby. Dix’s latest guitar book/CD sets are AllTime Favorite Parking Lot Picker’s Guitar Solos and Old-time Gospel Crosspicking Guitar. Recent publications include The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook series and Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm, Vol. I & II for guitar and mandolin. Log on to www.musixnow.com for information on new releases and tons of free music, tablature, and MP3s to download and learn.


Flatpicking Essentials Volume 8: Introduction to Swing & Jazz The eighth and nal book in the Flatpicking Essentials series teaches you how to begin to play swing and jazz tunes in the context of a atpick jam, including how to learn to improvise over swing and jazz chord changes. After presenting how to study and utilize scales and arpeggios in the context of using them as “road maps” for improvisation, this book presents three variations of ten standard swing and jazz tunes. You will learn the basic melody, plus two arrangements of each tune by Tim May. The tunes presented include: Avalon, Bill Bailey, 12th Street Rag, The Sheik of Araby, Rose Room, After You’ve Gone, St. James Inrmary, St. Louis Blues, Limehouse Blues, and I Ain’t Got Nobody. 42

To Order: 800-413-8296 www.flatpickdigital.com www.flatpickingmercantile.com Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


Whispering

Audio CD Tracks 21-22

Arranged by Dix Bruce

E

1

T A B 5

3 3 3 5

1

3

4

1

3 2 2 3

1

2

4 3 3 4

4

5

6

3

3

2

5 5 3

5

4

3

5

5

2

1

3

3

5

3

3

2

3 3 3 4 3

3

5

5

3

5

5

C7

7

3

1

2

5

3

4

1

3

3

3 5

3

6

6

6

3

6

3

7

1

5

4

G

5

1

1

3

3

3 5

5

5

F m7

dim7

5

B

3

5

F m7

7

B

3

3

7

1

E

1

5

3

D7

3

5 5 3

5

3

2

4

3

3

G m7

1

4

2

4

B

E

4

1

6 6 4

F7

3

17

2

D

3

13

1

E

1

9

3

D7

3

3

3

4 3 4 5

6 6 4

3

4

3

3

3

4

3

3

5

5

5

3

5

© 2013 by Dix Bruce - www.musixnow,com



43

Whispering (con’t) 21

E

3

D

3

3

2

3

5

5

3

2

3 3

3 6

25

F7

C7

7

B

6

6

6

5

5

3

4

7

5 5

29

5

4

5

5

A

F m7

3

5

5

m6

5

5

2

1

4

2

4

3

6

4

3

5

5

6

5

3

3

3

5

3

E

3

3 3

4

3

1

5

3

6

3

4

5 6

Flatpick Jam The Complete Package! On this DVD-Rom disc you will nd all of the Flatpick Jam (play-along) tracks for the 48 tunes that appear on all of the Volumes of Brad Davis’ Flatpick Jam series. Additionally, in the “Flatpick Jam Tabs” folder on this disc, you will nd a folder for each tune that includes transcriptions provided by Brad (the numbered transcriptions), plus any arrangement of that particular tune that has appeared in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine during our rst 10 years of publication. This means that you will get anywhere from 4 to 10 different variations of every tune tabbed out. Additionally, the audio tracks that are companions to those FGM arrangements are also included. This is the ultimate Flatpick Jam package and a must have resource for anyone who wants to build their atpicking repertoire, learn variations, and study different arrangements of all of the standard jam session tunes. And you are able to practice all of your arrangements at four different tempos by jamming along with Brad Davis!

Call 800-413-8296 to Order or visit www.flatpickingmercantile.com

44



Flatpick Highlight:

Dave Keenan b y Dan Miller

For me, multi-instrumentalist Dave Keenan was a surprise atpicking guitar instructor at the 2013 Steve Kaufman Acoustic Kamp. He was a surprise because prior to showing up at Kamp, I was not familiar with him or his music. After publishing Flatpicking Guitar Magazine for 17 years, I tend to think that I’d be familiar with all of the atpicking instructors that Steve would invite to teach at Kamp. Silly me! I’m always happy when my arrogance is challenged in ways such as this because I then have the pleasure of getting to nd out about a great picker that I didn’t know existed. This was one of those occasions and I’m happy that it happened because otherwise I may not have known about Dave Keenan. When asked about selecting Dave to be a teacher at Kamp, Steve Kaufman said, “David was difcult to pigeon hole into teaching one instrument because he plays them all equally well. I look for folks that can use help getting new recognition and for the most part David was a West Coast personality. New instructors at Kamp can build a huge following and better name recognition. I watched him work at a BC music camp and worked with him several times teaching at the same BC camp. I saw how dedicated he was to the students and nally decided he could come to Kamp as a rock-a-billy picker but then also teach other styles. He was a great addition to the 2013 Kamp and will be with us again in 2014 at the 19th Annual Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp.” Since Steve has invited him back to teach at Kamp again next year, I thought it would be nice to let all of you Flatpicking Guitar Magazine readers know about him as well. Born in Seattle and raised at various locations on the west coast, Dave grew up in a musical family. His father was a guitar player who played music with a banjo playing friend. Dave said that his dad mostly liked to play the “folk scare” stuff — Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

Brothers Four, Kingston Trio, etc. — but he also enjoyed listening to Doc Watson and his banjo-playing friend introduced him to Flatt & Scruggs. Regarding his musical upbringing, Dave said, “My dad’s 1959 Martin D-28 was around the house, but he didn’t like me touching it. When I was eight, he gave me a ukulele and taught me how to play ‘Ain’t She Sweet’.” In 1970, when Dave was 12, the family moved to Campbell, California (near San Jose), and Dave’s father started taking flatpicking lessons from Dave Holcomb at Holcomb’s Banjo and Guitar Shop. Shortly after Dave’s father started guitar lessons, Dave started to learn how to play the banjo from Dave Holcomb and also worked on learning a bit of guitar on his own at home. Dave remembers that Dave Holcomb wrote out all of the tunes he taught in both standard notation and tablature and he would also record the tunes at both slow and faster tempos. He said that he learned about 25 banjo tunes during the year he took lessons. He also learned something about guitar tunes because he said that his father would bring home Carter-style tunes and ddle tunes and practice them at the house. Dave remembers, “My dad worked hard to get the tunes, so I’d hear them a lot. I would hear Dad play them and then I’d try to learn them by ear.” From the time he was 12 up until he entered high school, Dave mostly focused on learning how to play the banjo. But then while he was in high school he met


another guitar player and the two started writing guitar songs together. Dave said, “We wrote a lot of weird tunes that were inuenced by 70s progressive rock bands like Yes and Genesis.” At the age of seventeen Dave began teaching banjo and guitar lessons at Dave Holcomb’s Banjo and Guitar Shop and he also taught a guitar class at his high school. Although he was in a band in high school that actually played on a television show called Young Sounds of ’77 , he said that he did not do much gigging during his high school years. Dave mostly grew up playing tunes at home and at the store where he taught. He was exposed to some great music in the San Jose area though. Dave H olcomb was in a band with Todd Phillips at the time and some of the local musicians, including Darol Anger, Todd Phillips, and Tony Rice, would occasionally play at the Straw Hat Pizza Parlor. After high school Dave continued teaching lessons in California until he reached his mid-twenties and moved to Seattle and started working with a touring band called Border Ride. The band played for Fan Fair week in Nashville, with Dave on banjo, and shared the stage with Bill Monroe and Jim & Jesse in 1984. That band also toured in Europe. In 1985 the lead singer from Border Ride, Ted Scott, started a country band and Dave joined him on the Telecaster. The band played a long series of two-week gigs at various country venues. From 1991 through 1996 Dave played the Telecaster with a “cowboy yodelly country swing band’ called Ranch Romance. Before Dave joined the band it was an all-girl band. The band performed country and Western

45

swing tunes from the 1940s and 50s, a la Bob Wills and Patsy Cline. Ranch Romance was a touring band that played many of the prominent acoustic music festivals, such as Strawberry in California and the Walnut Valley Festival in Wineld, Kansas. They also recorded three albums on the Sugar Hill label. The Sugar Hill website has this to say about Ranch Romance: “Taking their name from a Western pulp magazine published in the 1930s, the genre-hopping swing band Ranch Romance formed in the late ‘80s. In the Seattle-based group’s initial incarnation, Ranch Romance was an allfemale quartet featuring singer/guitarist Jo Miller, bassist Nancy Katz, ddler Barbara Lamb, and mandolinist Lisa Theo; in 1989, they issued their debut LP, Western Dream. After touring in support of k.d. lang, Theo left the band in 1991 and was replaced by accordionist Nova Karina Devonie and David Keenan on guitar, mandolin, and banjo. Lamb departed to attempt a solo career prior to the release of the second Ranch Romance effort, Blue Blazes; Flip City followed in 1993.” When the Ranch Romance band broke up in 1996, Dave formed a duo with accordionist Nova Karina Devonie. The two named their duo after both of their middle names, Miles & Karina, and recorded an album of original material titled Quirkish Delights. This duo is “still going strong” today. They often add a bass player and drummer and perform as a quartet and they have also been active writing and performing music for silent lms. Most recently (July 2013) they wrote music for two early silent Alfred Hitchcock lms from the 1920s and performed during the showing of these lms at the Seattle International Film Festival. Miles & Karina recorded a second album, Wherego, in 2006 and then, in 2009, they released Ach melodies , selections from the Miles & Karina original score to The Adventu res of Prin ce Achm ed , the first silent lm that they scored. The Northwest Film Forum had commissioned them to write a new score for the 1926 animated classic silent lm and they perform it live for the lm’s showing at the Children’s Film Festival. When they perform for silent lms, Miles & Karina perform as a duo, however, they use a lot of different instruments. For the Achmed lm, Karina played her Petosa accordion, Ludwig glockenspiel and her mixing bowl. Miles played his 46

National style O guitar, Nechville banjo, Silvertone guitar, Gibson LG-O, Eastman Viola, Shinano classical guitar, and various percussion instruments. In 1999 Dave joined former Ranch Romance singer Jo Miller in a band called Jo Miller and Her Burly Roughnecks. The band played festivals for about a year, but then mainly played regional gigs in and around Seattle until they broke up in 2005. When playing with this band, Dave laid down the Tele and played a 1960 Silvertone strato-tone style guitar. Dave said, “It looks like a Les Paul, but it has a hollow body. It has a ‘bonky’ tone.” Starting in about 1998 Dave has also been involved in numerous theatrical productions. The rst was a show titled Closer Walk and was a musical celebration of Patsy Cline’s music. When Dave was part of the show, it toured in Washington, Oregon, California, and Canada. Dave said just about every year since then he has worked in some kind of musical theater production. This year he played for three months in a Johnny Cash tribute show called Ring of Fire in Milwaukee. Another that he was involved with was American Songs, a tribute to Woody Guthrie. He also did 70 to 80 performances in Denver of a show titled Momma Hated Diesels, celebrating truckers and country music. Not long after playing the Patsy Cline show, in 1998, Dave also started a Buck Owens tribute band called the Buckaroosters. Dave plays the Telecaster in this band. They perform material that was recorded by Buck Owens between 1959 and 1969. Additionally Dave plays in a band called Tom Bennett and the Rolling Blackouts. That band has played every Monday night at a club in Seattle for 13 years straight. The band features vintage country music and original tunes. But wait, there’s more! Dave also plays in an acoustic string band called Mighty Squirrel with Jaybirds ddler Greg Spatz. They describe their band as “a Washington-based acoustic quartet that draws on musical traditions such as Appalachian old time, classic country, Yiddish, Celtic, French-Canadian, LadinoSephardic, and more—creating a unique world music string band sound.” The sixth and nal band that Dave currently performs with is a bluegrass band called The Downtown Mountain Boys. Dave likens this band’s music to the Nashville Bluegrass Band. This band performs in and around the Seattle area. If I added it up correctly, Dave is in six

bands, plus performs for theatrical road shows, scores and performs for silent movie soundtracks, and he is a teacher at multiple music camps— one has to wonder how Dave nds the time to spike his hair and trim his sideburns. This is a very busy guy! At Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp this year one of the things that Dave taught his students was his system of learning chord triads horizontally and vertically on the ngerboard and how to connect those triads when soloing. He has written a book on this topic titled Swing-a-Billy Bar-B-Que Triads: The Guitar’s Framework . In the book Dave teaches a very nice approach to learning how to play a chord-melody version of the Christmas song “Joy to the World.” Learning the chord-melody style of playing jazz is not an easy undertaking. This is a style of playing where you play a new chord, or chord inversion, with every melody note. The melody note is most often the note at the top of the chord (highest pitched note). Jazz players will use a very complex variety of chords in support of the melodic line. Trying to learn this style of arrangement can be overwhelming to players who are unfamiliar with it. I really like Dave’s approach because he breaks the process down into easily attainable steps. Through the use of a series of chord diagrams, Dave shows how you can play “Joy to The World” in the chord-melody style using major chord triads and only three strings of the guitar. The melody is on the high E string and each chord triad is formed on the G, B and high E strings. I like this approach because it is easily attainable and thus will help build condence. It also teaches the rudiments of playing a song using the chord-melody technique. It is a good rst step for those who desire to learn this style of playing, but do not know where to begin. This book is available by contacting Dave at twang@ nwlink.com. You can also nd out more about Dave, his bands, and his teaching at his website: www.davekeenan.com. I thoroughly enjoyed Dave Keenan’s performances at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp and I also got a lot out of working with his triad method. If you get the chance to catch him perform with any of his various bands or have an opportunity to study with him at a music camp, don’t pass it up — especially if you want to learn something about the “swing-a-billy” style. It will be an enjoyable experience!



Old Pie Cherry (con’t)

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ j œ œ œ . &œ . J & œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ F

Dm

22

0

1

1

3

1

3

1

C

Am

G

Em

œœœœœœœœ œœœœœœœœ

0

3

1

3

3

3

1

3

1

0 0

2

2

2

0

2

0

2

G

26

3

C

Am

G

œœœœœœœœ œœœ

2

0

2

0

C

˙ ˙ ˙ ˙

0 S

0 2

0

H

0 5

0 4

0

0 2

0

1

3

2

1

3 2

1

0 2

0

2

5

1 0 2 3

The Guitar Player's Guide to Developing

Speed, Accuracy, & Tone by Brad Davis & Dan Miller Learn How To Improve:

• • • • •

Right and Left Hand Mechanics Right and Left Hand Efciency Volume, Speed, & Tone Note Accuracy and Clarity Overall Smoothness and Fluidity

In this book (with accompanying audio CD), by Brad Davis & Dan Miller, the authors have designed a step-by-step program that will help you improve your right and left hand mechanics and efciency, increase your volume and speed, allow your notes to ring out more accurately with clarity and rich tone, and improve the overall smoothness and uidity of your solos. This program is designed to help players of all levels. Even though he is a seasons professional, Brad Davis uses the exercises that are presented in this book to warm up for all of his shows and studio sessions and he has taught this method to his private students and workshops attendees (beginner to advanced) with tremendous results. Available in spiral bound hardcopy or as a digital download.

flatpickingmercantile.com 48

flatpickdigital.com

800-413-8296



Music Theory:

Mastering the Fingerboard Technical Studies for Flatpickers by Michel A. Maddux

Altered and Extended

Tony Rice once commented, “All I’m trying to do is make some good sounds come out of the guitar.” Tony, the master experimenter and visionary brought elements of jazz, blues, and rock into his bluegrass sounds so successfully that he became the seminal player of the acoustic guitar. Not limited to first position G-C-D, he introduced some great jazz standards to the acoustic music scene, playing songs from John Coltrane, Wed Montgomery, and his own compositions. To move into some of these jazzier sounds we need to think about the way that the chords work on the guitar. For example, in a tune like “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”, the rhythm requires you to play chords like a GMaj7/D, D7sus4, and to vary the rhythm between a Latin and swing feel. What do you play when you see this: GMaj7/D? Or this: D7sus4? First, notice that the “/D” means to play the D note in the bass. The notes of the GMaj7 are 1-3-5-Maj7, or in the key of G, G-B-D-F#. Remember that a G7 chord, also called a dominant 7th, would play the notes 1-3-5b7, or G-B-D-F, since the 7th note, the F, is atted from the key signature.

In Exercise 1 we take a look at six ways of playing the GMajor7 chord followed by three ways to play GMaj7/D. Play through each of the chords slowly, strum them, and listen to the different voicings in each ngering and position. Notice also that since you can always move the note on the high E string to the bottom string, you can experiment with the sound you get when you make that modication to the chord. Playing the F# on the bottom string against the G makes a dissonant sound that I normally would not choose, although the G in the bass against the F# sounds ne. Notice also that the D6 chord has the notes 1-3-5-6 or D-F#-A-B, and a D7sus4 is 1-4-5-7 or D-G-A-C. Thinking About Coltrane - The Night Has a Thousand Eyes The song this time is “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”. It is played as a medium swing style song, switching between a Latin and swing feel in the A part. For improvisation over the A part you can experiment with licks in G. For the B part, use ideas in Bb and Ab similar to those I presented for rhythm changes in a previous issue of FGM.

I hope you enjoy adding this song to your musical repertoire. Have fun, and keep on pickin’! Mike’s gui tar mus ic can be hea rd regularly in the Rocky Mountain West. Contact information on recordings, books, and correspondence can be found at http:// www.madduxband.com/ and at http:// reverbnation.com/mikemaddux. Search Facebook and YouTube for the latest clips and news.

Jane Accurso Untanglin’ My Heart This new recording from Missouri-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jane Accurso also features Brad Davis, Dan Miller, Tim May, and Gretchen Priest-May To Order: 800-413-8296 or

atpick.com Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


49

Maddux Exercises

Audio CD Track 25

Arranged by Mike Maddux

œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 & 4œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œœ GMaj7

1

Position I

Position II

Position III

2

T A B

2

0 0

7

3

4

7

4

Position X

7 7

7

4

5

7

5

GMaj7/F #

D7sus4

GMaj7/G

11

9

12

˙ ˙

˙

˙

˙

˙

˙ ˙

˙

˙ ˙

˙

˙

˙ ˙

˙

˙

Position III

˙

˙ ˙

10

Position X

Position III

Position I ˙

˙

˙

˙ ˙

˙ ˙

˙

3 4 5

3 1 2 0

3 4 4

2

5

2

3

4

0

0

0

G Maj7 /D

7 7

J œ # n œ & œ œ J J

7 7 7

7

5

5

20

0

4

0

16

Dmin7

5

6

5

5

7 7

J jœ œ 7

5

5

J œ œ œJ œ œ J J 5

5

G7

5

6

5

8 8 7 7

10 10 12 10 12 10

œ œ jœ œ œ œ œ J J J œœ œ œ œ jœ œ œ J J J j jnœ œ œ œ œ œ œ D7sus4

3

0

1

0

2

0

0

D 7sus4

7 7 7

5

˙

3 2 5 3

7

7

3 0

8

1

2

2 3

1

2

0

2

0

0

D7

8

J J J jœ œ œ n œ œ œJ n œ œj œ œ J J J J 8

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

F

1

0

0

3

J

5

3

1

0

3

8 7 7

8

CMaj7

0

3 5 5

œ œ œ jœ œ œ œ J œj œ œ J J J jœ œ œ œ œ œJ œ œj œ œ

8

5

0

3

50

5 3 5 5

3

3

˙

˙

1 0 0 0

GMaj7/D

˙

˙

˙

12

10 12

10

# œ œ & œ œ . œ œ .. œ # œ œ œ . & œ œ J œj œ œ œ œJ .. J J J œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ j & œœJ œœ œœJ 7

Position VII

3

3

0

Position V

1

0

2

1

0

3


0

3


The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

Audio CD Track 26-27

Arranged by Mike Maddux

% w # & 44 Ó Œ œ .

GMaj7/D

Ó Œ

T A B

..

3

œ œ œ w

˙

5

5

˙

2

7

3

5

5

5

œ . œJ œJ œ œJ œJ œ . œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ # & JJœ J . . . JJ J J JJ J # œ œ œ œJ œ œ w & w J J J œ w # œ œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œJ J Œ Œ Œ œ & J . Œ Œ Œ J J J b # j & # œ . œ œ œ œ œ # œ # œ œJ n œ . w . . J J 6

GMaj7/D

D7sus4

5

5

5

5

5

5

œ œ ‰ J ‰ J

D7sus4

1

D7

8

œ œ

˙

5

7

5

5

7

5

4

7

3 7

7

7

10

D m7

G7

3

14

3

GMaj7/D

3

1

0

1

D7sus4

0

19

C 7M

3

3

3

2

2

3

3

52

3

3

2

˙

5

3

0

D7sus4

3

3

F7

3

0

1

G 7M

œœ Œ Œ œ œœ .. Œ Œ .

2

2 2 0 0 0 2 3

0

B 7M

2

3

0

G /D

3

C m7

3

œ œ

F7

2

3

2

˙

1

2


2

Œ œ Œ 2


The Night Has A Thousand Eyes (con’t)

b # j & #œ . œ œ œ . J # j & œ. œ œ. B m7

23

1

27

1

1

b b œ œ # œ œ œJ # œ . w J .

E 7

0

1

A m7

0

D7s us 4

˙

0

.

J

0

0

.

0

3

J

2

4

0

J

3

4

3

œ œ 1

j œ. œ . J

˙

0 0

Fine

J

˙

GMaj7/D

0

0

D7sus4

j j œ œ œ œœœ œ w 0

0

E m7

3 4

GMaj7/D

0

0

jœ œ œ w 2

w

0

1

G 7M

D7sus4

# & 32

0

A 7M

Œ Œ Œ œ Œ Œ Œ

0

0

∑

3

The Flatpicker’s Guide to Old-Time Music by Tim May & Dan Miller

www.atpick.com 800-413-8296 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

Although this new book by Tim May and Dan Miller will teach you how to play 11 old time ddle tunes, with variations and suggested rhythm ideas, the extra added value in this 160-page book (with 2 audio CDs), is the 50 pages of focused instruction on old-time rhythm playing. This material will not only help anyone learning how to play in an old-time music ensemble, it will help any atpicking guitar player who plays with a small ensemble (duo or trio that does not include a bass) learn how to play solid rhythm with an interesting array of bass note selections, bass walks, and bass runs. This is a “must have” addition to any atpicker’s library!


53

2013 National Flatpicking Championship By Chris Thiessen As always, the 42nd Walnut Valley Festival at Winfield KS provided something for everyone: sweltering summertime daytime temps, cool evenings, and the perennial downpours that turn the campgrounds and unpaved roads to mud pits. But the 16,000+ attendees at one of the premier Americana music venues took it all in stride, dressing up or down or booting up as the temperature, humidity, or precipitation demanded. Seasoned veterans showed up from day one of the festival in shorts, t-shirts, a variety of stylish Wellingtons, toting collapsible chairs that enabled them to enjoy performers at the four ofcial stages as well as at the abundance of unofcial stages and elaborate campsites scattered throughout the grounds. (Note: For a quick history of the Walnut Valley Festival, refer to Flatpicking Guitar Magaz ine, 16:1, November/December, pages 75-76.) This year ’s talent roster included the Grascals; Jack Lawrence and the ToneBlazers; the Byron Berline Band; Driven; Milkdrive; John McCutcheon; Buddy Greene, Ron Block, and Sierra Hull; Steel Wheels; Bill Barwick; Tom Chapin; and a host of others, resulting in the amazing mix of bluegrass, Gypsy jazz, cowboy raconteurs, Appalachian, Irish, and all musical points in between that is, characteristically, Wineld. But for the at-top devotees, Saturday, September 21st, was The Day. The morning dawned bright, clear, and a little brisk. By 8AM contestants began to assemble under the striped tent next to Stage 1, many clutching coffee cups to warm their ngers, greeting each other in the camaraderie born of numerous competitions. Contestants this year included three-time champion Steve Kaufman; former champions Robin Kessinger, Scott Fore, John Shaw, Adam Wright, and Allen Shadd; perennial favorites Dan Kessinger and Rob Pearcy (the 2012 Kentucky State champion); Matt Lindsey, Ben Cockman (first at the 2012 Wayne Henderson festival); and Matthew Taylor (2013 Alabama State champion): quite a competitive eld.

54

Although limited to 40 contestants, this year’s eld drew only 28. After the rituals of “the explanation of the rules” and “the drawing of performance numbers,” Allen Shadd had drawn #1. Promptly at 9AM he sat down in front of the mic and led off the 2013 National Championship. Over the next two-and-a-half hours the remaining 27 contestants took Stage 1 and played their two tunes to unseen judges but an appreciative audience. At noon, after a 15-minute recess, the jud ges anno unced the top five: Ad am Wright, Steve Kaufman, Allen Shadd, Ben Cockman, and Matt Lindsey. The competition restarted, but now with a eld of ve. Two more tunes from each contestant, and then the long wait for the nal results. For 2013, Allen Shadd had won his second Wineld title, and selected a second Collings Wineld to commemorate the event. Steve Kaufman was second, selecting the Martin Marquis D-28, and Matt Lindsey took third place and the Gallagher guitar. Winfield 2013 National Flatpicking Guitar Champion Allen Shadd In terms of atpicking, 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for Allen Shadd. After winning a first at the Old Time Fiddler’s convention in Union Grove, North Carolina in May, and a rst at the Wayne Henderson Festival in Rugby, VA in June, Allen capped September with another rst – and his second National Flatpick Champion title – at the Walnut Valley Festival in Wineld, KS. “Today, I was lucky,” he said from the Wineld stage after winning. Although luck may be a factor amongst the plectrumati, fortune does favor the prepared. Shadd’s rst Wineld win was 16 years earlier in 1997. Since that time he’s put together a prodigious string of wins at a host of festivals. “There have been a lot of second and third places as well,” he says, “as well as a bunch of ‘thanks for showing ups’,” he laughs. “I played at Renofest in March, and didn’t make the cut. For some reason Renofest seems to continually elude

2013 National Champ Allen Shadd me. Twice I’ve been in the top ve, but have yet to actually place there.” Allen’s approach to contest tunes stresses melody. “Contests focus on technique – things like accuracy and tone – and originality. Arranging is my strength, and in this business you have to play to your strengths. As much as possible I’m arranging my tunes so the melody is always clear. Even if I go off on a tangent, I’m going to return to the melody. So when I play a tune like ‘Over the Rainbow,’ I start slowly and then move to an up-tempo version, but the melody is always out front. Some contestants choose to play obscure tunes to stand out; melody seems to work for me.” Between his wins in 1997 and 2013, Shadd’s perspective has also changed. “In the few years before 1997, winning Wineld consumed me. Maybe I wanted it too much. I was getting a lot of seconds and thirds, and at one point I asked David Grier (who had



been a judge for one of my contests) what he felt I needed to do to win. D avid responded with a Grierism: “you gotta do what you gotta do.” I didn’t appreciate the wisdom in that statement until I realized that I was playing what and how other contestants played. When I began to think about how I heard the melody and arrange my tunes for my ears, I started winning. In the last few years I’ve remarried, I had some health challenges, my father died, and my son was born. Those events also put a different perspective on how and why I play. I’m no longer consumed by the desire to win, but I try to play the best I can. If that day the judges like what I do, that’s great. But I’ve started leaving contests, regardless of the outcome, with a better feeling of personal accomplishment as long as I feel I have played well.“ Wineld rules prevent a winner from competing again for ve years, but expect

to see Allen hanging around the Wineld contestant tent next year. “I enjoy the camaraderie, the opportunity to play just for the enjoyment of playing. That’s the next ve years at Wineld.” Will Shadd attempt a triple win in 2019? “That’s a ways off,” he laughs. “I think I’ll just take it a year at a time, play when I can, and enjoy my wife and my son. I’d just like to enjoy the win for now; the rst time I won it was goal, the second time it was a dream.” To see more photos from this year’s contest, visit the news section of our website: www.atpick.com

Kaufman University Coming Near You!

www.flatpik.com Steve Kaufman Three Time National Guitar Champ The World’s Guitar and Mandolin Teacher A Decade of Gold Awards for the Best Camps and Conferences Upcoming Workshops and Concerts Westport, WA - November 1-2 Guitar Workshop and Concert 360-268-0111 [email protected] 

Albany, GA - November 8-9 Guitar Workshop and Concert 229-869-2498 [email protected] 

Frostburg, MD - November 15-16 Guitar Workshop and Concert 301-689-6280 or [email protected] 



Austin, TX - December 6-7

Rhythm/Lead Guitar Workshop & Concert

[email protected] or 512-873-7803

~ December Holidays ~ Find All Your Flatpicking and Mandolin Needs at www.flatpik.com Hatteras, NC - January3-4 Guitar Workshop and Concert 252-216-8231 or [email protected] 

The late, great Charles Sawtelle with his Thompson Dreadnought (circa 1986)

 Clermont, FL - January 9-10-11 Mando/Guitar Workshop and Concert

352-242-1838 or [email protected]

Ripley, OH - January 17-18 Guitar Workshop and Concert Contact Jim at [email protected] 

 Alcoa, TN-January 24-25 All Level Mandolin Workshop 865-982-3808 or [email protected]

Tempe, AZ - Jan. 31-Feb. 1 Mandolin, Guitar Workshop and Concert 602-295-5946 or email [email protected] 

Frankfort, IL - February 6-7-8-9 Mandolin, Guitar Workshop and Concert 815-469-6321 or [email protected] 

In the tradition of the great guitars of the 1930’ s www.pkthompsonguitars.com Flatpicking Guitar Magazine


Steve’s Complete Tour Schedule, Best Selling DVDs, Books, CDs, NEW - Single Song Lessons Downloads

Flatpik.com 865-982-3808 P. O. Box 1020 Alcoa, TN 37701 55

Western Swing Comping by Jerry Carris

Here are some basic chord changes that I have used over the years in different settings, mostly in jams and swing dances around Florida. I recently attended the Walnut Valley Festival in Wineld, Kansas and had a great time jamming with these chord groupings as well as many other progressions based on the songs. Please note that all the chord progressions do not use any open strings. Hence they can all be played in a number of different key signatures and are only limited by the limitations of the guitar ngerboard. And now some thoughts on comping: I dene comping as “complementing” the soloist. Unintentionally, far too many dene comping as “competing with” the soloist. When I teach this style there are two things that I really stress and you will often hear from me. Both involve aspects of respect for your fellow musicians. The rst: it does not matter how many people are in the jam, each person should be able to hear the soloist. If you cannot hear the lead, you are playing too loud. The second: do not get so involved with the chord changes that you

forget you are “comping” (complementing rather than competing with) the lead player Enjoy and be sure to listen to what is going on in the jam. The rst 16-beat variation (Example 1) is something that I have used in songs like “Stay All Night.” To get the right style, hit the bass note rst and then the whole chord. That produces the sock or the two-beat style for Western swing. The second 16-beat variation (Example 2) is in the key of A and has some different fingers and chord positions. Again, the sound is produced by playing the bass note and then the whole chord. I would use this on songs like “Sally Goodin,” “Gray Eagle Hornpipe,” and many others. The third 16-beat variation (Example 3) is back in the key of G but could be played in any key signature as well. I have used this chord progression in a number of jams and have been told that is has a more “uplifting” feeling. The fourth chord progression is a 32-beat variation. It uses a fuller range of the fretboard and produces much different

effect with the descending bass line in the second line of the charts. Jerry Carris learned to play the guitar at the same time he was learning to play clarinet. Consequently, he learned to read music on the guitar before learning many chords. Jerry learned one C&W song for each R&R song he learned. The only C & W music book in the house featured Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys. That started a love affair with chord structure that has lasted for over 50 years. Jerry has played guitar in a number of local combos and big bands as well as bluegrass and country/ western groups. He became friends with the late Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland the last year of the his life. Hank made several helpful suggestions as did the late Freddie Green, rhythm guitarist for the Count Basie Orchestra. Jerry teaches classes each year in swing guitar, atpicking or gypsy jazz guitar at the Florida Folk Festival. Jerry is a life long resident of the State of Florida and a United Methodist Minister.

The Essential Clarence White Bluegrass Guitar Leads

by Roland White & Diane Bouska with Steve Pottier and Matt Flinner For fans of the legendary Clarence White, this is the ultimate book and CD package. The photo and biographical information are worth the price of this book alone. Not to mention detailed transcription s for 14 Clarence White solos and 2 audio CDs. The best part of this book is the performance notes, practice suggestions, and examples that are provided with each tune. These detailed notes will help students understand the techniques that Clarence is using in each song. A lot of work was put into this project by Roland White, Diane Bouska, Steve Pottier, and Matt Flinner. It is the best Clarence White resource available!

To Order call 800-413-8296 or visit: www.flatpick.com 56



Sharpening the Axe by Jef Troxel The Power of the Etude

At a guitar workshop I recently held someone asked me which of the hundreds of guitar books on the market I thought were most worthwhile. Given the vast amount of written material available for guitar these days, it’s a good question. It’s also a question I feel qualied to answer since I’ve bought enough music books over the years to start my own store. The truth is that there are some outstanding guitar books out on the market, many of them available at your friendly FGM Mercantile (www.atpick.com). But the answer I gave is one I truly believe and adhere to. In my opinion, the best book you can buy (besides my own book of course) is a book of blank staff paper. This assumes that you’re far enough along with your playing to be able to notate some musical ideas for yourself. I believe the most effective approach to practicing is to take a short, targeted idea and drill it with repetition. Let’s call this brief and focused musical example by a name that has a long history in classical music. Coming from the French language, the word etude means “study” (the noun, not the verb). Etudes came into favor in the early 19th century as the piano gained in popularity and they’re usually short in duration and designed to provide practice material for a particular area of focus. You might ask “why we can’t just practice tunes and get the same result?” To answer that I would ask you to consider for a moment how a sports team approaches practice. Do they just go out on the eld and play the game over and over? No. They run drills that focus on a specic skill. These drills allow the intensity of the practice to stay high and decrease the amount of time between repetitions of that skill. How many times does a baseball player come up to bat in a nine-inning game? How many more times can that same player practice with a pitching machine and batting cage? More intensity plus less down-time equals a better and more effective practice session. The same holds true for music. Most tunes have a mix of challenging and easy parts. By using an etude, you can nd ways 58

to repeat the hard part more often and more efciently than by playing the whole tune over and over. But the etude concept can go further than just learning tunes. You can use etudes to target and drill many aspects of your playing. Some etude ideas might include the following: • a study to help you learn the notes in a key you’re struggling with • a crosspicking exercise • something to help you work out material in a place on the ngerboard where you aren’t used to playing • a study that mixes a lick you learned from a recording with some of your own ideas • a drill for the A or B section of a tune you’re learning • ideas for a chord progression over which you want to improvise The great thing about writing your own etudes is that you take charge of solving your own problems. It places responsibility for your musical growth on you – the only person who can do anything about it. This column is about a concept, but I also want to include a couple of musical examples to demonstrate how I would write an etude for a specic topic. Etude #1 is a study in the key of C that focuses on consecutive picking. After years of strict alternate picking, consecutive picking is still counter-intuitive for me. I wrote this study to see if I might be able to smooth it out and make it more comfortable. I’m not necessarily advocating this kind of picking for you, but rather, I’m using this etude to demonstrate how I wrote something for myself to focus on a technique I may want to use more in the future. Etude #2 is a crosspicking study I wrote out for some of my students. I specically wanted something in C that stays in rst position and challenges right-hand accuracy. I also wanted something that sounded similar to classical studies I’ve seen in the past and that a student might play for a group lesson or master class. Notice that this etude is less predictable than some crosspicking examples you come across. For my purposes, I wanted a study that forced my students to stay focused on

reading the notes instead of relying on muscle memory. The crosspicking studies you compose might focus on something else entirely. I hope you enjoy the etudes I included with this installment, but even more, I hope you’ll start writing your own studies to address your personal challenges. As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. Until next time, then…

Visit www.fatpick.com



Etude 1

Audio CD Track 32

Arranged by Jeff Troxel

Consecutive Picking Etude 1

0 0 0 0

2

0

3

1

2

2

0

3

1

1

0

3 6

3

3

3

1

1

4

3

0

1

5

0 2

0

0 2

0

0

2

4

1

3

4

1

3

2

0

3

3

2

5

7

8

5

7

3

V

3

0

2

5

5

7

3

3

4

1

1

4

1

3

III 6

1

III

7

T A B

0 5

3

3

5

3

2

I

1

3

0

3

4

T A B

1

III

I T A B

4

8

5

8

I

0 8

3

0 5

3

0 1 0

1 2

0 2 3

Now You Can Have A Jam Partner Anytime You’d Like!

Fiddle Tune Practice Tracks Call 800-413-8296


Tune List Disc 1 1. Arkansas Traveler 2. Bill Cheatham 3. Billy in the Lowground 4. Blackberry Blossom 5. Cuckoo’s Nest 6. Fisher’s Hornpipe

Tune List Disc 2 1. Old Joe Clark 2. Red-Haired Boy 3. St. Anne’s Reel 4. Temperance Reel 5. Turkey in the Straw 6. Whiskey Before Breakfast

www.fatpick.com November/December 2013

59

Etude 2

Audio CD Track 33

Cross-Picking Study C

G

C

F

0

0

1

T A B

1

1

0

0

0

0

2

1

1 0

1

1

1

0

2

0

2

3

3

3

3

C

F

G7

Am

G

4

0 T A B

1

1 1

1

1

0

3

0

2

0

3

0

1

0

0

2

3

2

0

0 2

0 3

C

G7

G

1

2

1

2

C

7

0 T A B

1

1 1

1

3

0

1

0

0 1 0

0

0 2

0

0

3

0

2

0

2

3

3

The new Planet Waves NS Micro Tuner is now available at www.fatpickingmercantile.com or you can call 800-413-8296 to order

The Cooper Ecco-G Guitar Stand is now available at www.fatpickingmercantile.com or you can call 800-413-8296 to order 60



PICKIN’ FIDDLE TUNES by Adam Granger

photo here

That’s No Way to Run a Farm! One look at these four tune titles, and I think you’ll agree with this column’s title. As I write this, I am reminded of a script I wrote for A Prairie Home Companion a few years back touting “Farm Shui”—the art of aligning crops and outbuildings properly for maximum yield. (“Our goats are giving great milk—and we didn’t even have goats before!”) These four tunes have only bucolic dysfunction in common; otherwise, they are of dis parate provenances. Cattle in the Cane is a Southern tune, brought into the atpick world by one Norman Blake. Rabbit in a Pea Patch is another Southern tune, but was originally a song, whose lyrics essentially involve dispatching a rabbit eating a farmer’s crops. Sheep and Hogs Walking through the Pasture is a Buddy Thomas tune. (I presented four other Thomas tunes in FGM Volume 15, Number 6: A Tetralogy of Thomas Tunes.) And, nally, Turkey in the Cottonwoods, which, from its title, certainly sounds like it should be a Southern tune, is in fact Northern. It comes from Joe Pancerzewski, a North Dakota-born Saskatchewan-based Canadian-style ddler. I learned this tune in 1977 fr om my then-Powdermilk Biscuit Bandmate Dick Rees, who referred to Pancerzewski affectionately and efciently as “Joe Twelve.” As you listen to these four tunes on the FGM CD (or, better yet, as you pick through them yourselves), check out how different they are in structure and, especially, in phrasing. And note that Sheep and Hogs Walking through the Pasture is a 16-bar tune, whose two eight-bart parts do not repeat. Also note that Turkey in the Cottonwoods ends after the rst part, played once or twice, which it must do because it modulates to a different key for its second part, and if you don’t resolve back to the original key, angry people will come with pitchforks and torches and make you resolve it.

Y S A E G B NI A T D A E R

l n g

a

n

d

n

d

a io t

, er

o

te

ni

e n

s

n

tu

v

imt o a ht

er

d

e

p n

re

, a

e

d e

d

m

a .

S s

b

e e

x

ni

s

al

n

l

E

at

at

s c

b at y

tu a

b

t.i

p

ci E

a

s

y

b

a

m s

mi c

o

i a

w o o

d . te

n n

te

a s o fl

d

o

n

d

a a

i

n a

ht

t

c

w

a

et s

er

et

b u

p

tef

r y

ta

s T

t

n

st h

ht

a

b

r

it d

u

i t

o

p e

th

.t

s si

oi

A

e a

is h

e

re

er

r er

e

e

s

m

d a

n

e

o q

e

a a

u er

ht

s

ts a

T

er at

ter

ig

ni

h

ot

of

e

c

a

er

e

u

r

h

yl e

e

si

gi



t ikl

o

f

t

e

ht

e d

th

tef

a er

gi

a

c

h

h el

t

n

ts

. l

o

,

o

m

n

n

f r

is

ht

inl

e

n

ti o

et

in a et

n

, o

d s

o

e

te

-i tsi

s

a

d

h a

n

h a si e

gi

, - n t : p - , e . - s e u a e d r n y t n i h p . l e k u e l a a o s i g u p y o t p e c t r - u r l s s n m t c t b S t e e e n , a h w s n p ” e t h r h w n g o c n I R n a w g c h d t , o w i t t o e t d a n e . i n n y n h E a r d d f o e a p s t d n u o k a o s u w e s m p r n R N e a o n i u e r a s t r t e r t e o e h l n o e t e “ e t t a w n b s O N t n k t n l u m p I a o f t s w o t u a o F n r i s o t a d s y r d l n i G -  s m o n y d s u a h a n u h p n o p t l t p n o o e e E t i u h t , i n e w h t h p u s i o t B w n T s l a s k d a a g r i d n s h k w . e t i e t u n r s c c u e e h g o g n a w i o t o n s  a h d P d e s h t r T i

TOUGH DUTY: THE 2013 PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE Okay, so sometimes we professional musicians get handed a rough gig, and we just have to gird our loins and grit our teeth and handle it. So it was when I got an email from Garrison Keillor hiring me to play on a twelve-day cruise of the Mediterranean. And he invited my wife along. I mean, what are you gonna do? I had no choice. We ew to Barcelona, from whence we departed on the Holland American Line’s Ryndam. Our rst stop was Marseille, followed by Monaco, Livornia, Civitevecchia, Naples, Montenegro, Ravenna, and ending up in Venice. In addition to the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band ( PHC ’s house band) and myself, the cruise included Butch Thompson, Peter Ostroushko, Dean Magraw, The DiGiallonardo Sisters, Heather Masse, Joe Ely, Vern Sutton with four opera singers, Robin and Linda Williams, Maria Jette and Lee Blaske. I played mostly in one of the ship’s ve venues, the Explorer Lounge. I was joined by pianist/composer/arranger Blaske one night, and played solo the rest of the time. There were two PHC shows per night (as the ship’s theater couldn’t hold all of the 1,000 PHC Cruise fans in one sitting), for which Garrison wrote new material—and for which the band rehearsed new material—each night. [For any fact checkers out there, by the time I was hired, the cruise had sold out (nine months ahead of time!), so my name doesn’t appear in the tour promo. But you can see pictures of me in the tour journal. And I can show you trinkets I bought from the various ports we were in, and the scars on the knee I scraped up in Civitevecchia.] My plug-in guitar, a 2011 Martin CEO-6 (with the Fishman Aura system) was transported for me by PHC , so I didn’t have to mess with ying with it. And, they required that I put it in a gig bag so it would t in their air freight cases, which meant that once I got on the ship, I could walk to my various venues with my gig bag slung over my shoulder as op posed to schlepping my Calton case around. Cruising is not either my or my wife’s preferred mode of touristing, but when you’re getting paid to do it, that messes with one’s preferences. And, because it was my rst time on a PHC cruise, we were given the royal treatment, with a stateroom, right next to Garrison’s, which had a veranda the size our bedroom at home. It’s safe to say that, on a profes sional musician’s and a public defender’s salaries, this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Garrison is very kind and mindful of his old friends and family, and I am lucky to be counted among that number.



61

Audio CD Tracks 34=37

CATTLE IN TH E CANE I

Am

C

Am 01 0

012•2• 20 0••23

02 30•02323

F

G

20

2

02

20

0

2

20

3

0202

20

3

• •

02320 3

32020

A

G

0•••0• • 23

A

02320 4

0 2

20 2

• •

013 0

F

0•••0• •2320 30

0

0 02

0

G

02320 323

101

20

2020

0

D

A

D

D

A

D

A

D

02 30 2420

4

4•4040240•04

G

D

G

5•3•3 020

2•2420

02•

4•0240240•

D

A

D

G

D

40240•

G

5•3••0 20 320

A

D

20 3

• •

20

4•4040240•4

20 3

• • 02•

02302 320

2••42• ••2420

023

0 3

23•

2

4

• •

4 024 0•

SHEEP AND HOGS WALKING THROUGH THE PASTURE I

G

D

013•3•

G

3•0 2•

D

30 02

013•03 0

G

D

310 2•

013•3• 02

0•

G

3•0 2•

D

30 02

KEY: G

013•03 0

G

310 2•

02

4

II

D

Em 023•03 20

03

3

20 3

D

30

G

D

Em

0

023•03 20 3•0

2

03 02

3

0•

20 3

D

G

0•20• 30

2

0

3•0

2

02

4

• •

D

24

0 0•

0 23

02 3

II

D

400

• • 02•

2 4

3 20

2 4

0•40 4024

0 0•

2 0

0 23

02 3

323

A

0 2

02 3

3 2

D

02•0 320

3• 2•

2 4

3 20

• •

0• 3

D 0230

0•4•0• 4024

2

3

A 3•

G 1

2

0•

02•0

4

2 4•

2

D

1 2

0

KEY: Bb (3)

G 1

0•40

0• 4

TURKEY IN THE COTTONWOODS G

0• 4

0•20•

2

I

• •

KEY: D A

• • 02420

D

02• 2

RABB IT IN A PEA PATCH

II

0• 30 3

II

I

Am

1

02

• •

KEY: Am/A

0230 323

2

0 2

2• 3•

3•

• •

4

TUNE ENDS AFTER FIRST PART

As it stands now (October of 2013), Adam has no travel plans except for an overnight to New Ulm, Minnesota and a possible European tour with Alan Munde and Dick Kimmel in the summer of 2014. That’s just ne with him. He’s happy being at home with his wife, his 36- and 22-yearold sons, his dog Molly and his cat Milhous.

62



Diversity in Soloing by Shawn Persinger While Flatpicking Guitar Magazine’s main focus is bluegrass there is always plenty of diversity in every issue. As a reader and subscriber I have always delighted in nding content ranging from the recent transcription of Ravel’s “Bolero” to classic articles regarding the inuence of Gypsy jazz on David Grisman’s “Dawg” music. To celebrate this diversity I decided to dissect one of my solos and point out all the different inuences that have helped make me the player I am. I am quite happy to acknowledge my inuences but I like to think that I don’t necessarily play like them (as if I ever could) so hopefully you’ll nd a few surprises in my solo to “Plain of Jars,” from my duo record, with mandolinist David Miller, Desire for a Straight Line. A quick note on the accompaniment: Essentially “Plain of Jars” is a three chord tune, Am – E – C – E, which gives the song an A harmonic minor tonality (this is because there is a G# in the E chord, and G# is the note that distinguishes A harmonic minor from a natural minor). All that really means is that the song has a slightly “exotic,” “pseudo-Middle Eastern,” sound. Okay on the solo. I won’t go through every note in this solo but I will point out the licks I “borrowed.” The solo kicks off with a diminished lick (measures 1 and 2) not unlike something Django Reinhardt, or even Yngwie Malmsteen, might play. Measures 7 and 8 contain a classic Joe Diorio-style symmetrical lick. You can see that I’m playing on the same frets (10 and 12) three strings at a time. This sort of symmetrical playing is easy to do and has a very unique sound. The long run from measures 13 through 16 is something I attribute to Tony Rice, though for the life of me I can’t remember what I song I learned it from. Nevertheless, that’s my Tony Rice lick. The bends in measures 17 through 20 – particularly the half-step bends – were inspired by Larry Carlton’s solo on Steely Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne.” Note that there is also a rhythmic motif that makes this four-measure phrase into a cohesive unit. Measure 27 has a lick I am particularly fond of called a “shake.” This is a technique bass players use, but it’s rarely heard on the guitar. It is similar to a trill, except that you slide between the two notes instead of using hammer-ons and pull-offs. The most famous example of a shake can be found on Stevie Wonder’s funk classic “I Wish,” (the rst of several “shakes” can be heard at 1:02) which was played by the fabulous Nathan Watts. And finally finishing off the solo (measures 31 and 32) is a fast, symmetrical,


triplet lick similar to runs Eddie Van Halen plays, particularly on the rst Van Halen album. This symmetry allows me to play a very fast line that uses a combination of the natural minor and harmonic minor scales. And there you have it, my so-called “original” solo with a roots rmly established in every tradition from Gypsy jazz to heavy metal, 1970s funk to bluegrass, all in the context of a Middle-Eastern harmonic environment. That’s what atpicking is all about right?

63

Audio CD Tracks 38

q = 252

Plain Of Jars

Am

Am

E

Written by Shawn Persinger

C

C

E

1

Django and Yngwie inspired diminished

4

T A B

7

4

7

10

7

10 13

Am

10 13 16 12 17

Am

12

15 12

E

13

13 12

13

12 13 12

C

12

14

14

12

14

14

C

5

Joe Diorio inspired symmetrical

12

14

12

14

12

14

15

13

Am

10

12

Am

E

12

10

10

12

10

12

12

10

C

12

10

10

12

C

9

E

9

10 12

10

7

Am

9

7

10

Am

8

7

5

E

7

5

7

8

5

7

7

5

C

7

6

5

C

6 7

5

E

13

Tony Rice inspired

0

3

4

5

3

5

5

7

7

5

7

Am

Am

5

4

5

9

E

8

10

8

10 12

8

10

10

8

10

8

10

C

C

8

E

Larry Carlton inspired 1/2

0

64

7

1

1/2

7

5

8

5

7

7

5

8

5

7

5

0

10

1

10

8

10

8

10


10

8

10

8

10

8


Plain Of Jars (con’t) Am

Am

E

C

C

E

21

12

8

8

9

8

10

10 10

Am

10

8

8

Am

7

6

E

5

6

5

6

C

6

5

7

5

C

7

5

7

7

E

25

Nathan Watts bass "shake"

5

7

8

5

7

7

5

7

Am

6

5

6

Am

7

5

5

7

E

4

5

4

5

4

5

4

C

6

5

6

5

C

6

5

7

5

E

29

3

3

3

3

3

3

Eddie Van Halen inspired

7

5

5

7


7

9

9

10

12


9 10 12

9 10 12 9 10 12

9 10 12

9 10 12

9 10 12 10

9

65

Across The Tracks by Dan Crary I have been at this quite a long time. ‘Seen some amazing things, heard and was fortunate enough to play a lot of music, wore out a few passports and sets of tires, and generally rode guitar music around all over the place. I’m planning a book that will tell some of the more bizarre stories. The people who did the bizarre stuff should tremble at the prospect; but actually, they don’t need to worry, since by the time I get it written, I will have outlived most of them, and bizarre dead guys don’t have to sweat their reputation. But today, I’d like to introduce this column by telling you a Crary road story of one of the most positive, one of the happiest things that ever happened to me in music. Back in college, when I was an announcer on the campus arts radio station, somebody programmed an album of something they called “early music.” The performers were the Waverly Consort, directed and produced by Mike and Kay Jaffe, and the music was medieval songs of The Virgin (Las Cantigas De Santa Maria). And OMG, it was exquisitely beautiful. Never heard anything like it before. Talk about old time music, this was really old. I had loved the old songs that my bluegrass heroes, The Bluegrass Boys, The Stanley Brothers, and The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers sang, songs that were so old that no one knew who had composed them; but here the Waverly Consort sang stuff that was centuries old. It was a little like raising the dead: whoever had composed these beautiful songs long ago turned to dust in a forgotten grave. But here, on FM radio in high delity, the cofn creaked open and you could hear that ancient voice sing again. From that moment, I made sure I had every recording the Waverly Consort ever made, medieval, renaissance, age of exploration, a huge repertoire, one record better than the next. It was incredible how parallel to bluegrass music the sound was; Mike Jaffe later pointed out that the parallels and similarities between a so-called broken consort and a standard bluegrass band are, instrument by instrument and voice by voice, precise, with a sort of ker-chunk. I listened to that early music hundreds of hours over the years, and its dark, raw, cold-wind-from-the-cosmos 66

beauty crept conspiratorily into my playing, made it darker, more raw, more “lonesome” than ever. Cut to 1983, The Waverly Consort came to Pasadena, and I’m sure I, their greatest fan, was one of the rst to buy a ticket. These folks had appeared all over America, from Carnegie Hall on down, and now, here they came to my neighborhood. It was surely one of the greatest concerts I ever attended: they employed voices, viols, woodwinds and a lute and drums to make the middle ages come back to life again. The music was beautifully unfamiliar and obscure to that audience, and they went standing-o berserk anyway. It was magic, it was mesmerizing and transporting, it was musical time travel on the wings of a “broken consort.” When it was over, I played groupie… went backstage, shook hands with the director, Michael Jaffe. And I asked him if I could purchase from him one of his outof-print LP’s. Our beloved old English setter (name: Raisin Cookie) had innocently (and characteristically) eaten my original copy. He said no, but was impressed that I had every one of their many LP’s and CD’s. And that was that…. But there’s another chapter to this: about six months later, I had a nice concert in New York. After the show, backstage, I was talking to some attendees, and lo and behold, the Waverly Consort director Mr. Jaffee walked into the New York backstage area and right up to me. I thought, well maybe he’s paying a return courtesy call, so I said, “Hi Mr. Jaffe, how are you.” His response: “How do you know my name?” Long story short, he didn’t know who I was when we met before, but as it turns out, he’s a major atpicking guitar fan, and had for years been listening to my recordings. Man, that was a moment: I got to meet both Mike and Kay Jaffe and became great friends with these geniuses of early music. I hope my telling you this story conveys a little of why it was important to me. But now, here’s why it’s important to you: one of the most important, enriching, immediately valuable things you will ever do for your playing is to listen to music outside your own primary genre. Go over the walls of

one’s ghetto, cross the tracks to another neighborhood. Get in the habit of listening to somebody else’s music, both for the feel and spirit of it, and also as a goldmine from which to extract, borrow, “steal,” or otherwise lift musical ideas to insert into your thinking and playing. Of course, you don’t have to make the same choice of somebody-else’s-music I made; but somewhere out there is other people’s music that will tickle your passions. Whatever it is, it just needs to be an escape from the myopia of one’s own music and experiencing the wider world of somebody else’s. You will be amazed at what happens in your own head when there is a fusion of great ideas from diverse backgrounds. Surely you know the story of Bill Monroe’s “putting the blues in Bluegrass” as Bill used to say it. It’s a great story, available to you in his biography. Doc Watson used to talk about the great old jazz bands and everything else among the many things he listened to as a young player. This is no secret: all the great traditional players are articulate and dedicated to multiple kinds of music. So listen up to some exotic music: among other styles, try on a little Italian romantic music from Beppe Gambetta. Or check out Sabicas’ 1960 masterpiece “Flamenco Puro.” Or check out the Waverly consort or the Baltimore Consort or Anonymous 4 or a thousand examples of really old time music. Or listen up to the incredible Baroque guitar of Rolf Lislevand, or the harp and classical guitars of our pal Muriel Anderson. Or venture into the blues with recordings of the late John Cephas. Or make your ears bleed with some powerful Nashville cats playing from Brad Paisley or Keith Urban. One of the best licks I ever came up with was seriously borrowed from the old doo-wop group, Peaches and or Herb. Another of “my” licks that has been copied worldwide I stole from a blues piano guy… dang, it sounds pretty on the guitar. As Chet famously said, it’s not stealing, it’s research. And it’s called teaching yourself how to play the guitar.



Song Selection By Kacey Cubero Choosing a strong song selection for yourself or your band is vital to impressing your audience and setting the tone of your fans’ expectations. Whether recording or gigging, the right songs for your voice should include those and only those appropriate to your vocal style, range, and ability. A song that is in the wrong key, that lacks melody, or that is too difcult for you to sing will be noticed and remembered by the audience as much or more so than a successful performance. Let’s face it: unless you are a pop singer with some kind of gimmick, an audience can be pretty unforgiving. Your average listener is looking to be taken on some kind of melodic journey, and, while it may not necessarily be a perfect one, if they sense you are uncomfortable reaching a note or having trouble with a song, they will feel it. Keep in mind, too, that if you are struggling to hit a note in a song that is out of your range, you could easily strain and injure your voice. You are never going to please everyone, but some things to keep in mind when choosing your repertoire are the lead singer’s vocal ability and range, then lyrics, melody, music, musicianship, and song arrangements. Vocal ability should be considered rst. Although some can get by just looking good and wearing the right outt, as we see


so often in popular music, their listeners are often so distracted by their persona that they don’t even notice the lack of technical ability and poor vocal control. For the readers of this article, however, let’s presume that mastering your vocal performance and ability is really your overall goal. Developing that skill and honing true talent will prove more enduring. So, keeping up the chops and continuing to exercise and care for your voice is key to longevity. Moreover, knowing your own voice is one of the greatest tools you will have as a singer. Remember how we have discussed in the past that you ultimately do not want to sound like anyone else but yourself. Having mentors and heroes is both important and inspiring and you can learn much by listening to and emulating great singers. But these are just stepping stones on the path to the authentic voice you and only you possess. When you understand your strengths and weaknesses, you are better able to choose material that showcases you appropriately and effectively, enhancing your connection to your audience and your fan base. If you have yet to record and listen to yourself, I suggest beginning there. Listening to yourself for the rst time can be both enlightening and helpful. I think the rst time we hear ourselves we never sound quite like we think we do. The more


you record and learn about your voice, the better you will know what you are capable of as a singer. Where you feel comfortable and where you are having trouble gives you a compass as to what you need to work on in your next vocal lesson and where you have made progress. Are you writing your own songs or doing mostly cover songs? First, make sure the material is appropriate for the event. While this may seem obvious, you don’t want to be singing torch songs at someone’s wedding or hip hop in a country bar. If you are a songwriter, you can incorporate your songs into your set list when appropriate until you cross over into performing original songs only. Original songs give you the freedom to express yourself and sing about what is personal and important to you. Cover songs are often expected in a bar situation or party event. Cover songs can be tricky; if some mainstream artist has already made the song a hit, you will often be compared to that artist. Your audience may be disappointed if you and your band members don’t perform it note-for-note. Also, be careful of exceptionally classic songs. Unless you go out on a limb and have a creative and different rendition of a classic, there are just some songs that no one can do like the original artist. Choosing material from the “B-side” of a record is often a good choice. If you’re going to do something everyone knows, make sure you can nail it. As for lyrics, once again make sure they are appropriate for your event or audience. The lazy listener may not be big on listening to lyrics, but in my opinion lyrics are what really separate the wheat from the chaff. More to come on this topic in the future. A song with a catchy melody is an opportunity to impress. You may have them humming along to it before they even know the words. Don’t always rely solely on the chorus to pull in your audience. A good melody can show off your range and take the listener on a colorful journey, up and down and around all the pretty little notes the song may entail. 67

Finally, and importantly, is the music. Whether or not you play an instrument, if you are the lead singer or band leader you will want to choose material and arrangements that fit your voice and style. You want to build tension from the beginning and hopefully wow your audience by the end. If you are not able to understand chord progression, solo arrangements, beginning and ending a song or leading a jam, if that’s what you plan, you may want to designate someone in your band as the “MD” (musical director). This person should act as a liaison between you and the band, helping the lead singer to choose key, and guiding the rest of the band on their respective parts. Even a great singer’s performance can be ruined by a sloppy band. So, the “tighter” your band is the less you will have to worry about them while you are singing so you can focus on giving a better performance. As you grow as a performer, your vocal ability, style and range may vary over time. It should evolve as you progress. Your choice of material as well as your audience may change. Some songs will be keepers and you will outgrow others. So, updating your song list periodically will be important. Just keep in mind that if you are having fun with it, so will your audience.

WIth Brad Davis’ Flatpick Jam

You’ll Always Have A Pickin’ Buddy 800-413-8296 68

Reviews Rebecca Frazier: When We Fall Compass Records 746032

Reviewed by David McCarty

After a lengthy and highly successful career playing with her husband John in their award-winning band, Rebecca Frazier has made the leap to solo artist with stunning results. Already recognized as one of the top young atpickers among an increasingly mixed gender roster of great players, Frazier emerges on When We Fall as an exceptional singer, powerful bandleader, and skilled songwriter. Starting with Neil Young’s “Human Highway,” her lush alto voice carries emotion and passion while her brilliant backup band lays down just the right foundation. With husband John on mandolin, Ron Block and Scott Vestal on banjo, Andy Hall on Dobro, Shad Cobb on ddle, and her own uid, hyper-clean atpicking, the group instantly sets a standard as one of the best-sounding bands around. Listen to her rip through the second solo of her wonderful original instrumental, “Virginia Coastline,” to hear her channel inuences ranging from Tony Rice to Bryan Sutton and Kenny Smith into a vibrant, modern voice on acoustic guitar. And her rolling, rollicking guitar intro to “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow” perfectly sets the tone for one of the CD’s best songs. With players like Frazier, Courtney Hartman of Della Mae and others blazing new musical pathways, the old clichés about women playing bluegrass will nally come to a crashing end.

Filled with great original songs, When We Fall showcases Frazier’s multiple talents in a perfect setting. “Love, Go Away From this House” recalls the best tunes from writers like Sarah Jaroscz, and “Babe In Arms” is a tune that could end up a campre jam standard once it gets around. Her instrumentals “Clifftop,” “40 Blues,” and “Virginia Coastline” are melodic and memorable in a way too few modern instrumentals are. It’s not really fair to call When We Fall Rebecca Frazier’s debut album because she’s been around a long time and had strong success in her earlier ventures. But those really just set the stage for what should be her breakout moment with this rich, beautiful, moving album. Highly recommended.

Music Theory For Practical People

Who said that music theory books had to be boring? A Great Read Regardless of Your Current Level of Music Theory Knowledge

Call 800-413-8296 www.flatpick.com





69

70



CLASSIFIEDS Classied ads will be accepted for guitar and musical related items @ 40¢ a word, 50¢ a word for bold lower case type, 60¢ a word for bold upper case type. Please call (800) 413-8296 to order, or send ad to High View Publications, P.O. Box 2160, Pulaski, VA 24301

Now you don’t have to buy the whole course...

Instructional Material: GUITAR JAM: Play leads to “Blackberry Blossom,” plus 11 other classics with our back-up band. A fun way to develop timing. Tape and TAB booklet $16.95 ppd. Custom Practice Tapes now available! Choose from almost 400 songs and we’ll play them slow and fast for twice the jamming. Andy Cushing, 6534 Gowanda St. Rd., Hamburg NY 14075 MUSIC THEORY COURSE FOR GUITAR Correspondence Course. Certicate issued on completion. Beginning courses also available. Course outline and enrollment order form for this and other home study courses, write to: Jim Sutton Institute of Guitar, 23014 Quail Shute, Spring, TX 77389 E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: http://guitar-jimsuttoninst.com 800-621-7669

FREE HAROLD STREETER CATALOG Over 1,000 atpick and ngerstyle tabs and CDs, beginning to advanced. Bluegrass, country, Celtic, Gospel, blues, jazz, and more. LeWalt Publishing, 4930 East Horsehaven Ave, Post Falls, ID, 83854, USA 208-773-0645, www.lewalt.com

GUITAR LICK CARDS: from standard to stellar, 81 licks are isolated on playing cards. Line them up with the same chord progression as your favorite song and voila! It’s a new arrangement! Rearrange the licks for endless variations. They’re inspiring! Available for mandolin and banjo too. $11.50 ppd. per set. Andrew Cushing, 6079 McKinley Pkwy, Hamburg NY 14075

Downloads & Singles are Here!

FLATPICKING MERCANTILE Flatpicking Mercantile has a full line of instructional books, CDs, and DVDs for the atpicking guitar player. Bluegrass, Celtic, Western swing, Gypsy jazz, and more! Check out: www.atpickingmercantile.com

How much has your playing improved this year? Not that much? Free E-books, lessons, playing tips and backing tracks www.ckomusic.com

STEVE KILBY’S TUNE OF THE MONTH Try my subscription service, an acclaimed and detailed method for learning atpicking tunes. Each package features: TABLATURE for LEAD including BASIC and ADVANCED version, CHORD CHART and CD with tune broken down by phrases along with plenty of practice tracks for back-up and lead at different speeds. Subscription price is only $15 per month, plus shipping. For details contact: 276-579-4287 www.kilbymusic.com

The Flatpicking Guitar Network Meet new atpicking friends, exchange tunes, share photos and videos, ask questions, and find new jamming buddies. Find it all at atpick.ning.com

25% Off! First Time Customers

Quality Bluegrass Music Instruction Since 1973

MusiciansWorkshop.com Place your order & enter coupon code 2348 at checkout www.Musicians-Workshop.com



71

CLASSIFIEDS Flatpicking Essentials Instructional Series Ever feel like you’ve hit a wall in your practice or reached a plateau that you can’t get beyond? We can help you! The EightVolume Flatpicking Essentials Instruction Method, developed by Flatpicking Guitar Ma gaz ine editor Dan Miller, provides you with over 1000 pages of information taught in a specic step-by-step sequence so that your atpicking knowledge and skill sets are complete, with no holes, or gaps. Starting with Volume One (Rhythm, Bass Runs, and Fill Licks), this series teaches you how to develop in an easy to follow graduated method. This course is available as spiral bound books with CD, or as digital downloads. For more information visit www.atpickingmercantile.com or www. atpickdigital.com.

continued

Guitars, Strings, and Accesories:

LANHAM GUITARS Handcrafted by Marty Lanham Available from Nashville Guitar Company www.nashguitar.com phone: 615-262-4891

Check out or Newly Overhauled website at www.atpick.com! We have combined our four previous websites into one and upgraded the look and feel, as well as all of the technical capabilities. Come on over and visit us for a while at atpick.com!

EUPHONON COMPANY STRINGS First quality major manufacturer strings in bulk at fantastic savings. Same strings you buy in music stores, without the expensive packaging. Acoustic guitar sets: extra-light, light, or medium: 80/20 Bronze $32.50/ dozen, $20.00/half dozen; Phosphor Bronze $34.50/dozen, $21.00/half dozen. Post paid. Call for price larger quantities. Twelve string, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, special gauges available. Request String Catalog. Euphonon also offers guitar repair and building supplies. Request Luthier’s Catalog. EUPHONON CO. PO Box 100F Orford NH 03777. 1-(888) 5174678. www.hotworship.com/euphonon

Visit www.fgmrecords.com Specializing in Acoustic Guitar Music!

Flatpicking the Blues Book/DVD/CD Course by Brad Davis


In this course, Brad Davis shows you how to approach playing the blues using both theoretical and practical methods. You will learn how to play blues style rhythm, learn blues scales at several positions on the neck, and learn how to apply those “blues notes” in a free-form improvisational style over the twelve-bar blues progression. This section increases your knowledge of the guitar ngerboard as it relates to the blues and provides you with a method for increasing your improvisational skills. Brad then examines common blues phrasing, technique, and standard blues licks and demonstrates how to apply them. He also shows examples of licks played in the style of great blues guitarists and even demonstrates how Bill Monroe’s blues licks on the mandolin can be incorporated on the guitar. This course also includes blues ear training. In addition to teaching you how to play straight blues, Brad also demonstrates and teaches how you might take tunes that you may already know from the standard atpicking repertoire and spice them up with blues licks. If you are tired of playing atpicked ddle tunes and bluegrass songs the same old way you will greatly appreciate Brad’s instruction on how you can add excitement and interest to songs that you already play by adding a blues avor.

Visit the Website for More Information and Blues Guitar Lessons www.flatpick.com/blues 72





73

Vol_18_No_1

Recommend Documents