Flatpicking Guitar Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
1
2
Flatpicking Guitar Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Flatpicking Guitar Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
1
GET RICH QUICK! You don’t have to wait fifty years to get that rich, vintage tone out of your guitar. The JLD Bridge System works like a violin soundpost to boost volume, increase sustain and give you the sound you’ve been waiting for. Installed in minutes without any modification to your instrument, the JLD Bridge System also flattens pulled up tops forever.
Play flat! Sound sharp! Factory installed in every Guitar
GUITAR R ESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 2432 S. Lake Letta Drive, Avon Park, FL 33825 (941) 452-5239 • (505) 622-3694
[email protected]
! N E W T he J L D G r ! H an d c ui ta ra f te d b y T o n y V in ( 4 23 )37 8 es -6 32 5
EDITOR'S PAGE First, I would like to send out a big thanks to all of our subscribers who have called, faxed, email, and written to show your support for our effort. Also, thanks to everyone who has sent us helpful suggestions on how we might work to improve the magazine. As with any new venture, we have experienced some growing pains and we are very fortunate that some of our talented readers have offered to help with things like proofreading. I hope to continually improve our layout and presentation, as well as our content, and support from our readers is greatly appreciated. Keep the helpful suggestions coming. In this issue, I would like to welcome Don Gallagher to our staff of regular contributors. As most of you know, Don is a highly talented guitar builder and he has offered to write for us on a regular basis in order to share some of his knowledge about guitar construction and design. We welcome Don and sincerely apologize for misspelling his name in the title of the feature article about him in the last issue. Sorry Don! In the rst issue we had enough space to add a “Flatpicking News” page, however in this and the previous issue, we have had too much great instructional material from our contributors to have space to put in the news. Here are some things that I have heard about that I would like to pass along: Steve Kaufman’s new book Kaufman’s Collection of American Fiddle Tunes for Guitar with over 300 tunes included should be available from Mel Bay soon. David Grier has nished recording, and is in the process of mixing, his new solo release on Rounder. The new Grier CD, which has yet to be titled, should be available sometime this summer. Rounder has also recently released a two CDs, Steel Rails: Roots of Americana, Volume 1 (Rounder 1128 - Artists: Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Alison Krauss, Del McCoury, David Grisman with Doc Watson and Alan O’Bryant, Sons of the Pioneers, Peter Rowan, Guy Clark, Johnson Mountain Boys, Utah Phillips, Kieran Kane, Hugh Moffatt, Tom Russell, Kate MacKenzie) and Mystery Train: Roots of Americana, Volume 2 (Rounder 1129 - Artists: Hank Snow, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Flatt & Scruggs, Delmore Brothers and Wayne Raney, Steve Goodman, Sleepy LaBeef , Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Whitstein Brothers, Carter Family, Tony Rice, Jim & Jesse, Stanley Brothers, Mary McCaslin). Finally, Dan Crary will be appearing with an all-star band (Frank Wakeeld, Byron Berline, Josh Graves, Missy Raines, and Don Wayne Reno) and giving a workshop in Rome, Georgia, on 19 April 97. For details, call 1-800-746-TUNE. Dan Miller Editor and Publisher
www.spotgrafix.com/marketing/jld U.S. PATENT #5,260,505
2
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
CONTENTS
Flatpicking Guitar
FEATURES
Jack Lawrence Local Heroes: Steve Palazzo Collings Guitar Company Masters of Rhythm Guitar: Kenny Smith Columnist Prole: Dan Huckabee
Magazine
4 13 21 30 43
COLUMNS
Volume 1, Number 3
In the Studio Craig Vance Beginner’s Page Dan Huckabee Flatpick Rhythm Guitar Joe Carr Flatpicking & Folk/Acoustic Rock John Tindel Kaufman’s Corner: Crazy Creek Steve Kaufman Nashville Flat Top Brad Davis Break Time Chris Jones Post-Modern Flatpicking: “Vula Bops” Scott Nygaard The O-Zone: “Playing Up the Neck - Part III” Orrin Starr Riff Blues Dix Bruce Music Theory Dave Bricker Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes Adam Granger Beginning Clarence White Style Steve Pottier Guitar Making: Wood and Moisture Don Gallagher The Vintage Voice Buddy Summer Irish Rythm Guitar Basics John McGann
March/April 1997
Published bi-monthly by: High View Publications P.O. Box 51967 Pacic Grove, CA 93950 Phone: (408) 643-9026 Fax: (408) 643-9027 Orders: (800) 413-8296 E-mail: highview@atpick.com Web Site: http://www.atpick.com ISSN: 1089-9855 Dan Miller - Publisher and Editor Mariann Miller - Sales and Advertising Dave McCarty - Contributing Editor Subscription Rate ($US): US $22.00 Canada/Mexico $27.00 Other Foreign $32.00 All contents Copyright © 1997 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
11 12 16 19 23 25 28 35 38 39 45 48 50 53 66 69
DEPARTMENTS
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
New Release Highlight: Wyatt Rice Reviews
55 60 3
Jack Lawrence Thirteen Years At Doc’s Side
I distinctly remember the rst time I saw and heard Jack Lawrence play guitar. I don’t remember the exact date so much, it must have been around 1989, and it was at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. But what I do vividly remember is my rst impression of his playing. In short, I was blown away. I remember that when I left the show, the foremost thought on my mind was, “That Lawrence guy can really pick.” Given the fact that Jack and Doc shared the stage that night with Norman Blake and Tony Rice, Jack’s guitar work had no doubt made a deep impression on me. 4
Jack Lawrence is best known as Doc Watson’s partner and has been such since the late Merle Watson gave up touring with his father in about 1984. Some might say that Jack is Doc’s side man or back-up man. In fact, many probably only know him as “that guy that plays with Doc Watson.” However, Doc and Jack are, in fact, partners and Jack says that he doesn’t really mind when people can’t remember his name or if they treat him as though he is a secondary figure in the act because he says, “Doc never treats me that way.”
The Early Years Jack Lawrence started playing the guitar around 1963 when he was about ten or eleven years old. He says that as long as he can remember, there had always been a guitar around the house. No one in the house played it, but it was there. Jack had always been intrigued by the guitar as a young boy and when he was about ten years old he pulled it out and started to “mess around with it.” Lawrence’s father, noticing Jack’s interest in the guitar, showed him how to tune it, showed him a few chords, and bought him a chord book. Jack says, “I kind of took it from there. My Dad’s knowledge of the guitar was fairly minimal. But he did have a nice 1946 000-21 Martin, so that was my rst guitar. I still have that guitar as a matter of fact.” Jack didn’t know much about bluegrass or atpicking when he rst started to learn how to play the guitar, he was mostly trying to play the kind of music tha t was popular on the radio. However, shortly after he began to learn how to play, his father started working as a sound technician at the Lake Norman Music Hall which was about 30 miles away from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jack says, “The music hall featured all of the great country music acts of the day. Everyone from Web Pierce, to Porter Wagoner, Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, everybody. They also had bluegrass acts like the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, and Flatt and Scruggs. While my Dad was mixing sound, I was running around back stage being a nuisance, I’m sure. I had really gotten interested in playing and all these guys in the various bands, even though they were dead tired from being on the road, were willing to answer my questions. None of them were ever rude to me and I’m lucky for that because I’m sure I was really a pest.” Jack says that he never really received a formal lesson from any of the great guitar players he was exposed to, however, he was able to watch them play up close and see what they were doing. After the show he would then go home and try to mimic what he had seen and heard. He acknowledges this as being a tremendous help in his development as a guitar player. Jack admits to starting out as a ngerstyle
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
guitar player and credits Earl Scruggs as being a great inuence. He says, “In addition to having the job at the music hall, my Dad was a TV repair man. We had this huge TV mast which would pick up broadcast channels from a couple of hundred miles away. I was able to see Flatt and Scruggs two or three times every Saturday on TV. I was really enthralled by Scruggs, the way he used to whip the guitar up to his ear and to the microphone and do this great ngerstyle guitar playing. The rst stuff I learned was that sort of thing. That is what got me started. A little later I heard Doc, and that turned me around.” Jack had heard Doc Watson play on records before he ever had the opportunity to actually see him and he says that he began wearing grooves in those records trying to learn what Doc was doing. He rst saw Doc play live in a little town called Union Grove where they had a fiddler’s convention. About his rst meeting with Doc, Jack says, “I asked him how he held his flatpick and that kind of stuff. He showed me and I was kind of amazed that I had naturally been doing it the same way. Doc tells me that he got his pick grip from a Nick Lucas instruction book. Doc’s brother read him the book and he began by holding his pick as it was described in that book.” When asked about his biggest atpicking inuences, Jack states that in the early days it was Doc Watson and Glen Campbell. He says, “In the late sixties Glen Campbell really turned me around as far as playing closed positions up the neck. He is a killer, killer player.” Later, Jack was also inuenced by Clarence White. He says, “In about 1968 I heard Clarence White play for the rst time and that gave me a whole different slant on the Doc Watson style.” When asked if he had seen Clarence play live, Jack said, “I actually saw him and met him in the early seventies, but my first exposure to Clarence was on the Appalachian Swing album. I pretty much wore that one out.” During high schoo l Jack’s love for guitars landed him a job in C.E. Ward’s shop helping repair instruments. Additionally, he played in C.E. Ward’s bluegrass band. The band played at festivals, nursing homes, reform schools, and various other local venues. All through high school, and even before, Jack says that he also spent quite a bit of time playing with ddlers at various festivals. He states, “My folks were big bluegrass music fans and we went to the Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
ddler’s conventions and festivals that were around. I was playing with a lot of ddlers and by that time I had heard Doc playing ddle tunes on the guitar, so I was trying to atpick lead when they would let me. There were really no other atpickers around until about 1968 when Tony Rice moved about 20 miles from my home. We were both deep into Clarence White at that point and so we got together and we saw each other at fiddler’s conventions and even competed against each other in the guitar competitions. Neither one of us ever won because nobody in that area had ever heard a lead guitar in a bluegrass band. I’d like to think that we were ahead of our time.” Jack says with a smile, “The prize would usually go to some older guy who played a G-run real forcefully and had the stage presence that Tony and I didn’t have at the time. But Tony and I were able to swap licks back and forth and talk about things. Tony was around for a couple of years, but then he took a job playing with the Bluegrass Alliance up in Louisville in 1970, so I didn’t see him around much during that year.” Jack graduated from high school in 1971 and spent the summer playing with a bluegrass band at an amusement park. That fall he got a job playing with the New Deal String Band. He says, “They were the hippie bluegrass band on the circuit and I had seen them around at various festivals. I was hired into the band in the fall of 1971 and the stuff they were playing really turned me around and gave an edge to my music.
I was there for only a few months when I got a job offer from the Bluegrass Alliance. Sam Bush and Curtis Burch had broken off to form the Newgrass Revival. Lonnie Peerce kept the name and put together another Bluegrass Alliance. I went up to Louisville in the winter of 1971 to play with them. I did that for eight or nine months and then went back to the New Deal String Band.” Jack stayed with the New Deal String Band for a few years, went back up to Louisville and played with various musicians in the area, left there and went to Atlanta where he played in a house band with Curtis Burch’s brother Ricky and a few of his bandmates from the New Deal String band and, as Jac k says, “I just moved all over the place for a bunch of years.” He eventually ended up back in Charlotte, North Carolina, in about 1976 and took a job playing electric guitar with the Buddy Ro Band. One of the members of that band was Joe Smothers, who had been in the Frosty Morn’ Band with Doc and Merle Watson. Jack says, “That experience with the electric guitar really opened up a lot of things in my guitar playing. It forced me to play in closed positions and made me learn the fret board because I rarely played with a capo. The music was also very different from the bluegrass stuff I had been doing.” After several years of playing guitar with the country/rock band, and after he played a short stint in a bluegrass band with Terry Baucom, Leroy Savage, and Tony Williamson, Jack and Joe Smothers
Jack Lawrence and Doc Watson playing at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, 1989. Tony Rice and Mark Schatz provide back-up.
March/April 1997
5
Jack Lawrence playing with the New Deal String Band, November 1971 joined together as an acoustic duo in the late 1970s. He stayed with Joe Smothers up until the time he got the job offer to play with Doc. Jack says, “I had gotten to know Merle through Joe Smothers. Merle had been a fan of the Buddy Ro Band and he would come down and sit in with us some times. He also sat in a few times with Joe Smothers and I. So, over a period of 3 or 4 years, I had gotten to know Merle pretty well and we had become friends. He was getting tired of playing the road and he gave me a call one Friday afternoon and asked if I could leave Saturday morning to do a show with Doc just outside of Chicago.” That is how it all began. When asked how he felt being on stage with Doc Watson after such short notice and not having had any rehearsal, Jack said, “I had a few butteries. But you have to remember, I spent a good part of my adolescence wearing out Doc’s records. As it turned out he didn’t play that much that I didn’t already know and the stuff I didn’t know was pretty easy to pick up. The show came off very well.” Jack wasn’t the rst guitar player to ll in for Merle. He says that guys like Marty Stuart, Sam Bush, and Dave Sylvester had lled in a few times during the late seventies when Merle couldn’t go out. For the rst year or so after that initial Chicago show, Jack lled that same roll, just going out with Doc whenever Merle couldn’t make it or didn’t feel like going. By the second year, Jack was doing about 95 percent of the dates. Jack says, “From late 1984 until late 1985, when Merle died, I doubt Merle played a dozen dates with his Dad. During that time he was busy planning and building the house that Doc is living in now and 6
he loved doing that kind of work.” When Merle passed away, Jack took the job full time and has been playing with Doc for thirteen years now. Playing with Doc Even though Jack Lawrence had spent much of his youth wearing out Doc’s records, and thus was very familiar with the Doc Watson style of atpicking guitar before he started performing with Doc, he says that there is a lot he has learned from Doc over the years. Jack states, “Doc’s phrasing is impeccable and he is a very tasteful player. I had been through the ‘hot bluegrass band’ thing with the New Deal String Band and the Bluegrass Alliance and I probably still carried a little of that gunslinger ‘playing hot licks for hot licks sake’ mentality when I rst started with Doc. I think Doc helped me focus a little better on playing the song and playing music instead of just playing hot licks all of the time. The hot licks have their place and they are a lot of fun, and they excite the audience, and they excite me, but it is not always musical. Plus the hot licks work better if you are playing them in the context of the melody. I learned that you add that stuff for effect rather than hotlicking your way all the way through a solo. You can add hotlicks to break things up, but rst you have to establish the melody or your not really playing anything.” Jack feels that during his years of playing with Doc his playing has matured, but he states that even in the early years Doc always gave him a lot of exibility and never commented on how he played or what he was playing. Jack says, “Merle hired me and Doc kept me on because they
liked what I played, hot licks and all. But I have noticed in my own playing over the years that I have mellowed considerably and that was just part of my own maturation process. It wasn’t because of anything Doc said to me.” Surprisingly, in the thirteen years they have been together Jack and Doc have never rehearsed for a show or a recording session. Jack says that the fact that they never prepare for a show, or even have a set list, keeps him constantly on his toes. Sometimes Doc will launch off into a song that Jack has never heard before and so he has to really be aware of what Doc is doing at all times and be prepared to follow Doc. He says, “When I am playing, I have to follow Doc’s lead. I have to follow him where he is going.” When Doc and Jack are going to go into the studio and record new material, he says Doc will send him a tape and he listens to it. He says he doesn’t work up a break because he knows that things are bound to change in the studio. He will just listen to the tape and get a sense of the melody of the song. Jack’s Advice to Flatpickers When asked what advice he would lend to those learning how to atpick the guitar, Jack primarily emphasizes two things: ear development and rhythm playing. He says, “A lot of beginners, and sometimes even the intermediate and advanced players, don’t pay enough attention to rhythm playing. Everyone wants to get right out there and play this single note, hot lick stuff, and I was guilty of that too when I was starting out. But I grew up playing with ddlers and most of the time I was the kid. I was playing with guys who where in their 30’s and 40’s when I was ten or eleven and they were very authoritative in telling me what they wanted to hear. Whenever I tried to play too much in the way of back up runs or add things that maybe I shouldn’t have, they would stop me immediately and say, “No! You just play rhythm!” They wouldn’t let me solo until they saw I could play good strong back-up rhythm. That helped me out immensely. “I often see guitarists in jam sessions who can make it through their solo just ne, but when it comes time to play rhythm, they are lost. They don’t have any kind of handle on really keeping time with the band. This makes no sense to me. The timing is everything and you have to be a ble to play good rhythm to be a good soloist.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
I would recommend that beginners get out and play with other people as much as possible and concentrate on rhythm. Listen to great rhythm players like Jimmy Martin, Del McCoury and Jim McReynolds. “Its funny, I actually got a little ack from a guy when I mentioned that I thought Jim McReynolds was a great rhythm player. The guy said, ‘He doesn’t do any bass runs, or walk up into chords, or anything. He is not very exciting.’ I said, ‘But he keeps perfect time. That is why I like him.’ Jim McReynolds is Mr. Metronome. He is solid as a rock. You can drive him to Detroit and he will be right behind you. You won’t lose him. In all the years I have been listening to those guys play, I have not once heard him make a mistake. I would rather have Jim McReynolds backing me up than the guy who could play the hottest solo in the world. If a guy can’t play rhythm behind me, what good is having him there? Timing is everything. That is what an ensemble is based on.” On the topic of ear development Jack says, “If I’d had tabs and instructional tapes to learn from when I was younger, I don’t think that I would have developed a good ear and thus I wouldn’t be able to pick things up as fast as I can today. If you take a look at all of my Doc Watson and Clarence White albums, you can see where all the solos are because the records are so worn down in those spots. I think that developing an ear and the ability to listen are the most important skills. You should develop the ability to listen before you play, while you play, while others are playing, and all of the time.” He also adds that, “The bottom line is that nothing will make you a great guitar player except practice. Everything comes with practice. You get nowhere without doing it. If you really have the desire to play, you are going to do it. You sit down and you work, and you work, and you work until it happens for you. What is really going to make you a player is the hours you log in, and that is totally up to you.”
collection is quite diverse, among other things, it includes a 1940 D-28, a 1957 D-21, a 1945 D-18, a 1968 D-18, a Wayne Henderson guitar, and a Collings D2H. Today when he goes on the road he plays the Collings, uses a tortoise shell pick that he has had for about 9 years, D’Addario strings, and a McIntyre pickup, which he helped design. When Jack rst started playing with Doc he says he was mostly either playing a 1968 D-18 or the Wayne Henderson guitar. He still owns both. However, during those early years, whenever he went to Doc’s house, he would see an old 1945 D-18 standing over in a corner, covered with dust, only a few strings on it, and generally in pretty bad shape. This was the guitar Doc used on many of his Vangaurd recordings and on the Flatt and Scruggs Strictly Instrumental album. Jack would pick it up, tap on it, brush the dust off and say, “You know Doc, I think this guitar still has some music in it. You ought to x it up.” Doc would say, “I don’t think it is worth xing. If you like it, maybe I’ll just give it to you someday.” Jack says that this same conversation would occur every time he visited Doc’s house and it went on for years. Finally, one day, Doc said, “If you take off those Grover rotomatics and give them to me, then you can take the rest of it home with you.” After doing a bit of work on the guitar, Jack began playing the 1945 D-18 on the road. He continued to use that as his performance guitar until about three years ago when he got his Collings. Jack’s Collings D2H has a Sitka Spruce
top and East Indian Rosewood back and sides. When asked why he picked the Collings, Jack said that all of the Collings guitars are incredibly well built and have great balance and sustain. He adds, “I have never seen a Collings guitar that didn’t have master grade wood and I have never seen a ner built guitar than the Collings. Everything is tastefully done and they sound great.” The Future Although Jack assures us that he and Doc will be partners as long as Doc keeps playing, he has also begun to branch out on his own with the release of a new solo CD this year. Jack’s project includes such great players as Mike Auldridge on dobro, T. Michael Coleman on bass, Jimmy Gaudreau on mandolin, Moondi Klein singing back up vocals, Craig Smith on banjo, and Doc Watson also appears on a few cuts. There are a few original tunes on the CD and the majority of the tunes are vocals. Jack says, “Most of the cuts are songs that I have always loved and don’t hear many people play anymore such as an old Dillards tuned called ‘I’ll Never See My Home Again’.” One of the original instrumentals on Jack Lawrence’s new release is a song he wrote while traveling to Doc Watson’s house in Deep Gap, North Carolina. Jack says, “I was driving to Doc’s and this melody kept running through my head. So I call the song, ‘Ten Miles to Deep Gap’.” Jack has been kind enough to allow us to tab out a couple of breaks to this tune on the following pages.
Guitars and Gear Since his days in high school doing repair work in C.E. Ward’s shop, Jack Lawrence has frequently supplemented his income by doing repair work on guitars, often working with his friend and music store owner, Carl McIntyre. As attendees of Steve Kaufman’s Flatpicking Camp last summer found out, Jack’s knowledge of guitar set up and repair is extensive. So what does Jack play? His
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
7
Ten Miles To Deep Gap (con’t)
# œœ &R F
15
œJ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œœ œœœœ˙ ≈ C
Am
≈ R J œ œ œ œ œ œ œJ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ ‰ & œ˙ ≈ ‰J 45 56
8
5
6
3
5
3
6
0
3
5
3
0
Ending
19
P
10
C
:
H P
S
0
G
1 3 0 1
0 1
3 1
2 0 2 0
2
0 2 0
1
2
2
1
0
3
1
3
0
1
:
œœœœœœœœ œ œ ˙ œ ˙ H P
5 8 5
8
0
3
5
3
0
2 3
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
3
1
3
2
March/April 1997
In the Studio by Craig Vance Fortunately, due to the patience and generosity of this ne magazine’s editor, Dan Miller, I was able to provide this column with an extension of the deadline. Dan and I used to play Little League baseball together hundreds of years ago in Springeld, Virginia. He can probably recall that I was often late for practice on the eld, and must realize that not much has changed since those days. He probably didn’t know (until now) that I was late for baseball practice because I just couldn’t seem to put my guitar down. Well, now that music has become my life, that remains unchanged. In my last article, I wrote about being in the studio and included various tips involving that subject. Since writing that article, I’ve spent many more hours in the studio, in several different types of sessions, and I have been approached with further questions and wonders during that time. Here are some of them: What is a “click track,” and why is it necessary to use one? Isn’t the live approach more of a natural feel? A click track is a metronome effect that can be sent through the headphone mix to enable the musician to obtain a steady sense of rhythm during the recording. The click comes in various forms. One type of click track might sound like clapping hands, while another may sound like a kick drum on the one and two count and a snare on the three. They can be set for all types of paces, depending on the musical piece. When you’re in the studio to record the rhythm tracks before lead overdubs, a click track can assist you in maintaining a strong supportive rhythm throughout the tune. It can take a little getting used to that, but if you’ve had experience playing along with a metronome, it will come very easy to you. I have run into people in the studio situation where they absolutely insist on the click, and some who strongly favor the natural approach. Therefore, it is good to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
be prepared for both. If you’re in the studio to record without using a click track, the rhythm guitar and the bass should be rhythmically sound. This provides a solid bed track for any other instrumentation or vocals to be added in later. I’ve been in sessions where the rhythm owed naturally without the use of a click track, but I’ve been in some that sounded like the tape was about to be eaten by the machine. How can I keep the same sound of my guitar when I come into the studio next week and nish that tune I was halfway through? Recording engineers are generally keen to this, taking precise notes on which mikes are being used for each tune, and specic mike placement, using the same booth you were in, etc. That is part of their job. It is up to the player to show up with the same instrument, same equipment, and if possible, the same set of strings, to keep the sound continuity throughout the recording. These are all very important since you are most likely recording with precision microphones, and with quality recording equipment that will detect the difference in the aforementioned. The alternative (I’m sure most engineers will agree) is to keep plugging along on what you have started until you are done. Your playing mode and attack will have a certain consistency this way, and you can go home thinking about the next song to record. Sewing up what you’ve started keeps it from coming apart at the seams. . . (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one!) If I’m going in to do an overdub, how should I prepare to go in and “nail” my part? There are a few key things to keep in mind here. The rst being that you must be aware of the space that you are going to ll in. Take note of the solo length in measures so you can have a prepared solo that will t
March/April 1997
nicely into the spot. Secondly, you should request a tape copy from the engineer. This will allow you home time to discover what your options are in any given area of recording. While you’re in the studio, you are seemingly under the microscope, but given the opportunity to take a bed track home will give you time to develop multioptional ideas. Simply by going over the material on your home system, you will fine tune and develop several different ideas to interject in the spaces provided for you. Some may come much easier than others, but you will nd that certain pieces will require more elaborate tab work. Pay close attention to your chord chart, as well as accents, stops, and possible rhythm changes. Once you’ve hurdled those fretstumpers, you can assemble a free owing, clean break that will shine through and carry the tune in the intended direction. You don’t want the solo to JUMP out of the tune, you want it to color and enhance the idea of the piece. The art of blending the guitar solo is something that takes time, and having that guideline to go with will give you time to acquire the feel for the particular tune that you are doing. Here are a couple of tips that can help you keep a good clean recording: If you are wearing a digital wristwatch that beeps on the hour, don’t wear it into the studio. I made that mistake recently and had to go back and redo a part. I have a recording in my collection where this happened TWICE during one song. The funny thing was that the watch beeped in exactly the same spot in the guitar solo on the rst AND second guitar breaks. My lawyer strongly advised omitting this person’s name in my column. Shirt buttons can also be a noisy little disaster, as well as coat or sweater zippers and belt buckles. Come to think of it, recording in the buff may just be the safest way to go. Play it like you mean it! Craig Vance is currently the lead guitarist for The McKrells, an upstate New York based band which features a unique musical blend of Celtic, American folk, bluegrass and country.
11
Gcdgcdgcdgcd by Dan Huckabee gcdgcdgcdgcd
Beginner’s Page
You can do it! If you caught my rst column, you learned how important it is to get set up right. So what’s next? Practicing efciently. Sounds obvious but you can well imagine that most people don’t. Everyone (including this preacher), practices too fast, takes too big of a bite, and has too many other things on their mind. But before we go any further, Do you have condence? No, I mean really. Have your atpicking idols excited you, or intimidated you? Most of us (again, including me), think we don’t have a lick of talent. I’ve taught guitar for thirty years, which has encompassed many types, ages, and physical limitations, and believe you-me, thinking you are “no good” is really the rst piece of baggage you “must” drop! I admit, I’ll never be a world class runner like Michael Johnson, but I don’t worry about it. Why? Because I like running, and it fullls me when I do my best. Am I genetically predisposed to flatpicking greatness? Please don’t ask yourself that question! I know you can’t help it, but it will cause your goal to take so much longer to achieve, and with so much more pain. Instead, ask yourself, “Am I attracted to the guitar, and do I admire and appreciate the masters?” If the answer is yes, you’re gonna be the next Doc Watson, and man is it gonna be an exciting and fullling ride!
12
How did I get over this insecurity? Well, now you’ve really put me on the spot. It seems like every student I’ve ever had has said the same thing. “I‘m the slowest learner in the entire world.” Now don’t you feel a little less lonely? Anyway, I just really loved the music and what my heroes had created, and I wanted to be a participant rather than a spectator. So I put “I can’t do it” back in it’s hardshell case, and popped the latches on the ole’ guitar case. So now we’re reall y read y. Lets establish the right practicing habits at the onset. We got our guitars set up right, our attitudes adjusted, and our psychological trash can emptied. Never allow yourself to make a mistake twice! What an arrogant thing for a columnist to tell someone. Hey, I’m serious. Why perfect a mistake? Why memorize, develop, and establish a mistake? If you make a mistake, it was caused by one of two things: you obviously were going too fast, or you were trying to play too much at once. In other words: slow down and subdivide. Slow down until you can take a nap between each note, if you have to. If you made a mistake, (no matter how slow you were already going), it was still (obviously) too fast, or you wouldn’t have made the mistake. I don’t care how advanced the piece is. A complete beginner can play the most advanced piece in the whole world, and play it perfectly,
without a single mistake, on his very rst try, “if” he plays it slow enough. “Prove me wrong”, Dan says arrogantly. If you get your guitar out and play it ridiculously slow, and make a mistake, you played it too fast. In other words: my denition of “slow enough”, is the point in slowness at which you reach zero mistakes. This is known as the “Huckabagorian Theorem”. If you want to get fast (soon), practice slow. Why? Because speed is achieved after (and only after) all problems have been addressed and solved. It’s easier to work on your car when it’s stopped than to work on it at 60 mph on the freeway. Don’t laugh, we’re all guilty. We want to hurry up and have fun. Besides slowing down, also take a smaller bite. Don’t learn a song by going straight through, start to nish. Work on one line over and over, or even just one measure. The idea is to put it together one module at a time. It’s the best way to make the most productive use of your practice time. I have a one-hour video available on the subject. It’s called “Perfecting Bluegrass Guitar Solos” and you can receive free information about it, and all of the Bluegrass Guitar lesson materials, by calling MUSICIAN’S WORKSHOP toll free at 1-800-543-6125. Just mention that you read my column in Flatpicking Guitar . Our display advertisement also appears in this issue of Flatpicking Guitar . You can email me at
[email protected]
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Local Heroes: Prole of Steve Palazzo The town of Santa Cruz, California, may already be well known to most atpickers thanks to the guitars that carry its name and the players, like Tony and Wyatt Rice, who play those guitars. However, in addition to excellent guitars, the town of Santa Cruz has produced some great guitar players as well. In a town which is full of a diverse range of music from all styles and traditions, one of the nest atpicking guitar players and instructors is Steve Palazzo. Steve is a Santa Cruz native and truly ts the “local hero” title of this column, especially in the eyes of his forty students and the hundreds of locals who enjoy listening to his guitar work in the local bluegrass band, Homere. Steve’s interest in playing music began in high school. His girlfriend and a few other friends played “Bob Dylan type stuff” and Steve began learning the harmonica so that he could play along with them. Having never played a musical instrument before, the harmonica seemed less intimidating than the guitar. However, the harmonica was abandoned after Steve got the chance to see Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry play live. The bluesmen inspired him to pick up his brother’s guitar and learn how to play. Steve says during those early days he was influenced by a lot of the older black blues players and still enjoys nger picking the country blues. Steve’s interest in bluegrass music was sparked by a local bluegrass band called the Bear Creek Boys who played at a pizza parlor in Santa Cruz. The spark turned into ames when he got to hear Doc and Merle Watson play live in about 1974. He said, “Doc’s music knocked me for a loop. It was very powerful and direct music, not just hot shot, neat guitar playing. Doc’s playing and his music is not just bluegrass, or blues, or hillbilly, or country, there is so much more there and his delivery is so powerful. His style is pure soul. If you ask me, the man should be on Mt. Rushmore.” After that rst encounter with Doc, Steve began buying Doc Watson albums and trying to learn from them. He says that Doc opened up a whole new world of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
music to him and it wasn’t just because of his playing. In concert and on his records jackets, Doc would usually mention where his songs originated and Steve began exploring the origins of Doc’s songs. If Doc said that he got a particular song from the Delmore Brothers, then Steve would start buying Delmore Brothers albums. His knowledge of the music grew by listening to both Doc and the music that inuenced Doc. Aside from sitting down with records and meticulously listening to each break, Steve also spent a lot of time playing with other Steve Palazzo of Santa Cruz, CA musicians to improve his skills Steve’s ‘37 D-18 only cost him $277. and get new ideas. He says, “Santa Cruz has Today Steve usually only plays the D-18 a lot of good guitar players and I learned by around the house. When he plays out, he’ll playing with a lot of people from a variety play his 1985 Santa Cruz Tony Rice model. of musical backgrounds.” Steve says that being in the instrument By 1977 Steve was working in the building business in Santa Cruz, he had music business full time. He had taken a known the guys at the Santa Cruz Guitar job building instruments at the Folk Roots Company since about 1977. He says he Dulcimer Shop and in 1978 he started had watched them grow and monitored performing swing tunes with a trio called their progress through the years. He states, “Just In Time.” The trio featured a guitar, “By 1984, I felt like the Santa Cruz Guitar mandolin, and a cello (played like a bass). Company was producing the finest new A few years later, the group dropped the instruments available.” So in 1985 he mandolin, added a ddle and another guitar, bought the 166th dreadnought (Tony Rice changed their name to “Indigo,” and played model) to come out of the shop and still a lot of “Hot Club” style swing. Steve says uses it as his main guitar. that he played mostly rhythm guitar for In 1987, Steve left the Folk Roots shop that group. after ten years and was hired by the Santa In 1978, Steve acquired one of his two Cruz Guitar Company. He spent about two mainstay guitars, a 1937 Martin D-18. At years working there and mostly did nish the 1978 National Association of Music work. About the same time he got the job Merchants (NAMM) show, Steve had with Santa Cruz, he also got an itch to play acquired a Mossman guitar for the incredmore bluegrass after playing for a number ibly low price of $277. A short time later of years in predominantly swing bands, so he was visiting a friend in Lubbock, Texas, he began lling in with a local bluegrass who told him about this Martin guitar that group called the “Surf City Boys.” had just been brought into a local store. Steve says that his role in the Surf City Evidently the original owner was overcomBoys, and with his current band Homere, ing a drinking problem and decided to turn is primarily that of a rhythm player. He over a new leaf in his music career as well says, “I think that in a bluegrass band, you by trading in his old guitar for a new one. need to pick and choose the spots where The guitar was pretty beat up and needed a you can get away with playing a lead. The neck reset and a fret job, so Steve traded the guitar is really the only instrument in the store owner his Mossman for the Martin mid-range. The bass is down low and the in an even trade. The bottom line is that
March/April 1997
13
rest of the instruments are up high. When you choose a time to play your lead, you have to decide when it would be OK to let that mid-range fall out. In a band setting, the guitar’s primary role is to provide rhythm and you don’t want that to suffer by being too anxious to swap leads with the other instruments.” When asked what fundamentals of guitar playing he emphasizes with his students, Steve says that rst and foremost he is a stickler for rhythm. He says that before he will teach any lead playing to his students, he makes sure that they can keep good time without drifting. After the student demonstrates a good grasp of time in the execution of simple chord changes, Steve will then begin to teach the student how to tie the chord changes together with bass runs. When Steve begins to teach students how to atpick leads, he is always strict about the student developing good pick direction habits. Steve uses the alternating pick direction method (down on the down beat, up on the up beat). He says that it is essential for the students to get the right “pulse” of the music and he feels that it is difcult to get that pulse if the pick direction is off. Whenever one of his students hits all the right notes, but the solo still does not sound right, he usually nds that the source of the problem is pick direction. The
problems with correct pick direction are usually associated with hammer-ons, slides, and pull-offs. Steve says, “It is difcult for beginners to come out of a hammer, slide, or pull-off and land on their feet with the correct pick direction. I will usually have them play all of the same notes, without the hammer, slide, or pull-off, until they get a feel for the pick direction.” When teaching a lead, Steve does not use tablature. He likes to get the students working in two measure increments. He plays a two measure phrase and the student tries to repeat it. If the student cannot grasp two measures at a time, he will break it down in smaller increments. However, he says that he likes to get the students to work in two measure chunks because two measures “hold together like a sentence.” Steve feels that another important part of learning how to atpick is getting out and playing with other people. He says, “Flatpicking is not as self-contained as ngerstyle. You need other people. If you want this music to be a part of your life, you need get into that sense of community.” In order to encourage his students to get together with others and play, Steve holds several pot luck dinners each year and invites all of his students to get together, meet each other, and play music. He also occasionally holds house concerts/ workshops for his students so that they
can gain exposure to some of the top professionals. In 1996 he hosted Wyatt Rice, David Grier, Steve Kaufman, and Byron Berline. When asked how he encourages his shy students to come out of the wood shed and play with other people, Steve says that he gradually coaxes them into believing they can do it. In every lesson he records the material the student is working on. If the student is practicing rhythm, Steve will play the rhythm part to a simple song like Old Joe Clark and then he will play the lead several times through. The student will be encouraged to practice their rhythm along with the tape. Once they are comfortable playing along with the tape, he has them play it with him during the practice sessions until they feel comfortable playing along with another person. Steve says that he tries to show the student that he or she does not have to “wait until they are good” before they can play with others. After performing in numerous bands over the past twenty years, spending thirteen years as an instrument builder, and being a full time guitar teacher since 1990, Steve Palazzo’s next project is the release of his upcoming, self titled, solo CD. Special guest David Grier appears on ve of the cuts of the new project, which is scheduled for release in June. Below, Steve has provided a transcription a break to Ragtime Annie as it will appear on his CD.
Ragtime Annie
Key of D capo 2
Part A
4 &4 Ó Ó 1
Arranged by Steve Palazzo
C
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 Œ 2
0
3
2
3
2
2
2
3
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
3
2
0
2
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 œ œ ˙ . œ &œ . G
(G7)
5
H
S
0 2 4
14
3
4
0 1
3
0
S
4 7
0
6
0
7
3 0
3
S
4 2 0
H H
H
0 3
0
2
2
3
2
C
P
S
2
3 0 1 2
0 2 0
œœ
1
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
2 3
March/April 1997
œ œ œ œ Flatpick Rhythm Guitar œ œ œ# œ H.O.
3
0
1
2
0
2
0
0
by Joe Carr
œ œ # 4 & 4 œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ 1
Essential Technique: The Rest Stroke & Jimmy Martin: King of Bluegrass
Ex. 1
Rest
3 0 0 0
This month we will study an important picking technique and look at the rhythm style of a bluegrass great.
0
0
2
œ # 4 & 4 œ œœ œ œ# œ œ 1
At rst, you may nd that the pick moves too quickly though the strings and that the lick happens too fast for the tempo of your song. If so, increase the angle of the pick towards the guitar top to increase the resistance and slow the pick. If you are not currently using this technique, start now! Your friends will be blown away when these powerful licks come blasting out of your guitar. 16
0
3 0 0 0
3
The Rest Stroke
Alternating picking is so important to atpicking guitar styles that there is little discussion of the equally important “rest stroke” which employs consecutive downstrokes. The rest stroke is used primarily to articulate bass runs, particularly in the key of G. Bass runs played in this manner literally jump out of the guitar. The licks are much louder than those picked up and down. Once you are comfortable with this technique, try the following exercises with alternating pick strokes. You’ll quickly be convinced the rest stroke is superior. Tony Rice and Clarence White are just two of the many atpickers who use this technique. To perform the rest stroke, place your pick on the sixth string and fret it at the third fret. Angle the pick so that you are pushing down towards the guitar top at about a 45 degree angle rather than parallel to the top. Push through the sixth string with the pick until it comes to rest against the fth string. If you do it right, the sixth string “G” note will sound and your pick will be on the fth string - all in one uid motion. Now try exercise one using all downstrokes. The rest stroke occurs at the end of the rst measure. Place the pick on the fourth string (second fret) and push through to the third string. This abbreviated G run is useful at high speeds once you get the hang of it. In exercise two, the rest stroke covers three strings. Begin the rest stroke at the third fret of the fth string (C note). Slide to the fourth fret with your left hand while your pick moves to rest on the fourth string. Then continue downward, picking the fourth and third strings. Lick three is the classic “G Run” of bluegrass played with four consecutive rest strokes. This is the secret of an authentic, great sounding “G Run.” Lick four is another abbreviation of lick three with a slide and a hammer-on. Lick ve presents the rest stroke in D.
3 0 0 0
œœ œ
Ex. 2
Rest
3 0 0 0
S 2
3
# & 44 1
Ex. 3
3
0
4
œ œ œœ œ
œœ œ
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
0
0
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ# œ œ
œœ œ
Rest
3
0
1
0
2
2
œ # 4 & 4 œ œœ # œ œ œ œ Rest
3 0 0 0 3
H
S 1
2
0
2
# œ 4 & 4œ œ œœ œœ 1
Ex. 5
Rest
0
2 3 2 0
œ œ œ œ œ
œœ œ
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
0
2
0
2
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
0
œœ œœ œ œ
H
H
3 0 0 0
0
0
1
Ex. 4
0
3 0 0 0
P
H
H H
0
2 3 2
2 3 2 0
March/April 1997
"Sweet Dixie" in the key of D, features Bill Emerson's great banjo playing and is a showcase for several of Martin's favorite licks. There are several opportunities to use your new rest stroke. Part A of this arrangement features the basic alternating bass~strum pattern. Part B gets more interesting. Be sure to "rest" on beat one of measure 9. You could try picking this lick two ways: 1) with rest strokes and hammerons and 2) with consecutive down picks and a rest stroke at the end of measure 9. Measures 11 and 12 include a great rest stroke lick. Notice you must make the stroke at two speeds; 1/4 note to 1/8 note and 1/4 note to 1/4 note. Stop the C note (third fret, fth string) from ringing as soon as you play the open fourth string. In other words, do not allow these two notes to ring together. To do this, lift the fretting
Jimmy Martin - King of Bluegrass
Jimmy Martin began his profes sional bluegrass music career with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the late 1940s. He later performed with the Osborne Brothers before forming his own Sunny Mountain Boys in the 1950s. He was inducted into the IBMA hall of fame in 1995. Martin is known for his strong rhythm guitar style and his equally strong opinions about how his music should be played. For clarity, I have not notated Martin's struming patterns which are very active and varied. Below are some examples of rhythm patterns he uses. The song arrangements are not exact transcriptions, but a compilation of Martin's ideas. Listen to the recordings to get the feel.
nger, but leave it on the string. In measure 13, wait one beat and play the same rest stoke pattern. "I'm Coming Back . . ." has some fun key of G licks. Notice the "D" lick in measure 4 that anticipates the chord by two beats. Measure 12 contains a great bluesy phrase. Sources: Martin's recordings with Decca are out of print but much of his music has been re-released on the German Bear Family label (BCD 15705 EI). Martin was also a participant on the first "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" album featuring the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Next Issue: We look at Rickie Simpkin's favorite rhythm guitarist: Tony Rice.
Jimmy Martin - Guitar
Sweet Dixie
Transcribed by Joe Carr
Part A
# œ œ 4 # & 4œœœœ D
1
:
:
2 3 2
0
2 3 2
0
œœ œ œ œ G
œœ œ 3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
2
3
œœ œ œ
D
2 3 2
0
œœ
œœ œ
2 3 2
2 3 2
0
0
œœ œ œ œ œœ
œœ œœ œœœœ
A7
2 3 2
0
3 2 2 2
0
2
3 2 2 2
0
0
2
4
# œ œ œ œ # & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ#œ œ œ œ œ œ œ n œ œ n œjœ œjœ Œ 7
D
Part B G
:
D
:
Rest
0
# &# 12
2 3 2
2 3 2
0
0
2 3 2
2 3 2
:
:
0
0 1 2
Rest Rest
0
0 2
0
0
0
3
3
0
3
j
0
j
œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ j j nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ œ Œ A7
Rest
3
0
D
Rest Rest
3
2
5
0
j Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
5
0
:
Rest
5
0
2
3
0
2 3 2
2 3 2
0
0
2 3 2
2 3 2
:
0
j 17
Jimmy Martin - Guitar
I’m Coming Back, But I Don’t Know When
Transcribed by Joe Carr
œœ # 4 & 4 œ œœœœ œ
œœ œ œ œ œ œ
G
1
3 0 0 0
P
3
# œ œ œ œ œ & œ œœœœœœ œ
G
6
2 2 3 3 2 2
0
0
2 2 2 3 3 3 2 2 2
# &
2
0
3 0 0 0
0 2
0 2
0
3
2 3 2
0
2
Rest
H
0 2
H
0 2
0 1 0 2
2
0
0 2
œœ œœ œ
2 3 2
2 2 3 3 2 2
0
0 2
0
œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ œ œ
œœ
C
3 0 0 0
Rest
H
0 2
œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ
G
0
0 1 0 2
œœ œ D
œœ œœœœ
3
3
œœ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 3
3
0 1 0 2
Rest
D
0 0 3 0 3 3
0 1 0 2
œœ œœ œ œ
œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ
3
12
3 0 0 0
0
0 2 0
2
œœ
C
2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2
H
0 2
0
3
2
0
œœ œ #œ œ œ œ 3 0 0 0
3
1 2
0 2
3
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
3
œœ œ œ œ
œœ œ
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
0
0
Strum Patterns
≤ ¿ 4 & 4 ¿ ¿¿ ¿ ≥ ≤ #1
1
≥
= down stroke
18
≥¿
¿¿≥
¿¿≤ ≥¿¿
¿¿≤
#2
¿¿≤ ¿
≥
¿¿≥ ≤¿¿
¿¿≤ ≥¿¿ ¿ ≥
≤¿ ¿
#3
¿¿≤ ¿
≥
≥¿ ≤¿ ≥¿ ≤ ¿ ¿¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ≥¿
= up stroke
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Flatpicking Flatpicking & & Folk/Acoustic Folk/Acoustic Rock Rock by byJohn JohnTindel Tindel Greetings to all you atpickers and welcome to 1997. Hopefully, one of your many New Year’s resolutions, along with having more patience with children and small animals, watching less television and eating more Hagen Daas, was to work on becoming a better guitar player or at least not go backwards any. Not losing ground can be considered progress with a sufciently optimistic attitude, don’t you think? Here’s to hoping that we all achieve this rather lofty goal with a minimum of nger soreness and a maximum of joy. One sure way to move in that direction is to log plenty of hours sitting on the edge of the bed with your guitar. So go grab yours and let’s get started.
the expense of the beautiful, woody tones inherent in acoustic guitars. One way to utilize the built-in sustain of the guitar is to use open strings and drone strings when you can. Find an open string that corresponds with the key signature that you’re playing in and use it to anchor some descending or ascending lines on adjacent strings, with both strings ringing. Example A shows a simple descending droned run in G. The big, ringing resonance of the open string sounds great and adds a nice element of sustain to any given passage. Here’s one (Example B) that you can strum, or cross-pick, the top three strings with the G string going all the way up the neck and the B and E strings ringing away. Feel free to thump the low E string and let it provide the bottom drone, as well. If you are playing in the keys of E, B, G, D or A, look for that open string and use it - let it ring! Granted, open strings are a little tough to nd in the keys of Bb or F#, but hey, that’s why capos were invented, right? Find the drone and you will be rewarded by that big acoustic guitar sound we all love. Now, what rhymes with drone?
Drone Strings Here’s some things you can try to embellish your solo playing. Let’s face it, long, sweet, sustain from a single, held note is not one of the acoustic guitar’s strong suits. Which is why we have a tendency to ll in the spaces with lots of busy little notes. With enough enhancement from effects and signal processors it is possible to achieve some sustain but it’s usually at
# 4 & 4 œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œœ 1
Ex. A
0 5
# # # 4 # & 4 1
Ex. B
0 4
0 0
0 2
0 0
0 2
œœ œœœ œœ œ œœœ ˙˙ 0 0 1
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
0 2
0 0 2
0 0 4
March/April 1997
0 0 6
0 0 8
0 0 9
Tone! Pay attention to your pick placement in relation to the bridge to emphasize those open strings - move toward the bridge for more treble and away for more bass. String Bending One thing you don’t hear much of in atpicking is string bending. This could be because bending medium gauge strings with medium-soft calluses can tend to be rather painful. How many times toward the end of the last set of the night has it occurred to you that human ngers were not really designed to be ground onto thin metal wires under high tension for long periods of time? Well, quit your sniveling, drop and give me twenty, and build up those calluses. Here’s a couple of simple bends you can do on the B string if you have sufcient pain tolerance. In the key of G, for instance, fret the high E string on the 10th fret with your pinky nger and the 10th fret of the B string with your 3rd nger. Play both strings together while bending the B string up a whole step, as in Example C. Try grimacing as you do this, it helps.
drone
œ œ œ œ œ # 4 & 4
Ex. C 1
drone
10 10
10 10
Bend
(12)
You can get a nice lap-steel sort of sound with this if you pay some attention to sustain and tone. Do the same thing on the 5th fret for D, 3rd fret for C, 12th fret for A, 7th fret for E, etc. It can be tough 19
to bend the B all the way up to the true pitch of the note and hold it there for it’s full value, so just line up your 1st and 2nd ngers behind the 3rd so that they can help in the heavy lifting. A close relative of this bend can be accomplished by, again in the key of G, fretting the B string on the 6th fret, bending up towards the whole step, then playing the 3rd fret on the high E string. If you can hold the bent note along with the fretted note, you’ll get a neat doubled note that you can manipulate the bottom component of in various soulful ways. No doubt those soulful little expressions on guitarists faces are actually grimaces of extreme pain from bending B strings. But hold on, there is worse. Those of you who are sufciently brave or fool hardy can attempt the dreaded G-string bend. No, not that kind, the guitar kind. In the key of D, fret the E and B strings at the 10th fret. Grab the G string on the 9th. While strumming across all three strings, bend the G string up a whole step with all your might (see Example D). Don’t try this at home without adult supervision. It will, however, impress your friends with your mighty hand strength and fearless demeanor. Try it on the 5th fret
20
œ œ œ œœ œ # œ 4 & 4
Ex. D 1
10 10 9
10 10 9
Bend
(11)
for A, 8th fret for C, 12th fret for E, and if you dare, 3rd fret for G. Remember as you do this, “There’s a ve dollar ne for whinin’.” I would be tempted to also say, “no pain, no gain” at this point, but that would be too obvious so it’s a good thing I didn’t. For your extra-curricular activity this month, I’d like you to, if you haven’t already, procure a copy of that timeless, country/rock/folk/acoustic/rock gem “Amie” by Pure Prairie League, and learn the solo, note for note. This classic atpicked style solo in the context of the above mentioned stylistic melange makes it basically what this column is all about. So, until next time, have fun, have fun playing, and may your soul continue to dance to good music.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Bill Collings was born with an interest in building guitars, he says, “I came out and said, ‘Guitars! Where are they! Let me at them!’” Today, 48 years later, he still approaches his art with the same degree of enthusiasm, and growing numbers of atpickers are extremely happy that this man was “born to build” their dream guitar. When asked how he got started building guitars, Collings replies that he built his rst guitar when he was 12 years old. He said, “It was a cigar box guitar and I learned to play ‘Last Kiss’ on it,” and then adds, “The rest is history.” Collings History Collings built his first dreadnought guitar in his kitchen with a saw, chisel, and hammer. That was in about 1973. The guitar had Brazilian rosewood back and sides and Collings says, “It had the best of everything in it. I can’t build a cheap guitar.” When asked if he had intended to build guitars for a living he said, “I built the rst guitar because I wanted to. Then I built the next one because I wanted to, and I never stopped. The ‘living’ is just part of the deal.” By 1976 Collings was building about two guitars a month. He says, “Early on, the rst thing I did was go to a folk club in Houston and I met a hot guitar player named Rick Gordon. I told him I was a guitar maker and wanted to build him a guitar. I told him that if he bought the wood and gave me a little money, I would make the guitar. Eleven days later he had a guitar. As soon as he got it, a bunch of people from the area placed orders.” To supplement his income in the early years Collings also did repair work. He said that the repair work was quick money, but he felt like it was getting in the way of his building. He says, “In about 1988, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
I quit doing repairs and decided to start creating guitars.” Collings had built some guitars for George Gruhn under Gruhn’s name, and then in about 1989 Frank Ford of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in California reviewed the Clarence White model dreadnought for Frets Magazine. Ford was so impressed with Collings’ work that he ordered some Collings guitars for his store. The word about Collings’ high quality and craftsmanship began to spread and more music store accounts followed. Bill says, “ In the early 90’s things started to take hold, and here we are!”
Collings Clarence White model
March/April 1997
Collings Today Today the Collings shop is a far cry from the kitchen. Computerized machinery and custom jigs have replaced the hammer and saw, and a skilled team of craftsman are behind each Collings guitar. When asked about the transition from kitchen to computerization Collings says, “A friend of mine came by one day during the 80’s when the market was a littl e slow. He was a very talented woodworker and we were just talking and said, ‘Why don’t we make some Fender guitar necks?’ When we started jigging up for it I thought, this is neat! We had never thought of jigging up for me. I said ‘Let’s do this for my guitars.’ We took the Fender stuff and threw it away. That is when I rst started making xtures for my guitars.” Although making jigs and utilizing computer controlled equipment speeds up some aspects of the guitar building process, Collings says that turning out high quality guitars still takes time. He states that he would not be comfortable if the shop tried to produce more guitars than it is currently turning out because for most of the tasks involved in guitar building a computer controlled machine cannot take the place of a skilled craftsman. Although there are in the neighborhood of 90 guitars in the shop on any given day, every guitar is made one at a time. Values are put on the wood to determine the appropriate thickness of the parts and each guitar is tracked as it progresses through the shop. Each of the Collings craftsman specializes in a given area of expertise. Collings says, “I may be OK at building bodies or necks, but the guys I have working in the shop are experts at it. They do it over and over and get better and better.” Collings is quick to point out that even though each craftsman in his shop is skilled in his individual area of expertise, it is 21
spruce, Collings will only use this wood on a mahogany or Brazilian rosewood guitar. The D1 features mahogany back and sides, tortoise style binding, black/white wood strip purfling, black/ white wood strip rosette, tortoise style pick guard, and an East Indian rosewood peghead veneer. The finger board is inlayed with pearl dot markers. Nickel Waverly tuners are standard. The D2H features Bill Collings holding a Clarence White model East Indian rosewood guitar body with AAA grade Orange quarterback and sides. Brazilsawn Brazilian Rosewood back ian rosewood is available as an option. The important that they all know what is going “H” stands for “herringbone” puring. The on across the board, so he conducts quite other features of this guitar include grained a bit of cross training. He says that in a oneivoroid binding, crosscut grained ivoroid man shop, the builder knows what he did and wood strip rosette, tortoise style pick at every step along the way and can easily guard, and rosewood peghead veneer. The make adjustments and compensations finger board is inlayed with traditional when necessary. When a team of people diamond and square inlay. Nickel Waverly are working on one guitar, the hand-off tuners are standard. becomes very important. Having highly The D3 model is a “dressed up” D2. It skilled craftsman and well-designed, precifeatures a select abalone rosette, ivoroid sion crafted parts ensures that the hand-offs binding on the fret board and peg head and are smooth. other upgraded features such as a fancier back strip and gold Waverly tuners. Collings Dreadnoughts The Collings Clarence White model Although the Collings standard models differs from the other models primarily include orchestra guitars, a “baby” guitar, in that it comes standard with Brazilian a small jumbo guitar, three “C” models, rosewood back and sides (although some and archtops, the dreadnought is the model have been made of mahogany) and an of interest to most atpickers. Collings Adirondack spruce top, has a larger soundproduces four standard dreadnought models: hole, an extended ngerboard, and does not the D1, the D2H, the D3, and the Clarence have a “tongue” brace. These features are White model. The D1, D2H, and D3 are all consistent with the modied 1935 Martin braced and constructed utilizing the same D-28 Clarence White played, which is now design. The braces are scalloped. The neck owned by Tony Rice. joins the body with an integrated bolt-on When asked about the Clarence White and mortise and tenon design. The necks model Collings says, “John Holman and I are mahogany and have an adjustable truss were talking about how we needed to make rod. The bridge and ngerboard are ebony. a Tony Rice guitar. The next day he called The nut width is one and eleven sixteenths me and said, ‘We’ll call it the Clarence inches and the scale length is twenty-ve White guitar.’ I knew Roland White and and a half inches. The peghead inlay is a got a hold of him to see if we could do it. I mother-of-pearl Collings logo. kind of felt sneaky about it, trying to get on The D1, D2H, and D3 come standard the ‘Tony Rice thing’ and make a hot rod with Sitka Spruce top wood. Wood options dreadnought, but that is the way it goes.” To for the top wood include Engelmann and date Collings has built about 150 Clarence German spruce. Adirondack spruce is White models and currently produces available as an option, however, due to about two Clarence White models a month. the limited availability of Adirondack 22
This guitar is only available through John Holman of Baldy Brothers Guitar in Dallas, TX. When asked about his dreadnought design Collings said, “I always loved dreadnoughts and atpicking guitars and I had worked on many of the best guitars you will ever see, including the thirties Martins. I had them apart and knew them inside out and upside down. I did an average of two neck sets a week. I knew what made them great and I also knew the problems they had. When I make a dreadnought, I don’t copy one of those, but I work on the style and what they try to do. I try to do what they didn’t do and do a little better if I can.” At the Collings shop, “doing it a little better” starts with buying the best woods that they can nd and grading every piece. Collings says, “We are a little hard on our suppliers sometimes, but we just do not have a use for medium and low quality woods.” Collings has become known for consistently producing high quality guitars. When asked about how he maintains this consistency, he said, “There is no quick way to do it. There is only one way to build a guitar and that is the right way. If we decided that we were going to make 50 D2H’s today and threw all of the wood on the table and made 50 tops and 50 hoops and 50 backs and 50 necks, you would have a random sampling of guitars. They would range from really wonderful to pretty good. But you could have taken that same pile of wood and turned them all into excellent guitars. You had that choice and that is what we would rather do. Our guitars range a little bit, but not like the range of most guitars. Some people would say that we are wasting our time trying to do that, but I don’t believe so. I think that our customers have the right to know that we do everything we can to make every guitar a great guitar. It is the only thing we know.” Collings’ Business Manager, Steve McCreary, sums it up by saying that the biggest factors in consistency are in the design of the instrument, the precise dimensioning of the parts, the selection of high quality materials and the high degree of skill and expertise of the Collings’ shop craftsmen. Put that together with Bill Collings’ passion for his work and we can easily see why the Collings guitar is in such great demand today. For more information on Collings Guitars, call 512-288-7776.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Kaufman’s Corner by Steve Kaufman
Crazy Creek Crazy Creek is a great little tune that I don’t get to play very often. Mostly because not many people know it. Let’s try to change that...shall we? This tune is taken from a new book of mine on the atpicking market called Kaufman’s Collection of American Fiddle Tunes for Guitar with over 300 tunes included. I called this book my airplane book because for the last two years as I was ying the friendly skies, on my way to bookings, I would work on this book on the old lap top computer. Let me leave you with a few tips on this tune: Measure 2: Use the rst nger to barr the 4th and 3rd strings for a moment when
needed then the 3rd nger frets the F# on the 4th string to the rst nger on the E 4th string and slide the 1st nger back to the 1st fret nishing up with the 4th nger - whew! Measure 3: Get the 1st nger back to the 2nd fret for the rst 4 notes. Measure 5: Start off with the 3rd nger and slide into the 5the fret. Hit the next G (3rd fret) with the 1st nger (an up swing).
For those of you that don’t know about the rst and second endings along with the D.S. al Fine stuff.... Start at the top...play through the rst ending (measure 11)...hit the repeat sign (2 solid lines with 2 dots)
and go back to the top (at the play from the rst repeat sign...come through the second time but skip over measure 11 and go onto the 2nd ending (measure 12)... play to the bottom and the D.S. al Fine mark sends you back to the crooked“$” sign at the top and play to the “Fine”. These measures are the roughest ones (in my humble opinion). If you can play them then you will be able to play through the rest of the piece. Good luck with it and have fun. See you at Flatpicking Camp ‘97.
Steve Kaufman Books, Videos, Tapes, and CDs are now available for purchase directly on the internet at:
http://www.aros.net/~tboy/kaufman/
CHRIS JONES • BLINDED BY THE ROSE
Strictly Country Records (SCR-40) featuring: Ron Block, Adam Steffey, Barry Bales, Rob Ickes, and other special guests
“. . . run right out and buy it, order it, beg for it, its that good.” – Bluegrass Now “. . . Cool!” – Bluegrass Canada CD available in stores where bluegrass is sold. Cassette available through mail order, send $10 (postage is included) to: Chris Jones, P.O. Box 984, Franklin, TN 37065 (Canadian and other orders outside the U.S. add $1.00 per cassette)
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
23
Crazy Creek
Arr. by Steve Kaufman
% # # 4 & # 4 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 œ Œ Œ Œ . # n œ n œ # œ . œ œ œ œ œnœ œ œ œ nœnœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œnœ œ œ # n œ J & nœ nœ . J # n # n j œ # n œ . n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙. & œ . n œ œ œ# œ œ œ œ n œn œ . . . J n n n œœœ & 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 œ œb
Key of A/C
A
A
A
1
4 2
0 4
C
2
2
4 2 1 4
C
2 4
2
2 0
0
2 1
C
0 2 3 2 0
2
2
C
5
3
5
5
0 3 0
1 3
E
3 1 3 1
E
2
0
1
2 0
2 0
3
Fine
1. A
0
2 0 2 3 2 0
3
2. A
9
2
3 2
0 1
F
0 3 1 0
1
2 4
2
2 2 2
2
3
4 2
F
C
0
C
13
2
1
2 0
3 2 3
F
0
2
1
2 0
3
2 0
F
3
2 3
0 2 0
2 0 1
C
2
0 1
0 2
E
3 2 0
& 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 œ ˙
D.S. al Fine
17
2
1
2
0
3
2
3
0
2
1
2
0
3
0
2
3
0
4
0 2
0
2
3
0
2
1
2
3
2
© Sleeping Bear Productions 1-800-FLATPIK 1996
24
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
By Brad Davis three starts with a G rhythm pattern shifting into a G lick then shifting back into G rhythm. Example four starts with a C rhythm pattern then shifts into a C lick. Example five starts with a D rhythm pattern then shifts into a D lick. Example six starts with a G rhythm pattern then shifts into a bluesy G lick. Example seven starts with a G rhythm pattern shifting into a different G rhythm pattern then shifting into a bluesy G lick. Example eight starts with a G rhythm pattern then shifts into a short G lick then into
Picking lead on the flattop is a challenge, but playing rhythm with interwoven lead licks hardly gets addressed in todays acoustic society. That's why I want to walk you through some examples on this very subject. Below are several ways of how to use these licks with rhythm patterns. Example one starts with a hammer-on into a rhythm pattern in the key of (G) then shifts into a basic G lick. Example two starts with a G lick then shifts into G rhythm containing varied strum patterns. Example
C rhythm pattern shifting into a C lick then into D rhythm pattern then into a D lick only to end up in G rhythm followed by a G lick. Example nine contains two rhythm/lead shifting phrases using some double-down-up technique and the last measure or example ten is the "DoubleDown-Up" lick of the month for March/April. Note: you may want to start you rhythm/lead shifting with vocal songs placing your licks in between the vocal lines - thats always a good place to start. Enjoy!!!!
(Ex.1- key of G) H
1 2 3 4 5 6
3 3 0
2 1 1
3 + 2
2
3 3 0
+
3 3 2
+
4
(Ex.2 - key of G) 1 2 3 4 5 6
0
+
3 1 + 2
3 1 2
+
2
+ 1
2
2
+
3 1
+
4
2
2
3 3 0
3 3 0
0
2
3 2
+
4 2
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
3
+
2 1 1
3 + 2
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
3 3 0
3 3 0
4
+
3 1 3
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
P 3 3 0
+
+
0
3 3 0
+
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
4
+
3 3 0
0
0
+
1
2
3 3 0
3 1 2
+ 2
(Ex.3 - key of G) 1 2 3 4 5 6
0
H
0 1
1
2
P
0 0
0
0
3 1 2
+
0
1
2
2
+ 1
3 2
March/April 1997
0
2
0
+
4 2
+
0
1
+
2
+
3
+
25
Nashville Flattop Cont. (Ex.4 - key of C) 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 0
P
0 1 0
1
3
0
1
2
2
+ 1
3 2
0
2
0
+
4 2
+
0
2
0
+
4 2
+
3
1 2
+
2 1
+
3 3 2
+
4 1
+
1 2
+
1 1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
0
3
2
0 3
4
4 2
+ 3
(Ex.5 - key of D) 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 2
2 3 2
0
0
0 0
1 1
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+
0 2
(Ex.6 - key of G)
P
H
1 2 3 4 5 6
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
0
0 3 + 2
2 1 1
2
+
3 3 2
+
4
+
0
3
1
+ 2
(Ex.7 - key of G) H
1 2 3 4 5 6
3 3 0
2 1 1
3 + 2
2
3
+
3 3 0
4
+
2
3 + 2
2 1 1
+
0
+
3 2
3 1
0
0
+
3
0
4 2
+
3 3 0
2
+
0 1 0
0 1
3
+
3 3 0
4
0
+
3
1
+ 2
2
0
+
4
+
1 2
3
+ 3
2 1
+ 1
3 3 3
+
4 1
+
3
2
3
1 3
+ 2
2 3
G 2 3 2
2 3 2
0
0
3
2
+ 2
3 1
0
2
0
+
0 3
0
4 2
+
0
3
0
2
2
4
+
3 2
+ 3
4
+ 3
1
+ 2
+
2
+
3
+
4
+
1
+ 1
2 3
+
3 1
+ 3
2 1
+
3 2
3 3 0
3 3 0
3 3 0
0
0
4
+
+
P 3 3 0
2 1 1
0
H
0 4
3
3
0
1
26
0
P
0 1 0
(Ex.8b - key of D) 1 2 3 4 5 6
1
H
2 3 1 2
2
3 3 0
C
3 3 0 3
+ 2
P
P
3 3 0
(Ex.8a - key of G) 1 2 3 4 5 6
2
3
1
H 3 3 0
+
2 3 2
1 + 1
3 + 2
2
+
3
+
4
+
3 1
+
0
1
2
2
+ 1
3 2
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
0
2
0
+
4 2
+
March/April 1997
Nashville Flattop Cont. (Ex.9 - key of G) #1
1 2 3 4 5 6
0 2 + 2
3 2 3
+
2
3 2
3 + 3
0
1
2
4
+ 1
1 2
0
2
0
+
2 2
+
3
+
4
S
1
31
3
0
+
0
3
1
+ 3
3
0 3 1 3
2 + 2
3 2 3
+
2
3 2
3 + 3
0
1
2
4
+ 1
1 2
2
0
+
2 2
+
2
+
3 1
+ 3
4 1
+
1
2
1 3/1
+
+ 3
2
+
3
+
4
+
+
3
+
4
+
1 3
3
3
0
0
3
3
0
3 3 0
P
0 0
3
3 3 0
0
(Ex.10 - "Double-Down-Up" lick key of G) 1 2 3 4 5 6
3 3 0
1
3 3 0
0
3 1 3
H
#2
4 3
+ 1
1 3
+ 2
2 1
+ 3
3
+ 3
4 3
+
0 3
0
1 3
+
2
About the author: Brad Davis has many years of experience as an acclaimed bluegrass and country guitarist. With several albums to his credit, Brad's most widely heard flattop guitar work is on the Sweathearts of the Rodeo's new album titled "beautiful lies" on Sugar Hill Records, White Water debute album "No Gold On The Highway" and Brad's new flattop sampler album titled "Climbin' Cole Hill" both on Raisin Cain Records. Brad's most widely heard electric guitar work is on Marty Stuart's gold record " This Ones Gonna Hurt You" and on Marty's most recent album "Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best." Brad debuted his patented "Brad Bender," the string bender for acoustic/electric guitars, and the unique style it offers, on countless national television shows with the Sweethearts of the Rodeo - bluegrass band. Brad also spent several years on the road with the Forester Sisters. Songwriting, record production, and the production of instructional material for Z-TAP E instructional courses are wedged into his tight schedule. Brad's up and coming instructional course is a sixty page book complete with CD titled "The Acoustic Speed picking Blue book" featuring his incredible "Double-Down-Up" speed picking technique.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Brad Davis has many years of experience as an acclaimed bluegrass and country guitarist. With several albums to his credit, Brad's most widely heard flattop guitar work is on the Sweathearts of the Rodeo's new album "beautiful lies" on Sugar Hill Records, the debute White Water album "No Gold On The Highway" and on Brad's new flattop sampler titled "Climbin' Cole Hill" on Raisin Cain Records. Brad's most widely heard electric guitar work is on Marty Stuart's gold record " This Ones Gonna Hurt You" and on Marty's most recent album "Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best." Brad debuted his patented "Brad Bender," the string bender for acoustic/electric guitars and the unique style it offers, on countless national television shows with the Sweethearts of the Rodeo - bluegrass band.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
27
Break Time by Chris Jones Are your breaks all sounding the same to you, no matter what song you’re playing? Do you feel that you’re just rerunning the same stock licks, boring your family and friends? I know this is starting to sound like an “infomercial” advertising workout equipment, or “Make A Million Raising Emu” video tapes, but it’s not. I’m merely wondering if you, like me, occasionally feel stuck in a bluegrass guitar rut. If you feel this way, there are two approaches you can take, and both are important: One is to expand your knowledge of the guitar by listening to other players, learning new licks, and getting to know the neck better by practicing scales in different positions (that would be left hand positions,
MARYVILLE
not playing lying on your back, etc.). The other step you can take, and the one we’ll discuss here, is to treat every song you play as unique, not simply as a chord medium for you to play your licks. If you pay attention to the melody of the song (which is a subject we’ve touched on in previous columns), and build your break around it, your breaks will never sound the same from one song to the next. Your expanded knowledge mentioned above will give you more tools to help you interpret that melody. Your ear becomes very important when thinking of breaks this way because you rst must be able use it to identify where the melody is going, then nd it on the
guitar and craft your break from there. With practice, you will be able to do this on the spot (without humming simultaneously into a microphone). First, nd the exact melody of the song, then play it as simply as possible on the guitar. In the case of most bluegrass songs, you’ll end up with a fairly simple core of notes. Then think of your break as connecting these notes together in your own way. There is a lot of room to be creative here, no matter what your playing level is. Does this mean that every note of the melody must be adhered to, or it isn’t bluegrass? Not at all; in fact great traditional bluegrass fiddle players frequently play something very close to the melody using
TENNESSEE
WE BUY GUITARS 423/ 983-5533 28
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
a lot of long double stops, then end the break with a hot urry of notes. There’s no reason you can’t take this approach on the guitar (minus the bow, of course). But if all you have is a urry of notes, there will be little to differentiate “Banks Of The Ohio” from “La Paloma Blanca”. In the following tab, I have played a break to “I‘m Waiting To Hear You Call Me Darling”, played out of D position (it’s
frequently sung in F, so you would capo at the third fret). It starts out with a simple statement of the melody, then branches out more towards the nish. If you haven’t heard the original version of the song, I highly recommend it. It was recorded by Flatt & Scruggs in the early 1950’s for Columbia. (Note: I’m “Waiting To Hear You Call Me Darling” was written by L. Flatt and C.
Bluegrass veteran Chris Jones is known for his work as a singer, songwriter and guitarist with the Weary Hearts, The Lynn Morris Band, The Special Consensus and others. His strong rhythm and tasteful lead guitar playing have brought him work as a sideman in Nashville, appearing on the Grand Ole Opry with Laurie Lewis, The Whitstein Brothers and others, and touring with,The McCarters and fiddle legend Vassar Clements.
Johnson)
I’m Waiting to Hear You Call Me Darling
# 4 # & 4Π1
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ 0 2 4
0 2
# &#œ 5
Arranged by Chris Jones
0
2
2
0
2 4
2
0
4 4
4 2 0
0
0
0
2
0 2
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ H
0
# &# 9
4
2
0
2
0
4
2
2
2
2
4
2
4
4
4
0
4
2
2
2 0
3
2
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ n œ # œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ H
H
0
2
4
2
4 2
0
0
2
3
H
2
2
0
4
2
3
4
2
3 2
0
0
0
2
0
0
H
0
2
0
# œ # œ & œ n œ œ œ œ œ œnœ œ œ#œ œnœ#œ œnœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œn œ# œ 13
0
3
0
3 2 0
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
2
3 0 1 0
March/April 1997
2 1
0
S
3 4
2
3 2 0
2
0
H
0 1 2
P
0 2 0
0
29
Masters of Rhythm Guitar
Kenny Smith of the Lonesome River Band The Lonesome River Band is one of the most dynamic, hard driving, energetic bands in bluegrass music today. The guitar player in this band not only has to be able keep solid time behind Sammy Shelor’s hard driving, syncopated banjo style, but also has to have the versatility to tastefully accompany Ronnie Bowman’s soulful gospels and ballads. Just over a year ago, when the band needed someone to ll that job, Kenny Smith was the man they chose and he has more than filled the bill, he has enhanced that LRB sound and stage presence that keeps the fans at bluegrass festivals screaming for more. Sammy Shelor states, “We hired Kenny because he is real forceful with his rhythm playing. He has what I call an ‘ahead of the beat’ type of style. He knows how to push the beat without speeding up.” Background Kenny Smith grew up in Ft Wayne, Indiana, in an atmosphere full of music. His dad, who was originally from Winchester, Tennessee, was a ddler, his uncle played the banjo, and his grandfather was also a ddler. His dad had a guitar in the closet at home that he had made for Kenny’s cousin. His dad had told Kenny and his brother to “never mess with it,” but of course that made the guitar more intriguing. Young Kenny would sneak out the guitar on occ asion and try to play it. One day the machine at the factory where Kenny’s dad worked broke down and his father came home from work early and caught Kenny with the guitar. Instead of punishing Kenny, his father, seeing that Kenny had a real interest in the guitar, started to teach him how to play it. The rst thing Kenny was shown was how to play the G, C, and D chords. The next day when Kenny’s father came home from work, Kenny demonstrated that he could play what his father had taught him the previous day and was ready to learn more. At that time Kenny was only four years old. Kenny credits his dad for giving him a strong foundation when it comes to playing rhythm guitar. He says, “Dad played the 30
fiddle and he didn’t like things to drag. He was always on me about keeping the beat. My dad also took me to a lot of ddle contests and that gave me a lot of rhythm practice. In Indiana the only contests they had were ddle and banjo. There wasn’t any guitar contests. My dad played ddle and my brother played banjo and so I would play rhythm for them, and others, at the contests. My only trophy was when the contest winner would say, ‘Well, I couldn’t have done it without that rhythm player’.” Kenny’s experience with lead guitar playing began initially with him sitting down with his guitar and trying to pick out the melodies to the tunes he heard his dad play on the fiddle. His father also had a friend who played country style lead guitar who had come by and shown him a few things. But Kenny admits that he really wasn’t that interested in it until one day when he saw Norman Blake play on a show on PBS. He says, “That is the rst time I had ever seen Norman. After that my dad bought me a Norman Blake album called Norman Blake Old and New and I pretty much lived with that thing. I memorized that whole album. That is how I started getting into the atpicking.” About the same time Kenny got his Norman Blake album he says that he also went to the public library, looked up bluegrass in the card catalog and found a J.D. Crowe and the New South album. He said, “Hearing that album when I was that young was really a good thing for me. That set me on re. Tony Rice was playing guitar and the whole band sound was just incredible.” Professional Career In 1987, after Kenny graduated high school, he moved to the area in Tennessee where his father had grown up and began entering guitar competitions. He says, “They didn’t have any guitar contests in Indiana, but they had them somewhere almost every weekend within a few hours of where I was living in Tennessee.” He was also playing in a quartet at church and so for a while his schedule consisted of playing at contests on Saturday and then playing and singing in
the quartet on Sunday. The rst big contest Kenny competed in was the rst of the atpicking contests held at the Merle Watson festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. That year he placed second in the contest and then the next year he won it. Kenny also competed at Wineld three years in a row, 1992, 1993, and 1994 and placed third, second, and third, respectively. Shortly after he moved to Tennessee, Kenny met Rick Rorex, the 1994 Wineld mandolin champion, who Kenny says, “was really into the David Grisman stuff.” They began to play together and Kenny says, “When I started learning the David Grisman stuff it really began to open up my rhythm playing and exposed me to lead lines that I had never used before. That really opened up another avenue because I learned to be a stronger player up the neck.” Another aspect of Kenny’s love for guitars came to fruition when he moved back to Tennessee and got a job working in Don Gallagher’s shop helping build Gallagher guitars. Kenny says, “I had always been interested in building guitars and one Christmas when I was young we went back to visit the relatives in Tennessee and Dad took us up to the Gallagher shop. J.W. Gallagher was still alive then and he gave us a tour. When I moved back to Tennessee I was real interested in building a guitar and so I went to Gallagher’s shop to visit Don, ask some questions and look at his
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
equipment. While I was there I put my name on a list as being interested in working there. A while later on of the employees broke his arm and so Don hired me. I worked there a total of about three years.” When asked if he ever got a chance to build his own guitar, Kenny said that there was one particular guitar that he built the body for at Gallagher’s that he really loved. He ended up winning that guitar at Wineld the year he took second place. He says, “It was funny to bring that guitar back to Tennessee. The rst prize winner that year picked a Martin and then they asked me if I wanted to play the remaining two and I said, ‘No, I want that one right there.’ They were a little surprised that I didn’t even want to play the other guitar.” After playing in a couple of bluegrass bands in Tennessee, Kenny got a call from Claire Lynch. He says, “Claire was really looking for a bass player and a singer. I talked with her and ended up getting the job. A friend of mine, Chuck Holcomb, also got hired and he could play bass too. So when a song called for a guitar break, I would play guitar and Chuck played bass and when a song called for a banjo break, Chuck would play banjo and I would play bass. We both switched on and off like that. I stayed with her for two years.” It was while playing with Claire Lynch that Kenny met Sammy Shelor of the Lonesome River Band. Kenny says, “I had met Sammy at Graves Mountain and we jammed a bit. We really clicked as far as playing goes. When Tim Austin informed them that he would be leaving to do the studio work full time, Sammy had remembered me and gave me a call.” Kenny was still playing with Claire Lynch, but that job was only part time and the Lonesome River Band offered him a full time job he couldn’t refuse. Kenny states, “The Lonesome River Band is hard driving bluegrass, which I love. Claire Lynch was more contemporary. It was neat because she is very versatile and I got to play a lot of different kinds of music, but I was really looking to get back to the hard driving bluegrass. I love what I’m doing now. The Lonesome River Band had been one of my favorite bands for about the last eight years, but I gured I would never get a job with them because Tim Austin was one of the founding members.”
What are some of the important aspects of rhythm playing that you learned from your father. Well, when I was young I was sort of shy and I wouldn’t hit some things real hard. Dad pushed me to be condent in what I was playing because that was going to help him as far as lling out the sound. A lot of times it would just be me and my dad in the kitchen. That is where I learned how to really ll out the rhythm. My brother would always push me as far a speed goes because he was young and playing the banjo, you know how that goes. My brother played real hard and loud and so to compete against him, especially in a group setting, I would have to hit it hard to be heard, so I owe my right hand attack to him. When you rst started learning rhythm playing, was it strictly the boom-chick type of rhythm? Yes, that is the thing they want when you are backing up someone in a ddle contest. They want that straight boom-chick rhythm. In contest back-up, your goal is to help make that contestant sound good and to push him along. A lot of guys play off of what they hear. My whole thing was to try and get something going for them. A lot of times you can play a little bit different rhythm and the lead player will play off of that and the song can take on a whole new character. The same thing is going on with the Lonesome River Band. Everybody plays
off each other. Sammy is really responsive to rhythm. He hears the rhythm and that is what he plays off of. He really drives off of the rhythm and providing that for him is sort of my main job in the band. In providing rhythm for the Lonesome River Band, what kind of things do you focus on? Mostly what we want to try to do as a band is ll all of the holes without making it sound cluttered. As far as my rhythm, I want to help ll the holes and provide a solid beat, but I don’t want to be on top of somebody else or be so overbearing that all that is heard is the rosewood and a big rumble. When Sammy is taking a break I will push hard because he plays off of that rhythm and that beat, but when the mandolin takes a break, I will lay back a bit. But I will also try to provide a fuller sound in the off-beat when the mandolin is taking a break because his off-beat chop is gone during that part of the song, so I will try to ll that gap. I also lay back when the singer is singing a verse, but if the verse ends and there is a little hole there and Sammy is doing a ll, I will punch it a little bit there. This adds dynamics to the song. The whole idea is to know the song well enough so that you can jump in and ll that space. This band has a lot of energy because we don’t leave any holes in the music. That is part of this band’s sound. That t me perfectly because that is the way I like to play.
In the following interview with Flatpicking Guitar , Kenny Smith talks about his rhythm playing:
The Lonesome River Band - (right to left) Sammy Shelor (banjo), Ronnie Bowman (Bass), Don Rigsby (mandolin), and Kenny Smith Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
31
listen to the other players and get a feel for what is going on. Don’t be so concerned about your performance or listening to yourself. If you are caught up worrying about the way you are sounding, it doesn’t do anything for the band. Learn to lay back when the singer is singing or someone else is taking a break, and then punch it hard when that is appropriate and will enhance the sound. Listen to the overall band sound. You want to play to enhance what is going on. Also, if you are playing a lead, learn how to play it hard enough so that the other players won’t have to calm down to nothing while you are playing. Does the Lonesome River Band work out the arrangements and talk about who will provide the ll-in licks when the verse ends, or does it just work itself out on stage? We pretty much just do it by feel and by playing the songs over and over in a live setting. We don’t have any band practices. Our practice is on stage Kenny Smith, Owensboro, KY, 1996 because everyone plays live. There is nothing that is rehearsed. I think that is why the band always sounds fresh. Every How often does the band use a ddler time you play it is a new day. and how does that affect your rhythm If we do a new song, it takes about to playing? or three times playing it live to get a good We use a ddle whenever we go to a big feel for the song and know where we want festival and someone like Randy Howard to punch it. There are certain parts of songs or Ricky Simpkins is there and they sit in where we will punch it to emphasize a line with us. Its neat because the ddle brings in the lyrics or something like that. Then a whole new sound to the band. I will there are other songs that we will lay back play differently behind a ddle than I do to give it a smoother sound. a mandolin or banjo. I will do a lot more There are also certain licks that I do, syncopation behind a banjo. When I play like a G-run, where Sammy will start right behind the ddle I try to keep it straight where I left off on that G note. Wherever and full. I will also try to play rhythm for that G-run falls, he’ll take it from there. the range of the instrument. Randy plays a Until I got in this band, I had never heard of lot of real high stuff and I will change my anyone doing that. He encouraged me to do rhythm to give the guitar a different voicing the G-run in certain spots because he liked against the high ddle sound. My back-up to play off of that. Other than that kind of will change according to the instrument, but thing, we really don’t do much in the way it also changes according to the person who of arrangements. is playing the instrument. At this point in your career, having played the instrument since you were four years old, you are probably to the point where you can adapt your playing to a given instrument or player just by feeling what is needed in the moment. What kind of advice would you give to people who are not able to play in the moment and still need to try and work things out? The best advice I could give is to really 32
Do you play many bass runs between chord changes? No, I don’t do it as much if I know that part of the rhythm will be lacking. If you get too caught up in the runs you might loose the rhythm and in a four piece band you can’t afford to do that. I try not to step on a bass line that Ronnie is playing on the bass. If I do a bass run it will probably be syncopated and will be on the off beat so I
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
don’t get in the way of the bass. In general, I tend to go with the full chord sound rather than concentrating on the bass runs. You talked about how Sammy feeds off of your rhythm, do you also feed off of what the other guys are doing? Its funny, Sammy says that he plays off of me, but there is a lot of stuff that he does that I’ll listen to and play off of that too. My job is to provide solid rhythm, but also enhance the sound of the soloist and make stuff happen for them at the same time. I have to listen to the solo and see where it is going and then try to provide a back-up which enhances the solo without getting on top of it. At a workshop I heard you say that you often sit by yourself and practice rhythm playing. What kind of things do you do? I try different right hand syncopations. I also fool around with the off-beat to try and get a fuller sound. I’ve also worked with a metronome and that has helped me out a bunch. That will sort of keep you in check. I like to do that every once in a while. Sometimes I’ll play with other people and something will feel off and I’ll think, “Is it me that is dragging?” So I’ll go home and check myself with the metronome. Sometimes I will also set my metronome to the speed of a song that we do and I will get the song in my head and play the rhythm along with the metronome. That helps out too. With that constant clicking, it will help pull different rhythms out. When you are singing, how does that effect your rhythm playing? When you are singing, the natural thing is to concentrate on the singing and not the rhythm. You have to be aware of that. I’ve been trying to work hard on keeping the drive in my rhythm while I am singing. Working with a metronome helps with that too. You don’t want the rhythm to drag while you are singing. I’ve seen some bands that just fall out to nothing during the chorus. We don’t want that to happen, so everyone tries to keep the beat up. One of the biggest struggles of a rhythm player is to keep the beat going while singing.
Miller and I remember I loved that real good full sound that he gets. I went to see him a couple of times right after he started playing with Alison and that was a great full sounding band. Del McCoury and Tim Austin have also inuenced me. The rst time I saw the Lonesome River Band, Tim really blew me away with the drive that he was providing for the band. I have listened to a lot of Clarence White stuff, too. Kenny Smith’s Gear Until recently Kenny has usually played mid-1940’s and 1950’s vintage Martin D-18s. Several months ago, he sold most of his guitars in order to purchase a 1935 D-18 because he said it had a much better bass response than any of the other D-18s he had owned. He says he has liked the D-18 because he has always played in a live setting and the D-18 works well over a PA. Shortly after he bought the D-18, Kenny received a guitar which he had commissioned from Randy Lucas. It is a Brazilian Rosewood guitar, but the braces are not scalloped, so Kenny says, “It is not too boomy. When I talked to Randy I told him that I wanted a Brazilian Rosewood guitar, because that is his specialty, but I didn’t want it scalloped and I wanted the wide spacing on the neck like my D-18. The neck is a little bigger than a 1 and 3/4 neck at the nut and it is 2 and 3/8 at the bridge. I like the feel of the wide spacing. I think I can get a cleaner sound with the wider neck.” Kenny uses the D’Addario J-17 strings and says, “I’m still struggling with my picks, I change them all the time.” He also says that on a lot of the guitars he has played in the past he has used fossilized ivory for the saddle and nut because he feels that it gives a clearer tone.
Kenny Smith’s work can be heard on the newest Lonesome River Band CD “One Step Forward” (Sugar Hill SH-3848) and on his upcoming solo CD (also on Sugar Hill). The new CD, which will be released later this year, features both vocal and instrumental arrangements including three or four of Kenny’s original instrumentals.
Who are some of the rhythm players who have inuenced you? One of the biggest influences as far as rhythm players would probably be Tim Stafford. I got a hold of an album of his when he was with a band called Dusty
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Individually Handcrafted Acoustic Instruments
Lucas Custom Instruments P.O. Box 1404 Columbus, Indiana 47201-9998 (812) 342-3093
Learn the tunes and solos of your choice, in any format. The Original Custom Transcription Service All styles and instruments: atpicking, ngerstyle, chord solos, melody, improvisation; other instruments (horns, woodwinds, piano, etc.) transcribed for guitar, mandolin, etc. I can also create custom arrangements. Private lessons via U.S. mail. Berklee graduate, professional recording and performing artist. Tab and/or standard notation. Details and tips on the Web:
http://world.std.com/~jmcgann
John McGann P.O. Box 688-FM Jamaica Plain, Ma.. 02130-0006
(617) 325-6853 33
34
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
44 Ó Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œj & œ œ œ œ œœœ ˙ DE R POST -MO D E N F 2
4
0
2
L AT P P IC K I N G
4 0
2
4
0
T N Y YG A G AR B Y SCOT T D
2
3
4
4
4
2
0
2
2
2
j
Afro-Flatpicking I became interested in African music years ago for the same reason that I got hooked on bluegrass and old-time music — it sounded great. The interloc king guitars and percussion percolating along underneath straightforward, unaffected voices create an infectious, joyous music guaranteed to waken sleeping feet and brighten the darkest winter gloom. African music is rst and foremost a groove; some of the world’s greatest dance music. While most of what you hear today has been branded Afro-Pop or World-Beat music to distinguish it from the traditional music on which it is based, African-pop music bears little relation to the pop music American corporations foist upon the world. In many respects it is difcult to talk in generalities about African music as there are so many different varieties, many of which bear little relation to one another. The kind of African music I’ve become most fond of comes from South and East Africa — Zimbabwe, Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania. Many of the bands from these regions are small bands, as opposed to bands like King Sunny Ade’s — juju music from Nigeria — whose groups at any given time may be 15-20 strong. The East African bands make do with a couple of electric guitars, bass, drums and possibly a couple of horns thrown in for good measure. The music is sparse, and the percussion is limited to one trap drummer who plays a relatively simple pattern, giving the guitars lots of room to move. move. I suppose one reason I’ve gravitated to this style is that it is relatively easy to figure out what the guitars are doing in a small band. Try picking guitar parts out of an eighteen piece orchestra some afternoon; this way madness lies. The main feature of all African music is that it is group music. The guitars in African pop music echo the drums in traditional tribal ensembles, a music which Flatpicking Guitar Guitar Magazine
exhibits a rhythmic complexity and group interplay unheard unheard of in Western music. The electric guitar-based bands, often simplied from the original but never simple, maintain the heart of traditional African music by combining to create a complex stew in which no part can exist without the others. To Western ears, unaccustomed to such rhythms, the individual parts often seem to have little relation to each other, sounding perhaps as if they were constructed to ll in the holes of the other syncopated parts. African musicians are able to hear all these parts at once, and are only disturbed if one of the parts is missing, but most Westerners rst attempting to play this music tend to concentrate exclusively on their own part, afraid that if they hear too much of the other syncopated parts whirling around them, they will lose the beat. beat. African musicians know that they must be able to hear and feel all the parts as one to really feel the beat, or in Western parlance “get in the groove”. Now I’m starting to get at the reason that I believe learning some of this music is good for any sort of musician. Listening to the rest of your band is important in any group music, but it is essential to African music. Most of the parts I’ve notated here are simple enough that once you learn them, and if you can convince a friend or two to play some of the other parts with you, you shouldn’t have trouble hearing how the parts t together. Each phrase is only four bars long, and the repetition allows you to focus on how the parts intertwine. Listening allows you to really get into the feel, eventually playing your part without thinking about it, and hopefully achieving the exhilarating feeling of being locked in to a great groove. I’ve seen classes of intermediate guitar students, with little experience of the joys of playing in a group, light up like recrackers when the groove nally locks in. At that point
March/April 1997
playing music with other people takes on a whole new meaning. I frequently use some of the the ideas, though usually unconsciously, that I’ve picked up from African music to enhance the sound of the groups I’ve been in. In smaller groups, groups, if you can play parts that are different from each other, but t together well, you can often make the group sound larger than it is. The standard four or ve piece bluegrass band has well-dened rhythmic roles and has no problem creating a full sound for the few specic bluegrass grooves it is designed for, but if you play in a smaller group, perhaps with different instrumentation, or are trying to play music that doesn’t fit strictly in the bluegrass tradition, it can help to be able to find or invent parts that complement and enhance what your bandmates are playing This is particularly essential in groups with two guitars, and can go much further than simply playing in two different capo positions. So now a few words about the music. The tune I’ve notated here comes from a collection of South African music ( Thunder Before Dawn, Virgin Earthworks 90866) and is played by the amazing Makgona Tshohle Band, which features guitarist Marks Makwane and saxophonist West Nkosi. The saxophone plays the melody. Each part is played about four times each. I say about because because the rst part is played four times and then the second part is played six or more times, sometimes with a little pause by the sax to let the guitars shine, before beginning all over again. An intriguing thing about this tune is that the four bar patterns start in different places depending on the instrument. instrument. The bass begins the tune, starting on the “and” of 3 in the rst measure and playing its part through once. Then the rest of the band comes in, with the rst rhythm guitar starting its part on the second beat and the sax waiting until the second beat of the second measure 35
to begin the melody. The notes at the beginning of each four bars in parentheses are actually the end of each part. Start the part where it says start and then play through the four bars nishing each part with the notes in parentheses. I play the melody out of the D position up the neck, and the rst rhythm part in F position. I’ve also given you two ways to nger the bass
part. The second version uses more fretted notes and is the best way to get the rhythm right. Open strings often ring too long to make a well-define d part. I’ve also included a notation of the drum part to show how simple it is, and how the guitars are responsible for most of the complex rhythm work. Of course, it would help to hear this tune to really get the right feel.
If you can’t nd this recording there are lots of other great recordings out there with similar music. I particularly recommend Shabini by The Bhundu Boys, Kenya Dance Dan ce Man Mania, ia, Gui Guitar tar Para dis disee of Eas Eastt Africa, (both collections on Earthworks) and Rhythm of Healing by West Nkosi. Most of these have great guitar playing that is fairly accessible, ranging from
Vula Bops
Makgona Tshohle Band Arr. by Scott Nygaard
œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ . ˙ œ œ œ œ œ ) ( # œ # œ œ œ 4 J J J J # . Œ Œ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ & 4 ( . .) Œ Œ ‰J ‰J ‰J‰J . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 œ œ # œ J œ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ & 4( J) J J œ œ J J J J J J J . ‰ J ‰ J J‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ J ‰ J J‰ ‰ J‰ J . J J J j j j # œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 # . Œ Œ ‰ Œ Œ ‰ Œ Œ ‰ œ œ Œ Œ ‰ œœœ œœœ œœ œœ œ & 4 œœœ œJ œ œœ ŒŒ‰ ŒŒ‰ ŒŒ‰ Œ Œ‰ . J J J J # # j j 4 # Œ ‰ ‰ & 4( œ) œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œjœ œ ‰ œj œ . œ œ . j j j # # ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ‰ ¿ ‰ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ‰ ¿ · 4 # . · · · · · · · & 4 · ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ melody
A
D
start
E
1
9
rhythm 1
10
10
9
9 9
1 0 12
12 10 9
10
11
10
12 12
7 7
5 6
9 9
start
1
6 7
5 5 5 5
5 5
5
5
6
7 7
7
7
7 7 7 5
7 7 7 5
5 5 7 7
5 7
4 5
4 5
9 9 9 7
9 9 9 7
5 7 6 7
rhythm 2 1
5 6 7 7 5
bass
5 6 7 7 5
5 6 7 7 5
start
1
2 2 2
0
drums 1
5 6 7 7
2 2 1
0
4 2
0 0 0
2
2 2 2
2
0
2
0
hi-hat
snare
kick
36
Flatpicking Guitar Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
fairly simple to virtuosic. For a good hit of virtuosic African guitar playing check out anything by Diblo Dibala and Matchatcha. I stated in my rst column that I intended this to be an eclectic pulpit from which I would feel free to enlighten and confound, and this month’s offering more than proves my point. We’ll tackle some of the more complex, virtuosic playing in a future
Scott Nygaard has been the guitarist with Tim O’Brien’s band, The O’Boys, since 1992, a plum position that followed three yea rs wi with th Lau rie Lew is’ s ba band nd Gra nt Street. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Anne and son Josef, and can be heard on the West Coast house concert circuit with his band, The Quirks. He has recorded with Tim and Mollie O’Brien, Jerry Douglas, David Grisman, Chris Thile
as well as much of the California bluegrass elite. Initially inuenced inuenced by Doc Watson, Clarence White, Django Reinhardt and Riley Puckett. Nygaard spent many years wandering the sea of American music which includes bluegrass, jazz, Cajun, western swing and rock and roll. His second album ‘Dreamer’s Waltz’, was recently released to critical acclaim on Rounder Records.
column.
œ (. œ . Jœ œ œ ‰ œ œ)Œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ . œ œ œ œ œ Ó œ J . ‰ ‰ J J J JJ .( . J ‰ )Œ .J . Ó Œ ‰ ‰ J J JJ J œ œ œ œ # # j j j œ œ œ œ œ # . œ J œ J Œ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ œ œ œ J J & J J‰œ œ œ œŒ . . Œ ‰J ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ J J ‰ ‰ J ‰ J J ‰ Œ . Jj J J j j # œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ # . . Œ Œ ‰ Œ Œ ‰ Œ Œ ‰ œ œ Œ Œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œœ œœ œœ œJ œ œœ œœ . ŒŒ ‰ Œ Œ ‰ Œ Œ ‰ Œ Œ‰ . J J J J # # j j # . & œ Œ ‰ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œj œ œ ‰ œj œ . œ œ . . j j j # # ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ‰ ¿ ‰ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ‰ ¿ L # . · · · · · · · · & ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ . melody
# # # &
A
D
start
5
10
9
11 9
11
9
11
9 11 9
E
9 9 11
12
9
10
9
9
rhythm 1
5
6
5
5
7
7
5 6 7 7 5
5 6 7 7 5
6
5 7
7
5 7
7
7
7
5
5
5
7 7
7 7
rhythm 2
5
5 6 7 7 5
7 7 7 5
7 7 7 5
7
5
9 9 9 7
9 9 9 7
5 6 7 7
bass
5
7
5
7 7
7
5
7 6
4
5 5
7
7
7 7
0
7
7
0
drums 5
Flatpicking Guitar Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
37
THE
O
- Z ONE Orrin Star
by Playing Up the Neck-III
Illustration 1
Having presented some of the more common closed positions and introduced the idea of vertical connections between them, let’s now map out the ve primary closed postions and their vertical relationships. Alternating between two fretboards for clarity, Illustration 1 shows how they stack up in the key of G. These are the actual positions I’m thinking of when I’m playing around the neck in G. And the challenge is not only to get comfortable with licks framed on each of these ve, but also to devise ways of moving between them (i.e. “vertically”). For starters, here’s a little riff which leaps tall fretboards in a single bound:
3. D-Bar, 5th
1.Open G
5. A-Bar, 10th R
P X E D N I
M
P
P
X E D N I
M
R M
R 2. E/F-Bar, 3rd
4. C-Bar, 7th
6. G-Bar, 12th P
X E D N I
M P R
X E D N I
M
X E D N I
R P
M
œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ n œ œ œ œ # œ n œ # œ œ œ # œ # œ œ œ 4 œ œ œ œ Ó Œ œ œ œ & 4 œ œ œ œœ œ
R
1
H
2 4
H
0
4
0 2 4
Now consider Illustration 2 — our same dual-neck map but this time in the key of C: Even though the locations of the various postions has changed here, the vertical relationship between them has not. Every position has a consistent relationship to every other position. Wherever there is a C-position, for example, there is always an A-position in the same key three frets north and a G-position 5 frets north or 7 frets south. It takes time to digest these relationships between the various closed positions (so I’ll wait until next issue before boggling you with the horizontal perspective on all this). In the meantime, lead a righteous life and remember: if mandolin players can routinely play in closed positions with aplomb so can you. 38
1 3 1
2
Fingers Used
3 5 3
3
1 3 1 4 1 4 1 3 4 3 2 4 1 2 3 1 3 S S S 6 7 5 10 9 810 6 7 10121015 8 5 0 8 9 12 7 0 9 7
Illustration 2 1. Open C
3. G-Bar, 5th
5. D-Bar, 10th R
P I
X E D N I
M R
X E D N I
M
P M
R 2. A-Bar, 3rd
X E D N I
4. E/F-Bar, 8th
P R M
X E D N I
M P R
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
6. C-Bar, 12th
X E D N I
M R P
March/April 1997
Riff Blues by Dix Bruce It has often been said that the blues gave birth to jazz. Indeed blues inuences are quite evident throughout the wide spectrum of jazz styles from the traditional to the modern. And many performers in different types of jazz (just like the pioneers of rock & roll) lift blues forms, styles, and idioms in tact and perform them with subtle changes and adaptations in the new form. But it’s still just plain blues! Traditional jazz and swing players from the teens and 20s on up through the 40s made blues a very important (and popular) element in their repertoires. “Royal Garden Blues,” “St. Louis Blues,” “St. James Inrmary,” “Dippermouth Blues,” “Memphis Blues,” “Winin’ Boy Blues,” to name just a few of the more obviously named. There are thousands more that make use of one or more elements of the blues. One of the most popular blues forms in jazz is the basic “twelve bar blues.” It’s familiar to just about everyone, musicians and listeners alike. It’s simple, and because of that, open to unlimited artistic modication, an innite and expressive vessel into which all can pour their hearts, a malleable and challenging canvas. And, because of its basic simplicity, just about anybody can grasp it and say something with it. The “basic” twelve bar blues form can have one of several variations of chord progressions. Here’s one of the simplest: one measure of I, one measure of IV 7, one measure of I, one measure of I 7, two measures of IV 7, two measures of I, two measures of V7, two measures of I. In the key of C it looks like this: | C | F7 | C | C7 | 7
7
| F | F | C | C | | G7 | G7 | C | || Of course swing and jazz players change these rudimentary progressions in a number of ways. For example, one can leave out the second measure IV7 or F7and stay on the I or C chord. In measure ten, a IV7 or F7 is
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
often substituted for the second measure of V7 or G7. In measure twelve, a V7 or G7is often substituted as a turnaround chord to bring the tune back to its beginning for a repeat of the melody or for solos. Each chord implies a different group of notes to play over it so variation in the chord progression leads to different melodic possibilities for the soloist. Swing and jazz players often substitute a whole range of other chords while still maintaining this basic twelve bar format. We’ll get into some of those in a later article. Once a simple and repetitive “riff” melody is put to this type of progression, it is often known as a “riff blues” and the melody can be as simple as the chord changes. (A riff is merely a musical phrase.) In performance the melody, also called the “head,” is played once or twice at the beginning of the tune, then each player solos over the changes, and finally the melody is played again at the end of the tune. You’ll nd riff blues in everything from traditional jazz and Dixieland right up through bebop and modern jazz. The melody to a riff blues is generally simple and repetitive consisting of a twoto four-bar phrase played over the twelve bars of chord changes. Some repeat one riff over and over, others change the riff slightly as the tune progresses, still others are made up of several different riffs strung together. They can be as simple or complex as you wish. If you aren’t already making up your own jazz blues riffs, start today. Write them down in a spiral bound music notebook, - in standard notation or TAB, it doesn’t matter - so that you build a collection of riffs that you can refer back to as you develop as a player. This notebook will become a valuable resource as you discover that individual riffs and entire riff blues melodies can be transposed and recycled to t into thousands of similar blues. Let’s look at a riff blues and see how it’s put together over basic chord changes like those above. I wrote “Benny’s Blues,” a tribute to the great clarinetist and “King of Swing” Benny Goodman, and the accom-
March/April 1997
panying riffs for my BackUP TRAX: Early Jazz & Hot Tunes book and play along CD set from Mel Bay Publications (avail. Musix, PO Box 231005, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523). The rst thing you’ll notice is how simple and repetitive the melody is. It’s a two-bar pattern that repeats with very minor adjustments (third measure, last note or fth measure rst note) all the way through the twelve bar progression until the middle of the tenth measure when a new ending riff is brought in. Play “Benny’s Blues” through a few times to get the hang of the form and how the riff works over the changes (see tab on next page). Once you can play “Benny’s Blues” as written, try transposing it up an octave to the closed position shown on the next page. A melody played in closed position will have no open string notes and be moveable up and down the neck. I’ve provided the rst few measures. I’ll leave it to you to gure out the rest! Once you can play the melody in closed position, you can move it anywhere on the fretboard and play it in any key. This will be especially helpful if you play with horn players who generally are reluctant to play in the sharp keys we string players love (G, A, E, B etc.) in favor of the at keys (F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, etc.). Try moving the closed position melody up one fret to Ab. How about moving it up two more frets to Bb? See tab on next the page. Even though these riffs make up the melody to a specific tune, they are applicable to any similar set of blues changes in any key. Once you memorize them, they’ll be part of your musical vocabulary and you can use them as you make up your own blues riffs and improvisations. You might use the opening riff as the basis for a new head or an improvisation as shown at the top of page 42. 39
Dix Bruce © 1994 Dix Bruce Music - BMI
Benny’s Blues
# & 44 Ó Œ b ‰œj œ œ œ œ œ‰ b œJ Ó Œ ‰ b œj œ œ œ œœ ‰ jœ Ó Œ ‰b œj b œ œ œ œœ‰ b œJ Ó Œ ‰b œj Ó Œ‰ ‰ Ó Œ‰ ‰ Ó Œ‰ ‰ Ó Œ‰ J J J J J J J # j j œ ‰ Ó Œ ‰ ‰ b œ Ó ‰ b œ œ b œ œ . & œœœ œœ œ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ J œ J b œ œ œ J ‰ Ó Œ‰ ‰ Ó ‰ J . J J J J J b œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ 4 œ J œ Ó Œ ‰ b œ œ ‰ Ó Œ ‰ b œ œ ‰ & 4 J J J Ó Œ‰ ‰J Ó Œ ‰ ‰J J J b b œ œ b b œ œ œ œ œ œ b œ œ b 4 J b œ œ b œ œ ‰ Ó Œ ‰ J ‰J & b b 4 Ó Œ ‰ J Ó Œ‰ ‰J Ó Œ ‰ ‰J J J b b œ œ œ b œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ b 4 b œ œ J b œ œ ‰ Ó Œ ‰J ‰J & b 4 Ó Œ ‰ J Ó Œ‰ ‰J Ó Œ ‰ ‰J J J 1
8
C7
G
1
2
0 0
0 2
3
1
2
02
00
C7
2
1
D7
G
2
G7
G
0 2
0 0
2
1
2
0 0
0 2
3
3
3
4
3
1
3
2 0 0
C7
G
3
3
5
3
1
G
"Benny's Blues" up an octave, closed position 1
1
00
02
3
0
2
0 0 0
G
6
3
3
4
3
5
3
5
"Benny's Blues" Ab
4
"Benny's Blues" Bb
5
4
4
6
4
6
7
A
7
4
E 7
B
1
40
D 7
A
1
6
8
6
6
5
4 4
4 6
6
B
9
6
7
6 8
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
6
6
8
March/April 1997
The important thing is to take the riffs that you hear, play them, change them, and make them your own. As musicians, we all have the same basic information at our disposal: notes and chords. The most interesting and inuential musicians take these basics and modify them according to their own ideas and feelings which are, of course, shaped by each individual’s experience of life. The ultimate goal is to bring something unique out of your own soul and send it off in the air into someone else’s soul. If you accomplish that, you’s achieved one of the loftiest goals in life! When discussing music, I often compare learning to solo or improvise on an instrument to learning to speak or write. In the process of learning to speak or write, we listen to and read how others form their thoughts in spoken word or on the printed page. This study helps us acquire vocabularies, phrases, and different ways of combining these parts to say what we want to say. The process of learning music works the same way: We learn notes, chords, progressions, tunes, licks or riffs, etc. and study how others combine them to make a musical statement. To learn about swing & jazz blues, or any type of music for that matter, it is important to listen to and analyze how others do it. You probably already do that to some extent, but I can’t overemphasize the importance of listening to your favorite players on record, seeking them out in concert, and trying to gure out how they do what they do. Don’t limit yourself to listening only to players of your instrument. And of course, most importantly, play the stuff, in daily practice, along with recordings, in jam sessions, etc. On the next page are some riff blues variations I wrote out as ideas for improvisations on “Benny’s Blues.” All are TABed in closed position and shown in shortened versions without chord changes to save space. All you have to do is plug them into any twelve bar blues. Try them in every key. To encourage you in that direction, I wrote some in the more “challenging” at keys. As an exercise, gure them all out in G, then in C, then F, Bb, etc. You might want to write out each in your music notebook as you gure it out. And, once you learn a riff or a whole riff blues, practice plugging it in to blues in different situations and keys. That will help you flex your musical vocabulary and teach you how best to use it. Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
In the course of an interview with mandolinist Tiny Moore of Texas Playboy and Merle Haggard and the Strangers fame, I asked Tiny who music students should listen to and study to learn swing and jazz. With a look of disbelief he answered, “Why, whoever they like to listen to!” He didn’t have a list of required listening! I think his point was to nd something that knocks you out, in whatever style you choose, and try to gure it out. If you are fascinated by a sound, you’ll be motivated to listen to it at length and your work will be fast and fun. My next question for Tiny was “Who did you learn from?” Without hesitation he answered, “Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Sextet.” If Tiny got as brilliant as he was listening to Charlie Christian, I thought I’d better give the same records a spin or two. Well, they nailed me to the wall, and not just Christian’s landmark work on the guitar, but the whole sextet, especially the little riffs the band often played quietly behind the soloist. I’ve lifted many of them for use as the starting point for riff blues I made up! More phrases for my musical vocabulary. There are two excellent CD reissues which feature Christian and Goodman’s amazing playing on a variety of riff blues: “Charlie Christian: The Genius of the Electric Guitar” (Columbia CK 40846) and “The Benny Goodman Sextet featuring Charlie Christian” (Columbia CK 405144). Check them out. Try playing the “Benny’s Blues” melody and riffs over the many twelve bar blues on the Sextet repertoire. And, while you’re studying Charlie, don’t forget to steal some riffs from Benny or Lionel Hampton! You’ll nd them all to be great sources for riff blues. Beyond that, take Tiny’s advice and seek out the musicians and music that move you most. Listen, study, and play along. And, above all, have fun!
March/April 1997
Dix Bruce is a musician and writer from the San Francis co Bay Area. He’s currently nishing a new book/CD playalong set: BackUP TRAX: Basic Blues. His most recent books are “Rounder Old Time Music for Guitar” and “Rounder Old Time Music for Mandolin” (Mel Bay Pub), transcriptions and arrangements from the 26 cut Rounder CD release of the same name and include works by Norman Blake, Mark O'Connor, Hazel Dickens, Don Stover, Ola Belle Reed, Doc Watson, Joe Val, The Louvin Brothers, The Old Time String Band, Ricky Skaggs, The Whitstein Brothers, The Blue Sky Boys, E.C. and Orna Ball, among others, 26 great songs and tunes. Included in the collection are fiddle tunes, Irish tunes, folksongs, Bluegrass, Old-Time, modal tunes and more. All pieces include chords, standard music notation, tablature, lyrics and playing tips. Dix Bruce’s most recent recordings are “From Fathers to Sons,” a guitar duet album with Jim Nunally, and “Live” with San Francisco’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra (due for relase in mid-1997). Dix Bruce can be reached at Musix, PO Box 231005, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. E-mail:
[email protected] 41
"New Head" example 1
œ œ ‰ b œJ ‰ b œJ ‰ œJ œ œ œ œ
Dix Bruce © 1994 Dix Bruce Music - BMI
# 4 & 4Ó
Œ ‰b œJ œ œ œ Œ ‰ J G
Ó
3
3
4
3
5
‰ J ‰ J‰ J
3
6
6
6
5
3
5
3
variations
G
# j j 4 j j Ó Œ ‰ b œ & 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œj b œ œ œ œ˙ Ó Œ‰ 1.,2.
1
3.
:
2
:
:5
2
5
2
5
2
5
3
2
5
2
5
2
5
2
5
j
j
2
5
3 2
:
2 5 5
j j
j j 4 œ j j j œ & 4 œ œ œ b œ bœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b œj b w bœ œ œ œ œ w C
1
1.,2.
3.
:
:
:5
7
5 7
j
5 6
6 6
6 5
j
j j
7
5 7
j
8 5 8
: 6
6
6 6 5
8
j
5
8
j œ ˙ 4 j œ & b 4 œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . œ ‰Ó œœ ‰ œ ˙ œ œ . j j F
1
1.,2.
3.
:
:
:3
1 1 1 1 3 3 3
3
1 1 1 1
3 3 3
2
3
2 2
:
3 3
2 2
1
1 1
b
œ œ œ œ œ b œ œ œ œ 4 b œ n œ b œ n œ b œ n œ œ œ b œ Œ œ ‰ Œ Œ œ‰ œJ ‰œ‰J œ‰J œ‰J œJ ‰ œŒJ Ó & 4 œ œœ J Œ ‰ JŒ Œ ‰ ‰‰‰‰ ‰ ŒÓ J JJJJ J B
1
:
:
play 4 times
:6
42
7 6 7
8 5
8
5 8
6
7
:
8
6
8
6
7
6
8
6
8
6
7
8
8
8
8
8
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
8
8
March/April 1997
Columnist Prole: Dan Huckabee If you have ever tried to learn how to play the guitar, dobro, bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, or sing harmony vocals utilizing instructional books, tapes, or videos, you are no doubt familiar with Dan Huckabee and Workshop Records. Dan teaches all of the above himself with the exception of the banjo and for that he produced a few instructional videos featuring Greg Cahill. For guitar players, Dan has not only provided us with his own instructional books, tapes, and videos, but he has also published outstanding instructional material taught by Chris Jones, Brad Davis, and Robert Bowlin. In addition to the instructional material that Dan and Workshop Records has produced, their catalog contains almost every instructional book, tape, and video available on the market today. The Workshop Records catalog is one-stop atpick guitar shopping resource. Since Dan Huckabee has been providing aspiring musicians with great instructional material for 23 years now, I think it would be safe to say that most readers of this magazine are familiar with his name and recognize why we chose him to write our “Beginner’s Page” column. In this prole we will present a little bit about Dan’s background so that you can get to know him better. Dan Huckabee grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas. His father was a trumpet player, so when it became time for Dan to take music lessons in school, he chose to learn the trumpet. However, Dan says, “When I was in eighth grade this thing happened called ‘The Beatles,’ and that ended trumpet forever.” Throughout high school Dan fooled around with the electric guitar, but never really did too much with it. He says, “When college hit I had been searching for this thing that I knew was there, yet it had been real elusive. There had been some subliminal things that caused me to realize I should continue searching. I nally saw a poster for a bluegrass festival. I went to the festival and found that this is what I had been looking for for years.” Dan’s introduction to bluegrass was delivered shot gun style. The rst festival he attended included Lester Flatt and the Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
Nashville Grass, Bill Monroe, Jim and Jesse, Reno and Smiley, Benny Martin, and The Bluegrass Alliance (with Tony Rice on guitar), to name a few. Although almost every major bluegrass act performed that weekend, Dan says that the thrill of the entire festival for him was seeing Josh Graves play dobro. He had never heard a dobro before, but he says, “I was profoundly affected by seeing Josh Graves and this bluesy thing he was doing and how cool the instrument looked hanging on him. I went back to school after that weekend feeling as though some revelation had occurred.” Shortly after Dan returned to school he was walking to dinner and saw a guy sitting in front of a dorm building playing a banjo. Dan, with his new found love for bluegrass, asked the guy if he could play “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” and the guy played it. Dan was impressed and when the guy had nished playing the tune, Dan proclaimed, “I’m a dobro player.” Thinking back, he says, “I don’t know why those words came out of my mouth. I guess it was something that I knew I was going to be committed to and that I knew was going to be real.” The banjo player said, “Well let’s get together and play sometime.” Not knowing what else to do, Dan went to the town square and bought a dobro bar and a tall nut, grabbed his regular guitar, and went to the banjo player’s house. He slid the bar along the strings from one end of the neck to the other and the guy looked up at him and said, “You know, when you told me you were a dobro player, I thought you were a liar. But now I see that you are a dobro player.” That night Dan and the banjo player started a band. By the way, the banjo player was Joe Carr. For a while Dan continued to play on his make shift “fake” dobro and the little band he and Joe Carr had formed, with the addition of a ddle player and Greg Kennedy on mandolin, began playing at
March/April 1997
Dan Huckabee some of the coffee houses around campus. Before long they became the top bluegrass act in town and had actually been asked to be the warm-up group when the Earl Scruggs Review came to play at the college. Not wanting to get on stage in front of Earl Scruggs with a make-shift dobro, Dan talked his father into buying him a real dobro. Thus, just six months after learning how to play the dobro, Dan, Joe and the rest of the “Bluegrass Road Apples” performed on stage to warm-up for Earl Scruggs. From those roots in Denton, Texas, Dan went on to play in dozens of other bands. He dropped out of college to play with American Heritage at Six Flags Over Texas, went on to Dog Patch USA to play in the house band, and then hit the big time in 1973 when he got a job as the dobro player in the Allman Brothers Band. Jerry Douglas had been offered the job, but turned it down and gave them Dan’s name. After the summer tour with the Allman Brothers, Dan went back to nish school. However, he continued to play in various bands and did session work in the studio. He has performed on stage and recorded with Country Gazette and has also recorded five solo albums. In 1976 Dan won the National Dobro Championship in Wineld, Kansas. That was the only year Wineld 43
Joe Carr, Greg Kennedy, and Dan Huckabee, circa 1971, performing in Denton, TX has held a dobro competition, so Dan has the distinct honor of being the only Wineld dobro champion.. While he was in Macon, Georgia, in 1973, rehearsing with the Allman Brothers, Dan’s career as a publisher of instructional material was born. One of Dan’s students back home in Texas had requested that Dan begin writing down some of the Josh Graves solos that he had learned note for note off of Josh’s records. Those transcriptions became Dan’s rst published work twentythree years ago. They are still available from Workshop Records. Dan says, “It was kind of revolutionary at the time because, to my knowledge, no one was teaching it note for note the way it was done on the record. Everyone was real appreciative because it was exactly the way Josh did it. I will never get his feel, but I knew exactly which notes he was hitting and where he hit them.” After the success of the first Josh Graves book and tape, Dan continued transcribing and publishing Josh Graves solos for several years. In about 1979, he also began producing other dobro material as well as instructional material for other instruments. It was also about this time that Dan wanted to quit playing music on the road and settle back to only playing locally. He says, “I was ready to have a day job and not be on the road living in a sleeping bag behind somebody’s couch.” In addition to producing more of his own instructional material from his home in Austin, Texas, Dan also began gathering his 44
talented friends and band members together and producing instructional material for them. For atpickers this included projects with Brad Davis, Chris Jones, and Robert Bowlin. When asked if he plans any more atpicking projects in the future, Dan says, “I’d like to do another project for beginners and I would like to nd some of the more interesting and cutting edge intermediate and advanced things to do as well. There are things that I would like to say and there are things that I have heard people play that I think the public would like to hear and learn. I have always thought of bluegrass as a ‘participation sport,’ as opposed to a ‘listening, entertainment, fold your hands and be reverent kind of thing’. It is for everyone to do, not just for the audience to watch the stars.” With the large selection of material available in the Workshop Records catalog, there is no excuse why anyone couldn’t learn how to make this music a “participation sport.” The variety of material which is available for all levels of players from all styles of music is astounding. Those who are interested in receiving a catalog from Workshop Records can call 1-800543-6125.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
MUSIC T HEORY So far, we’ve gotten a lot of basics together; We’ve covered intervals and scales, and we’ve made chords from the scales and learned how they are named. This time we’ll learn a bit about how chords move and we’ll explore some of the scales that we use to improvise over the chords. We’ll also try to get out of the realm of the chalkboard and do a little pickin’. Let’s look back at the kinds of chords we nd in the major scale. The I chord is a Major7 chord and the V chord is a dominant 7 chord. This V to I relationship is at the heart of our whole system of music. There is a natural “pull” from that V chord back to the I. If you’re playing a tune in G, when you play a D chord (the V-chord in G), there is a tension that doesn’t get resolved until you bring it on home to G. So with this in mind, let’s take things a step further and instead of going from V to I, we can add another seventh chord a fth away from our original V chord, a V of V-(or secondary dominant). Now we have the following chord progression;
G / A7 / D7 / G If we add another 7th chord a fth away from the A7 chord, we get the following chords;
BY DAVE BRICKER
In the rst two measures, we move from G7 to C7. G7 is the V chord in C which makes our C7 chord a logical place to go. Then we return to G7 and then go back to C again. To hear this, think of the blues in terms of how the lyrics work. The rst four bar phrase sets up a tension in the song; Lord, I got them blues so bad In the second phrase, the lyric is typically repeated. We move from I to IV and back again, setting up more tension. Lord, I got them blues so bad Finally, in the last four measures, we go to the D7 (which is the V of G) and resolve the tension. Broke a string and now I’m feelin’ sad. Since we often deal with chords other than 7th chords in the music we play, let’s apply the same logic to chord motion but use chords from our major scale. Let’s experiment with our Salty Dog progression again.
G / E7 / A7 / D7 / G Using seventh chords from the key of G, we know that the rst chord is G major7. The E chord would be a vi chord - a minor seventh chord. The A would be a ii chord - another minor seventh chord. The D7 would remain as a dominant seventh chord and then we return to G-major7. We get;
G / E7 / A7 / D7 / G Astute readers will recognize that we’ve just re-written the Salty Dog Blues.
G / E7 / A7 / A7 D7 / D7 / G / G That’s it. Chords like to move in fths. We can keep adding 7th chords until we get back to whatever chord we’ve started on. This is commonly called the circle of fths and it’s at the heart of most of the music we play. Take a look at the blues. Again, we’ll use G as our key. Here’s our basic chord progression.
G7 / C7 / G7 / G7 / C7 / C7 / G7 / G7 / D7 / C7/ G7 / G7 / Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
G maj7 / Emin7 / Amin7 / D7 / G-maj7 Because of our V7 to I relationships, we can use play this progression as is or substitute E7 or A7 as we like. If we “simplify”-our progression somewhat and use triads (root, third and fth without the seventh) to get a sound that’s a bit closer to what we might hear in a typical ddle tune we get;
G / Emin / Amin / D / G Whether we play this way or use the “jazzier” progression, we can use our 7th chord substitutions to add that “bluesy” avor to the music. Here’s where theory starts to become a useful tool. If we understand a bit about
March/April 1997
how chords move and also understand a few things about how different chord tones effect the “avor” of the music, we can apply these concepts to our improvising and put a little more variety into our playing and improvising. With this in mind, we can use triads for most folk and bluegrass music, throwing in an occasional seventh chord and maybe an extended chord or two once in a while to add color. Classical music is also mostly based on triads but uses a lot of extended chords (with 9ths, 11ths and 13ths). However, it is rare to see two extended chords in a row. Here, the chord extensions are usually used to create a brief tension which quickly resolves back into the nearest chord tone. For ragtime and blues, we’ll tend to play dominant 7th chords a lot of the time with some 9, 11 and 13 chords thrown in to spice things up. In jazz, we’re typically using a mixture of dominant seventh and scale chords with 9, 11 and 13 extensions. Sometimes, we mix in a plain old 7th chord to bring things back down to earth. Also, we commonly change keys continuously throughout a piece of music. Most other styles tend to focus on a single key. Different music from different parts of the world and places in history can often be loosely dened by the types of chords and scales that are common to it. Understanding and being able to hear the differences between styles can make you a much more versatile player. Next, let’s learn a little bit about scale modes. You may recall how we took our major scale and built a chord starting on each note. From this, we determined what kinds of chords are found on the various notes or degrees of the scale. Now, instead of making chords based on each note of the scale, we’ll make new scales starting on each note of the scale. Let’s use our key of G again.
G A B C D E F# G If we make a new scale based on each note, we get the following.
G A B C D E F# G
A B B C C D D E E F# F# G G A A B
C D E D E F# E F# G F# G A G A B A B C B C D C D E
F# G A B C D E F#
G A B C D E F# G 45
As we might expect, every scale is still in the key of G. We can tell at a glance because each one uses all natural notes except for F#. These are the modes of the key of G and just as each of the chords in G-has its own unique quality and set of extensions, so do the modes. In fact, they are really the same but in a different order. Take for example the second mode based on A.
A
B
C D E F# G A
Let’s look at the second chord in the key of G now - also based on A.
A
C
E G B D F# A
See? Same notes – different order. In essence, they are exactly the same thing. From this, it follows that if the accompaniment is playing a chord based on the second degree of the scale, we can improvise using the second scale mode and all the notes should t. Each of the modes has a name. To ensure that you don’t get invited back to the next jam session, you should refer to these names as often as possible. When I was rst introduced to the concept of modes, I thought, “Hey! I don’t need to learn these. If I know my major scale, I’ll just start on the appropriate note. Also, if you’re improvising, it’s not as if you always start on the root.” But . . .The reason we think of each mode as being an entirely separate entity is because each mode has its own characteristic sound. While not all of the modes are commonly used, each has its own personality. In the following examples, I’ll explore each one of the seven major scale modes and give you a chance to hear the differences between them. The rst measure of each example just runs through the mode and the rest of the phrase provides a melodic fragment that conveys that mode’s unique personality.
46
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
As you learn your modes (whether or not you bother to remember their names), remember that the idea here is to use your knowledge of theory to train your ear. There is nothing as stiff sounding as a player who calculates everything they play as if each song were a video game in which points are received for shooting down little chord space ships with the appropriate scale missiles. If you can learn to hear what each mode sounds like and where it’s appropriate to use each one, you’ll be a much more versatile and exible improvisor. If you make a backup tape with one chord playing in the background, you can practice improvising with each mode until their sounds become familiar to you. Play a C major chord and experiment with improvising using C major, C lydian and C-mixolydian. Each of these modes differs from the others by only one note but their personalities are quite different. Play an A minor chord and improvise using A-dorian, A-phrygian and A aeolian. Each comes from a different major scale and each will complement the A minor chord in a different way. Be aware of “modal” tunes. A good example is Red-Haired Boy (also called Little Beggarman). The tune starts in G but if we look at the chords and the melody, we nd that there all the Fs are natural - no F sharps (as we would expect in G). The chords move from G to C to F. The chords are actually I, IV-and V in the key of C. The song is in the key of C according to our knowledge of music theory, but the “home chord” seems to be G. In this case, we would say that the song is modal - in G-Mixolydian. Try improvising with G major and you’ll hear how “out” it sounds. If you start playing around in the key of C and then have someone jump in with the chords, it’ll work because the notes will be right, but your improvisation won’t really carry the “avor” of the tune. It’s the G Mixolydian quality of the tune that gives it its special sound. June Apple is another Mixolydian tune and there are others like Salt Creek which have elements of G-major and G Mixolydian. I’ve included an arrangement of Red Haired Boy here. Next, we’ll talk about blues scales and do some more improvising.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
47
PICKIN’ FIDDLE TUNES by Adam Granger
FOUR FLATPICK FAVORITES Okay, pickers, feed the cat, put the kids to bed and turn on the answering machine. We’re going to sit back and pick a few of the old standards! These are tunes you’re likely to nd wherever bluegrass or oldtime music is played. They’re all 32-bar tunes: they have two parts each, with each part repeated. This is standard tune structure, or form.
These four tunes have been around forever. June Apple is embraced by both bluegrass and old-time musicians, Whiskey before Breakfast has Irish roots, Salt Creek is a bluegrass tune and Red-Haired Boy carries multiple citizenship. They are all frontand-center planks on the back porch of the atpicker’s repertoire.
READING EASYTAB Easytab is like conventional tablature, except that timing notation has been streamlined and simplied. Since ddle tunes are comprised mainly of eighth notes, Easytab uses the eighth note as its basic unit. An eighth rest is indicated by a dot. There fore, a note with a dot after it is a quarter note, and a note with three dots after it is a half note. There is a total of eight notes and rests per measure.
A LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT FIDDLE TUNE FORM AND ETIQUETTE When you’re playing with others and it’s your turn to call a tune, it’s good manners to tell the other players a little about the tune. Minimally, you’ll want to inform them of the key and the form. As mentioned, the form is usually the standard 32-bar structure: two parts of eight bars, each repeated. A tune may, however, have only one part (like Reuben) or as many as ve (like the Irish tunes Lucy Campbell and The Lark’s March.) Any deviation from this standard - i.e., a different number of parts or lack of repeats on some or all parts - should be mentioned to your fellow musicians. Clue them in, too, on other oddities and eccentricities, such as modulation to another key, the presence of chords other than the I, IV and V, or “crookedness” (A crooked tune has an odd number of measures in a part or an odd number of beats in a measure). You probably won’t want to take the time to discuss these aberrations in detail (unless you’re in a teaching capacity), but it’s good etiquette to provide a brief “heads-up” hint where appropriate.
June Apple
F
G 3
1 31
3
131
3
131
310
••
1 2 0•
31
1
31
01301310
20
020
3
131
310
1 2 0•
0202
013
0
02 • 4
0• 420•
D 0
31
1
31
0
310
2 0 4 02 4 0 •
A
01301310
020
4 2 0 2 42 •
024
02420
0•
4
2 0 • 0 00 • 3
D
G
02 •
0
0
A
4
A
2 024
3 •
2
230
0 • • • 0 • 02 320
420
20 420•
0 2
A
23
02
323
G 0
D
20230
G
20
D
2 0 4 2 0 4
A
D
420
20 •
20 4
24
48
20 •
••
4
D 32
••
D
02
420•
24
D
••
G
20
D
02 4
2•0•000 •
F
323
G
02420
G
3•
24
• •
131
323
D
024
3
G
20
Whiskey before Breakfast
• •
F
31
F
••0 2 4 0 2 4 0 •
Pick with an alternating style: down-updown-up-down-up etc. The rst note of each measure should be a downstroke, the last an upstroke. Include rests in this alternating pattern. This keeps you “in synch”, playing downstrokes on the beats, so that, no matter what the conguration of notes and rests in an eightunit measure, the right hand plays them down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up.
G
323
G
FOR BEGINNERS
••
4
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Salt Creek
G
Capo 2
C
••0 • 0 0 0 • 0 0 2 0 2
01 • • •
20
20
20 3•
3
C
0 • 0 0 0 • 0 0 20 2
01 • 3
3
G 30 1230
20 2 •
G
3 • • • 7 35 30 3 • • 131 0
D 0 1 3 1 0
3 20 • 02
F 3•
G
D
3 •
G 3
F
01310
3
01 0
3• 3
3•
D
F 3
3 • • • 7 3 5 3 0 3 • • 1 3 1 0
30 1230
0••
20 2 •
Red-Haired Boy G
C
020• ••0 2 02
3
•
G
••
Capo 2
0••
F 0 1•0•
3 •
013
0
F
G
0 3 1 • 0 1 30
0•02
0
G
020
C
020•
013
0
G
D
0 3 1 • 0 1 3
3•131
310
02
3•3•3202
C 310
G 3 1 • 1 • 0 1 30
••
F 0•02
0
020
0 •
••
0 •
••
4
G
C 020•
013
0
G
D
0 3 1 • 0 1 3
•
3•131
3 • 3 • • 2 02
310
02 4
For a cassette tape of the music in this column, send $8 to: Granger Publications, Box 26115, Shoreview, MN 55126
EXTRA!
THE PLECTRUM PRESS
All the news that picks
DEBATE OVER TUNE ORIGINS RAGES AS FLATPICKERS STRIVE TO MAINTAIN NEUTRALITY — Certs is a breath mint! No, Certs is a candy mint! There are all types and stri pes of tunesmiths out there. Let’s line them all up and describe them. At the right end of this eld you’ll nd the purists, to whom tune origin matters greatly. At the left end are those who just like to sit and pick. These folks aren’t too concerned about where a tune has been; they care more about where it is at the moment. For the record, I fall just left of center on this curve. While I have many purist/musicologist friends, and while I value their opinions
greatly, there are several compelling reasons to adopt a relaxed attitude toward a tune’s etymology. To be sure, there are certain tunes that have indisputable roots: The Iri sh Washerwoman is Irish, period; Gold Rush is bluegrass, period. But what about Soldier’s Joy? It’s such an old melody that it predates what oldtime purists consider old-time, and yet it’s a bluegrass standard. And as to country of origin, both Irish and American tunesmiths claim it as one of their native sons.
Context should be considered: if I’m playing June Apple in a bluegrass band, it’s a bluegrass tune. If I play it in an old-time band, it’s an old-time tune. This doesn’t ignore June Apple’s origin; it just takes its evolution into account. It’s good to know your music - to have some sense of the origins of tunes you pick. At the same time, it’s sensible to make sure that your dogma’s bark is worse than it’s bite. Life is too short to bicker about whether a tune tastes great or is less lling.
Adam Granger has been playing guitar since 1959. After playing guitar and banjo in his native Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, he moved to Minnesota to work with Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion as leader of the house band, The Powdermilk Biscuit Band. He has judged the National Flatpick Guitar Contest in Wineld, Kansas, and serves on the faculties of The Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Camp Bluegrass in Levelland, Texas and The Stringalong Workshop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has recorded seven albums, including “Twin Picking”, an all instrumental atpick album with Dudley Murphy, two with The Powdermilk Biscuit Band, two solo albums of original material, and a swing album with mandolinist Dick Nunneley, as the Eclectic Brothers. His book, Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar , is the largest collections of ddle tunes in guitar tablature, and, along with the accompanying set of recordings of the 508 tunes, it comprises the largest source of ddle tunes for atpickers in the world. Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
49
Beginning Clarence White Style Bluegrass Guitar by Steve Pottier One of the major problems for a bluegrass guitar player is how to be heard above the din of the band/jam/banjo player. I think it’s a great idea for a player to think about how much of what he plays counts - how much is effectively registered in the ears of the audience. You would like all of your notes to come out with conviction, clear, and toneful. To that end, I’d like to describe what may be the most important right hand technique for a bluegrass guitarist: the rest stroke. Rest strokes changed my life! Seriously, once I became aware of them, I saw that all the great rhythm players used them in their bass runs. Clarence even played his leads to “I Am a Pilgrim” with almost all rest strokes! I saw David Parmley, Del McCoury and Jimmy Martin using them! I found that the George Shuffler downdown-up cross-picking style (the pattern Clarence used in almost all of his cross picking) starts with a rest stroke! It is the ultimate secret of bluegrass guitar (OK, one of the ultimate secrets)! The term rest stroke comes from classical guitar playing, and it means (in our case) that the pick is pressed downward on the string until it snaps off and down onto the next higher string and comes to a solid rest there. Consider the two note Lester Flatt G run shown in Example 1. The rst note of the run (4th string 2nd fret) starts with the pick on the string. Apply pressure with the thumb, aiming for the bottom edge of the guitar nearest your body. Slide the pick slightly as you apply pressure and it will slide of the 4th string and snap onto the 3rd string. Without bouncing, continue to apply pressure and do the same thing on this string until you come to rest on the 2nd string. This is a classic G run. I am using “+” signs between the notes of consecutive rest strokes on adjacent strings to make you aware of where to think of the two notes as one continuous down stroke. Example 2 50
gives you another G run to practice. Some details: the right hand really doesn’t move much. Put the backs of your ngers on the top of the guitar, and just apply pressure from the thumb. The pick should have about a 45 degree angle downward toward the face of the guitar. The pick MUST come to rest solidly without bouncing onto the next higher string. Try doubling your volume- you can! Play so loud that you’re getting buzzes and distortion. You will be amazed at how much tone and volume you can get. Then back off to a more comfortable level where the buzzes and distortion go away. You should
œœ œœ œœ œ œœ # 4 & 4 œ œœœ œ œ œ ≥ ≥≤≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ 1
Ex. 1
be playing at noticeably increased volumes, even at this backed off stage. If you still haven’t gotten a feel for it, try playing a round of tiddly-winks: place a spare medium or thin pick (you don’t need those anyway) on a at hard surface. Press down with your pick near an edge of the pick on the table and slide your pick off and down onto the table. The other pick should jump a good distance. Try for height and distance. This should give you a feel for how the pick should snap down onto the next string. OK. How about some classic runs using this technique? Example 3 is a classic Del
G
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
+++++
2
0
3 0 0 0
0
œœ œ ≥
3 0 0 0
3
≤ œ œ œ œ # 4 & 4 œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≤ ≤ ≥
Ex. 2
1
= down stroke
= up stroke
G
3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
H
3 0 0 0 0
+++++
2
0
3 0 0 0
0
œœ œ ≥
3 0 0 0
2 3
≥
= down stroke
≤
= up stroke
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
McCoury/Jack Cook run. Notice how the notes come in pairs to give you a subtle timing to the run that would be very difcult to emulate without a rest stroke. Example 4 demonstrates a Jimmy Martin style run using pairs of notes. The rest stroke just plows through both as if the were an arpeggiated strum.
œ # 4 & 4 œ œœ œ œ œ œ
Ex. 3
G
1
≥ ≥ ≥≥≥≥ ≥ ≥ +
3 0 0 0
0 2
3
Ex. 4
# & 44 Π1
œ œ œœ
≥
≤
= down stroke
++
0
3 0 0 0
0
2
= up stroke
œ œ œ œ œ œ j j j j 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
G
A
D
G
≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥≤≥ ≤ +
0
3 2 3
≥
= down stroke
≤
4
0
j
+++
+
4
0
4
0
2
4
+
0
4
+
0
4
# 4 & 4
= up stroke
1
Ex. 5
Example 5 is a notier G run. The pick direction shown is important, also be aware of the 2 beat hammer on from 1 to 2.
4
0
2
4
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
etc.
j
j
j
0
3 0 0 0 0
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ ≥ ≥ ≤≥≥ ≥ ≥ G
++
Clarence White used a lot of down strokes in his playing, both in rhythm and lead. I don’t know if he just stumbled onto the sound or whether he got the idea by observing Bill Monroe, or by wanting to get some of Django Rheinhart’s sounds on his guitar. “I am a Pilgrim” on Appalachian Swing (Rounder) is almost entirely rest strokes. Example 6 is a lead-in from one of his breaks. The consecutive down strokes on adjacent strings give a kind of shufe feel to the timing, accenting the overall bluesy feel of the tune. If you get a chance, check out his leads on the Muleskinner video - those down strokes really pop out at you.
H
≥
≤
Ex. 6
1
3
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
0
= down stroke = up stroke
# 4 œ œ ‰ œ & 4 œj#œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œJ œ ≥≥≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ‰ J ≥ J ≤ 1
G
+
+
++
H
H
3
Clarence used syncopated bass runs to great effect in his rhythm work. Be aware that he was doing this in a band that played all day every day at home. His brothers knew it was coming. Roland even would anticipate it and incorporate it in his leads. Point is, syncopated back up doesn’t work
2
0 2 0
3 0 0 0
1
2
= down stroke = up stroke
0
2
0
0
3 1
2
3 1
2
jœœœ œ ≥≥
J
0
3 1
H
2
too well in jam situations where people are not used to it. Second, it works better against straight time lead than syncopated lead. That said, Example 7 demonstrates some Clarence-style backup runs.
March/April 1997
51
œœ œœ # 4 & 4 œ œ œ œ #œ œ w œ œ
Ex. 7
G
1
straight
≥
≤
3 0 0 0
3
0
3
1
2
G syncopated, all rest strokes
jœ. # œ œ w œ
jœ. # œ œ w œ
≥≤ ≥ ≥ ≥
≥≥≥≥≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ 3 0 0 0 0
C
syncopated
3
3
= down stroke = up stroke
0
1
2
≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ +
3
3
j Ex. 8
Finally, Example 9 is a tune Larry Sparks plays. On record or in person, Larry plays this tune in a big powerful way! Also, if you can get Ron Block (who plays with Alison Krauss) to play it, you’ll see how a simple tune can become something more. I’ve included it here because this is just a great tune to practice the rest stroke on. The hammer from 3 to 4 in measure one is more like a grace note. Try playing it without the hammer rst, just hitting the 4th fret, to get a feel for the timing, then
≤
3
C
3 0 0 0
3
0
1
2
0 1 0
etc.
3
= down stroke = up stroke
j
put the hammer in without changing anything else. In Example 9, notice the triplets in measures 7-8. The second one is a 3-2-0 push off not a pull off. With the rst nger on the second fret, push off toward the fth string with your second nger. The “p” in the last triplet is a pull off.
Ex. 9 - Carter’s Blues
œ œ # 4 œ œ œ # œ & 4 ‰ ≈ œ œ œœ œ œ œœœ
œœ œœ œœ œ œœœœœœ
G
1
2
œœ œœ # œ 4 & 4 œ œ œ jœ . # œ . œ œ œ œ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ . . G
3 0 0 0 0
≥
1
j 1
Most bass runs end on the tonic- the note that is the same name as the chord. Example 8 is a syncopated run up to the third, an E note in the C chord, for a nice effect:
0
œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ n œ # œ œ œ n œ œ œ
D
≥≥ ≥≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≤≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ +
‰ ≈ 0 2
+
0
0
+
++
H 34
3 0 0 0
0
0
3 0 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
0 2
+
0
2 0
3
2 2 3 3 2 2
2
0
3
≥
2
≥ 52
3
0
j = down stroke
≤≥≤≥≤
2 3 2
2 3 2
2 3 2
2 3 2
j
≤
2 3 2
3
F
3
C
œœ
≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ 2 3 2
++
H
0 2 = up stroke
G
3
++
P
0 3 2 0 3
H
1 2 3
0
3 0 0 0
P
1 0
3 0 0 0
2 3 2
H
3 4 4
+
2
4
2
S
3
2
œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ n œ j & œ œ œJ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œnœ œ œ# œ œ œ #œnœ œœ œœ nœœ œ 6
2 2 2 3 3 3 2 2 2
1 1 2 3
0 1 0 2
œœ œ
G
≥
3 0 0 0
3
3
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Guitar Making by Don Gallagher
WOOD and MOISTURE It is a pleasure for me to write a series of columns on guitar making. Hopefully these articles will raise the appreciation of guitar players as to the thought and effort someone has put into making their instrument. There are a number of different approaches and techniques to guitar making: therefore, these columns will describe only some of the techniques, methods, and concepts we use, hoping that guitar makers reading these columns might gleam inspiration which will be helpful. Often I have read a woodworking article about some process which provided inspiration for something I was working on. Traditionally, there has been a sincere openness among those making instruments. A tradition of helpfulness and cooperation. There are no trade secret s, only basic woodworking knowledge, acoustical designs, and the skill that comes with patience and years of experience with worki ng with one’s hand s. It is with this spirit of sharing and cooperat ion among builders that I write these columns. Therefore, letters with questions or comments are most welcomed. The rst issue I want to address is the relationship between wood and moisture. Controlling hygroscopic forces caused by moisture moving in and out of wood is a basic concern of all woodworkers. I once read that 90% of the quality control and production problems in the furniture industry could be traced to wood curing concerns. In instrument making 99.9% of the problems encountered can be attributed to moisture concerns. Instruments are considerably more susceptible to moisture related problems for a number of reasons. First, simply because instrument woods are so thin they are more sensitive to the climate around them. The top and backs of an acoustic guitar are approximately .100” thick and the sides are about .085” in thickness. Compare this to furniture Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
made of wood 3/4” thick. The thinner a piece of wood the quicker it is affected by its atmosphere. Secondly, the very nature of the bracing design causes a problem. As moisture enters and leaves wood, the wood expands and contracts across the grain. Braces on a guitar run across the grain of the wood. This means the braces will only allow the wood to expand and contract a certain amount. If the wood was too wet when the guitar was assembled, relative to where it may later nd itself, the wood will contract. If the wood wants to contract more than the braces will allow, the wood becomes stressed. To relieve the stress, the wood cracks. Conversely, if the wood is too dry when assembled, relative to where the instrument later finds itself, the wood will expand. If the expansion is more than the braces allow, again stress will develop which might be relieved by a brace popping loss from the back or top. Third, an acoustic guitar is not a static object like a piece of furniture . I would describe it as a dynamic object because of the build-in forces in the body which are designed to offset the force of the pull or the strings. These innate forces operating in a guitar means it is even more sensitive to movement caused by the exchange of moisture in the wood. Fourth, the fact that instruments do not
March/April 1997
spend their lives residing comfortably in someone’s home, but rather travel about can be a source of concern. The constant exposure to various climate conditions, and in many instances the rapid change in environment, again demands that the wood was cured properly to insure the least amount of movement and damage to the instrument. There are two areas where moisture is found in wood. One type of moisture is referred to as ambient moisture. This is the moisture found around the wood cells. Ambient moisture moves in and out of the wood fairly readily. The other type of moisture is found within the wood
53
cells. Moisture within the wood cells are molecularly bound within the cells. This inner cellular moisture does not move in and out through the cell walls quickly. There are two concerns when dealing with the moisture content of wood. One is getting the moisture content of the wood to an acceptable level. The other concern is stabilizing the wood. That is, processing the wood in such a way that it becomes less sensitive to the different environments it may be exposed to. That is, the wood does not expand and contract to the extent that it did before it was cured. The moisture content of wood will seek an equilibrium point consistent with the moisture content of the air surrounding it. Therefore, an effective way of drying wood is by placing it in a dehumidication chamber. That is, a chamber or room where the temperature and relative humidity can be controlled. By lowering the relative humidity of the air within the room, the moisture in the wood will gradually bleed out into the relatively dryer air surrounding it. An exhaust fan, regulated by a humistat control, will remove the moisture laden air maintaining the desired relative humidity within the room. It is our experience that it is best to slightly over dry the wood at this point. The moisture content of the wood is brought down to approximately 5%. Next the wood is stored in a curing room. The wood is stored by placing it on thin strips of wood separating each top and back to allow air to freely circulate between the wood. Weights are placed on top of each stack to prevent warping. Fans circulate air through the stacks. This room is maintained at about 100° F and about 35% relative humidity. Wood will reach and be maintained at a moisture content level of 7% in this room. We feel the minimum amount of time wood should be maintained in the hot-room is one year. At, present, we have some wood that has been in the hot-room at least 8 years. The extended stay of the wood in the hot-room is a stabilization method. Wood maintained in a very dry environment will undergo changes that not only make it more stable, but also enhance the natural tonal characteristics of the wood. The cell walls become less permeable as the wood is maintained in a dry environment. It is mother natures way of trying to preserve the moisture that is locked within each cell. Slowly, by a process of osmosis, 54
a percentage of the moisture within the cells bleed out. After a year the cell walls have become substantially less permeable, which means on the completed guitar, moisture will not move in and out of the cells as easily. Hence, the top and back won’t expand and contract as readily, causing consternation for the player. Not only are the cell walls becoming less permeable in this environment, but the resin which separates the cells begin to break down. In wood, the cells are long cylinders connected to each other by a pocket of resin. The cells are designed to move water up through the tree. As these pockets of resin begin to break down, the series of individual cells are transformed into long chambers in which air can more freely move. The wood therefore is not only becoming more stable, but also lighter and innately more resonant. When the wood for the tops and backs come out of the hot-room, they are processed up to the point where the braces are ready to be glued in place. After the braces are fitted to the top or back, the braces, along with their associated top or back, are placed in a small oven to ash off ambient moisture. The braces are glued in place immediately after the wood is removed from the oven. This process causes a slight swelling of the wood. The braces of the top and back are both cut with arches in them, so this slight swelling simply accentuates the already built in arches of the top and back. If the guitar later gets into a very dry climate the slight swelling offers a margin of safety from cracking. Wood will always be sensi tive to environment. Adjustments should be made by the owner if the instrument is in either a very wet or very dry climate. A dampit or a silica gel pack should be kept in the case to correct for either very dry or very wet climates, respectively. In taking good care of you guitar, remember this old rule of thumb: Never place your instrument where you would not be comfortable. If you would not like to ride in the trunk of your car on a hot July day, neither will your guitar.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
New Release Highlight
Wyatt Rice and Santa Cruz “Picture In A Tear” Reviewed by Bryan Kimsey Flatpicker Wyatt Rice is a mystery man to most of us. Sure, we’ve seen and heard him playing rhythm guitar with the Tony Rice Unit, but older brother Tony Rice casts a mighty big shadow and the spotlight has seldom ventured to Wyatt. That’s about to change, though, because Wyatt has developed into a formidable atpicker in his own right, and is leading an impressive bluegrass band, Santa Cruz. Wyatt rst drew attention to his lead playing with the release of 1990’s New Market Gap (Rounder 0272) which featured a collection of instrumentals, including several originals. Then, in 1994, Wyatt joined a group of musicians he met at a jam. With Santa Cruz, Wyatt Rice’s guitar playing is now front and center. With a new album just released on Rounder (Picture In A Tear, Rounder 0372) and a contract for two more in hand, we will be sure to be hearing more from him. I caught up with Wyatt at the 1996 Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Lyons, CO. Wyatt graciously accomodated my shortnotice interview request. We talked in the front seat of a car he’d just driven 30 hours from his home in Virginia and was going to be driving another 30 hours to get back. What follows is a discussion on atpicking, tuning, music theory, developing a style, and more. When did you start atpicking? I started when my dad taught me how to play. I was 6 years old and the first guitar I had was an old Gibson. And the rst song I learned was “Little Brown Jug”. [laughs] Did you play guitar the whole time? Do you play anything else? In high school, yeah, when I was living down in Florida, I played alto sax and bassoon. I also play a little banjo. I played all-state band for a year and got a scholarship to go to college to play bassoon, but I turned it down to play with the Tony Rice Unit. You must have some theory background, then. Yeah, I took some music theory. I took a Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
Let’s talk about your new band. You played rhythm and lead guitar with the Tony Rice Unit and The Rice Brothers, and now your own band, Santa Cruz, features two guitars. How do you work with two guitars? I like having a rhythm guitar. When you’re playing lead, there’s no rhythm guitar and it feels kind of empty. When I do albums, like on my solo album (New Market Gap, Rounder 0272), I do some rhythm guitar to accompany the solo guitar.
recorder class to learn about music theory, that’s always helpe d a lot on guit ar. I applied that to my guitar as far as learning my scales. I already knew how to read a little music, but I prefer not to use written music for guitar. So you think theory is pretty useful, then? I think theory is very useful and learning how to tune is very important. How to tune? Yeah, I’m not talking about tuning to one of them electronic machines. I still believe in the old-time way, tuning with a tuning fork. If you tune every string to one of them electronic tuners and you make a G-chord, it’s going to be off. You gotta tune by ear. I tune one string, the 4th to A 440 using a harmonic [at the 7th fret] and when I get that one string in tune, I tune the rest of them to that one and then make a chord and tune to that chord, like a G or whatever, but as long as that one string is on, then the rest of ‘em will be on. Every guitar is not perfect, you know, and you always gotta compensate some. You put a capo on and you gotta tune to that. I just tune to the situ ation, what ever key it’s in. Do you practice? Yeah, we practice as a band and I practice at home, and I give guitar lessons twice a week. [see note]
March/April 1997
What about when you’re playing rhythm and you have two rhythm guitars, how do you deal with the lls and bass runs and such without stepping on each other? You just have to accom odate each other. It’s a fuller sounding band with two guitars in it. Do you work out who does fills and runs? Yeah, we work it out. I just do what works for me, just kind of do whatever. When I take a break, he’ll lay back on his rhythm and just kind of put it in my ear. We’ve got little signals on the stage; we’ll look and say “Hey, do this or do that”, without really saying anything. What about your right hand technique? Let’s talk a little about that. Are you posting or oating the right hand? I do a lot of cross-picking stuff, I’ve been doing that for years. I was sort of inspired by Clarence White, you know Are you anchoring your right hand, though? Yes. Sometimes when I play bass notes, now I hold on for dear life. [laughs] I grab on to that high E string and brace off of that. I play pretty hard with a hard pick, a tortoise-shell, triangular with rounded edges. I usually have to cut ‘em down to a little smaller size and round the ends off, but they’re still like a triangle. Average thickness? Yeah, kind of medium, not too heavy, but not real thin, either. [about 1.0 mm]. 55
What about the bracing on your guitar? Is it standard or customized? Mine’s got the forward X-bracin g. I’ve got a German spruce top. A friend of mine- Steve Swan, in California- he did a lot of work on the bracing and setup. [see sidebar]
Wyatt Rice at Franklin Music, Rocky Mount, VA What about strings? I use GHS White Bronze. That’s an unusual choice; why those? They’ve got a longer life in them. My hands sweat a lot, you know. I can use phosphor bronze and they’ll be dead after the rst or second song, but not the White Bronze. GHS just recently changed those, they’ve got a hexagon core in ‘em now. They’ve got a softer feel now. I’ve noticed that in their ads. Do you notice a difference in the playing? Yeah, it’s an easier feel. And you like that? Yeah, I love ‘em and they’ve always been a good company to me, so I ain’t got no problems with them. Medium gauge? Yeah, standard medium gauge. Okay, what’s your action like? It’s a medium action, more of a mediumhigh than a medium-low. I’ve been trying to get used to it, if I’m playing straight bluegrass I tend to play a little bit harder than if I’m playing just regular acoustic instrumental stuff. With a banjo, you know, and guys singing hard-core bluegrass, you gotta get slam-on down. So does that mean you drop your action some for playing instrumental acoustic music? 56
Yeah, I do, you know, and temperature changes it, and it’s different during the wintertime. The Santa Cruz guitars got an adjustable neck and usually what you can do is tweak the neck a little bit and compensate for it. Is Tony’s action lower than yours or higher? It’s about the same. I might have a little higher action that he does. It’s just a matter of what you get used to. Is your Santa Cruz Brazilian rosewood? Yeah, it is. Are there any differences in the bracing or anything? Well, they special made this one for me, back in 1989. It’s the rst one I got and I’ve had it ever since- it’s my favorite one. I’ve got a little bit different scale length; it’s not a standard Martin scale, it’s a little bit shorter. See, on Tony’s guitar- the Clarence White guitar- I guess when Clarence had had it, or before he had it, who knows when it happened... a Gretsch scale was put on there and that ngerboard is just a little bit shorter than normal. What’s that do to the string tension, loosen it? It makes for a looser tension, yeah. That way you can have a higher action, but it’s still comfortable to play; the strings feel kind of spongy, instead of that longer scale where the strings feel kind of tight.
Tell me about tone vs. speed. Do you think you tend to lose some tone when the tempo increases? That’s really up to the individual. Of course, some of these young cats, you know, they can still have that tone and all that speed. I’m not a really true believer in all this speed stuff. As far as records and all that, I don’t try to outdo anybody or anything. I just try to make it as simple as I can possibly do it, so people can understand what you’re doing. I try to play close to the melody, you know, at least on the rst solo or rst break. Then you can get “slam on down” on the second one. So tone is always rst? Oh yeah, tone is very important. Once you get that tone, you won’t lose it, at least I don’t think you will. How do you get tone? There’s always a sweet spot, you know. You just pick out that sweet spot, you’ll hear it and you just work with it. Where does volume come from? How much of it do you think is the guitar and how much is the player? A lot of it’s you, but a lot of it’s the guitar, too. You may have to get out of that sweet spot and play closer to the bridge to get a little more bite during solos. How about getting over slumps in your playing? Have you ever been stuck in a slump and gotten out of it? Yeah, I have. I think the best thing is to just keep going for it. I wouldn’t overpractice. In other words, if you get to the point where you don’t really want to do it anymore, I don’t think you ought to. I’ll just put the guitar up for a couple of days after practicing so hard. Then you’ll nd after a couple of days of rest that you can go right back to it and it’ll fall right back into place, and if you’d kept on working on it, you’d really be frustrated. So a rest is important? Yeah, I think it’s important to take a little
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
rest. If you’re trying to learn one particular little thing, like one lick or one solo or one scale, you can get to the point where you’ll say “Hey, I’ll never be able to get this” and give up on it, and then try to play it 10 minutes later and it’s still the same thing, well, I nd that if I give it a day or even a couple of days, and then come back to it and there it’ll be. It’ll be on your mind the whole time, and an important part of playing for me is listening and thinking about it, more than just keep on trying to do it. If you think about it for awhile, and let your mind work on it helps. Also, listening to other people’s music, you know, helps a lot. I think listening is the main, important, part. What do you listen to besides guitar players? Well, I listen to piano players, and jazz music and stuff, I don’t listen to just a single thing. That helps get me out of a rut. Tell me a little bit about playing with Tony. You played with him for a long time... Fifteen years with him... It must be difcult to stand next to Tony Rice for that long and not end up sounding like him, to get the inuence, but still develop your own style. I probably play a few of his licks. I used to sit and watch him play a lot and not even really play with him, just sit and watch him do whatever he does. I don’t know.... Do you have to make a conscious effort to play your own stuff? Yeah, for my solo album I came up with a bunch of Bill Monroe-style instrumentals, and I wrote a couple of songs and I just kind of played more toward the melody. Between playing the melody and playing some of his licks that I’d learned through the years, those two combined kind of makes you come up with your own style. I’ve noticed on the Backwaters album (Tony Rice Unit), there’s a picture of you holding a D-18 with a large soundhole. What’s your take on the large soundhole? That’s just a...I don’t know, maybe a fad thing. I don’t know if it makes any difference in sound or not.
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
What did you think about that guitar? Did it make a difference? Tony gave me that guitar- it was the rst Martin I’d ever owned. Who cut the soundhole? I did. How’d you do it? I just took a le and sandpaper and ju st di d it . I sa id , I wa nt th is gu it ar to be...actually, I later put a different ngerboard on it, too, that extended over the hole so that it looked like a Clarence White model guitar. That’s what everybody....well, I just like the looks of that, it was so mean looking on-stage [laugh]. As Tony would say “This is the beast, right here”. Did it make in difference in the sound? I don’t know, it’s hard to say, maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. That’s for no one to really say at this point. I wouldn’t advise anyone that’s got a guitar worth anything to mess with the soundhole, unless they’re really planning on keeping it forever. It might hurt the value of it a little. I mean, if you’ve something you want to experiment around on with, I’d say “Hey, why not do it?”, shoot, I did it to mine. Now, I work on guitars during the week at home, you know. I’ve got a place and I work on other people’s guitars. No, I didn’t know that. Well, what’s your take on the so-called popsicle brace. One popular “hot-rodding” trick with Martins is to remove the transverse brace running between the neck block and the brace right at the soundhole, what do you think about that? Yeah, I ain’t done that. I had my Cruz made that way, withou t the brace. It’s just an extra amount of strength where the ngerboard is. I’d always suggest having it in there. You don’t want too much weight, but you do want something in there just to keep it from caving in. So why did you have the Santa Cruz made like that? ‘Cause I wanted it like Tony’s. When this guitar was built, I even used a gauge to get the top the same thickness and everything and I had them make it exactly like his. Do you have a sharp V-neck on yours? Yeah, mine’s a V-neck and pretty thin, too.
March/April 1997
So what’s in the future for Wyatt Rice? It’s a very positive band I’ve got now, and I’m going to keep going with that and play some good bluegrass music. This band’s been together about 2 years now and we just signed a contract with Rounder for three albums. The first one will be out on October 1st, and it’s called Picture in a Tear.
Wyatt’s Guitar I called Steve Swan at his shop (510-527-1734) to discuss Wyatt’s guitar. A former employee of Santa Cruz Guitar Company, Steve built Wyatt’s favorite 1989 Tony Rice model guita r. This specific instrument varies from the standard model in several respects. For one, the bracing is more advanced (closer to the soundhole) for a brighter sound. Stock Tony Rice model are braced more like war-time Martins, according to Steve. The brighter sound is an attempt to get more cutting power, particularly when using microphones for amplication. As Wyatt mentioned in his interview, the scale is shorter than a regular Martin D-model scale. Regular scale is 25.4” and both Wyatt and Tony use a 25.25” scale. Wyatt’s Santa Cruz actually has a slightly shorter neck to achieve this scale length. Swan thought that the shorter scale cuts the volume a bit in comparision to a standard length scale, due to lower tension on the same gauge strin g. The famous large soundhole is even larger on Wyatt and Tony’s custom guitars, measuring 4.56” instead of the stock 4.25”. Steve veried that Wyatt runs a slightly higher action than Tony, although he didn’t think it was a particularly high action, just slightly above medium. Most stock Tony Rice model guitars use German spruce tops, as do Wyatt and Tony’s guitars. Swan said that German spruce gives a particularly clear tone, especially on the higher end, and better overtones, even when compared to Adirondack spruce.
Lessons From Wyatt Want lessons from one of the best? In addition to instrument repair (Steve Swan vouched for Wyatt’s repair prowess), Wyatt Rice gives a few lessons to serious students. You’ll have to willing to travel to Wyatt’s home in Virginia, but if that’s no barrier, call 57
(540) 576-2355 for more information.
us who can lip-read can see Tony telling his younger brother “Good job” as Wyatt ends his solo.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY Wyatt Rice plays rhythm guitar on most recordings by the post-Manzanita Tony Rice Unit. However, if you want to hear him take a break, you’ll do best with the following:
might use and has different accents. It’s an extension of the Rice sound (and hey, if anybody can lay claim to that sound, Wyatt should be rst in line!) without being a copy. His solo work is showcased on his original tune “Santa Cruz Breakdown” and he takes solos on most of the other tunes. Rhythm-wise, Wyatt sounds really good, as you might expect from someone who played rhythm guitar with the Tony Rice Unit for 15 years. You can hear him in the band, and he really lls in the “guitar space”, but he’s not obtrusive. He uses a lot of syncopated bass runs, percussive strums, and cross-picked runs in his backup. Picture in a Tear is a very enjoyable album and is an excellent addition to a bluegrass guitarist’s collection. It’s a great rst recording with good material executed in an exciting way. Let’s hope the second one isn’t too long in coming.
Wyatt Rice and Santa Cruz Picture In A Tear Picture in a Tear is the rst release by Wyatt Rice and Santa Cruz and, folks, it’s a winner. The band includes Wyatt on guitar, Junior Sisk on guitar and vocals, Timmy Massey on bass and vocals, Ricky Riddle on mandolin and harmony vocals, and Elmer Burchett, Jr. on banjo and harmony vocals. Sisk and Massey handle the lead vocals and do a ne job. The overall band sound is hard-driving bluegrass with a few contemporary, but appropriate touches, mostly in the selection of material. and Wyatt Rice the orginal instrumental “Santa Cruz Breakdown”. Let’s cut to the chase: what’s the guitar playing like? In a word, excellent. Wyatt has the “Tony Rice sound” without sounding like Tony. By that, I mean he’s got the deep rich tone, the wall of sound, and the chops, but he uses different notes that Tony
The Rice Brothers- Rounder 0256. Wyatt with Tony, Larry, and Ron and assorted relatives. Everybody takes a turn at solos. The Rice Brothers II - Rounder 0286. More of the above. It’s great hearing Tony and Wyatt back to back. Wyatt Rice- New Market Gap- Rounder 0272. Wyatt’s solo project featur ing a great collection of standards and original new acoustic guitar. If you want to steal some licks for “Wheel Hoss” this is the place to do it! Tony Rice: The Video Collection- Vestapol 13058. Tony takes most of the solos (per the title!), but Wyatt steps out occassionally, and leads the picking on “Crazy Creek”. Legends of Flatpicking Guitar - Vestapol 13005. Wyatt shows his Clarence White influence on “Sally Goodin”. Those of
Santa Cruz Breakdown
Wyatt Rice
(As Played by Wyatt Rice on his CD “Picture In A Tear”)
Capo 2
Transcribed by Dan Libertino
h»¡£™ Ÿ œ . œ œ œ # n œ # œ œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . œ œ 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœœœœ . œ œ & 4 œœ Jœ A
G
F
C
G
1st.
Ÿ
G
. . S
1
3 0 0
2
23
3
3
3
0
3
0
1
H
Letring
0 1 0
3
1
0
1
3
.J
H
0
0
1
C
F
D
H
P
0
0 2
58
H
P 3
2
0 0
3
0
3
2
3
0
2 3
4
0
2 3 2
2 3 2
3
0
P 3
1
0
2
0 2
# œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ n œ œ œ œ œ n œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ 5
3
2 3 2
3 2 0
.œ œ n œ # œ . œœ . .
2 3 2 0
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
3
1
2
March/April 1997
Reviews CD/Audio Tape Reviews Blue Ribbon Guitar Rounder
review by Bryan Kimsey The “Blue Ribbon ” serie s is an inexpensive sampling of Rounder artists and features bluegrass, ddle, and banjo titles as well as the guitar sampler reviewed here. Most atpickers will already have full albums from several of the artists on the sampler, but there were some that I didn’t have and it seemed like a good idea to have them all on one CD. You may have bought sampler CDs in the past that were full of “Rocky Top” and “Dueling Banjos”, but folks, this isn’t one of those! “Blue Ribbon Guitar” is the real thing. This is high-quality atpicking guitar and would be an ideal introduction to people looking to nd out what it’s all about. The album starts off with Mark O’Connor’s “Blackberry Blossom” from his Markology album, a legendary disc recorded when Mark was 16 years old. He and David Grisman transform the classic ddle tune into a swingy tour de force with each taking back to back to back breaks. I’d forgotten how well Mark played guitar, and this cut slapped the point home again. Next is David Grier’s version of “Tarnation” from his Lone Soldier album and is a classic example of Grier’s slippery style. Norman Blake, Tony Rice, and Doc Watson get together to show us how “Salt Creek” is played by the big boys. This 60
cut is from Blake and Rice 2, and it’s a blast to hear these masters massage the classic atpicking tune. A big surprise is the McCoury brothers’ original tune “Shake Your Hips”, a bluesy swinging number with Ronnie doubling on guitar and mandolin. We know he’s a great mandolin picker, but on this cut he shows us that he can handle a few less strings just as well. Next is ddle tune from an established master atpicker; “Cooley’s Reel” by Russ Barenberg from his Halloween Rehearsal album. This is a great example of Barenberg’s relatively sparse style applied to a ddle tune. Scott Nygaard takes the limelight next with “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” which starts out as a Clarence White-inspired tune, but quickly gets the sublime Nygaard treatment. If this CD were an album, the second side would start with Dan Crary’s classic interpretation of “Huckelberry Hornpipe”. After Dan gets done with it, you know why nobody else has attempted this tune- he just says it all. Wyatt Rice chimes in next with a cool version of “Back Up and Push” proving once again that simple ddle tunes make great flatpicking fodder, and that Wyatt is a deserving banner-carrier of the “Rice sound”. Doc and Merle Watson get down and boogie with “Fisher’s Hornpipe/ Devil’s Dream” complete with tasteful and appropriate bones backup. Tony Rice kicks things into high gear with “Big Mon” which perfectly showcases his tone and timing mastery, while Norman Blake brings us back to earth with “Fiddler’s Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast”. The album wraps up with a really old cut from Country Cooking, “The Old, Old House” on which Barenberg plays rhythm guitar and Lou Martin takes the lead! All in all, Blue Ribbon Guitar is a great album with just one big glaring omission: Where’s Clarence? Rounder has plenty of great Clarence White material and I don’t know why they didnít see t to put a White cut on this album. If they would have done so, this would have the perfect atpicking guitar sampler. As it is, it’s just a darn
Bill Evans- Native and Fine Rounder CD 0295
review by Bryan Kimsey If you bought Bela Fleck’s earlier albums to hear Tony Rice’s contributions, then you will probably want to get Bill Evan’s album “Native and Fine” to hear David Grier cut loose. Evans is the banjo player for the Dry Branch Fire Squad and is joined on this, his first solo outing, by Grier on guitar, Stuart Duncan and Jason Carter on ddle, Mike Compton and Ron Thomason on mandolin, Missy Raines on bass, and Suzanne Thomas and Thomason on vocals. Several of the tunes are Evans originals and all have nice arrangements. Grier contributes some nice solos thorought this album and weaves his guitar through the melodies like a fast driver in freeway traffic. Over half the tunes feature a guitar solo and a few of them have two solos. Grier’s bass-st ring-or iented crosspicking style fits nicely in Evan’s tunes and arrangements, complimenting them instead of stealing their thunder. I particularly liked David’s breaks on “Goodbye Liza Jane”- a traditional tune, and on “Midnight in Rosine”- a slow bluesy number, but they’re all excellent. If I have any reservations about recommending this album to flatpickers, it’s because of the sideman role that Grier plays. This is an album of banjo-oriented music, in which the guitar and other instruments play a supporting role. You could just as easily get this album to hear Mike Compton’s
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
mandolin, or Stuart Duncan’s fiddling (or Evan’s banjo, of course!) as Grier’s guitar. With that reservation in mind, I can recommend this album if you want to hear some mostly instrumental music led by a ne banjo player, which also features some ne samples of David Grier’s unique guitar playing.
Bluegrass, Etc.Bluegrass, Etc., Sierra SXCD 6014
Travelin’ Band Sierra SXCD 6020
with Moore’s tasteful cross-picking. And so it goes through both albums- fast hot licks tempered with balances of slower cooler playing. Moore’s playing is impossibly clean at the faster tempos and he deftly avoids the cliches apparent in so many other guitarist’s styles. In fact, it seems like Moore listens to hot country pickers as much or more than he does bluegrass players. He certainly would sound right at home on a Telecaster in a kickin’ country band. This country inuence is certainly apparent on tunes such as “Old Flames”, “Oklahoma Borderline”, “Fool Hearted Memory” and others. The guys have a bluegrass inuence, too, but it seems less evident. Guess that’s what the “etc.” is for in their name! Of the two albums, I think I would recommend “Travelin’ Band” for atpickers looking to steal some of Moore’s licks. You can’t go wrong with either album, but I liked the tunes better on “Travelin’ Band” and Moore’s playing seems a little more settl ed. With the addit ion of a solid Irish medley, the music ranges from pure country (“Fool-Hearted Memory”) to hardcore bluegrass (“Scruggs Medley”) to the aforementioned Irish tunes, providing a wide mix. The vocals on “Travelin’ Band” are more polished, too. But either album will serve as an excellent introduction to the guitar talents of John Moore and both are good listens.
THE DEFINITIVE SOURCEBOOK!
GRANGER’S IN TABLATURE No need to read musical notation! OVER 500 FIDDLE TUNES OVER 1000 CROSS-REFERENCED TITLES
$29.95 plus $250 P&H MN Residents add 6.5% sales tax
Critics say:
“Brilliant…and highly recommended” “What a great idea!”
– INSIDE BLUEGRASS
– DIRTY LINEN
“I consider [Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar ] and companion cassettes a bargain for any traditionally-oriented guitarist with an interst in atpicking ddle tunes, regardless of level and experience.” – BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED
Also-Available:
review by Bryan Kimsey
Call 800-413-8296 and ask about our
Bluegrass, Etc. is a hot trio featuring John Moore on mandolin and guitar, Dennis Caplinger on banjo and fiddle, and Jim Green or Larry Park on bass. Moore is well-known as the mandolin player with California, but his role in Bluegrass, Etc. is primarily as a guitar player. And what a guitar player! If his rst break on “Blues in Grey” doesn’t catch your ear, you need to turn the stereo up. It’s a fast break full of “oating” licks, punchy accents, and more notes than should be legally allowed on a single solo. But just as you think he can’t slow down and play “pretty”, the band kicks off “Ridin’ my thumb to Mexico” Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Flatpicking Guitar Hats, T-shirts and stickers
COMPANION CASSETTES Ideal Learning Tool!
Five 90-minute tapes (100 tunes each) Played by Adam on Guitar Lead on Right – Rhythm on Left $13.95 each, or $59.95 for complete set plus $1 per tape/$2.50 per set p&h
AVAILABLE FROM:
Granger Publications, Inc. Dept. FG • P.O. Box 26115 Shoreview, MN 55126 (800) 575-4402 VISA/MC
CALL OR WRITE FOR OUR CATALOG!
THESE BOOKS AVAILABLE SOON FROM GRANGER PUBLICATIONS
Rhythm Guitar How to Practice with the Metronome Fiddle Tunes and Variations 61
Sierra Home Video SHV 1001 Muleskinner Live the Original Television Soundtrack Seirra 6001 Muleskinner A Potpourri of Bluegrass Jam Seirra CXD 6009
Review by Joel Stein By now, the story is that of legend. In early 1973, ddler Richard Greene is hired by a public TV station to assemble a group of young gifted bluegrass musicians (read: saleable to a young rock educated audience) to record a show with bluegrass father Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. Greene brings in some of the nest pickers (young or old) with solid credentials in both the rock and bluegrass worlds:guitarist Clarence White (Kentucky Colonels, the Byrds, session player), vocalist and guitarist Peter Rowan (veteran of Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, Earth Opera), mandolinist David Grisman (New York Ramblers,Red Allen, Earth Opera), banjoist Bill Keith (Bluegrass Boys, various New York bands).But the fates conspires to keep Monroe from making the show due to a broken bus. But as the saying goes, the show must go on, and after a few quick hours worth of rehearsal on it went. What had been planned as a one shot deal became a week long gig at the Ash Grove in Hollywood and led to a record deal with Warner Brothers. The TV show was aired a few times, and Warners released one record over one year after it was recorded only to have it go 62
out of print nearly as quickly (it was rereleased by Ridge Runner, only to get cut out once again). Muleskinner the band and ultimately the legend was born. For years, it was thought that the original tapes from the TV taping were lost. Now, thanks to the diligence of Sierra and Michelle White Adkins, the original broadcast half hour program have been found, restored and re-released. The video is a eye opener. All the musicians had played together in various combinations previously and clearly they respected one another. Watching them rip through bluegrass standards like “Dark Hollow”, “Red Rocking Chair”, “Blackberry Blossom”, and the hottest version of “Orange Blossom Special” this side of Scotty Stoneman, make you feel like you’re the proverbial y on the wall. Watch closely and you can see the nod from one player to the next as to where to take a solo. Listen closely and you can hear Rowan sing a different line than White on “Dark Hollow” only to recover with a master’s grace. Performance videos can tend to drag. Not here. Neatly edited into a quick paced half hour of music, Watching Grisman bob in and out, the lanky Greene bending in and around to get to the mike to solo. As for White, we get to see him take four solos with great shots of his right hand technique, including adding his ngers to a neat little at picking solo. His playing on this session was controlled, tasteful and very economical. The companion CD to the live performance includes all the material originally recorded at the session. As a result, we get a glorious version of White’s showpiece “I Am A Pilgrim” with White leading the song off a killer solo. It’s nearly ve minutes of auditory heaven. Also included on the disc are the complete version of “New Camptown Races” (heard over the opening titles of the video) and stunning vocal performance of “Sitting Alone in the Moonlight”, with Maria Mulduar joining on harmony, “Going To The Races” and “Eighth Of January”. In all, both live releases allow us to listen in on a group of great players whose lives and careers were intertwined in a loose jam session. The initial release was in a ridiculous long pack cd holder which would not t on a shelf with other cd’s. Thankfully, Seirra has repackaged Live in a conventional jewel bax format. The studio release of Muleskinner
is a very different affair. Where the live session emphasized acoustic and traditional styled music, Muleskinner, A Potpourri Of Bluegrass Jam, owes as much to the Byrds and country rock as it does Bill Monroe. White blazes on his patented tele hot rodded with a string bender. Keith adds pedal steel and a drummer is also added. Only two songs are repeated from the live sessions, “Dark Hollow” and Grisman’s inventive (and then mind blowing) “Opus 57 in Gm”. The latter offers great insight into the playing of White and the band.” Opus 57” was one of the first released example of what Grisman calls DAWG music. It’s a harmonically complex tune that would be difcult to just pick up and come up with a great solo. On the live version, Keith and Greene join Grisman in turning in hot solos. Greene who played in various combos with Grisman weave in and out of each others lines with grace like old teammates at a reunion. Live, White stayed in the background not taking a solo. On the studio version, having had the time to learn the tune, White turns in a authoritative take on the head of the tune leading to a cascade of Greene’s fiddle before resolving with Keith’s banjo. The studio release came out about a year after the tragic death of Clarence White. The dedication on the record reads “This album is dedicated to Clarence White, a virtuoso human being and guitarist.” The re-release of these afrms the legacy of one of the nest guitarists ever to pick up a at pick. The rest of the band ain’t bad either. For guitar fans, these are must haves. Now if only Grisman, legendary for taping his performances has some additional tapes of these guys...
Flatpicking Guitar
will be at Wintergrass at the Sheraton Hotel in Tacoma, WA, Feb 20-23 and at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, NC, April 17-20 Come Visit Our Booth!
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Video Tape Reviews Doc’s Guitar Jam © 1995 Vestapol Productions
Review by Mike Wright This 60-minute video was recorded at the 1992 Merle Watson Festival in Wilkesboro, NC. The rst ten songs are done by Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Dan Crary, Steve Kaufman, and Jack Lawrence. It really does seem to be a fairly spontaneous jam session, with both the excitement and the failings of any unplanned (or partially planned) musical event. There are some exciting and memorable solos, and there are some of those interesting little failures of communication. You know— the kind where someone yells, “Take it, Fred” and Fred thought it was going to be Bob’s turn next. Still, that’s not so bad. Sometimes the most satisfying thing in the world is to discover that someone you thought was superhuman can blow a break, lose track of where the soloist is in a song, or forget the words to a vocal. On the other hand, there is a tremendous amount of atpicking on this tape. With the exception of “St. Anne’s Reel”, with all the solos coming from Steve and Jack, and “Lime Rock”, with Dan and Steve taking turns, the rest of the rst ten tunes have breaks by every one of the ve pickers. That’s a lot of breaks, with not one repeat. It’s not uncommon to hear only one or two versions of any given tune. As we listen to the same albums over and over, we get to thinking that a particular version is the standard. This tape really shows how many ways there are of coming up with unique Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
solos. I think that may be its greatest value, aside from the sheer pleasure of the music itself. The tape is certain ly not perfec t. In particular, Dan Crary’s guitar is so quiet that it is sometimes hard to tell just what he is playing. Tony Rice is also a bit hard to hear sometimes. By contrast, Steve Kaufman and Jack Lawrence are almost always bright and clear. Perhaps it’s because I'm so familia r with Doc, Dan, and Tony, but I found the playing of Steve Kaufman and Jack Lawrence particularly fresh and innovative. Having been to a Kaufman workshop, I knew how good he was, but Jack’s playing in this session was a revelation. I saw him playing with Doc once several years ago, but he didn’t step out much, concentrating instead on making Doc shine. The same goes for the few times I’ve seen him with Doc on TV. I had no idea how good he was. This time he plays more for himself, and it is truly amazing. He plays lots of jazzy, bluesy licks and chromatic runs, but it always sounds appropriate in the context of traditional music, never either cliche-ridden or strange. In addition to the ve-hero jam session, Doc appears with some other performers on the last three songs. “On What Does The Deep Sea Say”, Alan O’Bryant plays banjo and sings a great tenor, while David Grisman plays mandolin. On “Ramshackle Shack”, T. Michael Coleman plays bass and sings tenor, and we get a guitar lead-in from Doc, a banjo break from Bela Fleck, a guitar break from Jack Lawrence, a twin mandolin break from Roland White and Tim O’Brien, a dobro break from Jerry Douglas, and a ddle break from Mark O'Connor. Finally, on “Wildwood Flower”, we get back to a flatpicking jam, with breaks from Tony, Steve, Jack, and Doc. There’s even a nice twin guitar break by Doc and Jack. It’s understandable that it’s hard to track who is taking a break during a live jam session, but the camera work was still less than wonderful, especially on the rst ten songs. It’s bad enough that we get to watch Tony Rice play backup while Dan Crary takes a hot break, but I really started to get upset during “St. Anne’s Reel” as the camera showed not only Doc’s and Steve’s faces, but even Doc’s feet. From other video reviews in this magazine, it seems like some colleges should start offering courses in the lming of atpick guitar concerts and workshops. The simplest and most useful rule for lming right-handed atpickers would be, “If it’s not a left hand, the camera should not be
March/April 1997
pointing at it.” That alone would greatly increase the chances of seeing something that matches what we are hearing. The songs: Ragtime Annie Blue Ridge Mountain Blues St. Anne's Reel More Pretty Girls Than One Walk On Boy Little Sadie Black Mountain Rag Lime Rock Billy In The Lowground Going Down This Road Feeling Bad What Does The Deep Sea Say Ramshackle Shack Wildwood Flower Distributed by: Rounder Records One Camp Street Cambridge, MA 02104
Instructional Material Reviews Doc’s Guitar Fingerpicking and Flatpicking Taught by Doc Watson © 1991 Homespun Tapes Ltd.
Review by Mike Wright This video was produced by Smithsonian/ Folkways and Homespun Video. The stated purpose was to document Doc’s guitar playing for future generations. I guess it does that about as well as one could expect for a mere 90-minute tape. The tape seems to be a re-creation of one 63
Subscribe to
Flatpicking Guitar Call 800-413-8296 64
or more workshops held earlier at the Merle Watson Memorial Festival. The late Ralph Rinzler, Pete Seeger, and Mike Seeger do some narration and ask Doc a variety of questions about his playing, simulating audience interaction. Jack Lawrence provides guitar backup on many numbers, while Mike Seeger and Kurt Sutphin add banjo and fiddle on a few songs. Doc sings all the vocals, while some of the others provide harmony singing where appropriate. Doc atpicks on only the last ve of the twelve songs, but Jack Lawrence does discuss his atpicking backup on two of the fingerpicking songs, “Georgie” and “Southbound”, as well as doing some excellent backup and lead work on the atpicked ddle tunes. After “Southbound”, Jack sums up his backup technique as listening to what the other person is playing and trying to stay out of his way. It seems to work for Jack and Doc. There are three ddle tunes. The rst two, “East Tennessee Rag” and “Beaumont Rag” are done as a medley. After playing them a couple of times each at normal speed, Doc plays through each one at a slower pace, explaining as he goes. Then, Jack goes over his break to “Beaumont Rag”. Jack also spends some time discussing the short "break" that comes in the middle of the crosspicking in the B part, demonstrating a couple of interesting little fragments, one similar to one of Clarence White's and another that can only be described as “interesting”. Doc starts out “Black Mountain Rag” in D (C position with the capo on the 2nd fret). Then Jack does it in A (G position at the 2nd fret). Again, they go over their breaks a bit more slowly, with some discussion of the details. After that, they do some twin picking that Doc refers to as “country counterpoint”. Then, Doc sings “Way Downtown”. He and Jack both take breaks. Mike Seeger plays some three-nger banjo on this one and also gets a break. At this point, Doc and Jack take a minute out to discuss how they hold their atpicks and how they use their right hands. Then, Doc demonstrates some end-of-line lls and shows his upthe-neck break slowed down. Next, Doc and Mike recreate Clarence Ashley’s version of “The Cuckoo”, with Doc singing the vocals and Mike doing a pretty fair version of Ashley’s frailing in G dorian mode tuning (gDGcd). Doc capos
on the third fret and plays out of E minor position. Doc was the rst person I ever heard play this kind of music on the guitar, and it still sounds great. The last number is “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”, done in the old string band style with Doc on guitar, Mike on banjo, and Kurt Sutphin on ddle. Breaks are pretty much done in unison, with Doc providing the bottom, rather than soloing in the more modern Bluegrass manner. No need to mention the quality of Doc’s playing—it was up to his usual standards. Jack Lawrence was amazing. His style is most denitely his own, with lots of neat chromatic runs and jazzy licks, but he and Doc never clash musically. The contrasts between them add a lot to the overall interest of their music. I was a bit disappointed in the banjo on “Way Downtown”. It was too loud and seemed to interfere with hearing the details of what the guitars were doing. However, it was denitely integral to the last two songs. Since I love Doc, I liked the video—even the fingerpicking parts. However, I was very disappointed in the camera work. While the split screen worked quite well in a couple of places, there were lots of glitches. The camera spent way too much time on faces and right hands. When I watch a atpicking workshop, I want to see the right hand during the discussion of picking technique, and never again. I never want to see the performer’s face at all. I just want to see that left hand! Another typical problem was when Doc shouted, “Get it, Jack!”, and Jack really got it, and all along, the camera remained pointing at Doc, who was playing excellent, but not remarkable, backup. Still, the music is enjoyable on its own, and there are things that can be learned from this tape. Homespun Tapes Box 694 Woodstock, NY 12498
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Gear Review Fossil Walrus Ivory Review by Bryan Kimsey Many mid-upper price range instruments come standard with synthetic nuts, saddles, and/or bridge pins. Some of these synthetics are better than others at transmitting string vibrations to the guitar body, but nearly all can be improved upon by using high-quality bone or ivory. Getting good bone is no problem, but getting ivory is, since elephant ivory is now banned and most other so-called "fresh" ivory is tightly contro lled. One alter native, however, is fossil ivory which comes from longdead mammoths and walruses. I recently obtained some fossil walrus ivory from John Mickelson, luthier and humorously self-proclaimed "Fossil Walrus Ivory King", and was able to compare a fossil ivory setup to one of bone nut and saddle and ebony bridge pins on two guitars. With the bone and ebony setup, one guitar (a 1993 Martin "1935 Special" HD-28) sounded very good, but neeed a little clarity in the low end. Some stronger highs would be a nice bonus, too, since the guitar was very bassy and needed some cutting power. And nally, even though this was already a loud guitar, more volume is always a desirable thing for acoustic guitars. Fossil walrus ivory is claimed to deliver these sonic properties; I was skeptical, but willing to try it, so I sent Mickelson some measurements of my guitar's nut and saddle and waited. The other guitar was a newly acquired used Collings Clarence White which came to me with an ivory saddle and nut, but ebony bridge pins. In the process of settin g up this guitar, I installed a bone saddle and later replaced it with one made from Mickelson's ivory. When my packa ge arrived , I was immediately impressed with the beauty of the ivory. The nut was polished to a high gleam and had a real depth of color to it. The raw saddle blank was full of brown streaks and yellowish tints. The real winners of the beauty contest, though, were the bridge pins, produced by CNC machinery and polished to a gleam which matched the nut. Deep browns and enamel rings swirl in and out of the pins giving them a lot of visual appeal. Since the bridge pins are Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
by Bryan Kimsey unslotted, you (or your local luthier) must slot the bridge of the guitar. This produces a better string to bridge contact than slotted bridge pins and is worth doing. After all the ivory was installed, I strung up the guitars. My rst impression was that the sound of the 35 Reissue was much more robust. Previously, it was a loud guitar, but the sound didn't seem to have much power. With the ivory installed, the sound seemed much more powerful and seemed to project with more force. The overall volume went up slightly and was now equally as loud as the Collings, particularly on rhythm. The bass cleared up and the trebles did indeed seem more powerful, although these were lesser effects compared to the general robustness. I noticed the back of the guitar vibrating more strongly than with the bone/ebony setup, indicating that more vibrations were being captured. Replacing the ebony bridge pins in the Collings with ivory ones smoothed out the sound, and gave it a bit more power. The bass on the Collings became particularly robust, and the treble strings gained a small bit of sweetness. Overall, the ivory pins took some of the edge off the Colling's brightness, replacing it with a fuller sound. Later, I tried a bone saddle for awhile while adjusting the guitar's action and when I switched back to an ivory one, I again noticed this smoothing effect. Proponents of ivory claim that the increased mass of ivory is A Good Thing, while opponents claim that the increased mass merely deadens the sound. Others state a sort of cross-hypothesis, that the mass is incidental and it's really the acoustic properties of the material that matter. The bridge pins were the heaviest part of the system so, after playing the guitar for awhile, I pulled the ivory pins out of the 35 Reissue and replaced them with un-slotted ebony ones (also supplied by Mickelson in identical sizes as the ivory). It was a subtle change, but the ebony pins seemed to provide a bit treble edge and perhaps a slightly punchier, although rougher, sound. The back did not seem to vibrate as much with ebony pins as with ivory. After playing with ebony pins for an hour or so, I put the ivory back in and liked them better. Besides the sonic properties, the ivory just looks good to my eye.
March/April 1997
Was it worth the cost? On a high-quality guitar in which you can hear the ivory's effect, the answer is "denitely", although the ivory is not cheap. The nut and saddle blank cost $20 each, and the bridge pins were $95. Non-slotted ebony pins run $25 (and these are quite a step up from garden variety pins). I did the installation myself; if you have a luthier install everything, expect an additional bill of $50 or so. A less expensive route would be to go with a nut and saddle and ebony pins, and get the ivory pins later. On the other hand, you can transfer the pins should you sell a particular guitar and thus keep them forever. The ivory improved both guitars and made me happier with the sound, and that's the bottom line. Mickelson is very accomodating in providing what the customer wants. His standard pin shape is bigger and more dome-topped than I prefer, and after some discussion as to what I wanted, he produced a pin with exactly the shape I wanted and which is now a part of his regular line. In addition, the "rough-shaped" nut he sent me for the 35 Reissue t with just a little ling on my part. If you can supply him with precise measurements, he seems willing to supply you with jewelry-quality fossil walrus ivory parts for your guitar. Sources: John Mickelson PO Box 226 Seldovia, AK 99663 65
Vintage Voice
by Buddy Summer
It has often been said that every cloud has a silver lining. During October of 1995 a low pressure area named Hurricane Opel struck the southeast coast of the United States on the Georgia coast, proceeded inland a few miles and then turned north bound up the eastern seaboard, as most hurricanes do. The high winds and dark clouds associated with Hurricane Opel made their way as far inland as the Great Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee. These dark clouds had a “pure gold” lining for many of us guitar enthusiasts. Several four to ve hundred year-old Adirondack Spruce trees growing at the higher elevations of their protected environment in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park were blown over by the high winds associated with the dark clouds and Hurricane Opel. Normally the “dead wood” in a National Park is “protected” as is everything else in a national park. Several of these prized Adirondack Spruce trees happened to have fallen across US Highway 441 that meanders through the National Park and closed this main highway through the Smokies. These trees had to be removed to re-open a main highway . . . US 441. Blalock Construction Company, a local construction company, had a contract with the United State Park Service to keep these local highways through the mountains passable so they proceeded to clear these fallen trees from the highway. The portion of the trees that were blocking US 441 were removed in log form by Blalock Construction Company and hauled from the removal site to their ofce location in Sevierville, Tennessee, where they were unloaded in the back of Blalock’s parking lot. Their plan was to send the logs to a sawmill to be sawn in to lumber for new home construction. This story of the downed trees blocking US Highway 441 through the Smokey Mountains and the removal of the trees by Blalock Construction Company was 66
published in the Knoxville, Tennessee News-Sentinel newspaper. John Arnold of Newport, Tennessee, read this newspaper article. John has been referred to as “the maestro of old Martins” and I don’t know of anyone who knows them better then he does. John has a wood processing shop as well as a guitar building and repair shop at his home and does very high quality, professional work. As you might have guessed by now, John got in touch with his associate and fellow master craftsman, Ted Davis of Loudon, Tennessee, and the two of them made arrangements with Blalock Construction to obtain the logs stored in the back parking lot. Arnold and Davis saved approximately one thousand master grade Adirondack Spruce guitar tops from being sawn into new home construction lumber where pine lumber would work just as well. The logs were cut into two foot lengths, split into quarters, loaded into the back of a rented enclosed moving van and transported to John’s and Ted’s wood processing shops. In their respective well-equipped shops, these ne craftsmen re-sawed the Adirondack Spruce quarters into the nest straight-grained, quarter-sawn Adirondack Spruce guitar tops ever to grace a guitar. Highly desirable guitar top wood that had been unavailable since the formation of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park during the Roosevelt Administration of the early 1930’s was all of a sudden converted into approximately one thousand of the highest grade guitar tops ever sawn. The sawn tops were “sticked” (stacked with strips of wood between layers to allow air drying), dried and shipped to both old and established guitar companies and to individual luthiers to be used in construction of some wonderfully sounding new “Red Spruce” top guitars. Being personal friends with both Ted Davis and John Arnold, I was able to convince them that they had two dozen
tops too many and was fortunate enough to purchase their excess two dozen Adirondack Spruce guitar tops. In so far as my wife Nancy and I live at the foot of the Great Smokey Mountains and just an hour’s drive from the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, I feel as if these trees had been growing in our back yard. This gives very special meaning to this “batch” of guitar tops, which are referred to by us local guitar enthusiasts as “The Smokey’s Wood,” to someone who was sold on good sounding guitars many years ago. With these premium tops at long last available, I used my airline retirement privilege of free travel on a “space available” basis, to y out west and purchase several sets of perfectly straight-grained, quarter-sawn Brazilian Rosewood. With this “impossible to nd” combination of rare, premium tone wood, gold engraved open back Waverly tuners were ordered from Stewart-MacDonalds’ Guitar Shop Supply while ten thousand year-old Mastodon Ivory and ancient Walrus Ivory from Alaska was used to craft matching sets of bridge pins, end pins, nuts and saddles. All this unique and special material is in the hands of master craftsmen such as Ted Davis of Loudon, Tennessee, Bob Steinegger of Beaverton, Oregon and Lynn Dudenbostel of Knoxville, Tennessee, who I have commissioned to build the best acoustic instruments built in decades. I’ve also signed contracts with an old, established guitar company that’s been in business since 1833 to custom build $98,000.00 worth of guitars using this same “Smokey’s Wood” for the top construction. My feelings are that quality will always be in demand and that high quality will always be in high demand. All these Adirondack Spruce top, high quality guitars are scheduled for delivery in 1997. So as you can see, 1997 should be one of the most exciting of my fty-
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
ve years. That comes from a fellow who served as First Pilot aboard a Boeing 727, multi engine, turbojet, airline transport category-type aircraft for one of our nation’s leading airlines for years and has had some pretty exciting years before. Quality guitars are very exciting and can add that special dimension to one’s life. Continuing with elaborating on the Vintage Guitar checklist, which has been the main topic of “Vintage Voice” in the last couple issues of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine: Vintage Guitar checklist Item #7: Check saddle, bridges, bridge pins and endpin. The bridge area of the guitar top is a critical area. The principle involved is to create an acoustical chain where as the string vibration is transferred to the guitar top through the saddle and bridge. All links of this acoustical chain must be strong in order to produce good tone and volume. When one acoustical link is weak, such as a loose bridge or a saddle that is made of too soft of a material, the whole principle is destroyed. The complete guitar top is nished with lacquer and then the lacquer is removed from the area where the bridge is to be glued. Therefore, the raw wood of the bridge is glued to the raw wood of the top to form a strong union of these two pieces of wood for a permanent bond. Over time and under adverse conditions, the glue weakens and the bridge loosens. A business card is often a good tool to check for a loose bridge. A bridge that is too large interferes with the top vibrating as desired. The vintage Martin bridges on Dreadnought size guitars were one inch wide at the bridge wings, six inches long and not excessively thick to allow for maximum top vibration. In early 1965, martin Guitars changed from the longer “through” saddle to the shorter saddle more commonly used on their bridges since that time. Occasionally the bridge will develop a hairline crack between the bridge pin holes and will need to be repaired. Super glue and dust of the same type wood of the bridge is used to seal and color this hairline crack and if repaired “early on” this bridge crack repair is adequate. The color of the bridge pin dots and the end pin dot should match the pickguard color on vintage Martins. The end pin should be removed and checked for condition. Some older guitars have a “hump” in the bridge area of the guitar top. This may have been caused Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
from using heavy gage strings that needed to be tightened excessively in order to bring the string up to standard 440 pitch. It may also have had some influence in the decision being made to discontinue the scalloped braced guitars in late 1944. Likewise, to add the “use medium or lighter strings only” stamp on the main back brace of the scalloped braced guitars when they were re-introduced in 1976. When this “hump” in the guitar top exists, the top has usually pulled away from the braces and the guitar needs what is referred to as a “belly job.” Any condition that exists which interferes with the vibration of the guitar top lessens the acoustic value of the guitar and needs to be corrected. Vintage Guitar checklist Item #8: Check inside the box for original braces, position of “x” braces, tone bars, bridge plate, neck and end blocks. Check serial number on neck block with serial number code card to determine year of construction. Determine that serial number has not been changed or covered over with a new number and that neck block is beveled as it should be. Check the long, at brace inside the box that runs from the neck block to the end block on the guitar back. Smell inside the box. In constructing the guitar top, which is approximately .1” thick, the idea is to construct it lightly enough that it vibrates well so as to produce good tone and volume yet heavy enough so as to be structurally sound. When the guitar top is of the right wood, sawn and constructed properly, it’s a sure winner. The top is subjected to considerable stress caused by the pulling force of the strings. On a steel-stringed guitar this force can be as great as 180 to 190 pounds. Since the strings pulling force is linear and parallel to the guitar top’s wood grain this destructive force is lessened considerably. The bridge and saddle raise the strings above the top and acts like a lever and twists at the top causing the top to be torqued or twisted in the middle. This torquing presents the greatest potential for top damage. Therefore, a bridge pad was added on the underside of the top directly under the bridge. This bridge pad combats this torquing action and adds strength to the top. Also glued to the underside of the top is a vast array of wood supports that is doing a lot of the important work of keeping the top together. These braces, bridge plates, tone bars, etc., need to be inspected, using a flashlight and mirror
March/April 1997
67
on an extendible handle, to determine that they are original and structurally sound. If found to be loosened, broken or of the wrong size, they need to be reglued, replaced or repaired. A bridge pad larger than it needs to be lessens the top’s ability to vibrate and diminishes the guitar’s sound. The end edges of the neck and end block of a Martin Guitar are cut at a 45° angle and are symmetrical. When the front of the neck block has been shaved down to remove the model and serial number, the angles are no longer 45° and symmetrical. A very thin strip of mahogany, the type wood used for the blocks, with a model and serial number already stamped on it, could be glued over the existing model and serial number without altering the appearance of the neck block. The neck block, model and serial number of a questionable guitar needs to be examined very carefully under full light. The serial number should be conrmed with the use of a serial number code card. The long, at brace that runs from the neck block to the end block is positioned over the seam where the two-piece back is glued together. This brace bears a “C.F. Martin & Co. - Nazareth, PA.” stamp. About 1960 a “Made in the U.S.A.” stamp was added to this stamp and an additional “use medium or lighter strings only” stamp was added to this brace on Martin’s scalloped braced guitars when they were reintroduced in 1976. As a general rule, the nose knows. An old guitar should smell “musty” inside the box. It should be free of a new wood smell or a fresh glue smell. If it smells old, it’s probably old. One’s senses of sight, sound, feel and smell all play an important part of inspecting a vintage guitar. Until the next issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, thank you for a allowing me this opportunity. I look forward to sharing my
Visit
Flatpicking Guitar on the Internet http://www.atpick.com
68
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Irish Rythm Guitar Basics by John McGann
In learning any style of music, listening should be the primary focus. I’ve had several students ‘learn’ Irish music by picking up O’Neills Music of Ireland (a great source book for tunes) and playing the tunes note perfectly from the paper, a seemingly correct but very wrong approach. There are too many subtleties in the feel of the music which can’t be notated, and many ornaments that can be notated, but aren’t, for the sake of leaving the skelton of the tune intact for the player to ‘esh out’ with their own expression. If you use the written melody as a basic guide, then listen to three different recordings, you are likely to hear three different views of the tune, each with it’s uniquely beautiful ornamentation and feel. This kind of research is part of the fun of getting to know a style of music. The guitar is a relatively recent addition to the ‘traditional Irish’ instruments; in fact evidently the music was played for years with no chordal accompanyment. Today you can still nd sessions where everyone is playing the melody, with no chords or harmony lines involved. Fortunately there are great recordings where you can hear the guitar accompanyment very well; the first recordings I heard were on the Shanachie label, featuring guitarist (and singer-songwriter) Paul Brady paired with fiddlers Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds. He played in standard tuning or dropped D on most of that album, friendly to standard tuning-calibrated ears. The DADGAD tuning has really become popular in the past 20 years, and many people think of it as the ‘standard Irish tuning’. While it produces beautiful sounds, and I do use it on occasion, I’ve preferred to stay in standard or dropped D tuning as I feel I can emulate many of the open sounds of DADGAD and still retain the ability to change keys without fear ; I’m also interested in developing an individual style within the tradition, and feel I can do it more comfortably in standard tuning. A few other great players to listen to in addition to Paul Brady are Daithi Sproule, Mick Moloney, Arty McGlynn , Jed Foley, Randall Bays and Mark Simos. Listen to as many as you can; I apologize to those I left out. Like myself, many of you are probably Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
grounded in American traditional styles of guitar and looking to expand into Irish music. Many writers have drawn parallels between bluegrass and Irish music, and while Bill Monroe did claim Scots/Irish musical inuences, there are some important differences to be aware of. One of the rst instincts for a bluegrass rhythm guitarist is to assume the ‘boom-chick’ bass/chord pattern. This sound is the dead giveaway of a guitarist not steeped in Irish music. Kevin Burke described the difference as being that Irish guitar was ‘more like a brush, stroking sound across the background’ rather than the clearly dened bass/chord sound. In creating this ‘wash of sound’, it’s important to keep a loose, relaxed right hand. To hear the difference, try this voicing in dropped D (lower the 6th string a whole step): 000235 (read low to high - see chord chart). This chord emulates the sound of DADGAD tuning, where the home base D chord contains only the notes D and A, the root and fth of the chord. The absence of a third (which would define the chord as major or minor) gives the voicing a rich, open sound. Strum across the whole chord (downstroke) on beat one, then a downstroke followed by an upstroke on beat two. Repeat this pattern as beats 3 and 4. This will give you a basic feel, to which you can add an occasional down/up/down/up (example 2). You can freely alternate between these two feels. By changing just a few notes, we can get the IV and V chords very easily: 020035 gives us a “G”, technically a G add9; x02035 gives an “A” (technically an A7 sus4). For the Em we can play 222000, which is equivalent to a standard tuned Em. These voicings are not ‘ traditional’, they are just my take on the situation- a nice, open, droney effect- and should not
Example 1:
œ œ œ œ œ œ # 4 œ œ œ œ œ & # 4 œ œ œ œ œ œœ ≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ 1
5 3 2
= down stroke
March/April 1997
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
Example 2:
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ 4 œ œ œ œ œ & # 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ 1
5 3 2
= down stroke
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
5 3 2
= up stroke
be confused with a ‘standard, traditional’ practice which would stick to the basic triad voicings in standard tuning. You can apply the chord voicings to the tune we worked on last month, “Drowsy Maggie,” as follows: A section: D A /D / D A / G A/ D A/ D/ D/AD B section: Em/ Em D/ Em/ Em G/ Em/ Em D/ Em/ Em A Chord Chart: DADG BE
DA DG BE
DADG BE
D
G
A
DADGB E
Em
Next time, we’ll look at the traditional tune “Jennie’s Chickens” which I recorded with Celtic Fiddle Festival. John McGann is the 1986 National Flatpicking Champion (mandolin) and 1985 2nd place winner for both guitar and mandolin. He has performed and recorded a variety of music with Beacon Hillbillies, Celtic Fiddle Festival, Matt Glaser, Frank Ferrell, Seamus Connolly and others, and has a solo CD “Upslide” featuring a blend of original and Celtic-American roots music, on Green Linnet. You can hear his take on Irish rhythm guitar on the Green Linnet “Celtic Fiddle Festival” CD with Kevin Burke, Johnny Cunningham and Christian LeMaitre, as well as ex-Cherish the Ladies singer-songwriter Cathie Ryan’s debut album on Shanachie. He also has a technique and transcription website at: http://world.std.com/~jmcgann
= up stroke
69
The 1997 Winter NAMM Show - What’s New The winter 1997 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show was held January 16-19 in Anahiem, California. The show gives music manufacturers an opportunity to display their products for music store owners and distributors. The most exciting part of this event for attendees has always been having the opportunity to get a first peek at the year’s newest products and innovations. Here are a few of the atpicking related items that were introduced this year:
25 and 1/4 inch scale length, a Brazilian rosewood headstock overlay, gold Waverley tuners, custom neck profile, and a headstock and ngerboard that are bound in a three layer ivoroid/black/ivoroid binding. Additionally, this new model incorporates a series of radiuses in a new bracing pattern which helps the guitar’s projection and structural integrity. Santa Cruz owner Richard Hoover says that he has been working on the development of this new design for about the past ten years.
Santa Cruz Guitar Company Introduces the New Tony Rice Professional Model
New Faux Tortoise Shell Picks
The Santa Cruz Guitar Company now offers two versions of its popular Tony Rice model dreadnought, the standard Tony Rice model and the Tony Rice Professional. The Professional is exactly like the guitar Tony plays, with all of the trimmings. In fact, the guitar Santa Cruz displayed at the show was the newest Santa Cruz model made personally for Rice. It features Brazilian Rosewood back and sides, German spruce top, a through saddle, wider bridge pin spacing, a 4 and 9/16 inch sound hole, a
Luthier John Greven of the Greven Guitar Company has developed a new pick material designed to simulate the look and feel of tortoise shell. Greven says that it took him about two years to come up with a resin that would have the color, flex, hardness, and feel of real tortoise shell picks. The design is still in the prototype phase and Greven is seeking feedback from players. If you are interested in giving the new Tor-Tis atpicks a try, call Turtle Works R&D at 812-334-2853.
Santa Cruz introduces the new Tony Rice Professional model
Experimental Guitar Strings W. L. Gore and Associates, Inc,. of Flagstaff, Arizona, have introduced a new coated guitar string which they claim has a longer life than conventional strings, reduces fret wear, reduces string squeak, and increases playing comfort. The wound strings are coated with a “high technology, ultra-light” coating which is said to protect them from the contamination of perspiration, body oils, and dirt.
Dix Bruce, Jim Nunally, and Steve Kaufman entertained at Mel Bay’s 50th Anniversary Party 70
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
Tacoma Guitar Company’s New “Papoose” Tacoma Guitar Company has introduced the new Papoose, a tenor voiced small guitar co-developed by George Gruhn. The Papoose has a 19.1” scale. With a standard tuning in A it is the equivalent of having a capo on the fth fret of a regular guitar. The back, sides and neck of the guitar are Honduran mahogany. The guitar has a solid cedar top and a mandolin style bracing pattern. The bridge and ngerboard are rosewood. The Papoose also features an offset asymmetrical soundhole, lexan pickguard, and “StringEZ” string slots. George Gruhn and Michael Dresdner of Tacoma worked to create a travel/child size guitar and yet not sacrice sound quality and volume in the process. Tacoma shys away from calling the Papoose a “travel guitar” because the sound quality is such that it could be used in recording or on stage when the tenor voicing is desired. The Papoose lists for $399.
Taylor’s New Look
David Grier endorses the new “Papoose” from Tacoma Guitars
The Taylor Guitar Company has modified the look of their dreadnought line by slightly slopping the shoulders and rounding the bouts. Bob Taylor feels that the smaller, softer shape is more modern and aesthetically pleasing than the traditional dreadnought. The new shape is the only thing that has been modified, all other features and specifications remain the same.
Smart Start Guitar: Guitar Instruction for Kids Homespun Tapes, Hal Leonard Publishing, and Taylor Guitars have joined forces behind guitar instructor Jessica Baron Turner to produce a new and exciting guitar instructional package for children. The package includes an instructional video, book, and CD and will be available wherever Taylor Guitars are sold. Turner, who published an instruction book with Hal Leonard in 1995, has been developing her guitar instruction method for kids for the past 15 years. After introducing the “Baby Taylor” last year, Taylor became very interested in sponsoring a program which would get the guitars in the hands of children in schools, community centers, and other group children’s programs. With the backing of Taylor, Homespun, and Hal Leonard, Turner revised and added to her instructional materials in order to present an easy, progressive program presented in child-friendly language. Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
The Intellitouch Tuner
Flatpicking at NAMM
The OnBoard Research Corporation, a U.S. manufacturer of musical instrument accessories, announces the Intellitouch Tuner, a new electronic touch-tuner that “feels” the pitch from musical instruments and displays tuning information via a revolutionary back-lighted liquid crystal display. Features include a exible method of touching the instrument and a unique display design. The tuner, which clamps onto the instrument, requires no wires, no microphones and no silence to tune in any and all environments. The clamp is designed to be attached and removed with one hand. Its exibility allows maximum visibility of the display regardless of where it is attached to the instrument. The tuner requires no contact-surface maintenance. Visit http:// www.tuners.com or call (214) 741-2900 for more information.
Aside from all of the atpicking which sporadically occurred when flatpickers were trying out the latest guitar models at the guitar builder booths, such as Gallagher, Collings, Taylor, Santa Cruz, and Martin, NAMM attendees were also treated to some great atpicking showcases. The duo Dix Bruce and Jim Nunally played at the Mel Bay 50th anniversary party on Thursday night, and Steve Kaufman performed a solo set at the same show. Dan Crary was featured at a special Taylor Guitar show on Saturday night that was given for all of the store owners who carry the Taylor Guitars. At the Mel Bay party, Bruce and Nunally called Kaufman up on stage at the end of their show for a barn burning rendition of “Beaumont Rag.” Kaufman could also be seen picking every afternoon at the Gallagher Guitar booth. On Thursday, David Grier spent the day at the Tacoma booth demonstrating the new Tacoma Papoose.
March/April 1997
The Intellitouch Tuner
71
Flatpicking Guitar Back Issues are Still Available
CLASSIFIEDS Classied 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 51967, Pacic Grove, CA 93950
Instructional Material: IMPROVISATION ON BLUEGRASS GUITAR 70 breaks, 14 techniques, 39 tunes, $17.95 (cassette $8.95) write to: Keith Freedman, 51111 S. Twin Buttes, Salome, AZ 85348 (520) 927-4824, Acoustic Musician Magazine says: “HIGHLY RECOMMENDED” THE GUITAR JAM TAPE: Play leads to “Blackberry Blossom,”“Salt Creek,” and ten other jamming favorites with your complete bluegrass Band-in-a-Box backup cassette! $16.60 ppd. includes tab booklet. Andy Cushing, 6534 Gowanda St. Rd., Hamburg NY 14075 MUSIC THEORY COURSE FOR GUITAR Correspondence Course. Certicate 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] CUSTOM TRANSCRIPTIOIN SPECIALIST Quick free estimates (large catalog/tons of Doc), exact, easy to read, song/solo tab (all styles), digital speed reductions. John Maier, 55 Williams St. Dept FG, Pleasantville, NY 10570, 914-741-6321.
Guitars, Strings, and Accesories: STEVE SWAN GUITARS stocks a wide variety of new and used Santa Cruz guitars. Current Santa Cruz Dreadnought inventory includes Indian Tony Rice, Koa D, Indian 12 fret D, Mahogany 12 Fret D, Indian D, Mahogany Vintage Artist, Quilted Mahogany Vintage Artist. Other dreadnoughts include Brazilian Taylor 810, Martin Custom 15, Martin Golden Era D-18, Brazilian Peter Yelda, Brazilian Collings Clarence White, Brazilian Collings D-2H, Indian Collings D-2H. Call or write for list of other instruments in stock. We specialize in custom orders using our large stock of Figured Mahogany, Kao, Brazilian Rosewood, and German Silver Spruce. Fax or phone (510) 527-1734 or write 1060 Solano Avenue #721, Albany, CA, 94706 for a current stocklist. Visit our shop Monday through Saturday at 437 Colusa Avenue in Kensington, just north of Berkeley. We offer expert repair and restoration by John Mello and Al Milburn. Visit our website at WWW.tonewood.com/ssg or e-mail at
[email protected]
$4.00 per issue plus 50 cents postage per issue
Guitars New and Used. Authorized Dealer for Santa Cruz and Gibson. Also banjos, mandolins and ddles. Discount prices. Call or write for current listing. The Bluegrass Connection, P.O Box 92, Birch River, WV, 26610. Phone: (304) 649-2012
Send Check or Money Order to:
High View Publications P.O. Box 51967 Pacic Grove, CA 93950 or Call 800-413-8296 72
ALLEN GUITARS hand crafted guitars ~ mandolins ~ resophonics “Building tomorrow’s collectable instruments today” Call or write for a free borchure (916) 346-6590 P.O. Box 1883 Colfax, CA 95713 USA
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
ROUTE
Bluegrass CHATMOSS VIDEO PRODUCTIONS, Danville, VA is proud to present the RT. 1 BLUEGRASS SHOW. Available to TV viewers throughout Piedmont Virginia and North Carolina, the show features prominent guests from the area and beyond. Julian Lillard and the RT. 1 BLUEGRASS Band host the 1 hour show. Some of Jullian’s past guests include Wyatt Rice and Santa Cruz, the late Jim Eanes, New Vintage, The Larkin Family, Lost and Found, Clinton Gregory and Bill Vernon. The popularity of the show is ever growing and we at CHATMOSS VIDEO PRODUCTIONS have started producing master videos for various artists.
CHATMOSS VIDEO PRODUCTIONS 12349 Martinsville Highway Danville, Virginia 24541 (804) 685-8255
Also, we are looking for more TV stations whom are interested in carrying our show. INQUIRES INVITED. Performers or interested viewers should call or write to: Rt. 1 Bluegrass 12189 Martinsville Highway Danville, VA 24541 (804) 685-3333, or email us at
[email protected]
SOUVENIERS AND A FULL LINE OF MUSICAL MATERIAL AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR OFFICE. FOR MAILING LIST INFORMATION SEND A SASE TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS.
Sponsored By
Bluegrass
You can see us on these following stations and times: WDRG Ch 24 Danville, VA 5:00 pm Sunday WXIV Ch 14 Reidsville, NC 10:00 am Saturday W57BZ Ch 57 Martinsville, VA 6:00 pm Saturday 10:00
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine
March/April 1997
IF WE’RE NOT SEEN IN YOUR AREA, CONTACT YOUR LOCAL BROADCAST COMPANY
73
