Here are some versions of it on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL1-QQA6L-U (I love the way they all lean in & grin at the end.)
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Gold Rush, The
This is a pretty cool tune that seems to be very popular with bluegrass guitarists. As it should be, I guess--it lays out well on guitar, sounds good, and is fun to play. Key of A (capo 2, G for me).
Thursday, November 25, 2010
John Moore Exercises
Play like Chris Thile, in 50 or 60 very difficult steps! Of which these exercises are one...
I don't know where John Moore got these from, or if he created them, but he's the earliest attribution that I've heard for these.
They are similar to exercises that I've seen on Brad Davis' website. They're played very slowly, and must (!) be played with a strict down-up-down-up-down-up pick motion, regardless of which string is being played when.
Indeed, that's the whole point of these exercises. They are to teach your picking hand to find the correct string regardless of what string it was on before and regardless of whether the previous note was an up or down stroke.
They are effective, in my experience. When I do them faithfully, my pick accuracy improves.
Some notes for success:
1)Start at a very slow tempo. Set your metronome to maybe 90 bpm, and play a downstroke on every click (and an upstroke between clicks). Actually, maybe even slower than 90 bpm at first. Maybe 60 bpm.
2)Don't be in a hurry to speed the metronome up. The point of these exercises is to go slow and force yourself to achieve perfection. Perfect tone, perfect accuracy, perfect timing. This burns the correct actions into your muscle memory. Then, when you do play fast, your picking hand does the right things.
3)Strictly down-up-down-up!
That's all I've got. Here's the link.
Wait, that's not all I've got--Mando players: if you want to use these, ignore the top and bottom strings. Or check the mandozine archives, I think they're in there.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Home Sweet Home rhythm tracks
I like this song. It looks like Abe Lincoln did, too. It's older than I thought (1823, apparently).
Home Sweet Home 240 bpm
And a zip file of all tempos (36.5 MB)
The chords go:
A part
| C | F | C | C | G | G | C | C | (repeat)
B part
| F | F | C | C | G | G | C | C7 |
| F | F | C | C | G | C | C | C |
Here's a video (in D instead of C)
And a zip file of all tempos (36.5 MB)
The chords go:
A part
| C | F | C | C | G | G | C | C | (repeat)
B part
| F | F | C | C | G | G | C | C7 |
| F | F | C | C | G | C | C | C |
Here's a video (in D instead of C)
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Blackberry Blossom rhythm tracks
Blackberry Blossom is another tough one for me to play fast, for some reason. Maybe these rhythm tracks will help me get it down.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Bill Cheatham
Bill Cheatham. The 'B' part on this one has always given me fits. I can fake it, but playing it the way I want it to sound is tough when it's fast. Hopefully these tracks will help.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Foggy Mountain Breakdown
A fellow named Mike let me know that folks at banjohangout.com have been using the backing tracks. I recorded today's tracks hoping they will be useful to the banjo readers I didn't know I had.
This song came up at a jam session a few days ago, and it was blazing fast. I remember thinking at the time that it was probably too fast, but then I got home and listened to Earl Scruggs. It turns out Earl done it very fast, about 310 bpm.
That's a problematically fast tempo for me as a guitarist. It's tough to even strum rhythm at that tempo, much less take a guitar break.
The bluegrass band I played with in Oklahoma did this song sometimes, and while it wasn't quite as fast as Earl's version it was still pretty peppy. I came up with a guitar break that I since let languish, but it was devised especially to be easy to play at very fast tempos while still sounding good. I'm gonna try to remember it and tab it out and post it here.
Recording these rhythm tracks led me to a realization--playing fast rhythm is really good for loosening up your wrist, and will very noticeably increase your comfort in playing faster leads. I'm going to add it to my practice routine now to strum some fast-tempo songs after I get warmed up. (Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Hallelujah I'm Ready and Black Mountain Rag come to mind.)
Anyway, here's the tracks:
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Way Outside the Box
I just started working on a new guitar part I offered to record for a fellow. It's flatpicked, but not anywhere near like what you'd usually think of as flatpicking. It's a piece of orchestral sounding music that will apparently be used in a video game.
It's in the key of Fm (or Ab, I guess), and has some funky changes and fingerings in it. It's a cool sounding tune, though. You can hear the version he recorded with synthesized acoustic guitar here. I'll be recording acoustic guitar to replace the synthesized guitar part (it's the somewhat harpsichorde-ish sounding instrument).
I don't know how long it's been since I've taken on a tune this challenging!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Who Will Sing for Me?
I have some new practice tracks I just finished recording. These are in response to a special request from Niklas in Sweden. (Which is funny, I was just reading a novel set in Sweden. Me and half the world, I guess.)
This song is called "Who Will Sing for Me?". It's been recorded by a lot of people, but it seems like the archetypal recording was by Flatt & Scruggs. The same arrangement is played on the album, "The Three Pickers". The key is Bb--I used G, capo 3. (Sorry, fiddlers and mandos.)
The structure of the song goes like this:
Intro: G G C G G G A7 D G (G)
Verse: G G C G G G A7 D G
Chorus: D G D G G C … G D G
And this pattern is repeated three times. These chords are, of course, relative to the capo.
There is a pause after the C in the chorus. In the Flatt & Scruggs recording, they break time there and pause for a while. I didn't pause as long--I hit the chord and let it ring for the rest of the measure, then came back in. I figured that would be more useful for practicing, since the mp3 can't give you the visual cues that another player would about when to come back in.
This tune has a cool guitar part that Earl Scruggs plays fingerstyle. It reminds me a bit of "Give Me the Roses". I haven't learned how to play it like Earl does, I just kinda approximate it.
I recorded a demonstration of the tune with vocals and fills so you could hear it if it's new to you. The 3 Pickers version is cool, check that one out. The performance tempo is about 185 bpm, so I recorded at tempos on both sides of that.
Extra-curricular; non bluegrassish
I've been working out of this old jazz guitar book by Mickey Baker, "Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar, Volume 1". It gets very hard very fast. Basically, there are a few lessons that introduce how to finger some jazzy chords (maj7, maj6, min7, min6, and the 13b5b9 that I think sounds pretty terrible). Then you're right into Joe Pass style chord solos, which are a bear!
But, yeah, I've been wanting to branch out some more for a while now. This book has no tab, so hopefully it'll make me get better at sight-reading. I'm pretty bad at that.
Mickey doesn't do much explaining about the chords--what makes a chord major or minor, what the extensions mean, when you can substitute which chords for another. He kinda just shows you how to finger it, then says "play this".
Joe Carr's "Western Swing Guitar Styles" is way better at that. It's really quite good at systematically breaking down where you can do different substitutions (but it's not comprehensive--I believe it doesn't cover tritone subs at all). Great book.
Anyhow, here's hoping the Mickey Baker book teaches me some cool stuff. I'm already learning some new fingerings, which is cool. And I learned that 13b5b9 chord, which sounds terrible. It seems like he kind of uses it as a tension-adding diminished type chord.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Soldier's Joy
I've been working on Soldier's Joy lately. Folks at church asked for a mini-concert during an upcoming service (of bluegrass gospel songs). We're planning to play this after the end of the service as everyone walks out. I'm pretty sure no one will recognize it--it's one of the instrumentals that the mando player is most comfortable with.
So, I whupped up some rhythm tracks.
And a zip file with all tempos (36.1 MB)
Chords...
A part:
| D | D | D | A |
| D | D | D A | D |
B part:
| D | G | D | A |
| D | G | D A | D |
Chords...
A part:
| D | D | D | A |
| D | D | D A | D |
B part:
| D | G | D | A |
| D | G | D A | D |
Enjoy.
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