Collings Cowboy,

Thanks for those Europickin' references!

On your recommendation I went to Amazon and listened to the clips of the Bensusan Pres de Paris, then downloaded the whole album.

How did I miss THAT one?? Regards, Mark.

Hey Mark, glad to know you liked that album (are they still called albums?). You really ought to look into his book. It has material from other albums too and quite a lot of interesting stuff besides tab. Recipe for pumpkin soup, anyone? Great value for money.

I'll keep an eye peeled for it, thanks. There are some beautiful pieces for sure!

Deal with me is I have so much else lined up to read/study, music wise and otherwise, that I've made guitar study more of a creative/analytical thing based on ear/intuition and theory and chord charts than an attempt to reproduce. And PB is anything but taken lightly.

Bad combination of busy, lazy and stubborn, that would be me! ML.

I am tyring to learn finger style myself and am working my way through Chet Atkins DVD, with help from my teacher. The easiest pieces are not easy, at least for me, and the hardest I may never get.

I love celtic and some of the old country blues stuff & other blues.

Mississippi John Hurt seems great. Picked up a dvd taught by John Miller. Really just needed a video of someone playing the song and the music. Tony McManus has a great dvd out if your into celtic. One or two tunes in there that I'm also working on. Incredible stuff. I'm going to see him soon. Hope I haven't missed him come to think of it. He lives near me now. North of Guelph on Ontario.

Rick, funny you should bring up your arrangement of Elizabeth Cotton. I have three arrangements. One of her as taught by John Miller (close to how she played), one by Tommy E. and I also have your version (and one other now that I think about it).

I pulled out your version at the crack of dawn today, and said to myself, does it stay or does it go. I have the original one down, and was trying out Tommy's which is a tad challenging. I gave your arrangement a try. Great fun. Really enjoyed it. Very creative. I'm going to learn it top to bottom. Thanks so much.

Eric Lugosch has a great site. Go to the fingerstyle academy and try out various songs. I really like the selection he has included and have worked through two of them. Standing on the Outside was lots of fun.

http://www.ericlugosch.com/lessonhome.html

Stuart

quote:

Originally posted by Stuart:
Rick, funny you should bring up your arrangement of Elizabeth Cotton. I have three arrangements. One of her as taught by John Miller (close to how she played), one by Tommy E. and I also have your version (and one other now that I think about it).

I pulled out your version at the crack of dawn today, and said to myself, does it stay or does it go. I have the original one down, and was trying out Tommy's which is a tad challenging. I gave your arrangement a try. Great fun. Really enjoyed it. Very creative. I'm going to learn it top to bottom. Thanks so much.
Stuart

Stuart, love to hear it when you get it down. It is actually harder to play at tempo than Tommy's arrangement but I think you will enjoy it.
Rick

I bet it is. I'm still becoming proficient as a player, which is a polite way of saying I still suck at the whole game. But I play a lot and am improving all of the time.

But you are right. I have not yet gone over all of the timing with my guitar coach. I will become familiar with the tune first. I do look forward to posting it when I get it down.

I was listening to a bunch of your tunes the other day while making breakfast for the kids. exceptional work.

I'm going to see Andy Sheppard in November. And Tony McManus on NOv 11 at a house concert. Only 40 people. Cool eh. Love sitting right up front and watching & listening.

Stuart

I am a bit new to this. I have been working on the songs from Chet Atkins Homespun DVD. Some of the songs I know I will never get, others are interesting. Maybelle is a nice song.

I also got the 3 DVD set from Jorma (homespun, I think). Water Song is a sweet song that is pretty easy and fun to play. Embryonic Journey is the one I am presently working on and it is also a fun and very pretty song, a bit tougher but not too bad.
I agree that Beatles songs are standands that need to be learned, Yesterday, Blackbird, etc,

Wow. so much. so many great styles. Rev Gary Davis. Chet. Travis. I started learning on Peter, Paul, and Mary stuff in 1965, but blues, beatles and beyond have followed. for beatles tunes, Blackbird (key of G, mostly double-stops on the A and B strings) is way easier than it sounds. My two favorites- about which I'm utterly biased since they were played at our wedding in 1970, scandalizing an Ozark church) are In My Life and Here, There, and Everywhere. The latter is a fingerful- how they thought up that transition to the bridge blows what remains of my mind. tom

"Here, There, and Everywhere" is indeed a beauty. I love to play that number. A couple other Beatles pieces I've been playing lately are "Julia," "I'm so tired," "Strawberry Fields" -- there are so many good ones to choose from (though the latter two are not fingerpicking pieces, at least not originally).

To get back to fingerpicking, I spent the evening learning "Vestapol," which is another beauty, IMO.

Almost anything off of Ry Cooder's 'Into the Purple Valley' and 'Boomers Story". Those two albums taught me everything I needed to know about fingerpicking. And as an added bonus introduced me to open tuned Slide Guitar too...Kerry K