The La Patrie nylon string guitars have become very popular lately, I’m not surprised either, value per dollar they are possible the best I’ve seen around.  

For those Australians that have been waiting a while to get their hands on one because of limited availability, I was in Murwillumbah Music (ph 0266-725404) today in the Northern Rivers, just south of Tweed Heads and the Gold Coast, and North of Byron Bay, I noticed a couple in there.  I’d get one for my son but he’s taken to one of my steel string acoustics, so he’s going to have to wait.

The La Patrie guitars are Canadian, I’m still trying to sort out why they are so cheap.  And no I can’t sell you one but regardless of that, it’s important for people to be aware of what is out there, and as the role of this guitar blog site is to upgrade the standard and bring an awareness, I ,thought it would be nice to post briefly about them.

La Patrie Nylon String Guitars

Where do you go to my lovely when you’re alone in your bed by Peter Sarstedt  If you remember this song you’ll know why I’ve posted it.  I’ve decided to post a couple of nostalgic Youtubes, songs that stand up by themselves that buskers and solo acoustic guitar players and singers would perform. As a soloist it’s always a brilliant tune to throw in every now and then.  No, it’s not part of the Hippy Songs of the Seventies because  everyone could relate to it.  The story line is fantastic, very cutting I guess but very likeable. Note: this tune was from 1969.

There are a couple of videos going around, this one is a touch short but I think is more beautiful than another more recent one. 

At a guess that looks like an old Eko guitar.

Enjoy!

Also, here is the other version

You may also like this San Francisco

Acoustic Guitar song by Don Maclean

Don Maclean arrived on the commercial music scene with his simple guitar and voice in the early seventies.  His ability to paint pictures with his lyrics and tell a tale like a true baladeer is second to none.  This song is perfect in every way and any one that has bothered to learn and play the tune would have probably seen the brilliance in the simplicity of it.

Guitar Blogs, the idea of a Guitar Blog for some people I have met seems a little unusual.  In fact any type of blogging seems crazy to some people.  So I thought Im’d write a small article on why on earth it is important to someone like myself.

Some people consider a Blog as strictly a diary that is in a digital form on the web, and yes that’s /a valid interpretation of a blog but it is only one vrsion of the blog ‘truth’.   I have reasonably high level web skills, because I teach web development for a living, so apart from being a user of web technology, I’m also a teacher of it.  I became interested in Blogs for one simple reason.  People and students that I had ,met were all wanting some sort of web presence, some sort of online place to show what they had.  As I was teaching web design at the time, it seems too complex a challenge for people with limited computer and web skills to put all the pieces together and create websites. Easy if you know how of course.  When I noticed wha was happening at Blogger/ Blogspot (now a Google baby inh the same way that youtube is) I decided it was easier to teach how to use an online Web Application than go through the ins and outs of web development, both the client side and what’s happening at the other end.

So here’s what convinced me about doing Guitar blogs:

The content can easily be updated on a regular basis without having to rebuild or add pages to a site.

It displays in a chronological order, newest content above the oldest.

I can add video, audo and images simply

There are multiple tools for doing specific tasks.

Minimal maintenance.

I can write any content I like and have it fit comfortably into the template.

So instead of writing about my dog, what i had for dinner, what’s the latest at the movies I write specific articles about guitars, acoustic,  blues, fingerstyle, how to play scales, I add youtubes, tips on how to be a better guitar layer.  So really when it comes down to it,’guitar blogs are the obvious solution to what I wish to do, which is, share the information that I have learnt over a 38 year period of plying guitar.  And I still love it as much as when I started 38 years ago when I was 14.

don’t underestimate the content in the articles, there are many here if you click back through the calender on the side bar.  And if you want to see my other very cool blog, go there as well.  The Guitar Player

Major Scales for Guitar are very common and it is truly worth your while learning them. They are not necessarily the absolute best for improvisation, they are useful to help train your ears and to learn what notes fall into particular keys.  I have listed five of the essential ones in the Keys of:

C, G, D, A, and E

Practice them slowly and carefully, concentrate on tone and listen closely.  After a period of time playing guitar, you’ll end up being able to automatically hear a note and play it.  I recommend quietly humming the notes as you play them, this will help you develop the skill of playing what you hear in your head.

How to play Guitar Scales

How to play Major Guitar Scales

To Download the Printable Version, Click on the Link: essential_major_scales

Many people may remember the Grateful Dead and the legendary Jerry Garcia, this youtube video features the Dead Guitarists playing acoustic blues guitar, it’s from the early eighties.  The Dead are big part of musical history.  This acousticblues has a bit of  Country Blues feel.

If you like Jerry Garcia, I have also posted about a youtube of Jerry and David Grisman the brilliant mandolin player doing B B King’s The Thrill is Gone.  Click Jerry Garcia - David Grisman link to see.

Don Ross is an exceptional acoustic guitar player.  It’s almost politically incorrect these days to say ýou should’  but I’ll say it anyway, you should hear this guy. He use a thumbpick and fingers, lots of harmonics hammers and taps with his picking hand, he’s probably one of the most confident players I’ve heard.  He’s one of the many brilliant musicians to have come out of Canada.

Enjoy!

This song is called Michael, Michael, Michael

You might also enjoy Pierre Bensusan, one of Micheal Hedges favorite players

In my previous article about Blues Scales for Guitar I listed five essential blues scales.

The basic Blues Chords to use witrh these scales are:

C Blues = C7, F7, G7 (Please note you could also just use C7 F and G)

G Blues= G7, C7, D7 (Please note you could also just use G7 C and D)

D Blues = D7, G7, A7 (Please note you could also just use D7 G and A)

A Blues = A7, D7, E7 (Please note you could also just use A7 D and E)

E Blues = E7, A7, B7 (Please note you could also just use E7 A and B)

Experienced players would realise that there are many other possible chord patterns that could be used, this article is designed to help players that are new to playing blues and the idea is to keep it reasonably simple.

If you’ve been playing guitar for sometime, and don’t know these simple blues scales, I advise that you get stuck into them straight away.  I’ve done the basic blues scales in five keys: C , G, D, A, and E.  The fingers I’ve used are on one of many possibilities.  If you are new to my site and have played blues scales before, you’ll notice I’ve used some unusual fingerings, this IS intentional.  As a rule guitarists get lazy and sit and meander through scales, running fingers up and down the neck with out too much thought, that way of doing things has little to do with music and a lot to do with mechanics…I can’t stand it.  These fingers are designed to make you think and feel the notes.  Avoid playing like a robot.  you’ll notice that the D scale is moveable, it’s more in the traditional way of playing scales and if you aren’t careful you may find yourself not thinking too much about this one. 

Concentrate, turn of the television, listen to the texture of the notes.  I particularly like the use of open notes in scales, they are tremendous on acoustic guitar.

For Country Blues Scales that are usable over thousands of songs go to:

http://acousticguitarist.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/country-guitar-scales-for-acoustic-guitar/

The Kinks were very famous in the sixties and seventies, often people only think of the song Lola, love it or hate it.  There was a song that I heard in the late sixties that would always make me turn up the radio.  The main rhythm part is on acoustic guitar, but there are some brilliant little guitar lines going on in the background if you take the time to listen closely and some very nice harmonies and oohs filling up the music-scape.  If you missed this song because your grandparents or parents had poor taste in music, it’s worth a listen and would definitely go onto my ‘Best of The Sixties’ album if I were permitted to do a compilation.

To hear another classic song, do yourself a favour, don’t forget your kaftan

Classic song - If you’re going to San Francisco

Jerry Reed is a singer guitarist and songwriter….and even an actor.  He had hits with a song called Guitar Man, a song that Elvis Presley covered,  as well as receiving a Grammy, recording a hit called Amos Moses.  He has apperaed with the legend Chet Atkins and numerous others. 

He’s a sensational country guitarist, his style is easily recognizable. 
About 25years ago I went into a guitar shop to buy a Gibson 335, when I check out new guitars I’ll generally play tunes that involve playing from one end of the fretboard to another.  There’s a song that was written by Stefan Grossman in the style of Jerry Reid.  I played the Grossman tune and when I’d finished, the guitarman callked out from the back of the shop, play some more Jerry Reid, That’s how distunguishable his sound is. 

The information that I write about on this guitar blog site is not strictly for one style or level of musicianship, it is designed to cover all styles, solo as well as accompaniment, fingerstyle as well as plectrum guitar.   This tune makes me laugh… oh yes and the other player of course is… Chet.

Most guitar players have heard of Lighning Hopkins, Muddy Waters, B B King, Robert Johnson but one legendary player that may have slipped past you is Mance Lipscomb.  This tune is the Classic Baby Please Don’t Go.

If you’d like to see Lightning Hopkins doing classic acoustic blues guitar go to:

 http://the-guitarplayer.com/2008/06/27/lightning-hopkins-youtube-blues-guitar/

This youtube video of Jack Johnson is so refreshing to hear, he plays just what’s necessary, simple acoustic rhythm guitar that holds the songs together.  Uncomplicated, melodic, a great lesson for us all when we take it all too seriously and need to come to basics of why we play music. The tune is called Better Together, if you know the name of the harp player please let me know, it’s great accompaniment and it’s an injustice not to mention the harp player.

To see Jack Johnson and Ben Harper together, go to Jack Johnson and Ben Harper

Jose Gonzalez

I don’t usually include many nylon stringers in my posts, but this is worth hearing if you haven’t heard it. It is Jose Gonzalez the Swedish born musician of Argentian descent. The song is called Heartbeats. He’s capoed up at fret one, it’s extremely beautiful, played perfectly and is the vocal line works well against the guitar part.

I first became aware of the guitar player Kaki King when I read a Frets magazine a couple of years back, it had an article about her, in it they said she was one of the most interesting guitarists since Michael Hedges, that was enough for me to take notice.  Her technique is worth watching, it’s unconventional but that’s how music forges ahead,  throw the rule book out of the window.   This youtube video of her is very good and the tune stands up,  she’s playing an Ovation guitar.  The Ovations came to the fore in the mid seventies because they were one of the best acoustics to you in a live situation. For me, this tune is a little Hedgesish  (as in Michael Hedges style).

Country Guitar Scales are worth knowing, they’ll save you hours of messing around. Really they are just Minor Blues Scales starting on a different note. I’ve done them in basic TAB and music notation for guitar.

Most guitar players want shortcuts, from my experience, these scales are the greatest shortcut for improvisation and soloing that I have ever encountered. People that can’t really solo of songs suddenly find that their guitar playing opens up. 

If you are new to guitar you may not realise how many years of work I’ve just saved save you by posting this article. Practice slowly, with feeling. Below I have listed the three basic chords for each of the scales, yes there are more and aso many more scales. And yes there are many more fingerings, but you know what? These work!

Chords listed below, the scales followed by 3 basic chords

C Country Scale: C D Eb E G A C

Chords :  C F G

G Country Scale: G A Bb B D E G

Chords: G C D

D Country Scale: D E F F# A B D

Chords: D G A

A Country Scale:  A B C C# E F# A

Chords: A D E

E Country Scale:  E F# G G# B C# E

Chords: E A B

I have uploaded the printable version click the link for the acrobat reader pdf file: country_blues_scales

This site is continually updated with quality resources and inspirational material.

John Mayer is very young as a guitar player but he has already in a short period of time managed to mark his mark as a guitar player.  His right hand technique is a little unusual, he plays a bit like a slap bass player at times.  He seems to have taken the picking hand percussive style that John Martyn made famous in the seventies, into its next phase.  No doubt he’s not the only that is doing it but he is out there in the commercial market as a pioneer of this style.  Non guitarists may not quite pick up what I’m talking about but it is unusual.  What fascinates me is his ability to sing as well.

I like it!

Poco - Rose of Cimarron with Eagles bass player

Poco was a band that had some brilliant musicians over the years.  If you look closely at the bass player in this youtube video you’ll notice it’s none other than the Eagles bass player Timothy B Schmit, not only a bass player but has always sung tremendous harmony.  Some of you may be familiar with Poco, if not think ‘musical legends’.  Rusty Young, Richie Furay, Randy Meisner,  Jim Messina from Loggins and Messina, Paul Cotton all passed through Poco.  Mi favourite album was Head Over Heels.  I guess many people have wondered why they never had the same status as Crosby Stills Nash and Young, , Eagles or America in the seventies, their contribution was equal to any of the other acoustic country rock bands.  They get my vote

For David Crosby solo, check this youtube video of David Crosby

I’ve writen this three part Rockabilly Blues Riff because as a long term musician/ teacher and student of the guitar, I know it’s easier to be focused on developing our skills when have some short term outcomes to reach.  If we work on just one thing it’s easy to forget it fast, but when we have a few things that are similar there’s more chance of being self discipled enough to commit to doing a small series of guitar exercises. 

So here’s the 3rd part, it’s a 20 bar blues, yes sounds like a mad idea, you’ll see why it’s 20 bars, it works nicely.   In the breaks where there’s rests, eventually you could put in some nice guitar fills, but sort out the main riffs first.

For the printable guitar and TAB notation click the link below
Rockabilly_Blues_in_G_part_3

For the 6 part Pentatonic Guitar Scales with a difference go to:
The Guitar Player

You may not be familiar with ani diFranco.  This youTube video is of Ani plaing a beautiful looking (to me) four string guitar, used to be called tipples.  I first became aware of Ani deFranco’s music when she toured here, and when I saw a video of here doing ‘i’m not angry anymore’, I was sold forever.

Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina were one of a number of successful duets around in the early seventies.  I’m thinking seals and Crofts, Batdorf and Rodney, England Dan and John Ford Coley. 

Loggins and Messina had some excellent albums in their day such as Full Sail, Sittin In, Motherlode.  I was very interested to find this 1972 youtube, it’s raw and it was even a bit of a hit in it’s day. So for nostalgic reasons I’ve posted about it.  They had some very beautiful guitar work in songs like Watching the River Run.

So here’s The House at Pooh Corner, remember this is 36 years ago.

Rockabilly Blues for Guitar is the second of my three part TAB and Music Notation design to get the fingers going and get you playing a few riffs that you would never have played.  They will sound familiar because I’ve written them around standard chord patterns and riffs.  you’ll notice a few twists.  A great way of learning is to play something that is within your ability but also have a small part that will push you a little.   What is comfortable for one player is not so easy for another.  It’s good to get your fingers into new positions that you wouldn’t come up with yourself, this helps you to break old habits.

OK, lets have a look at this. The second bar starts to mirror bar 1 but goes up an octave.

Bars 3 and 4 are just repeats. 

When we go up to the C chord in bar 5, we start moving up and then back down in bar 6. 

Bar 7 and 8 are repeats of 1 and 2

Bar 9 is a similar riff to bar 1 but playing of the D chord

Bar 10 is exactly the same as bar 9 but down a whole tone.

Bar 11 bar is similar to bar 1 but goes up to the G note. Cut that note short

Bar 12 has the turnaround D7th chord but NOTE: it cmes in on beat 2 and a half ( count 1 and 2 and)

This Rockabilly Blues is very usable if you play it in time and with feeling. 

Click the link for the printable version of rockabilly_blues_in_g_part_2

Here is the link for Part 1 Rockabilly Blues Guitar

Part 3 is coming soon as I write it, within the next 4 days

This youtube features David Crosby.   Crosby, the first name in the awesome band Crosby, Stills, Nash and later on, Young.  He may not have had the same success solo as did Neil Young, but it was his solo stuff and material with Graham Nash that I always was most fascinated by.  His voice and his open tuning guitar wer a perfect combination.  David Crosby was a former member of the Byrds, think ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ and ‘Hey Mr Tambourine Man’ , he band also included Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn.  The harmonies of the Byrds and later on CSN set the standard for other bands, who could forget their version of Woodstock and Wooden Ships.  It would be correct to say I love this guys musicality and if you aren’t aware of his solo material check him out.  

Note: David Crosby and his buddies would often use open tunied guitars.

Here is his Official Website - David Crosby

This David Crosby youtube is called A Thousand Roads

I’ll continue to post articles, guitar hints, approaces to glearning guitar, TAB, guitar notation and youtubes on a regular basis.

The Rockabilly Blues that I have written the Guitar Tab and Music Notation for is the first of a series of three.  Once you get this one worked out play it fast but make sure it is in time.  It will roll off your fingers in no time. 

It’s important as a guitar player to be able to play lots of variations of simple riffs over common chord patterns.  By doing this it wil help you become a strong improviser and after some time it will be easy to go from guitar accompaniment directly into a solo in a seamless manner.  Often as a guitar player you’ll find yourself in a situation where thee are a number of guitar players playing at once. Someone is always going to go for the straight rhythm guitar and sure enough, a few others will want to solo over the top of everything.  So the ability to be able to play melodic parts to accompany a piece of music is very useful and a lot of other players often won’t even consider doing it. 

Parts two and three will be a little more complex. I will upload these within the next couple of days, come back and give them a try.

The printable version is available to download, the following link will open the acrobat reader pdf file rockabilly_blues_in_g_part_1

Blues Rockabilly Riff, I wrote this a few minutes ago.  I was thinking a little about Flatt and Scruggs the great Bluegrass players and I picked up the nearest guitar that I could find, which happened to be my semi-acoustic Ibanez 105N, pictured below.

I was going to write a Bluegrass type of tune and the following came out instead, it’s sort of a rockabilly riff I guess, a litle like ‘Your Mamma Don’t Dance’ by Loggins and Messina.  It’s what I call a ‘Three Chord Wonder’, a tune with three chords only but a valid piece of music. 

You could play it slow, fast, Electric, Acoustic, Swing…whatever. So long as it is IN TIME.  Start slow and gradually get your speed up.  So many players are in a hurry to play fast, it’ll come.

To download the printable pdf file click the link g_blues_rock_riff

I first heard Dan Fogelberg around the time that Souvenirs came out. In fact one of my all time favourite songs is Wysteria of the Homefree album

If you want to do the Acoustic Guitar Singer Songwriter thing, thisis how to do it.   A poem, a story a ballad, a simple melody and a guitar part that stands up by itself, hamer ons, simple chords and and a straight forward finger picking hand.  Dan Fogelbergs death was a loss to the musical community.  But the beauty of the technology we have is it’s ability to capture and freeze time.

A sentimental tune  and it was great that he was successful with it because many people would have got to hear a lot of his other music.  If you are not aware of Dan Fogelbergs music, explore his first few albums.  This guy is good and as a singer songwriter it’s the level to aspire to.

The Guitar Player site is now back up and running after some unscheduled maintenance. 

The most recent posts are about

Paco de Lucia, Norman Blake,

………………………………………………………………………

Just a message about my other guitar player blog at the-guitarplayer.com is currently down and may be so for 24 hours. 

Tony

James Taylor playing Fire and Rain, his flawless fingerpicking on an Olsen guitar is a reminder how a well written song can stand up over time.  This acoustic guitar recording is about ten years old now.  Gone is the hair, and the face is a little older but the silky tenor voice still has a gorgeous texture.

 The second version is closer to original recording time. It’s a wonderful trip down memory lane.

I’ve posted two versions on my guitar blog site so you can make a comparison. 

It’s a reminder to us all how music is not necessarily something that we do for a little while, once we can play it can be with us our whole life. The need for us all to express emotions is an essential part of living a healthy emotional life.