Official Luthiers Forum!

Yeah, there must be players here, too, right?

For me it's "Fat Man in the Bathtub" by Lowell George (guitar for me) and "Airmail Special" by Charlie Christian and Benny Goodman (uke for me).

It's interesting to try to kind of get between the electric guitar and slide parts with an acoustic on LIttle Feat stuff. Lowell goes for this incredible sustain that just isn't there on an acoustic. I loaded up Lowell's Strat with an Alembic Stratoblaster preamp in the mid '70s, and that's the sound you'll hear on the incredible live album, "Waiting for Columbus." "Fat Man" has this great Eb7 down to D7 thing and some really strange timing on chord changes...which is pretty normal for Little Feat...some pretty twisted changes with those guys, and yet with Richie Hayward on drums, it all just sounds so funky...

"Airmail Special" has some of the coolest use of diminished chords you'll ever hear. I'm trying to nail it up to speed on tenor uke... I found a share-ware program that lets you speed up or slow down MP3s without affecting pitch OR change pitch without affecting speed. It gets funky if you slow down much more than 20%, but that puts me in the game.

Now if I can just regain some calluses...

Hi Rick, yeah, I play some also. Currently I'm trying to do an arrangement of Carol of the Bells, and see if all the parts can be reasonably done by one player. I think it has tremendous potential as an alternate tuning piece, especially if harmonics can be used for the bells. There was a YouTube clip of a hotshot doing the piece, which ended up being more fireworks than music. But he proved that it is possible.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

That's a great live Little Feat album! I always have played the song "Willin" on it.
Its a very easy song to play btw. That's cool that you worked on Lowell Georges' guitars Rick!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I'm futzin' around on "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Lady Be Good", and "Minor Swing", all on mandolin. On the fiddle, I'm just starting to piece together "Cuckoo's Nest". Haven't really played guitar or bass for a while now...

edit:

Oh, and "Carol of the Bells" is one I worked up at Christmas time on mandolin, also. Great little workout tune!

Ahhh..."Willin'" first came out on "Sailin' Shoes", yet another great one.

When I lived in Topanga Canyon in the 1990s, Richie Hayward live a couple doors down the street and right across from my workshop. I just love that hang back, second line New Orleans thing he does on drums...

hmmmm....well I'm working on relearning about an hour of original solo music since my 23 year old daughter has asked me to play at her wedding...I used to play on the average easily over an hour a day from the age of 13 to about 10 years ago, but after doing my best to make it decided that I had climbed that mountain, reached the peak of my abilities and came to the conclusion that there were other things in life besides music...I now average maybe an hour a month of playing, so getting together an hour of music is going to be a chore....four months and counting!

Hey Grumpy, I didn't know you play fiddle. That's cool. I love to play Old Time Music on fiddle and back up with Texas Swing style progressive chords. Stuff like "Arkansas Traveler," "Tennessee Waltz," "Soldier's Joy," "Betty's Waltz,"
All the good music.

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

That would be "Sir Grumpy" to us now...he's been be-knighted. Or is it befuddled?

My wife and I have been playing with three other guys for a few months, and we're playing a party next weekend. We've worked up about forty songs, including about ten originals. Last minute additions to our list include: "Let Me Roll It", by Paul McCartney & Wings, "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad", by Derek and the Dominoes, and a Brandi Carlisle song called "Have You Ever" that we're performing at our church in a few weeks. It's got a nifty little picking pattern that's pretty fun to play. I just put a B-Band UST pickup in my new granadillo OM today, and I'm excited to get to play it at church. I haven't decided if I want to risk taking it to the party next weekend.

Ken

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

I seem to have 2 songs stuck inmy head lately and keep playing them over and over...

No Rain by blind melon and Old Man by Neil Young.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Whiskey Before Breakfast.

Mark

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Wisdom is justified by her children

This week it's Sweet Little Thing by SRV and She Talks to Angels by the Black Crowes. 95% of my playing is accompaniment for my voice, so my projects are usually focused in that direction.

The last month or so has been work on Hallelujah, based on the Jeff Buckley version (originally by Leonard Cohen), though I haven't found any recorded version yet that I like the vocal melodies to, so mine's quite a bit different from the recordings out there.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Next weekend I'm going to a cittern/guitar workshop and am currently going through my "homework" - working out melody and accompaniment for a number of English/Irish tunes including Roxburgh Castle, The Butterfly, and Morrison's Jig on the cittern in GCGCD and the guitar on CGCGCD tuning.

On harp guitar I'm working out an arrangement of Black Waterside/She Moved Through the Fair and would like to find some software that would make the timing sound seamless as I work out where the sub-bass strings are in relation to my right hand

On the Weiss I'm developing an interesting arrangement of It Ain't Necessarily So/The Shadow of Your Smile in open D tuning.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

What tunes? Well on lute I'm working on the Dowland galliards, for some archive recordings. On steel string, I'm trying to master some of the Shetland music, trying to arrange some of Aly McBain's fiddle tunes to the guitar. On classical guitar what else is there but Terrega? Currently polishing Caprichio Arabe and some of the mazurkas. I'm also trying to transpose some of Turlough O'Carollan's Irish harp music for the nylon string guitar.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I'm working on "Beau Fleuve" by Michael Chapdelaine. The transcription was in an issue of Fingerstyle Guitar recently. For anyone that doesn't know that magazine, it is a great source for music to play along with some nice articles.

For the record, I do not have the chops to play Chapdelaine and make it sound like him - but then again who does?

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

Dave, by the way, Black Waterside, is one of my favourites, I'd like to hear that sometime.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Lagrima-Tarrega, Estudio en Mi Menor-Tarrega, BWV 998 prelude-Bach, Frank Koonce version, Wonderful World-L. Armstrong

I'm working on a few Chet Atkins tunes like "A Man and a Woman" and Tommy Emmanuel's "Angelina".

I`m always pretty much working on my original tunes.Sir Grumps that`s impressive that you play several instruments.You would fit in well in Nashville.I have had the privelage of working with several multi talented musicians in studios over the years.Mostly my younger years.To say the least it is always a humbling experience to be in the presence of huge talent.
SKIN

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Just yesterday I heard someone say they thought of Little Feet as having the super tight groove and accuracy of the Meters and the "train wreck in chaos" spontaneity of NRBQ. I thought that was fitting... My wife's band covers their tune "Let It Roll"... Classic bar room boogie!

Me... Workin' on "Angel Eyes", (the one Frank Sinatra did in the 50's) and Fat's Waller's "This Joint is Jumpin'. Also, I'm tryin' to get Charlie Chaplain's "Smile" back in shape and in the rotation.

long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Corcovado (Quiet nights). The chord chart is so nice, but to solo over those changes is really tricky. Played this tune with some pros recently and declined to take a solo, so I am going to wood shed the changes for a bit to figure out what I can do!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Smoke On The Water

Colin,
I didn't know you like Turlough O'Carollan. I've got 2 of them down on the banjola that I've been playing for the last 6 months. If you go to http://www.banjolas.com and then go to the hearit page, Edward's CD has a few O'Carolan tunes, tracks 2, 3, & 4 on his CD. I've learned Blind Mary & Sheebag a Sheemor. I love these tunes on the banjola. Here is a clip of Edward playing Blind Mary(I learned it from him)at healdsburg:


Enjoy!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Humours of Ballylochlin on the cittern and a backing arrangement on a DADGAD tuned guitar.

How Did We End Up Here by Martyn Joseph

Jarmin Point, self penned, on the Cittern

A Night To Remember, written by my pal Helen, arranged by me.

Shine Like The Moon (temporary title), self penned.

Actually, I'd love to be working on this one:

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010