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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7V3fsncCzU
BTW has anyone here done the bluegrass guitar courses at Sore Fingers Week?
Never did the guitar course but did do the Sorefingers vocal course when Mollie O'brien was the tutor. That year had Chris Eldridge from Punch Brothers and Tyler Grant (a Winfield winner) running the guitar courses.
Next year I believe one of the guitar course tutors is Courtney Hartman who is phenomenal. Sorefingers is generally an amazing experience, regardless of which course you do. I've only done it the once and having young kids mean it will be a while before I can disappear for a week of picking and drinking any time soon, but I'm itching to do it again.
A couple of years ago John Paul Jones turned up as a student on the mandolin course!
Did you ever see Tony Rice live @Jimbro66 ? Sadly I don't think anyone's going to get that chance again....
For anyone not familiar with Sore Fingers Week it is something that takes place a couple of times a year, once for bluegrass players and the other for Old Time players. It's held at a lovely old public school in Gloucestershire and most students stay at the school for the week, either in dormitories or private rooms. During the day there is tuition from top players in most bluegrass and old time instruments and vocals. Students are encouraged to form bands and can be seen practicing and rehearsing in small groups spread across the beautiful grounds of the school. The aim being to win the scratch band competition at the end of the week. Evenings are always the most amazing jam sessions where everyone if encouraged to take part. There are student players of all levels. The week culminates with the band competition and finally a concert given by all the tutors where the level of performance is phenomenal. It's not a cheap week but as tuition goes it doesn't come any better.
No, regrettably i never did manage to see Tony Rice. Among the players I have seen are Steve Kaufman, Jack Lawrence, Dan Crary, Larry sparks and Peter Rowan, Beppe Gambetta, Russ Barenburg, Orrin Starr and our own Chris Moreton. Maybe others I've forgotten. All fabulous players.
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On the subject of courses and stuff, is there anywhere I could learn some flatpicking stuff that isn't quite as pyrotechnic as some of the vids? That's not a criticism of the players or their music, just that I'm not capable of playing that level of speed (and god knows I've tried), so it would be good if I could get something a bit more Gardeners' World soundtracky, if you know what I mean.
If you'd like something on dvd then Homespun have some good tuitional material. Not sure if it's still available but Steve Kaufman had a Learning To Flatpick dvd set on Homespun that covered everything from basics to advanced. It included tab for a dozen or more popular bluegrass tunes.
@Lewy will probably have some up-to-date suggestions.
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Artistworks Flatpick Guitar School (taught by Bryan Sutton) - full curriculum for basic, intermediate and advanced, with Video Exchange. About £25 a month but for that you can submit videos to the best flatpicker on the planet and have him send back a personalised video response. Think you can do four video exchanges a month but even if you could only do one it would still be insane value. You get to see everyone else’s video exchanges too so there is a LOT of info available. Best option by far.
Sonic Junction - Chris Eldridge, another phenomenal player (from Punch Brothers and plays in a duo with Julian Lage). He picks a song or tune every month and does a lesson building it up from basic chords to solos. You can submit videos and Chris will comment, but no video exchange and the feedback is usually more encouraging than critiquing.
Peghead Nation - straightforward video lessons from Scott Nygard. No exchanges. There’s a flatpick rhythm course which would be a good starting point. And then a more comprehensive course after that.
Beyond that, Homespun Tapes and Stephan Grossman’s Guitar Workshops now have most of their DVD libraries available for instant digital download. The one that got me started was called ‘Flatpicking Guitar Country Style’ with Eric Thompson.
You can do any kind of music with this style but nearly all the tutorial material is bluegrass and old time country orientated, which may well be why more people don’t play this way.....
I WILL check those out, believe me.. even if it's in 6 months time or whenever..
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The thing to remember is that whilst flatpicking is alternate picking, the pick direction is tied to the beat, not to economy of motion. That’s how it gets it’s drive. So a lot of the Troy Grady stuff doesn’t apply. I also don’t think I’ve ever heard Troy talk about tone, and getting good acoustic tone is a huge obsession for flatpickers, to the point where if something is easier to execute one way than another, but the easier way gives a lesser tone, they’ll choose the harder way.
He’s had David Grier on Masters of Mechanics but I haven’t watched it as I don’t subscribe.
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There's also a Tony Rice Homespun book/cd and an old Richard Thompson homespun book which features a flat picked Poppy Leaf Hornpipe and The Rakish Paddy.
Simon Mayor's book on Celtic Mandolin is very good too and is where I learned to play St Anne's Reel (There are several versions in the book to choose from).
And thanks for the tutorial tips.
1; I think I'd rather know where I stand - ability wise that is rather than deluding myself, that way I can go away and try and do something about it. I know many deluded musicians - one, a relation had music lessons when he was at school, and so thinks hes a musician. He can read music and knows theory to a fairly good degree - thats the academic side of things - but he's got a BASIC sense of rhythm AND pitch which would be ok if he played a fretted instrument - NO he plays the violin - badly - you've gotta 'make' the note on a violin - it really is woeful listening to him, painful even. He plays with other similarly talented people - and they actually perform - do gigs 'n stuff. He cant sit and jam with 'conventional' players playing ANY of the normal styles so, guess what, he says it's 'Improv' and he actually says it's 'jazz improv'!. Lots of simple quirky arrangements of scales which sound like it's looking for a film to be the incidental music too, he's simply - deluded.
2: the vid's above ao of players at the top of their game, but you'll notice that none of them are playing 'fast' - if you do a bpm you'll find theyre playing at approx dance rhythm - what makes it sound 'fast' it all the 'fills' and ornamentation their throwing in there - it's what you do to put u'r stamp on a piece. Go get 'the dots' of the basic tuned find ou tthe correct dance rhythm in bpm's and play the 'bare' tunes - in a while once u've got that down - add u'r own fills / runs.
Oh the fingerstyle humor thing - playing (all the bits ) of a pop or quirkier tune is clever (and technically involved ) - that's what is being displayed - but not funny.
David Grier is making little (musical) innuendos and nods to other tunes / styles within what on the surface appears to be a straight forward bluegrass tune - at dance tempo - intelligent and funny.
As for tempo - AG is bang on, they're not actually that fast. Bluegrass can be very fast but not all flatpicking is bluegrass. What is the culture shock when looking at the style for the first time is the constant churn of notes - that feels like speed but actually it's stamina and you develop it in different ways - with the added benefit that speed becomes a by-product. For what it's worth @TheOtherDennis I can't play any other kind of "fast" music. There's something about the division of labour between left and right hands, and the extensive use of open positions that makes this more accessible for me. Still been a good few years getting to the point where I'd do it on a gig though.