From: owner-wanderer-digest@smoe.org (wanderer-digest) To: wanderer-digest@smoe.org Subject: wanderer-digest V2 #31 Reply-To: wanderer@smoe.org Sender: owner-wanderer-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-wanderer-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk wanderer-digest Sunday, April 7 2002 Volume 02 : Number 031 Today's Subjects: ----------------- How to Play Folk-Style Guitar [Shnootre@aol.com] Re: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar [Shnootre@aol.com] RE: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar [Jim McCarthy ] Re: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar [Shnootre@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 15:37:43 EST From: Shnootre@aol.com Subject: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar Greetings, Joni Mitchell has mentioned on several occasions that she learned to play guitar from Pete Seeger's record "How to Play Folk-Style Guitar." Does anyone know anything about this record? For instance, did it ever really exist? I've been trying to track it down, and have found nothing. The New York Public Library and other NYC library databases have nothing either. Seeger has a famous book on playing the 5-string banjo, as well as a book on Leadbelly's 12 string guitar technique. Since this is my first posting to this list, I'll briefly introduce myself. My name's Dan Sonenberg, and I'm a composer/music teacher. I'm currently working on my DMA dissertation at the City University of New York. My dissertation is in two parts, one part's a composition, and the other is a research paper (c. 100-150 pp.) I'm doing the research paper on Joni Mitchell. I'm having lots of fun, and doing extensive work on Mitchell's guitar technique and it's effect on her harmonic language. Needless to say the JMDL guitar database, as well as the standard JMDL has been a great help to me in my research. This guitar list seems a bit quiet, but I thought this was the right place to go with my query. Best, Dan S. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 16:10:49 EST From: Shnootre@aol.com Subject: Re: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar In a message dated 4/6/02 4:04:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, RoseMJoy writes: > Hi Dan and Welcome! > There's an excellent article in the JMDL database on Joni's radical guitar > style. It's dated August 1966 from the Acoustic Guitar mag. I'm sure others > will chime in here...gotta run. > > Good luck on your research. > > much joni > rose from nj Hi! Thanks for the welcome. Do you mean Jeffrey Pepper Rogers' article from 1996? That's a key source for me, but in it she refers again to that Pete Seeger record. In lieu of finding that, I wonder if there's a relatively standard instructional source that lays forth the traditional right-hand approach of Cotten picking. (I'm a guitarist, and I know the pattern, but I'd like to see a pedagogical presentation of it). Dan S. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2002 13:40:47 -0800 From: Jim McCarthy Subject: RE: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar Hi Dan ! Back about 20-years ago I used to frequent a used record store in Pasadena, CA, and somewhere along the way for $1.97 I picked up a copy of a by-then-already-very-old record called: The Folksinger's Guitar Guide An Instruction Record by Pete Seeger It's listed as "Folkways Records FI8354" and the above text takes up the upper half of the front cover (brown letters on white background). Below this is a black and white photo of a thirtysomething Pete Seeger with a nylon string classical guitar. On the back, it says (c)1961 Folkways Records and Service Corp., 117 W. 46th St., NYC USA. The tracks on the record are: Side 1 1. Tuning Up 2. The First Chord 3. Two More Chords 4. Use of the Capo 5. Methods of Strumming 6. Bass Runs 7. Bass Countermelody Side 2 1a. The "Church Lick" b. "Hammering On" 2. The Blues 3. Two Finger Picking 4. Other Tunings 5. A Hint of Flamenco 6. A Rhumba Rhythm 7. The Mexican Blues Along with the LP record, inside there is also a 16-page instruction booklet keyed to the material on the record. So yes, this does exist ! Hope the above information is of help to you in your research. -- Jim McCarthy P.S. I can imagine others on the list being curious what the young Joni might have learned about Other Tunings from Pete Seeger on this record. Well, the booklet says: "While the customary tuning of guitars is the one you've been using up till now, it's by no means the only ones [sic] you can use. In Argentina, for example, there are eighteen common tunings for guitar. Sometimes you just change one string for a special effect in playing a song. For example, suppose you try lowering your sixth string from E...down to D...." "Now it's an octave lower than your fourth string...." [song example / written in std notation, treble clef, plus guitar tablature]. "Then another common way to retune the guitar is not just to lower the sixth string but the fifth string, too, a whole tone ... and the first string also.... A whole tone.... An open G chord." [another song example ... chords are G [open], C [barre at 5th fret], and D [barre at 7th fret]; "Poor Howard's dead and gone / Let me here to sing this song" / etc. Here's the prophetic part: "Now the student can easily experiment with other tunings. The advantage of using them is the special effects you can gain thereby. This disadvantage is that when you are playing with other people, they are liable to get impatient with your taking so much time tuning and retuning your instrument." :-) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 16:59:56 EST From: Shnootre@aol.com Subject: Re: How to Play Folk-Style Guitar Wow! That is a fantastic bunch of information for me. Absolutely wonderful. Thanks! Dan S. ------------------------------ End of wanderer-digest V2 #31 *****************************