ACOUSTIC ISSUE 53 MAY 2011

34
Doyle
Dykes
We talk to the fingerpicker
extraordinaire about his
new signature guitar.

Retune
Your
Ears
21 Listen to
42 Christopher 45 James 30 Ezio
something new
Cross Blunt They’ve built a cult following
It’s a long time since ‘Ride over many years, and are
Like The Wind’ and ‘Sailing’ We talk to the soldier turned admired by anyone who hears
dominated the airwaves, but troubadour. their music. But who are Ezio?
Christopher’s new album
shows he hasn’t lost his touch.
48 Phillip
Henry
38 richard Blending blues and Indian

Durrant classical slide playing,

Recognised as one of the

leading players in his field
we talk to Richard about
his career to date.
Phillip has a sound of his own.
27 Gaz
28 Kit Holmes Brookfield
Guitar virtuosity is often We catch up with the winner
seen as a male preserve. of last year’s Beautiful Days
Nobody told Kit that. competition.

uK luthieR CorNEr
88 The Gothic Harp
Luthier Shaun Newman looks at the Gothic Harp and its links
to our modern instrument, and shows how he went about
building one.

06 Acoustic MAgAzine MAY 2011

Contents 53_BC.indd 6 29/03/2011 09:58

 Guitar Techniques
CHECK OUT OUR
TECHNIQUES SECTION!
With different level specific techniques, whether
you’re a novice or an expert our columns have
something for everyone.
Acoustic Techniques
Biography
Chris is not only a
guitar teacher but also a
composer and producer
having worked on
many orchestrations for
television and recordings
alike. He has many years of
experience in performance
CHRIS and helping others
develop their playing
GIBBONS
Composer
potential to
their best.
Skill level: Suitable for all
One of the main hurdles the guitarist
has to jump is evaluating the most
effective left-hand fingering for a
piece of music. Unlike a pianist, where
each key represents a note and is
immovable, for the guitarist playing
C above middle C it can be found in
three different locations:
1st fret, 2nd string
5th fret, 3rd string
10th fret, 4th string
15th fret, 5th string
Logically, the decision of where to
play is determined by the range of
the melody – the left hand is located
where it can reach the bulk of the
notes required and then extend into
higher or lower registers via a series
of shifts.
G major scale
110 acoustic magazine march 2011
Chris Gibbons.indd 104
108 Gordon Giltrap
Get to grips with another
masterpiece from Gordon.
114 Chris Gibbons
Chris continues to help you
unlock your fretting hand
fingering.
Special Features
94 arranging For Guitar
Chris Gibbons kicks off a new series exploring the art of arranging
music on the guitar.
50 rory Gallagher
Julian Piper looks back at the enigmatic Rory Gallagher and his
love of acoustic guitars.
92 Legends of acoustic
Paul Brett brings his series to an end with the legendary
Davy Graham.
24 Belfast Nashville songwriters’ Festival
Noel Harvey reports in from this burgeoning festival.
Contents 53_BC.indd 7
Fingerings
and Positions
Chris helps you find the most efficient
way to play any given piece, with fretting
hand positions.
There are no hard-and-fast rules
for this because each guitarist
has a style which favours certain
finger combinations, but there are
certain precepts which provide an
ergonomic basis for any performance.
This first article in a series of six will
look at the issues of when to play ‘in
position’ and when to deviate.
So let’s look at first principles …
‘Playing in position’ refers to placing
the left hand so that the 1st finger
is located at a particular fret; thus, in
the 2nd position the 1st finger covers
all the notes at the 2nd fret, the 2nd
finger covers the 3rd fret, 3rd finger
the 4th, and so on. Because no open
strings are involved, the fingering
pattern is movable, so shift up one
fret so the 1st finger is at the 3rd fret
and you have a scale of Ab major in
the 3rd position, one fret or semitone
higher than G
The open position uses open strings
and thus cannot be shifted in this
manner, and a new fingering must
then be learnt for Ab major in the
open position.
So let’s look at some options for the
scale of G major in Ex 1.
The first fingering option is using
open strings; here the left-hand
finger is the same as the fret on the
tab: 3rd fret = 3rd finger etc.
The second option is utilising the
2nd position. Look at the left-hand
Techniques
Skill Level
Suitable for all
players
fingering and fret numbers; the 1st
finger is always at fret 2, 2nd finger
always at fret 3 etc.
The third option is a special case.
Here we are using extended fingering
where the left hand is spanning up to
five frets as opposed to four, as in the
‘one finger per fret’ rule. This is ideal
if, for example, you wish Acoustic
to play the Techniques
notes very rapidly in groups of three
using hammer-ons on the way up or
pull-offs on the way down, with an
extra stretch between the 3rd and
4th fingers on the 6th and 5th strings
(see Ex 2).
Biography
Raymond Burley is an
accomplished classical
guitarist, composer and
arranger. One of his most
recent projects was the album
Double Vision - a collection
of Giltrap pieces arranged for
RAymond
two guitars.
BuRley
Classical
Guitarist
Skill Level: Intermediate
Welcome back to my column.
Following on from the previous
article, I’m continuing with the hugely
important topic of sight-reading –
and how best to improve it.
Note Finding
A guitar teacher will often stress that,
when sight-reading, maintaining the
rhythm of a piece of music is much
more important than playing all the
correct notes – this is sound advice.
However, if the rhythms are the most
important aspect of sight-reading,
why do I suggest beginning the
article with note finding? The answer
is simple: the rhythm provides a
Example 1
Example 1: Don’t move on until you
are able to locate these notes quickly
and accurately.
Set a metronome
to crotchet
02/02/2011 11:15
(quarter note) = 60, ie one beat per
second. Repeat the open 1st string E
exactly in time with the metronome,
sequence each time.
and while you are doing this think
where another E is found. Without
accurate, continue the exercise by
interrupting the rhythm, switch to the
repeating each E just four times before
new note. The metronome provides
moving, thus giving yourself less
114 acoustic magazine march
2011
Ray Burley.indd 110
116 ray Burley
Raymond takes you further into the
world of sight reading.
117 simon Mayor
A simple but stately dance tune
for the mandolin.
Sight
Reading
Let Ray help you improve your
sight reading with some note
finding exercises.
deadline to arrive at the next note or
chord, but when sight-reading you
may encounter a note or chord that
you are unable to find in time and the
rhythm will be interrupted while you
search for it. As a starting point, it’s
crucial that fingerboard knowledge is
secure and confident.
During the process of sight-
reading it can be very tempting to
go back and correct an error that has
occurred, but by doing this the error
is compounded and the pulse is lost;
time doesn’t stand still and certainly
doesn’t go backwards. If you were
playing in an orchestra or ensemble
it would be unrealistic to expect the
the deadline for arrival at the next
note. Think now where a further E
is located, and so on. If at any time
you have trouble finding a new E, go
further by setting a quicker tempo.
back to a note played earlier. Try to
avoid playing the notes in the same
repeat the procedure using the note
F. If you know where each E is found,
When the process is secure and
F will be one fret (or one semitone)
higher. As there are no open Fs,
left-hand position shifting will be a
little trickier. Continue by choosing
NEW
other musicians to stop and wait for
you to catch up.
Unlike the piano keyboard, where
there is a clearly recognisable pattern
of white and black notes, the frets on
the guitar fingerboard all look very
similar, therefore we need to start
by establishing some fingerboard
landmarks. Many guitars have
position dots on the upper edge of
the fingerboard; if your guitar does
not have these you may find it helpful
to add a tiny dot of correction fluid or
sticky paper at the 5th or 7th fret as
an aid to left-hand accuracy.
Begin by choosing a landmark
note pitch – I suggest E as a number
thinking time. Continue by playing
each note twice and then just once.
perhaps G. Initially, the closer to your
You can, of course, stretch yourself
original landmark note the better.
Avoid taking on too many different
Once Es are completely secure,
pitches in a short space of time as the
notes will quickly become confused
and little will be achieved.
Gear reviews
Acoustic keeps you up
to date with what’s hot
and what’s not in our
gear reviews section.
16 First Look: Knaggs Kipawa
We get a sneak peek at this pre-production model
to whet your appetite.
54 Patrick James Eggle saluda
When a guitar’s arrival brings the whole of the
Acoustic office to a halt, you know it’s something
really special. David Mead goes hands-on.
58 Guild F-212XL sTD
Techniques
Skill Level
This is suitable
for intermediate
Paul Brett knows a thing or two about 12 strings.
Can this offering from Guild turn his head or is it
on to a hiding to nothing?
of them can be found in the lower
positions of the fingerboard.
Obviously, if you are a player of less
than intermediate standard it will be
a waste of time and effort learning
the notes in the higher reaches of
the fingerboard at this stage. Judge
the required range from the notes
62 Tanglewood TB24 select M5/
encountered in the more advanced
pieces in your repertoire. It’s essential
that notes are identified by their letter
names rather than just fret positions
– the reason for this will become
apparent very shortly.
Find the Es; those up to and
TBDLX Pro
including the 12th fret are shown
below:
Leon Hunt takes a look at a couple of banjos from
another note: it could be F sharp or
Tanglewood. Do they stand out from the crowd?
68 Luna Vicki Genfan
and oracle Crane
Luna Guitars claim to be made for the body, mind
and spirit, and so we dispatched our resident joss
02/02/2011 11:18
stick-wielding hippy David Mead to plumb their
mysterious depths…
72Delta Carbon Fibre resonator
Tom Doughty reviews this carbon fibre resonator
from Delta resonators.
76 Trace Elliot Ta300
In an exclusive review, Russell Welton gets up close
and personal with the TA300.
80 Lr Baggs anthem and
anthem sL
Continuing our series of pickup tests, Huw Price
reviews a pair of pickups from the highly respected
LR Baggs range of pickups.
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