Acoustic issue 44 auGusT 2010

COVER STORY

28
SuzannE
VEga
One of the most influential
songwriters of the modern
era tells us how she’s never
been busier…but Facebook
sometimes gets in the way!
© Tina Kohornen

22 robert AlSO aCousTIC

Carl Blank 14 This month:
Sponsorship by scott Gorham
Lakewood isn’t given
lightly. Robert tells Retune
32 Erik
us more.
Your Ears
Mongrain 18 Have a listen
We talk to the Canadian to something new.
acoustic wizard who,
despite the rave reviews,
insists he’s standing on the
shoulders of giants with
his own unique spin.

36 ruth 25 Lisbee
Theodore stainton
Ruth Theodore’s music You don’t get
doesn’t so much cross to support Joan
boundaries as trample all Armatrading without
over them. She tells Noel some serious talent.
Harvey how she got to And hard work.
be so different.

uK luthieR CorNEr
65 richard Meyrick
A luthier who champions our native tonewoods.

06-07 Contents 44.indd 6 22/06/2010 09:43

 Guitar Techniques NEW Gear reviews
cHecK out ouR HuGe acoustic keeps you up to date
with whats hot and whats not
tecHNiQues sectioN! in our gear reviews section.
With 17 pages of different level specific tech-
niques, whether you’re a novice or an expert our 40 Patrick James Eggle
columns have something for everyone.
Linville Claro Walnut
The Linville isn’t a new model, but this combination
Acoustic Techniques

of tone woods is. Will it exceed the already high bar

Biography
‘Look At Them set by Mister Eggle?
Yo-yos, That’s
Tennessee based Doyle
Dykes is one of the
world’s leading fingerstyle
acoustic guitarists who has

The Way You

been heavily influenced
by Chet Atkins and Duane
Eddy. As a master clinician,
Doyle has performed

DOYLE
Do It!’ (Part Two)
workshops and concerts

44 Baranik Meridian
with his trusty Taylor
DYKES
Guitarist
Signature Model all over
the world.
Skill level: Suitable for all

I
business is a tough business, and they will. My background in music
n my last column, I spoke to you I have to like the music; they just is live audio engineering, recording
to get started sometimes it takes

This beautiful concert sized guitar has a unique look

about artist endorsements from
my point of view. Well hold on,
because in this column I’ve asked
Bob Borbonus of Taylor guitars and
Paul Rivera Jr of Rivera amplification
can’t be bad. It is not my job to let
them know they are not talented,
so if they submit a package of
music and accomplishments that
is weak, sometimes it is not going
information just to be able to give it
a try. I will call someone to talk and
find out more about them if they have
talent on some level. At this point
you get to find out what their level of
studio technical/management inside
Acoustic Techniques
a major record label in Hollywood.
If I don’t have some valid advice
or answers to their questions, I will
know who does have that and can

to provide first-hand information,
and these guys don’t pull any
punches. Hope you enjoy the read!
Some companies may have
hard-and-fast rules but I work on
multiple criteria. Anyone can take a
call from Paul McCartney and decide
to work with him. The person has
to be talented. This doesn’t mean
and feel, and luthier Mike Baranik aims for his guitars
to even merit a response, due help them by getting them to other
commitment is to their own career. I
to the overwhelming amount Biography
Twelve Ways To
can’t work harder on their career than people down the road. At this point
of information that I deal with.
Stuart Norman is a
Sometimes you can’t get back to
Techniques
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
familiar face on the
someone right away, and if they
gigging circuit throughout
Skill Level
Better Your Blues to be as versatile as possible. Richard Thomas finds
are persistent it shows they have
adipiscing elit. Suspendisse scelerisque
Surrey and London as
some desire. solo acoustic artist and as
Suitable for
intermediate to
urna in sapien blandit dictum. Proin
So let’s say they are talented and progressive rock frontman.
don’t have much going on. The music advanced
Now running a successful
players
STU
teaching business, his
Lesson 10: Reverend’s Rag
out if it makes the grade.
range of lesson backing
NORMAN
RGT Guitar Tutor
tracks can be found at
www.youtube.com/
Skill level: Intermediate rgtteacher

Ragtime, as a musical genre in the

mainstream, was first popularised as
piano music, most notably through
Scott Joplin – ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ and, of
The kind of guitar music that was
being played by Davis, Blake and
Fuller became known as Piedmont
together. This should help greatly in
synchronising your picking fingers
and thumb. Once you have the
struggle with bar chords in general!
I’ve given quite specific fretting-
hand indications throughout which

48 recording King rK-20

course, ‘The Entertainer’ being among
his best-known compositions. There’s
good reason, though, to believe
that ragtime was being played on
stringed instruments such as banjo
and mandolin, if not at the same
time, then perhaps even earlier. Being
or East Coast blues. Ironic, then, that
Blind Blake’s very own recording of
‘West Coast Blues’ is such a good
example of the East Coast sound,
coming as it does from the ‘King of
Ragtime’ himself.
Although all of the songs
previously mentioned here are
melody clearly established in your
mind, it will be easier to reproduce
on guitar. This is because the overall
effect of both bass and melody
rhythms together will sound quite
complex, a result of the syncopated
nature of a rag. Once you can
distinguish one from the other, it
should clear up any issues, but watch
out for the unusual use of the 3rd
finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd
string at the end of bar 11. This is
necessary to get your hand in shape
for the slightly fiddly notes in bar 12.
These kinds of fingering issues are

Looking to take your first steps in to the world

more portable, plantation musicians instrumentals, there are plenty of inevitable with the kind of chromatic
would have carried their banjos and appears simpler and certainly feels runs that you see here. Similar runs
examples of vocalised ragtime songs.
mandolins to perform ragtime music simpler to play! can be heard in much of Reverend
Blind Boy Fuller turned to singing
at dances and corn shuckings, dance There are some quite demanding Gary Davis’s work, adding texture and
and playing guitar as a means of
being the primary purpose of ragtime earning fretting-hand shapes as well. For bars a great sense of movement towards
a living, since employment 1–2, play all notes on the bottom
music. The terms ‘jig’ and ‘rag’ were

of the banjo? This model from Recording King is

opportunities were no more the chord in the following bar. In this
used almost synonymously in the late string with your 2nd finger and all case, the implication of the C7 chord
plentiful for a blind black man in
19th century. notes on the top string with your 4th at beat 3 of bar 12 suggests that you
his native North Carolina than they
The term ‘rag’ itself refers to the finger. This leaves your 1st finger to are about to hear the F major chord in
were anywhere else. The infectious
syncopation in the melody. A tune play the A note on the 3rd beat of the bar 13. Bar 13 duly obliges.
melodies in his ‘Rag, Mama, Rag’ and
was ‘ragged’ if the melody line 2nd bar, and your 3rd finger to play

competitively priced, but is it the one for you?

‘Step It Up And Go’ lifted Fuller from There’s so much more to ragtime
was syncopated from the bassline, the F note on the 4th beat. You’ll have than can be accounted for in a mere
his underprivileged beginnings to
meaning that the bass notes would to move that 3rd finger quickly to the 20 bars. It makes for such a varied
national acclaim by the time of his
occur on the strong beats, whereas 5th string in order to play the C bass musical genre and has been so
death in 1940.
the melody would be played on the note in bar 3. influential on jazz and bluegrass as
‘Reverend’s Rag’ requires good
upbeats, or between beats. This was Bar 6 poses an interesting well as blues in general. I recommend

With Leon Hunt.

particularly useful for solo performers
as they laid down a steady pulse with
the notes in the bass register – good
for dancing – and let the melody sing
in between.
Ragtime was popularised on
guitar by players such as Blind Blake,
94
Blind Boy Fuller and Reverend Gary
Davis, who himself recorded his own
dazzling version of Joplin’s ‘Maple Leaf of
control over both left- and right-
challenge for the fretting hand. You’ll that you dig into the archives of the
hand techniques to achieve the
have to set up a bar at the 3rd fret guitarists I’ve recommended here.
syncopated effect. You’ll see that
for the G7 chord voicing, but release Listen out for some of the ideas that
there are a lot of rests on the first
the bar shape at the 4th beat in order you’ve learnt here in this piece, and
beat of the bar throughout, and
to play the open-string bass note. learn from some of the true masters
your picking fingers will have to be
There’s another (half ) bar shape in themselves!
disciplined. There’s often a tendency
bars 7–8 and 15, but they shouldn’t
for the index, middle and ring
cause too much grief, unless you Have fun!
fingers to try to pick notes at the
same time as the bass notes in a sort

50 Hudson HJ-sTX-E and

Rag’. Gary Davis (as with so many of
his contemporaries) was also known
as ‘Blind’ Gary Davis until he was
ordained as a Baptist minister. He
recorded some of the most highly
acclaimed blues guitar throughout
his career and remains a favourite
reflex action.
For this reason I find it very useful
to learn the bassline separately from
Performance notes
the melody line at first. Practise one The tune starts with quite a
Twice through is long enough
bar at a time, playing firstly just the stretch. You really do need your for this tune. The structure is
bassline with your picking-hand fourth finger for this piece. AABB, though I have notated both
thumb. The bass notes are all those You should be using it all the B sections with a slight variation

of many to this day. Predictably, he
recorded a great many gospel songs
later in his career, but the ragtime feel
can still be clearly heard, particularly
in such songs as ‘Cincinnati Flow Rag’
and his ‘Fast Fox Trot’.
with the down stems on the stave.
Then practise the melody notes with
your picking fingers, still just one bar
at a time.
Only once you’ve got used to the
sound of the melody separate from
the bass should you try to put them
time anyway!
Bar 8 starts the cross-picking
style, where adjacent notes can
be played on adjacent strings.
These need to ring out as much
as possible for that Celtic harp
sound.
HF-sTX-E
in the second with a bass note
rundown.
Next time we’ll start the run-up
to the more mind-mangling
finger-busters by having a look at
a tune from Romania in 7/8 time.

Two new models from Hudson with a bargain price

point. Huw Price takes them for a spin and finds out
that, in this case, you get more than what you pay for.
94 Doyle Dykes 102 stu Norman
Doyle gives you the inside track Stu guides you through some 56 ovation CsM44
on endorsements good ol’ rag time With their distinctive styling and modern
construction techniques Ovation’s guitars always
stand out from the crowd. Richard Thomas has a
96 Lin Flanagan 104 Duck Baker look at this latest offering.
Lin helps you through the Another classic tune from Duck
dreaded “plateau”
60 aEr acousticube3
108 Maartin allcock Since the first Acousticube AER have
98 David Price An American finger-buster
continued to build a reputation for building
high-quality amplifiers. Is this third version
David continues to develop with Maart
evolution or revolution?
your fingerstyle playing

110 ray Burley 62 Lr Baggs iBeam active

100 Keith Murray Scales – the essential Huw Price continues on his series of pickup
Keith shows you how to foundation of any tests with this interesting undersaddle pickup
invert a triad practice session from LR Baggs.

Special Features
16 Classic album 78 To Be signed,
Year of The Cat Al Stewart. or Not To Be signed
With the big labels increasingly
70 Maton Factory Visit feeling the pinch thanks to new
Joe Matera visits the Australian technology, Paul Brett considers the
manufacturer who has success question: Is it even worth signing to
home and away. a major label?

75 Legends of acoustic 88 Hay Festival review

This month: Legendary Delta More famous as the UK’s finest
bluesman Charley Patton. literary festival, Nole Harvey finds
out that Hay has more than one
string to its bow.

06-07 Contents 44.indd 7 22/06/2010 09:43