Here's a nice little Irish reel that has crept into the bluegrass scene and can be heard in most americana settings. I taught it on my Saturday Folk Music Workshops at Cecil Sharp House a couple of years ago (although I'm playing it more like a hornpipe here). I like this one because it uses a lot of different techniques e.g hammer ons, pull offs, slides etc and uses open strings to get some really nice over tones going on - I've even thrown in a fun little bluegrass lick at the end. 

Hope you guys like it! You can download the PDF of the tab in the downloads section. 

Have fun!

Hi Guys,

Here's the recording of the guitar workshop I did on Sunday 22nd 2021. The audio is a bit pants because my internet died and I had to relocate from my usual room where there isn't a microphone set up so its just the computer mic but hopefully you can put up with it. Also, everyone in my group guitar class couldn't make the suggested date except for David Hodges so kudos to him for sticking it out!

You can download the PDF of this song in the PDF downloads section above. 

It's a great song and I really enjoyed transcribing this one and teaching it. I'll go over it again at our next group guitar workshop on the 28th but for now I hope you find this useful!

cheers,

David

Here's the PDF (above) of my handout from the workshop I did today on 'Flatpicking Arrangement Techniques'. The plan here was to look at how we can take a simple melody - in this case 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and look to arrange it in a way that utilises a lot of the idiosyncratic elements of flatpicking. 

Learn the G major scale and get it under your fingers, then using the scale build a chord scale - G Am Bm C D Em F#dim. 

Then try to play those chords with a different melody note on top. 

Then try to play the melody of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' harmonised with the chords beneath. 

Then learn some of the stylistic elements of flatpicking e.g arpeggio strums, pluck strums, hammer ons, slides etc 

Try to incorporate those elements to the chords. 

Voila!

Below is an audio file of all the exercises and I talk you through the process too. Let me know how you get on!

all the best

David

Hi Guys, 

So I've been really getting into Tony Rice, Norman Blake and Molly Tuttle recently - all incredible flatpickers with their own take on it all. I thought it would be nice to transcribe one of Tony Rice's arrangements. So I decided to transcribe his take on 'Wildwood Flower' have a listen here: 

Awesome isn't it! Check out the PDF section for my transcription and I'll do a video lesson and get it up ASAP.  

UPDATE: I've just uploaded an MP3 of myself playing the arrangement at 60BPM so you can play along. Check it out at the bottom of this blog post. 

Hope you're all well! 

all the best 

David 

I've been looking at John Fahey a fair bit recently - I'll admit to not having really sat down and listened to his music before despite multiple recommendations. One of the benefits of not gigging as much has been the freedom to explore new music and really hone in on a style, tuning or groove. 

I decided to transcribe his arrangement of 'Poor Boy a Long Ways From Home' because it sounded like it would be a relatively simple task and it is also in DADF#AD so it fits in with a lot of other music I've been transcribing over the past year. It follows a blues chord structure moving between I IV and V7 and has some tasty little lines for each chord change. If you've not heard the original then check it out here:

Its in DADF#AD but it's incredibly sharp. You can find my transcription in the PDF downloads section above. Here's my tutorial where I look the first section of the tune. Hope you enjoy it!

For this weeks #transcriptiontuesday I decided to take a look at the muted trumpet solo on Duke Ellington's arrangement of 'Take The A Train'... Ray Nance plays a brilliantly concise and swinging solo this was a great lesson in phrasing and a good reminder that sometimes keeping things simple is all you need, as Thelonious Monk once said “Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by… What you don't play can be more important than what you do.”

Hi Guys,

Sorry its taken me a while to get this video up for Blind Blake's 'Police Dog Blues'. It's in DADF#AD (check out my transcription in the PDF downloads) and features some lovely language and licks. Hope its worth the wait! After our discussions at our monthly group guitar workshops I thought I'd change tack for this video and just film myself playing through each section slowly and then talk about the tricky bits and any necessary fingerings that might be needed.

Hope its useful! As ever please get in touch if you need any help!

David 

This weeks #transcriptiontuesday is this beautiful solo by Lester Young over a chorus of ‘The Man I Love’ from a 1939 recording he made with Billie Holiday. I love the way his solos swoop up and down, soaring and fluttering - it evokes the memories in me of watching the seabirds that would dive into the ocean on their hunt for prey. I’d sit and watch them whilst supping on a negroni, somewhere on the coast of Amalfi back in my cruise ship days. Ah. He’s got such a unique sense of time and feel. It was an absolute joy to transcribe this one.

For this weeks #transcriptiontuesday I thought I’d take a look at Hubert Rostaing’s solo over the Django Reinhardt classic ‘Swing 42’. I’ve always loved the lines he plays over the I VI II V so I thought it was worth transcribing and learning. I think it’s easy to over look some of the brilliant musicians Django used to play with (what with Django stealing the show) but there are some real gems in those recordings of Django when he was holed up in Paris during WW2.

#CharlieChristian #JazzGuitar #TuesdayTranscriptions

I'm quite a big Charlie Christian fan and this solo has been on my transcribe list for a while so I knew it wouldn't be long until it got transcribed as part of my #TuesdayTranscriptions. I love his phrasing and those lines over the Dom7 chords - every solo of his is like a little story.

Hi Guys,

Here's a link to my transcription of 'Police Dog Blues' by Blind Blake! Hope you like it. There's some lovely language in there. I've also uploaded it to the PDF downloads section of this page. 

Enjoy!

David

https://www.daviddelarre.co.uk/files/1119508/police-dog-blues-score.pdf

Hey Guys,

Here's a 'How to Play' video for 'If You Don't Want Me' by Mississippi John Hurt. We've been looking at it in our Subscribers Group Guitar Workshops.

 It's a really lovely and relatively easy way into playing in Open D tuning. Hope you enjoy it!

all the best

David 

Hi Guys,

So in the subscription group guitar class we've been looking at Open D tuning. Specifically looking at Mississippi John Hurt's 'If You Don't Want Me'. I wanted to look at a few other things in this tuning as I always find it annoying when you only know 1 tune in a tuning.. kinda makes it tedious to tune down for...anyway I started to look for songs I've always liked and thought of 'Police Dog Blues' by Blind Blake, its in Open E (so you can capo II Open D). 

If you don't know it then check it out here:

The song is a story about a man being interested in a woman who isn’t interested back, and he is debating going to her house to try to see her, but then deciding not to out of fear of her calling the police dog on him.

Blind Blake breezes through the changes and has these fantastic guitar breaks. I've transcribed the intro, verse and 1st guitar break for you guys.. check out the PDF download above. I'll post up a video later this week too. 

Enjoy!

all the best

David 

I've recently been teaching strumming patterns on my guitar course for Cecil Sharp House. I've made this video which looks at 3 essential strumming patterns for folk / bluegrass / country music. It's very much inspired by the Norman Blake tune I looked at a few weeks back (scroll down this blog to find the video on that)... anyway I thought some of you might find this useful!

Get in touch with video suggestions!

all the best

David 

Hi Guys, 

I've been teaching this on my beginners folk guitar course for EFDSS at Cecil Sharp House. Thought some of you might be interested in learning it. 

You can download the PDF in the downloads section. 

all the best

David

Hi Guys,

Here's the final part of my video lesson on Norman Blakes arrangement of 'A Man of Constant Sorrow'. Please take a look and get in touch if you have any problems learning it etc!

all the best

David 

Here's Miles Davis' solo on 'Billie's Bounce' as recorded by Charlie Parker in 1945. I love how understated and simple it is - a 19 year old Miles Davis! Crazy to think it would be another 14 years before he would develop his sound further to create 'Kind of Blue'. If you want to learn it then check out my Sound Slice here:

Hi Guys,

Here's a brand spanking new video lesson for y'all looking at Norman Blakes awesome rendition of 'A Man of Constant Sorrow'. I fell in love with this song when I first heard it on the 'O Brother, Where art thou?' sound track. 

It features some awesome cross picking techniques, slides, gorgeous little thirds and some great pluck strum patterns. Hope you enjoy learning it!

Download the transcription in the PDF downloads section. 

all the best

David 

Hey Guys,

The jazz heads among you might be interested to download my transcription of Charlie Christians awesome solo on the 1939 recording of 'Rose Room' - have a look in the PDF downloads section. You can learn how to play this by using my soundslice page here.. its basically a video / score thing that you can slow down / loop etc at your own will!

Enjoy!

David 

The final part in this thrilling 3 part saga! 

Hope you find these videos useful guys. 

all the best

David

Hi Guys,

As requested here are the chord boxes for my arrangement of Nine Pound Hammer! Hope that helps! They're also in the downloads page as a pdf download.

Enjoy!

Dave

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Sorry its taken a while to get the second part of this three part video lesson up... life has a habit of getting in the way when there's free chocolate, roast turkey and gin. Anyway...hope you had a good christmas and looking forward into getting stuck in with some new music! Switched over to my 1975 Martin 000-28 (borrowed from Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel fame) for this video - which sound do you prefer?

I'll try to use a different guitar for part 3 just to throw you off the scent even more!

all the best

David

Hey Guys,

Here's my video lesson for Merle Travis's classic song 'Nine Pound Hammer'... enjoy! 

I've been playing variants of this tune for years. Its a lovely little thing that really flows once you get the thumb pattern down... I'd recommend playing through the chord changes with just the thumb until you can do it with your eyes closed or whilst having a conversation about marxism with a friend. 

The whole thing is built on that solid foundation of the thumb alternating between strings so make sure you get that down first. Then take a look at the melody. Split it into two or four bar phrases and loop it until you get a solid groove going, then practise to a metronome thats on half time and clicking away on beats 2 and 4. 

It'll come! Don't rush and don't sweat it. It'll come. 

The PDF is in the downloads page, I've recorded a super slow (75BPM) audio file of it (below) and a video lesson is on its way!

Good luck!

all the best

David 

DADFAD tuning or Open D Minor is a fantastic tuning to explore on the guitar. The top 3 strings (FAD) are the exact same intervals as GBE on a standard tuned guitar so you can really find your feet quite fast. I'm currently preparing a video lesson on this but in the mean time below is an audio track of me talking about this tuning and taking you through some of the examples in my 'Exploring DADFAD' sheet that is available to download in the downloads section. It looks a bit like this! 

Have fun exploring these chords and shapes and make sure you listen to the audio track below!

all the best

Dave