I've been thinking about making this record for a long time. I've always loved lo-fi / bedroom records, whether that's The Mouldy Peaches' self-titled album, Moby's Play, or Chris Wood & Andy Cutting's demo tapes—there's always been something about them that grabs me, so I made one.

Recorded in my bedroom with a Shure SM57 and occasionally a Shure Beta 181... the plan was to make a solo guitar record. But then I got bored of hearing just guitar, decided to sing a few songs, and ended up down a rabbit hole of finding old songs and tunes from Essex and London. The majority of these songs are just old words I found in the Bodleian Library or Cecil Sharp House. I set them to my own melodies, changed the melodies to something that suited me, or added a chorus... they've been thoroughly messed around with!

I hope you like it. It's just my attempt at a bedroom record in a lo-fi way, where I had a lot of fun making textures from wires, foam, paper, and paperclips shoved into my guitar strings, alongside weird recording techniques. It's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience putting it together.

I did all the artwork myself, too!

Listen / Buy the record here:

https://daviddelarre.bandcamp.com/album/king-death

It'll be out on all major streaming platforms on December 4th 2026.

Rule 1 
You're only allowed to play from Fret 1 to Fret 12.

Rule 2
Go from the thinnest string to the thickest string finding the same note e.g 
G on the E string fret 3
G on the B string fret 8
G on the G string fret 12
G on the D string fret 5
G on the A string fret 10
G on the E string fret 3

Rule 3
Do it in time preferably with a metronome and say the note names, the fret and try to visualise the what you are doing at the same time.

Rule 4
Try learning all 12 notes in western music, if that's too much of a task try learning just 3 notes per week and then you'll have it down within a month.

When you have a good understanding of the notes, try to create your own chord voicings, try picking out simple melodies in all the different areas of the neck.

I've been teaching John Renbourn's arrangement of this lovely old English folk ballad recently on my guitar course for the English Folk Dance and Song Society so I thought I'd make a video for you guys. You can listen to John Renbourn's version here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/7xXG4C02vMHkMMhWoLILdq?si=b6af8034087c47c8

Head over to my downloads page to get the transcription!

Rowan and I have wanted to play together for a number of years now and on Sunday we got the chance to do a handful of songs together at Walthamstow Folk Club which meets at the brilliant old east end boozer Ye Olde Rose & Crown Pub on Hoe St.

We didn't get a chance to rehearse this one - this is literally the first time we have both played it together. I recorded it on an old Zoom recorder sat next to my pint of pilsner and paired it with a video that Giulietta Cinque filmed in the second row - thanks Giulietta!

Lyrics:

Come in, come in, my old true love,
And chat for a while with me,
For it’s been three-quarters of a long year or more
Since you spoke one word to me.

Oh I can’t come in, I won’t sit down,
For I haven’t a moment’s time,
Since you are engaged to another true love,
And your heart is no longer mine.

When you were mine, my own true love,
And your head lay on my breast,
You could make me believe, by the falling of your arm,
That the sun rose up in the west.

For there’s many a star that jangles in the west,
And many the leaves do blow,
And many is the damn that will light upon a man
For treating a young girl so.

I'm a bit of a lurker on the facebook group 'Tunesday Tuesday' - essentially a facebook group for trad. folk players to learn and then share a tune every week - this tune was offered up by the admin. It was played as a dance tune by Lewis "Scan" Tester on his concertina (this is what it's meant to sound like - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nav8p7ohDEE ) but I like to find things in these old tunes so came up with this.... it sounded a bit jazzy to me so I decided to play it on my old Gibson L4-C. Bloody love this guitar! 

If you fancy learning it you can find my transcription of it on my website: 

https://www.daviddelarre.co.uk/downloads

I've not uploaded anything in a while as for the last 9 months I've been playing guitar in the #WestEnd for #Hadestown. It's a great show! Love it to bits but its 8 shows a week and knackers me out so I've been neglecting those of you who take the time to watch my videos and leave your lovely comments - my apologies for that - anyway this arrangement just fell out of my brain the other day when I was sitting at home and I thought I'd record it for you all. It's in Drop D and I've transcribed it and put it up on my website in the members section if you want to learn it. Thinking about starting up a Patreon soon... would you guys be interested in that?

Getting back on the transcription train! I’ve not uploaded anything in a while - currently playing guitar for ‘Hadestown’ in the West End which is keeping me very busy with 8 shows a week but I really want to get back into transcribing so I thought I’d give #transcriptiontuesday ago. I love Lester Young’s playing it’s so soulful and playful. If you want to learn my transcription from it head on over to my https://www.soundslice.com/slices/v9Gzc/ it’s a really great resource for musicians to learn from.

Just noticed my last post on my website was back in November 2023…. whoops. My apolgies for that - one of the main reasons I've not been so busy on my website and on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DavidDelarre is that since February 2024 I have been playing guitar for the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical “Hadestown” at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. I'm absolutely thrilled to be playing guitar for this show as I love pretty much anything Anais Mitchell has written so it's a real honour to play her music to the fans 8 shows a week. You can book tickets here:

https://uk.hadestown.com/

you can just about see me in the background of this press night image here! Nice to wear a hat for a change. Maybe I'm a hat guy now?!

In this first part of the tutorial I teach the form of the song, the chords and the bass line that will get you started to learning this classic from Lightnin' Hopkins. 

You can download my transcription of this by heading over to the downloads page!

https://www.daviddelarre.co.uk/downloads

If you fancy sending me a tip or buying me a beer send cash to:

HTTPS://PAYPAL.ME/DAVIDDELARRE

Thanks!

I've been teaching this tune to my group guitar class recently (if you're interested in joining it check out my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/daviddelarre) and today after changing my strings on my old 1930's Kalamazoo KG-11 I thought I'd do a quick video. The majority of it is John Fahey's arrangement but I got a bit carried away and started to add my own little bluesy things to it. Hope you like it!

#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. If you want to learn this solo head over to my soundslice page:

https://www.soundslice.com/slices/vBfDc/

#TranscriptionTuesday #GypsyJazz #SoloTranscription For this weeks #TranscriptionTuesday

I actually learnt a guitar solo! ;-) I've always loved this solo of Django's and have wanted to learn it for years. Turns out I just needed a global pandemic to get my arse in gear and work it out. Enjoy! Some tricky little lines in this one. Get my transcription here: I've always loved this solo and wanted to learn it for years. Turns out I just needed a global pandemic to get my arse in gear and work it out. Enjoy! Some tricky little lines in this one.

https://www.soundslice.com/slices/SmcDc/

For this weeks #transcriptiontuesday I transcribed this awesome solo by Charlie Parker blowing over an old 1940’s recording of “Oh! Lady Be Good!” with Jay McShann. It was quite a mission to transcribe this... some of these lines do not fall where you think they will and it throws you off track. That little arpeggio shift between the G major and G diminished took a fair amount of wood shedding to get accurate too. 

Feeling grateful that lockdown has at least afforded me plenty of time to get my shit together. 

Onwards and upwards! 

#tuesdaytranscription #jazzguitarlicks #charlieparker #ohladybegood #ladybegood #solotranscription

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 soundslice here:

It's #TranscriptionTuesday time! This week I learnt Lester Young's beautiful solo over 'All of Me' on a previously unreleased recording session with Billie Holiday. “Why would anyone discard such a masterpiece?”, I hear you ask. Well, that’s simply because it ran over the three minutes that could fit onto an old-style 78rpm disk!

Here's my transcription of it!

I spent most of last summer transcribing and listening to Charlie Christian. It was a brilliant way of spending lockdown - his solos are so inventive and had such a lyrical way of moving through the changes. I learnt alot about phrasing a solo and trying to keep melodic lines simple. 

Anyway I've just started the process of videoing some of these solos so I can put them up on SoundSlice so you guys can learn them too!

Here's 'Rose Room'. Hope you like it!

I've been recently trying to explore my musical horizons a little - getting into bluegrass and country. This sort of flat picking for whatever reason has always evaded my list of things to learn! I heard this tune years ago on the 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' soundtrack but only bothered transcribing and learning it this past week. It's a gorgeously simple but effective piece of guitar playing by Norman Blake. Hope you like it!

I've been teaching this one recently to my students on my group guitar lessons subscription service (check out the subscribe section for details)... a cheery little number to get you all through these strange old times! 

It's an amalgamation of ideas taken from Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel with a good dollop of me thrown in for good measure. I like this sort of guitar playing... it feels nice to play when you get that thumb swinging on 2 & 4 and you can get a bit carried away with it all and for a moment you forget all the shit that is going on around you. Anyway, for you guitarists out there there's a free transcription / TAB in the downloads page if you fancy learning it - better still - get in touch and I'll teach it to you. 

Thanks for watching!

Hey Guys,

I've been working on a solo record over the past year and I'm planning on self releasing it next year on bandcamp. If you're on bandcamp i'd really appreciate a follow on my bandcamp and then we can all just have a jolly time on bandcamp. Its called bandcamp. 

Here I am! 

https://daviddelarre.bandcamp.com/

thanking you in advance! ;-)

David

When I was a kid I'd spend most of the year being dragged around gorgeous little pubs in rural Essex following a gang of bald and bearded morris men as they danced and played to unsuspecting audiences. At the time I thought it was all rather embarrassing and was in it mainly for the pork scratchings (20 years before they were cool I hasten to add) and of course the odd occasional pint of beer or most likely half a shandy. Little did I know at the time that I'd spend the rest of my life playing those tunes to unsuspecting audiences and how much I'd learn to love this sort of music. 

Anyway here's an old morris dance tune called Swaggering Boney. I've been teaching it recently at Cecil Sharp House for the English Folk Dance and Song Society - if you want to learn it then its available to download on my downloads page.

Hope you like it!

Having a lovely time transcribing some jazz solos this week. This is Gerry Mulligans solo on his tune “Bernies Tune”. Some lovely language in there! I love that little bop line in the middle.

Here's a lovely little Kenny Barron lick from his solo on Autumn Leaves. I love his phrasing - there's a real flow to his melodic ideas. Have a go at learning this on my soundslice here!

Feeling very proud and honoured to have been involved with Punchdrunk and HBO's ‘The Third Day' - a 12 hour long wonderful experiment of theatre, TV and hardcore realism! It was amazing to be part of something so ambitious and groundbreaking. I'm in complete awe of the entire cast and technical teams that made it happen. Well done to all involved! 

I don't think I'll ever look at Osea Island in the same way again! 

P.S Jude Law f**king rocks and deserves a medal for what he achieved that day. 
. 
. 
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#thethirdday #thethirddayautumn #oseaisland #punchdrunk #hbo #skyarts

Here's the intro to Mississippi Fred McDowell's 'Gravel Road Blues' a lovely little song based on a very simple blues lick, the whole thing is built around the minor 3rd and the flat 7.. playing on that minor / major tonality in the blues. Have a listen to his version! Such a wonderful groove which really swings and pulls its weight from beat 1 onwards. Its in open G tuning with the capo on the 1st fret. 

Good luck!