Red White and Blue Rag development

[TBman]

I was encouraged by all of the Mark Hanson books talk lately here this past week so I sat down with his "The Art of Solo Fingerpicking" book a couple of times. Today I worked on Red White and Blue Rag from the book for the third time this week.

Talk about putting grooves in your finger tips! It is hard to get every note to ring out and is so important with this kind of song. With a blues song you can fudge a bit and no one really notices, but this has to be spot on, and well, it ain't yet, lol. Also it isn't near performance speed either. So after about a 10 year layoff and 3 half hour workouts here's what I have so far. Not even the whole song, just pages one and two and back to one for a short while. Ouch!

I have to get more air between my hand and the neck while thumb wrapping on the F chord to get the leverage to have the notes ring out clean.

[EllaMom]

I worked on that piece as well. I tried barring the F chord but it slowed down the tempo. I haven't figured out how to wrap the thumb around the top to grab that F either. Maybe my thumb is too short! I tried the open A string, as the book suggests, for an alternative bass note, but don't care for the sound nearly so much as the F.

I'll listen to your audio when I get back into a faster wifi environment.

[tbeltrans]

TBman,

Nice job! You are an inspiration. David Sudnow, in his self-teaching piano course said that the "motivated student is the best teacher". You are the "motivated student" in all your efforts (teaching the rest of us), especially since you actually post so we can hear what you are doing.

Don't listen to those folks who say you shouldn't learn other people's arrangements. You are making great progress and the folks around here who REALLY play well (such as Derek, Doug Young, islandguitar, and many others) would never tell you that. Listen to them (and "stick with the winners", as the old saying goes).

Keep up the good work!

Tony

[islandguitar]

Tony,
Thanks for the kind words!

Just one message for this post, however............GO BARRY!!

Thanks for sharing this continuing project, Barry!!

[TBman]

Thanks guys! This is going to be a tough week with not too much guitar time, but maybe on Saturday or Sunday I'll give it more time.

[EllaMom]

Barry, I just finally had the chance to listen to your recording of RW&B Rag, and I think you have a great tempo and feel for the piece. It is a tough one. I'm nowhere near where you are with it. But you inspire me to revisit it.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by EllaMom

Barry, I just finally had the chance to listen to your recording of RW&B Rag, and I think you have a great tempo and feel for the piece. It is a tough one. I'm nowhere near where you are with it. But you inspire me to revisit it.

Thanks Carol! That's a tune that needs to be worked on a few times a week. Next week there will be time for that. I'll keep posting my progress towards performance speed.

[reeve21]

Hello Barry (and all you other fingerpickers),

Thanks for posting this. I actually haven't been able to listen to it yet, but I will tonight.

I have the book, but haven't cracked it yet. I'm still pushing through Over and Out Rag which is the last song in his Travis Picking book. I'm seeing progress, but struggle with wrapping that thumb on the F as well. I cheat and play it on the top 4 strings right now.

You are so right about the precision needed in his arrangements. I switch between his stuff and John Hatcher's Blues Guitar Institute where I can palm mute the bass and play some chords as well as single line melody. Not that John's stuff is simple or easy, but the variety is nice.

Fingerstyle is quite a journey. I just started at the beginning of the year, and the threads and song samples I see and hear on AGF are really very motivating!

Thanks to all,

[sixx]

I enjoyed that Tbman and am motivated by your posting it. Mark Hanson books ordered and inbound! Thanks very much. Jon

[TBman]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Hello Barry (and all you other fingerpickers),

Thanks for posting this. I actually haven't been able to listen to it yet, but I will tonight.

I have the book, but haven't cracked it yet. I'm still pushing through Over and Out Rag which is the last song in his Travis Picking book. I'm seeing progress, but struggle with wrapping that thumb on the F as well. I cheat and play it on the top 4 strings right now.

You are so right about the precision needed in his arrangements. I switch between his stuff and John Hatcher's Blues Guitar Institute where I can palm mute the bass and play some chords as well as single line melody. Not that John's stuff is simple or easy, but the variety is nice.

Fingerstyle is quite a journey. I just started at the beginning of the year, and the threads and song samples I see and hear on AGF are really very motivating!

Thanks to all,

Mark's stuff is like watching bowling or golf. Its like, "Hey, that looks easy, I can do that!" But...... No way. His songs are deceptively difficult and take time to master.

Originally Posted by sixx

I enjoyed that Tbman and am motivated by your posting it. Mark Hanson books ordered and inbound! Thanks very much. Jon

I'm glad I was able to inspire you. I've been inspired by a lot of people here too. It may sound corny, but pay it forward some day.

[sixx]

I'm glad I was able to inspire you. I've been inspired by a lot of people here too. It may sound corny, but pay it forward some day.

Not corny at all. Words to live by.

[SprintBob]

Here's my take on RWB Rag recorded about 8 months ago. I play the song at least once a week just a touch faster than this. I was learning the song at the time and this recording has more of a "straight 8th's" feel where I think Barry's has a bit more soul to it. There's a couple of hiccups but Mark was pretty pleased that I got it right technically and stayed pretty much in time.

In the audio CD with the book, Mark plays it quite fast. In my time left on this world, not sure I could ever get to that level. He is my Skype teacher and we had a discussion about the playing speed of these pieces and Mark told me he probably played it too fast for the audio CD and if he was performing that song to an audience he would slow it down. There is another song in the book called Fishin Blues that I have down pretty good and I play it at 95-100 bpm. Mark told me that he liked the slower speed because it communicated the feel of a lazy day fishing better than if you hurried through it. I don't stress out on my playing speed on a lot of what I play now. I try to focus on just making it sound pleasant to a listener. That certainly makes the learning curve more enjoyable.

[EllaMom]

Originally Posted by SprintBob

Here's my take on RWB Rag recorded about 8 months ago. I play the song at least once a week just a touch faster than this. I was learning the song at the time and this recording has more of a "straight 8th's" feel where I think Barry's has a bit more soul to it. There's a couple of hiccups but Mark was pretty pleased that I got it right technically and stayed pretty much in time.

In the audio CD with the book, Mark plays it quite fast. In my time left on this world, not sure I could ever get to that level. He is my Skype teacher and we had a discussion about the playing speed of these pieces and Mark told me he probably played it too fast for the audio CD and if he was performing that song to an audience he would slow it down. There is another song in the book called Fishin Blues that I have down pretty good and I play it at 95-100 bpm. Mark told me that he liked the slower speed because it communicated the feel of a lazy day fishing better than if you hurried through it. I don't stress out on my playing speed on a lot of what I play now. I try to focus on just making it sound pleasant to a listener. That certainly makes the learning curve more enjoyable.

Nicely done, SprintBob! You kept a great pace throughout. It sounds like you are playing a steel string guitar, am I right? Are you using any thumb/finger picks? The notes really ring. I have been playing my nylon string crossover lately, including for this song. It gives the RW&B Rag a whole different feel, IMHO. Thanks for posting!

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by EllaMom

Nicely done, SprintBob! You kept a great pace throughout. It sounds like you are playing a steel string guitar, am I right? Are you using any thumb/finger picks? The notes really ring. I have been playing my nylon string crossover lately, including for this song. It gives the RW&B Rag a whole different feel, IMHO. Thanks for posting!

Thanks, it is a steel string. Pretty sure it was my 812. I liked Barry's playing of this song, had kind of a swing feel to it and I was messing with that tonight.

I'd love to add a nylon string to my collection but every single one I have demo'ed locally has had what looked like old and/or dead strings so I did not bond at all with the tone I got.

[sirwhale]

Originally Posted by SprintBob

Thanks, it is a steel string. Pretty sure it was my 812. I liked Barry's playing of this song, had kind of a swing feel to it and I was messing with that tonight.

I'd love to add a nylon string to my collection but every single one I have demo'ed locally has had what looked like old and/or dead strings so I did not bond at all with the tone I got.

Since getting my crossover, I haven't looked back.

The guitar was new in the shop and had a new set of nylon strings on it, but it wasn't really the guitar for me until I took the nylons off, and got some high tension carbon strings on it. For us folks, who play the music we do, crossovers play much better with carbons.

I'm even selling the steel strings because I don't play them anymore. The crossover gives me more projection than most steel string guitars, with half the effort (so much less tension). But I also prefer the treble string sound of carbon strings.