One of my all consuming interests in guitar playing and all things related to guitar technology and music…
I came of age in the late 1960’s and early 1970’a so as far as popular music goes I am still influenced by that era. Nevertheless, over the years I’ve developed a deep appreciation for Bop era jazz, old school country music (before it became a bastardized version of rock and roll) and a variety of acoustic music forms including bluegrass, folk, and modern finger style guitar.
When I first began taking guitar lessons in the late 1980’s, I wanted to be a bluegrass flat picker… my guitar hero was Tony Rice… While a fine singer, Rice’s jazz inflected guitar play is singular and highly recommended by me. At that time I was very averse to finger style playing because of a dismal experience I had taking classical guitar lessons for a semester as a student at North Carolina… Alas, after few years of wailing away with a pick, I came to the sad conclusion that I did not have the fast twitch reflexes to play that style. This was really hammered home when my (douche bag) guitar teacher in Kansas scowled at me one Saturday morning for playing too slow…
Influenced by some friends in Kansas, I switched my interest to finger style and the most impactful book in this transition was Mark Hanson’s book seen below. I cannot recommend it more highly for teaching basic alternating bass with the thumb, and melody picking with the index, middle and ring fingers. As with all of Hansen’s books though the musical pieces (too) quickly become progressively more difficult to play… sometimes too difficult.
As a result of my switch in musical emphasis, I became enamored with finger style players like Al Petteway, Chris Proctor and Ed Gerhard, but probably developed the most respect for Martin Simpson, who put together, back to back three of the best finger style instrumental recordings ever made…
During my initial excursion into finger style, I learned, from Mark Hanson’s book (shown earlier), a version of the Elizabeth Cotton tune “Freight Train.” I remember thinking how fun it would be to find more tunes like that one; however, I did not have the wherewithal at the time to do just that… Further, my son Parker was born around that time (1999) and the task of helping to raise him, hitting a wall in terms of my playing development, as well as my quest for promotion and tenure at my university led to a long term period (years and years) away from the guitar.
Jump ahead to 2016… to my misfortune, I learned that the cancer that had been “eliminated” by surgery in 2008 had returned and required seven weeks of radiation therapy at the Mayo Clinic to tamp it back down again. Since the Clinic was two hours from home, I had to stay in Rochester, MN during that time period. Fortunately, I found lodging at the Hope House, where I had my own very nice accommodations. Why I bring this up is because it was then that I decided to re-involve myself with the guitar.
I took beginning lessons in Rochester and was appalled at how much guitar skill base, such that I had developed years earlier, was gone; however, in time I regained enough to be encouraged. While in Rochester, I traded my very nice old Taylor 714 guitar for an even nicer state of the art Taylor 914ce, so I was back in the game! I left Mayo with my illness again under control and took on a new guitar instructor back here in Iowa.
It was after a lesson or two, that I remembered “Freight Train” and began to chase around to find more music like that tune. In short order, I decided that I would focus on finger style Country Blues, which is truly American roots music. So armed with a willing teacher, DVD courses and a beginner’s book, I started my journey, and continue to this day.
