Looking at the melody of Autumn leaves, I love the melodic leap write at the pick up. It really grabs your attention. Go back to the previous blog and listen to the way Eva Cassidy embellishes the high note giving it even more energy and tension. The melody as written below is the original melody of the song. Again, listen to the way Eva Cassidy plays with the melody, keeping the central flavour of the melody while at the same time putting her own stamp on it. You can see from the notation below (even if you don’t read notation you’ll still get the idea of the shape of the musical lines) that after the initial leap there is a series of 3 note rising lines that gently fall through the next 8 measures….. a bit like those falling leaves ?

As I do, I was trolling about the internet looking for versions of Autumn Leaves that could help inspire my arrangement and I’ve got to say this version by Eva Cassidy is definitely up there

Moving onto measures 5-8 we have F#m7b5 going to B7 and onto Em. Arranged in the key of G (relative minor key Em), in measures 7&8 the melody comes to rest on Em.

As fingerstyle guitarists we can learn a lot from the technique of classical guitarists. There are some great close ups in the clip below of Andres Segovia’s right hand fingerstyle technique. Segovia was one of the first classical guitarists to pluck the strings with a combination of fingernails and fingertips. Playing in this manner gave him a wider range of timbres. Often by concentrating on holding down chord shapes with the left hand we forget about what the right hand is doing. Don’t fall into that trap and don’t be put off by Segovia’s virtuoso playing….I have some basic right hand technique tips in my free introductory course  !

This is the first 4 measures of the classic song Autumn Leaves. There has been many great recording of this song and I’ve listed some of my favourites in the songbook pages. I’ve arranged the chord progression here in the key of G . The first chord in the progression is Am which moves to D7 and then onto G and then Cmaj7. I’ve used a “p” “i” “m” “i” right hand picking pattern as I think it gives a nice flow to progression. With this picking pattern the thumb plays the root of the chords on the lowest sounding three strings of the guitar – E A D – and the index finger “i” and the middle finger “m” play on the highest sounding three strings – G B E. Go to the Autumn Leaves Guitar Chord Progression page for the the full chord progression for the song and go to the Autumn Leaves Guitar Lesson Chord Chart which lists the left hand chord shapes I use in the arrangement.

I love this old recording by Blind Blake, one of the main ragtime guitarists, who lived from 1896 to 1934. Not much is known about who he was or where he came from, however he was and has been very influencial amongst other guitarists including names such as The Reverend Gary Davis, Jorma Kaukoonen, Ry Cooder, Ralph McTell and leon Redbone . His type of ragtime was one where he would frequently syncopate the bass with the melody often leaving gaps for short single line solos. While my playing is different than his, I do adopt this principle of mixing things up in my playing.

Blind Arthur Blake – Black Dog Blues

Merry Christmas everybody !

What an exciting few weeks I’ve just had! I’ve been in Savalas Sound Studios in Film City Glasgow recording my new guitar course. These studios have played host in the past to such names as Ewan Mcregor (Obi-wan Kenobi in the Star Wars trilogy), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid in the Harry Potter Films), Franz Ferdinand (the band not the Austro-Hungarian Royal Prince)…and now me! No wonder I’m smiling (sometimes) in this promotional video.

One of the best ways to keep bringing you’re playing on is to memorise chord progressions. Once you’ve started to build up a library you’ll start to see the similarities and differences between the different progressions of different songs. The important thing is always to try and analyse so that you’ll be able to recognise similarities in progressions even though they may be in different keys. In the songbook section of the website I’ve listed some songs, done some analysis of the progressions and recommended some listening. One of my favourite songs in there is Georgia. I’ve arranged in the key of D which is a good key for the guitar as it lets us use open strings. There’s all sorts of chords in here with altered notes such as  b9, b5. These are great bluesy notes to start getting you’re fingers round. One of my favourite versions of this tune is that by Martin Taylor. You can hear a clip in the songbook page for Georgia.

On setting off on my holidays recently I decided to take some reading material. Rather than going for the usual crime thriller I went for “Music and Communication” by Terence McLaughlin.  Ok, not everbody’s first choice but it’s been lying on the shelf staring at me for a while so I thought, now’s the time. It’s a pretty heavy read but it certainly did get me thinking. One of the first questions it addresses is  “Why Music?” What are it’s origins, why as listener’s do we gain so much satisfaction from it. From a players perspective have you ever asked yourself the question “ Why is it that I want to learn the guitar? ”.  Some obvious answers might be along the lines of : I heard Joe Pass playing (I’m sure you’ll have your own guitar hero) and thought, I want to do that; or, I remember my Grandfather playing that tune, I’d love to learn it; or, I’d love to be able to play some songs at parties!  It strikes me that generally all of these reasons will have some type of emotional response attached to them. Why is it that you want to play like you’re guitar hero?  Is it for reasons of admiration or is it because of the way the music makes you feel. I would suggest that more often than not it’s due to the latter, the way it makes you feel, the emotional response that the music triggers.

Differing from other art forms, music effects our emotions without there being an obvious external influence. The example given by Terence McLaughlin in his book is that of King Lear from Shakespeare’s famous play raving on the stage. Even if we understand not a word of the old English prose we can still identify him as an old man who has been left out in some extremely bad weather and a resulting emotional response is stimulated. Music often has no such footing in the real world. It is very much a shifting art form, always changing, moving and growing with these subtleties of composition not being linked to an external source as in many other art forms but none the less capable of prompting outbursts of emotion in both listener and player…..…yes, my playing has on occasion driven me to tears !

While having no obvious roots in the real world, most people would agree that music is often capable of expressing something deep and valuable. So the question is, why is it that music can affect us in such a manner that we are prompted to feel deep emotions of sadness, happiness and excitement.

I think to answer this question we have to look at the different elements music embraces to be expressive: the elements of dynamics, tempo, rhythm, harmony, melody and, underpinning all music the use of tension and resolution. There is also a more physiological question needing addressed as to how our brains process musical information. Maybe a question for my next holiday break !!