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Tuesday, May 25th, 2004
Here is how you transition from "Palette" to "CAGWYW": ...G / B / C / /
G / D / Em / /
G / D / Em / C /
G / D / Em / F /
F / G7 / C / C
C / / F / /...
Trust me -- it sounds sweet. In other jammin' -- I finally figured out how to tie "Stagger Lee" and "C.C. Rider" together; just strum the last chord of "Stagger Lee", rest for a measure, and start right in. That sounds a lot better than the noodling around I had been trying to do. "Rag Mama" is finally together. Never before have I really been satisfied with how I played that song; but tonight the speed was right, the beat was right, I had the vocals down. (3 out of four times that I played it tonight -- hope I hit lucky tomorrow night on stage.) I am not talking about the Band song called "Rag Mama Rag" -- this is a tune by Blind Boy Fuller (which I originally know via Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band): A7
I'm goin uptown with my hat in my hand
D
Lookin for de woman aint got no man
G7
Just as well be tryin to find a needle in the sand
C
Lookin for a woman aint got no man
Chorus:
Dwee-de-daw, dweedly-daw, Rag Mama,
Come on, baby, do that Rag
Well you get yourself a woman you best get two,
One for your buddy 'nother one for you,
Got me a wife an a sweetheart too,
Wife don't love me my sweetheart do
Took my woman down to Meeker St.,
Honey now, honey now, whatta'I see,
Saw my woman with a man, she was holdin' his hand
(that ain't right!) Aw,
Pistol in my pocket, black jack in my hand, says
I'm gonna get that so-and-so
Now, who'd'a thought my gal would treat me so,
Love another man at my back door
Mind, mama, what you sow,
Cause you gots to reap just what you sow
posted evening of May 25th, 2004: Respond
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Monday, May 24th, 2004
I'm working on a 3-song set for the open mike on Wednesday. Tonight I tried out "Palette on your Floor", "Can't Always Get What You Want", and "Rag Mama". At least the first two are definitely good to go -- the third needs a little work but I was shocked to be able to play it as well as I did. Gabe assisted me over the phone with a way to transition between "Palette" (which is in G) and "CAGWYW" (which is in C) -- on the final turnaround you go from D to Em instead of back to G, and then to F, G7, C and you are suddenly playing in the key of C.
posted evening of May 24th, 2004: Respond
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Saturday, May 22nd, 2004
I am trying to put together a one-hour set of songs that I can play on guitar and sing. This afternoon I played a 45-minute set and it sounded pretty good -- the songs were generally not what I would call "tight" but they were all good enough that I could play them at an open mike and not be embarrassed. I have a sort of plan going to do several open mikes and then ask Randal (owner of The Dancing Goat) if I can play a set there on one of his slower nights. Here is the set from this afternoon: - The Ballad of Hollis Brown
I've been working on this one for a while now, one of the songs that really made me a convert to Drop-D tuning. Dylan plays only D-minor chords throughout the entire song, but I play D-minor/G/A7. My picking pattern is fairly elaborate and in another song would run the risk of being too repetitive -- but in this song that's the whole point. - You Can't Always Get What You Want
- Stagger Lee
This is the first song I played in Drop-D tuning and I think of it as a critical juncture in my guitar-playing career. It was a year and a half ago or so, and after 3 years of listening to John Hurt I finally got up the initiative to try and copy one of his songs from the record. - C.C. Rider
- Rocky Raccoon
- House of the Rising Sun
- Prodigal Son
- Palette on your Floor
- No Expectations
The order is just what order I thought of them in when I was writing the set list -- if I were playing an actual set I would fiddle with it some. "No Expectations" is however a great song to end on. Some other songs I reckon should go in there: - Freight Train
- Tell Old Bill
- Hobo's Lullaby
- Barbara Allen
Also today I worked out Dylan's "North Country Blues" (not to be confused with "Girl from the North Country"), which is very easy to play and sounds beautiful -- once I know the lyrics I will add it to the list too and when all these songs are put together I think I will have about an hour. Gotta go -- come back later, I am going to add links and comments for each of the songs.
posted evening of May 22nd, 2004: Respond
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Thursday, May 20th, 2004
I was playing "Rocky Raccoon" tonight and it sounded good; but I can't figure out how to do the intro. I expect Bob will have some useful ideas in that regard when we play on Sunday.
posted evening of May 20th, 2004: Respond
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Wednesday, May 12th, 2004
I was playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" tonight and having a lot of fun with it. The key seems to be just to find a groove and get into it -- there are (practically) only 2 chords in the whole song so in order to keep it from getting boring, you need to play it with a lot of energy. My version didn't sound much like the Stones but I think it sounded all right.
posted evening of May 12th, 2004: Respond
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Wednesday, May 5th, 2004
Played guitar with Bob, Janis and Jim last night -- it went really well. I'm not sure what I was doing different but my guitar was just a lot louder and most of the notes were right, and when I missed a chord I was able to improvise single-note runs to play on top of it. I even played my first genuine, spontaneous solo against "St. James Infirmary". (On which note, I've been getting loads of idle fun lately from singing the relevant two lines of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" to the tune of the first two lines of "St. James Infirmary". For some reason I have been remembering "I went down, to the Delta drugstore" instead of "Chelsea drugstore"; make of that what you will.) By "genuine, spontaneous solo" what I mean is, we were playing the song, Jim singing; he got to the end of the verse, there was the turnaround, he signalled me, and I started playing the solo -- I had not worked out a solo beforehand, just made it up as I went along -- then the turnaround, and Jim started singing again, and I went back to playing rhythm. Totally seamless and coordinated. We also played "Shine a Light on You" and "Loser", both sounded great.
posted evening of May 5th, 2004: Respond
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Saturday, March 6th, 2004
So it turns out to be easier for me to play The Ballad of Hollis Brown in straight Drop-D tuning than in double Drop-D. It's sounding really nice although I have not quite got down how to sing it without whining. Or how to remember all the lyrics.
posted evening of March 6th, 2004: Respond
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Friday, March 5th, 2004
Pursuant to some thinking I've been doing about Dylan lately (inspired in large part by this Crooked Timber thread) I have tracked down a couple of good Dylan links. - Bob Dylan Musical Roots: These pages have a lot of interesting stuff about Odetta and other blues and folk singers that Dylan listened to.
- Bob Dylan Chords: Pretty comprehensive, with information about alternate tunings and picking patterns. This site was originally called "My Back Pages".
- BobDylan.com: Discography, etc. And lotsa links.
posted afternoon of March 5th, 2004: Respond
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Wednesday, March third, 2004
Ooh! I just discovered, you can also tune the bottom string down when you play in drop-D tuning. I discovered this when I was looking for lyrics to The Ballad of Hollis Brown, while formulating my own list of top 5 Dylan songs. I can't wait to try it out! Update, later on: One thing you have to be careful about with this tuning, is that you don't tune the bottom string back up to E too rapidly; otherwise it may break. I have no replacement strings! Hopefully I will be able to buy some on Saturday.
posted afternoon of March third, 2004: Respond
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Saturday, February 21st, 2004
I've been meaning for a while to post a note about drop-D guitar tuning. If you aspire to play finger-style blues guitar, I think this tuning is one of the first things you should find out about. (The other first thing you should find out about, is to get some recordings of Mississippi John Hurt, a master of the genre and IMO the most accessible of the Delta blues guitarists.) By finger-style blues I mean basically, picking alternating bass notes with your thumb or a thumb pick and a melody line with your first, first and second, or first through third fingers. Drop-D is the simplest of the alternate tunings, all you do is tune the top string down a whole step. All the other strings have their standard pitch. You don't need to learn much in the way of new fingerings, but you suddenly have a lot more freedom. Here are the first-position chords (I play in first position just about all the time): C No difference. D No difference, except that the top string is your root. In standard tuning I am usually fingering an F# on the top string with my thumb, now I can just leave it open and pick an alternating bass between the top string and the third string. E Hold down G# on the fourth string with your first finger and E on the third string with your second finger. Leave the second string open (and never play it) and hold down E on the top string with your thumb. Now you can pick an alternating bass between the top string and third string, and two fingers are available for melody stuff. F Barre the bottom two strings on the first fret with your first finger. Hold down A on the fourth string with your second finger and F on the third string with your third finger. Leave the second string open (and never play it) and hold down F on the top string with your thumb. Now you can pick an alternating bass between the top string and third string, and one finger is available for melody stuff. (Note that you can move this barre chord up and down the fingerboard as you desire.) G G is where things get wild -- All you need to do for G is hold down the fifth fret of the top string with your thumb, all four fingers are available for melody stuff. You're pretty free to roam between the third and sixth frets of the treble strings, and throw in open strings (except for the bottom string) as desired. A No difference. B No difference. (Actually I usually finger B7 in first position, you can do either one.) I discovered this tuning while working on "Stagger Lee", since then I have used it on a lot of other songs in the key of D -- lately I noticed it would work well for songs in G too, and yesterday I worked out "Lay me a Pallet on your Floor", which is in C and sounds very nice indeed in this tuning. And the other day I tried playing "Prodigal Son" (in E) in drop-D and though it took a little while to get the hang of it (partly because I've been playing that song for such a long time in standard tuning), it ended up sounding really nice too.
posted afternoon of February 21st, 2004: Respond
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