Black And White Rags

And Novelty Instrumentals Of Rev. Gary Davis-Rev. Gary Davis is the real thing. The authentic blind-seer. He is a genius with a brightly burning spirit enormous musical intelligence technical brilliance an encyclopaedic memory driving passion deep faith araunchy and gracious sense of humour. A mystic. He is an icon of the style of Guitar he was born into known today as the Piedmont blues. Through players of the first half of the twentieth century like Alfred Shultz Mose Ranger Merle Travis and Chet Atkins this is the signature American fingerpicking style that would so deeply inform the country folk blues and even rock and roll of our day.Rev. Davis (1896-1972) was born black indeep poverty in South Carolina blind from an early age. He overcame these longest of odds to become world famous a giant of American music. He brought together black and white styles country gospel folk themes blues jazz ragtime minstrel songs dance tunes and popular song. He developed his own brilliant fingerpicking style that was deep economical and adaptable enough to easily cover all these genres. Supporting all his creativity was anunshakable faith that pulled him through the obscurity the bitter hard times and crushing poverty he would endure until the folk music awakening of the fifties and sixties caught up to him.In this book and accompanyingaudio Ernie Hawkins has transcribed 9 of Rev. Davis' best known rags minstrel shows tunes and novelty instrumentals. These are challenging and very rewarding to master. Included are: Buck Dance Devil's Dream Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From Fast Foxtrot St. Louis Tickle Darktown Strutter's Ball and his tour de forces Twelve Sticks and SoldiersMarch. The unique bottleneck/slide tune Whistlin' Blues is also presented played in an open D6 tuning.The playing of Rev. Davis has influenced generations of guitar players from Blind Boy Fuller to

Arrangements In Vestapol Tuning-'The Open D Tuning (D A D F# A D) also referred to as the Vestapol tuning is a powerful and evocative tuning that was widely used by guitarists in the 1920s to play country blues ballads rags and folk tunes. In this lesson I focus on arranging five of my favorite blues melodies in Vestapol plus an original instrumental.The religious tune When I Lay My Burden Down was in the repertoire of both Black and White traditional guitarists. I have arranged it in an Elizabeth Cotten/Mississippi John Hurt style. The beautiful blues Goin' To Germany was recorded by the Cannon's Jug Stompers in the 1920s. I have always wanted to find the right setting for this melodic countryblues and the Vestapol tuning gave me the feel and textures that I was looking for. Sam McGee played guitar behind Uncle Dave Macon when he recorded I've Got The Morning Blues in Vestapol. This is a fun tune to play and leads nicely in to Hesitation Blues a song recorded by many artists. My arrangement tries to combine a sliding jug sound with some funky blues licks. Peg Leg Howell's Skin Game Blues is a rare example of an early blues song with three distinct sections. Peg Leg played this with a bottleneck but for our arrangement we will rely on our fingers to make the notes sing out.We finish the lesson with Innocence Abroard. An original instrumental that ties together the right and left hand techniques we have studied.A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD. Each tune is taught phrase by phrase and played slowly on a split-screen. Bonus audio tracks of the original 1920s recordings are included. These are the records I first heard that influenced me to rearrange the melodies to the Vestapol tuning.' Stefan Grossman

Arr Stephen Duro. A great series of piano solos which offers players the opportunity to try out a number of less conventional styles, using carefully selected musical favourites. Each volume contains pieces which are authentically arranged and fingered with helpful playing and style notes and chord symbols for accompaniment or improvisation. / Stephen Duro / Partition /