>>Acoustic Snapshots Episode 147 - The Good Life (A Ragtime Excursion)

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TGNeil
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Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:47 am

As the lesson on The Good Life unfolds, I thought it would be fun to have a complete play through at about the real speed. After a few hundred takes, one finally captured most of the spirit and sound I was looking for.



Here is the text that was included with the segment at YouTube

One of my great loves as a guitar player is playing classic ragtime arrangements. I recently revived some Scott Joplin pieces I first started playing in the 1970s. That got me interested in composing them again. I had written a few many years ago, a couple of which appeared on some of my solo guitar albums. This time I started with the goal being to write something playable by intermediate students.

The Good Life materialized over a couple sessions on October 25, 2014. Section A met my original plan of being somewhat easy to play, used some standard ragtime techniques, and included even cliché licks and progressions. Section B pretty much stayed the course until the last line, which introduced a moving bass line, consequently raising the difficulty level a bit. Section C followed the traditional "trio" model, with a little lighter texture in the sub-dominant key. By the time I got to Section D, the plan of keeping it easy was completely abandoned and it started with a cascade of descending chords, closing with a flurry of arpeggios.

In any case, I hope you like it and the tab will be available at Totally Guitars soon.

Neil


sbutler
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Tue Nov 04, 2014 4:15 pm

Ok, I think I'm game. I just hope it has a lot of slow play thru stuff.

Neat song Neil.


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