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