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Hi Everyone,

This week's wrap up has just been released!

Enjoy!



http://www.totallyguitars.com/blog/guit ... 25th-2018/

This week I have been revisiting some pieces in various stages of arranging and ran through
a couple as the update evolved. I also started with a very unusual jazz standard that I have
been afraid of tackling after John Renbourn told me that he and Bert Jansch recorded it and
were blasted by critics for playing jazz as folk guitar players. Some of you may be familiar
with it.

You have probably heard that we are asking for help again as the site evolves and I am
thrilled that this has given me a chance to reconnect with my old friend Richard Hoover,
head honcho of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. They have generously offered us 50 sets
of their new line of guitar strings to give away to folks who respond to our survey. I spent
a bit of time there this morning and expect to have some video for you next week. I have
to say I was very impressed with the difference I felt and heard in the strings.

This week we brought out lessons on Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, Breathe by Faith Hill,
Neil Diamond’s Song Sung Blue, and a FOTW with Kevin where we explored transposing
and capoing options when a song is in an unfriendly vocal key with Peaceful Easy Feeling.

Songs that I revisited this week included Last Train Home by Pat Metheny and Sylvia,
which is finally starting to get close to comfortable. I have been working on extending
Last Train Home by changing octaves for the melody but that is in the infancy stages, as
you will see when I struggle through it. Hopefully you will get a kick out of it.

Hello Neil et al: An excellent wrap up IMHO! I'm pretty sure you'll
think the mystery piece wouldn't be very hard for any Renbourn
fan. I've seen him perform it just about everytime he came to town. So
my guess would have to be Goodbye Porkpie Hat.

I really enjoyed Last Train Home also.

I really do like your weekly wrap ups. I find myself watching my
twitter client closely on Friday evenings. So, thank you very much.

Hey Baffled,

Thanks for checking in and letting me know that you enjoy these. You are correct of course, it is Charles Mingus' tune Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. This is an unbelievable tune by a genius that is pretty far off many people's radar and when I spoke to John about his attempt at it all he could do was laugh at the reviews, and even more at the fact they he and Bert thought they had a grasp of it. His humility overwhelmed me from the moment I met him and I was so thrilled that he was that comfortable in his own skin. He was one of the most genuine people I have ever met in my life and I feel lucky that he was that big an influence in my musical path.

Neil

I recognized Goodbye Pork Pie Hat within 4 or 5 notes. I listened to Jeff Beck's "Wired" constantly during high school (which wasn't well-received in my working-class Chicago neighborhood, where every third teenaged mope was wearing a Judas Priest, Skynyrd, Journey, or Ted Nugent shirt atop his giant, pot-leaf belt buckle.)

Even among all the great, rockin' tunes on that album, this one stood out for me. I like how, in Beck's hands, it opens sounding almost like a cowboy song (or like the soundtrack of a spaghetti Western), but it transitions into fusion, and then into a slow almost-metal jam without the changes seeming abrupt or weird at all. Also, note how the backup guitar parts -- just fills really -- are as interesting in their way as the lead.