Midnight on the Water

Back in the 1970’s, I fell in love with the old fiddle waltz, Midnight on the Water, as I heard it played by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. This beautiful piece thrills me every time I hear it.

Recently I decided to go to youtube.com and type in “midnight on the water” to see what would come up. Quite an assortment of versions of the waltz came up, being performed by soloists on various instruments as well as ensembles. The most beautiful rendition of the song to my ears was the one by Celtic harpist Ellen Tepper.

Ellen, of Glenside, Pennsylvania, is both a harpist and historian who brings life to 500 years of harp music. She began the study of classical harp at age eight and spent much of her childhood exploring ancient ruins in Europe. She went on to earn a degree in Harp Performance from the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts. Ellen became an authority on the early harp and she is now demand as both a performer and a lecturer known for her humorous approach to historical anecdote.

Ellen’s website is at http://www.ellentepper.com/. She and guitarist Ray Duffy have produced a CD entitled The Space between the Strings. At http://www.ellentepper.com/space.html Ellen and Ray have graciously provided an absolutely enchanting audio of Midnight on the Water from their CD.

See and hear Ellen perform Midnght on the Water solo at:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kMrsEghxxwk

There is a version by Ellen with Ray at:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O67ZyY_Fdxo

You Don't Need to Go to Music School!

I have just been made aware of this website that offers video courses for guitar (electric and acoustic), bass and drums for beginning, intermediate and advanced players. It is a music institute online! Hundreds of videos and you get lifetime access to them all for a very low fee. Here are some questions and answers from their website:

Q: What is MusicMasterPro.com? (Quick answer: An incredible Online Musician's Institute where you can learn everything there is to know about playing your instrument.)

A: MusicMasterPro.com is the only official online musician's institute, in the world, responsible for teaching thousands of musicians how to play drums, guitar and bass to an advanced level. Jay Dynasty, the founder and instructor, has worked with various mainstream artists in the industry and continues to work on major label projects all over the world. This site was created for striving musicians in the world who want top-notch resources and high level technique instruction, production, jam tracks and industry listings. Instrumentmaster.com is very easy to join, and extremely fullfilling.

Q: How do I join this website?

A: YOU can join MusicMasterPro for all instruments for a small, ONE-TIME payment. You will then get INSTANT ACCESS to the program, and our members section which is here THOUSANDS of lessons in all styles are in our database, with pieces of music and other valueable resources. No catch, no recurring fees and NO LIMITS! Members of our site can also reach us with AIM. We upload new lessons and techniques every week and add new resources every month. I'll say it again! -IT IS JUST A COUPLE BUCKS FOR THE WHOLE THING! -You dont have to pay for each lesson. -You get all of them. I'll see you in the members section.

Q: Do I get all the instrument courses when I sign up?

A: You get ALL the instrument lessons for $29.95. That includes Drums, Guitar and Bass Guitar. Upon purchasing your membership, you can download lessons for whichever instrument you want, whenever you want. It's the feature that makes Music Master pro quite unique.

Q: How is the membership section designed?

A: Our navigation system is extremely simple: You simply register, then you will be automatically granted access to the members section. The members section consists of the main instrument schools, Resource banks and daily updates. Once you access which instrument you would like to study, you will be given a choice of which level and style.

Q: How long have you been teaching?

A: Jay Dynasty and Greg Evans have both been teaching music for 15 years.

Q: Are there any hidden fees? Are there any costs after I pay the $29.95? How much does it cost?

A: NO HIDDEN FEES! -Sign up for a membership (which costs only $29.95), and study with us forever. with absolutely no re-occurring charges!

Q: Can I pick one style or instrument and then drop it and pick up another one?

A: Yes you can pick and choose as you like and we have over 10 styles and genres of instruction for each instrument.

Q: Do you have industry contacts? Can you help me get signed?

A: Yes, and we also upload new resources to the database every week.

Q: How long are the jam tracks and what format are they?

A: They are all around 3:30 minutes long, and high quality 192 kbps mp3's.

For more details: Click Here!

Tablature: Not as New as Many People Think!

I think it’s high time I mention my free weekly newsletter, “The Flatpick Post Newsletter,” in a post on my blog! The sign-up form is on the column to the right. I’ve been getting new subscribers every day and invite you to sign up--if you do, you’ll receive it in your email every Tuesday morning. I’ve just added a new feature to this newsletter: From time to time, I’ll be including a fiddle tune arranged for the guitar, or a guitar lick or two, in tablature.

Tablature is a form of musical notation that has become commonly used for fretted instruments. Instead of the standard 5-line staff with notes that designate pitches, tablature tells players where to place their fingers on a particular instrument as opposed to telling which pitches to play. Tablature is an excellent resource for those who do not read traditional music, or for those who do, but simply would rather learn to play an instrument using tablature. For any who might be a bit "snooty" and criticize this "new" form of music notation, I would point out that tablature was used in Europe in the 1300's and in Asia long before that! The photo above is an example of tablature for the vihuela (a guitar-like instrument) tablature from 1554.

Explanation of My Guitar Tablature

Above is an example of the guitar tablature I write (and that I’ll be including in my weekly newsletter from time to time--sign up at the left column if you haven’t already). Read each pair of measures from left to right and then proceed to the measures below, just like you would read a page of sheet music. The reason I have only two measures across is that the tablature must be narrow enough for emailing purposes.

Each measure has 6 broken lines representing the 6 strings of a guitar. The lower case "e" represents the high e-string (the 1st string). Each of the eight dashes in each measure represents the timing of an eighth note. So the timing is "common time," where there are 4 beats to each measure and a quarter note is one beat; hence 8 eighth notes per measure.

The upper case letters above the measures designate the chord that would be played by an instrument that might accompany the lead guitar shown in the tablature. The numbers which replace the dashes represent the fret of the string that a finger would be placed behind. "0" means that an open string is picked. The remaining dashes that have not been replaced by numbers are "rests" (time intervals where notes are not played), each dash representing an eighth of a measure.

The lower case letters ("d" and "u") directly above each measure show which direction the flatpick is picking on the string or strings being played. d = down-stroke (picking in a direction away from your face). u = up-stroke (picking in a direction toward your face).

So that you can see how this works, the above example of my tablature is the first two measures of a simple song everyone knows: "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep." Notice that the chords that would be used in accompaniment are C and G. This would be played in the first position on the fretboard, so you would use your third finger to press down the A-string behind the third fret and the second finger to press down the G-string behind the second fret.

The Martin 000-15S Acoustic Guitar

As you may be aware of from some of my previous posts, I am fond of smaller guitars, especially smaller guitars with 12 frets to the body. They are easier to play and more responsive than those hefty Dreadnoughts. I also love guitars with slotted headstocks. They stay in tune better, and I believe they sound better that guitars with a solid headstock.

I Recently played a used, small mahogany Martin at a pawn shop, and it motivated to buy a Martin 000-15S online from Musician's Friend. I love the crisp, yet resonant, sound. I am also thrilled with the perfect balance of this guitar. There is just something about an all-mahogany guitar--at least with this particular Martin. What a great guitar for picking fiddle tunes! I also love the fact that the bridge and fretboard are of rosewood, not the "Micarta" compostition found on many of the Martins produced today. I like the "bare-bones" approach that the Martin company took with the 000-15S: a herringbone rossette around the soundhole, but no binding elsewhere: just a dark, flat, dull, gorgeous finish. This guitar just puts you in mind of an old blues box of the 1930's. Check it out at:
Martin 000-15S Guitar Natural