Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson

Subject: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,KP
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 06:21 PM

For all you pickers out there, here is RT kicking up a complete storm on a single acoustic guitar.

Crawl Back

Especially from 2:30 onwards...the audience can't quite believe it!

cheers, off to practice :(
KP

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 05:00 AM

Along with people like Jerry Donahue and the late Danny Gatton, RT is a master of "hybrid" picking - pick and fingers. I've seen him many, many times live and never yet seen or heard a bad performance. An original. Not to everyone's taste - but certainly to mine.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: alex s
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 05:08 AM

Paul Brady does pretty good hybrid too

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 05:13 AM

Does he - I didn't know that. I've only seen him in action a couple of times, and not live - and he was mainly strumming on those occasions. Another fine musician and writer.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 06:13 AM

The thing with Richard is that there's taste and ideas behind the picking, not just ability. He seems to be able to play in just about ANY style too.

I'll never forget about 35 years ago (oh God) when I watched him do a couple of hornpipes, presumably picked up from Billy Pigg, the wonderful Northumbrian piper. Richard did perform these as "The Neasden Hornpipe" and "The Avebury Particle Accelerator", also another tune called "The Flowing Tide" on John Peel's radio show but I can't remember if they surfaced on record.

And he writes too, the little tinker!

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: breezy
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 06:55 AM

hamish can do that

in fact i thought it was hamish , that was until he - RT - started singing

Its rock strumming

As he is holding a plectrum then I dont regard it it as picking, hybrid maybe, but not picking, nah , never , no more.

But i like C-Back

Will do now

bye

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 08:03 AM

As he is holding a plectrum then I dont regard it it as picking

Mmm... what are his other fingers doing then?

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,KP
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 08:17 AM

Looking at it again, he must have astonishing strength and flexibility in his right hand to maintain the strumming rhythm whilst doing the lead/melody parts with his fingers.

I have RT's guitar instruction tapes where he uses this style for reels and hornpipes as well as song accompaniment. Its taken about 20 years to get my fingers round just a few of them, mainly just the slow ones!

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Nick
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 08:19 AM

Richard Thompson is a great player and I've leanred lots watching him on YouTube!

Pretty impressed by Tommy Emmanuel personally though I know he's not everyone's favourite. He plays it with everything you can think of and is incredibly skilled.

Also a big fan of Chris Newman's playing.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: bubblyrat
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 02:02 PM

Gordon Giltrap uses a plectrum as well as his remaining fingers too,and I rate him very highly in live performances.Never been a great RT fan,to be honest,although I cannot ever possibly deny his breathtaking ability as a musician and songwriter----last year's performance of his "1000 Years" show ,in High Wycombe,was simply stunning !

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 02:03 PM

As he is holding a plectrum then I dont regard it it as picking

Why?

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 02:31 PM

As he is holding a plectrum then I dont regard it it as picking

Why?

I wouldn't worry about such a statement - it's rubbish. RT is a superb player. I also saw his "1000 Years of Popular Song" concert - at Sadlers Wells - and it was superb. He sang a duet (with a fellow performer) from "The Mikado" which was absolutely stunning - brought the house down - and his guitar playing was incredible throughout.

I'm always aware that personal taste can't be argued with - we all have our own likes and dislikes - but it would be hard to fault RT in the pantheon of British musicians/performers. He writes intelligent, lyrical songs, sings with passion, plays guitar with skill and artistry - and happens to be completely original while doing all these things.

He also owns a Lowden guitar - which I can't afford - bastard!

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:48 PM

Gordon Giltrap: It appears that Gordon adopts a very strange right picking method using a plectrum and just his little finger!

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:54 PM

Nic Jones had a superb picking style - very English, and could sing in a completely different rhythm around it!

But of course RT is one of the best electric guitarists as well.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: olddude
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:55 PM

Well I don't care what anyone calls it, it is a darn fine job to me
great performer. Unique style I think ... very cool indeed

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: open mike
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 04:13 PM

afteer all a plectrum IS a pick!

here is one of richard's most wonderful songs
Vincent Black Lightning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o&feature=related

covered by Del McCoury
in this version they ride to knoxville...in the original is it Box hill

Here is Reckless Kelly doing their version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlylarCRayI&feature=related

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Tootler
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 04:17 PM

I saw him at Alistair Anderson's 60th birthday concert at the Sage last year. At one point he and Alistair let rip on a couple of traditional Northumbrian Tunes. Wow!!

Then he sang Beeswing - superb. Fantastic Stage presence. One of the highlights of an overall excellent concert.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 11:01 AM

I see now, he cheats, he uses a plectrum and finger picks at the same time time, so he does have seven fingers on his right hand.
JohnB.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,Jon Dudley
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 11:04 AM

RT is just the business. As someone to whom gaining mastery of any musical instrument is about as likely as as getting a ham sandwich at Terre a Terre (Brighton vegetarian restaurant joke), I have nothing but admiration for people like RT...and indeed Paul Brady. Incidentally, Will, Paul uses Lowden guitars and bugger me he turned up at Jeff Davis' gig (they are old friends) at Sheila Miller's club last year and did a floor spot. Sheila knew well who he was but some of the audience only twigged when he launched into Arthur McBride...he was able to borrow a Lowden guitar from one of the residents and couldn't believe his luck. As he sat down to thunderous applause he whispered "give 'em what they want"...and he just had.

Many years ago when I was at school, I had a chum called Bill Bailey (no not that one, although he's no mean instrumentalist either) and a favourite pastime was finding nice pieces of music on the telly. My fave was the Robinson Crusoe theme, his, being a guitarist himself was the theme to 'Farm Progress'..now who played that? was it John Pearce?

In penning Vincent Black Lightning, RT wrote not only a modern day tragic ballad but also the anthem for any of us with an incurable affection for antedeluvian British motorcycles. I believe it's still his most requested stage number too.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 11:15 AM

I'm no guitar afficinado but love Richard Thompsons stuff - both the writing and execution. I also like Phil Hare so it may be worth anyone else looking him up - But as we well know if you like 'x' you may also like 'y' doesn't always work!

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: Smedley
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 11:30 AM

And Richard T was so good so *young* too. Listen to those early Fairport albums, when he's barely started shaving.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: mandotim
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 01:08 PM

I went to see him in Manchester recently, and he absolutely took my breath away at one point; he took a five or six minute guitar solo in 'Hard on Me' and normally I switch off in long solos, as they get repetitive and formulaic so quickly as a rule. Not this one; it was clearly not pre-planned, was inventive throughout and showed off RT's extraordinary taste and virtuosity. I was transfixed, as were the rest of the audience, and when he resolved the solo back into the song, even the band applauded! No mean band either, including Danny Thompson and Pete Zorn, plus a great drummer whose name I must look up. I was with a musical pal of mine, a top-class bass player, and he was just shaking his head in disbelief. What makes RT unique (IMHO) is the combination of electric guitar hero, acoustic guitarist par excellence, brilliant songwriting and musical eclecticism. A national treasure. Bastard.

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,KP
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 05:03 AM

Mandotim,
The drummer is Michael Jerome. I saw the band play in Glasgow last year and it looked like he and Danny Thompson were having a ball playing together - lots of glances and grins between phrases etc.

Its a great band but I still love RT on his own - you sit there thinking 'he shouldn't be able to play that arrangement on a single guitar' but he does. There is a great story in the Patrick Humphries biography of RT about him and a friend going into a pub (near Inverness I recall). The landlord said 'They tell me you can play a bit' and handed him an battered, ancient, guitar with 5 strings that had been hanging behind the bar for years.

Three hours later an impromptu concert of RT songs, sixties hits, and stuff from 1000 years of popular music ended with RT accompanying the Landlord standing on a table singing 'My Way'!

Wouldn't you have loved to be there!?

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: mandotim
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 06:09 AM

Thanks for that KP; Michael Jerome really is a great drummer, especially when playing with his hands, no sticks. I like Thompson on his own, and for choice I would listen to his acoustic stuff, but his electric playing just blows me away. Another, less well known Thompson talent; he is (or was) a high quality leg-spin bowler, good enough to completely ruin charity cricket matches by being much too good for amateur batsmen. Some people really are candidates for the old 'fingers in the car door, oops, sorry mate' trick, aren't they?

Subject: RE: Great Guitar Playing - Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,KP
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 05:01 AM

I guess if you can hybrid pick (and fingerpick) with his strength and dexterity you can probably give the ball a huge tweak when bowling as well...

Personally I'd just like to be able to hit a golf ball straight for once! There are schoolboys and grannies here in Scotland who hit it better than me :(