Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing

Subject: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: Peter T.
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 06:22 PM

Does anyone know of any good books or web sites that give instruction in Piedmont style guitar playing (apart from mammoth video tapes on the Reverend Gary Davis?). Something straightforward.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: GUEST,van lingle
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 02:09 PM

Check out Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop on the net. Lots of instructional books and DVD's there (and some mammoth video tapes on the Rev.). I'm not sure he has anything that deals with the Piedmont style specifically but I picked up a lot of that stuff from Grossman's Masters of Ragtime Blues Guitar volume which included pieces by Blake, Fuller, McTell and some simpler Rev. Davis stuff along with Broonzy and BL Jefferson. The book Rev. Gary Davis/Blues Guitar includes quite a few numbers that don't require 11 fingers and 2 brains to play, as well.
At Homespun Tapes you also might find some Roy Bookbinder material which deals with Piedmont artists including Pink Anderson. His arrangements are generally pretty easy.vl

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: GUEST,M.Ted
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 03:12 PM

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: GUEST,M.Ted
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 03:17 PM

Talk to Bobert-he is one of the core people at the Archie Edwards Blues Foundation, which is dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of(which would be teaching) Piedmont Blues--they have a website, which I can't find right now--Maybe he can persuade you to come down and visit--

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 03:32 PM

Or go to Mudcatter Tweed's own site http://tweedsblues.net/ and post an inquiry on the Tweedboard. You'll have to sign up, but it's painless. There's a fellow named Chris Cotton that posts there regularly who's a good enough Piedmont style player to have been recently mentioned in Frets magazine.

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: pdq
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 03:37 PM

...as mentioned by M.Ted...

                                                 The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 04:32 PM

That's interesting, I have just been playing the Toronto Sessions album by Archie Edwards, and reading the Virginia Piedmont Blues book. I had no idea that there was a heritage foundation. I don't see any instructional videos though.

I don't know about the Stefan Grossman stuff (that was who I had in mind in my parentheses) -- that stuff starts way too complicated, as if you know everything about it already. I started a couple of those and gave up. They are all far too fast, and they don't give you the basic template. Hell, nobody plays as well as Gary Davis.   I am looking for something simple and boring that I can sit around and play for about a hundred hours getting my hands into the style.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: GLoux
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 04:50 PM

Homespun has a video of Etta Baker's guitar playing, hosted by Wayne Martin. Etta may be a better starting point for you than Gary Davis. Her One Dime Blues is a study in sophisticated simplicity, IMHO.

Hope this helps...
-Greg

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:24 AM

Isn't Libba Cotton ("Freight Train," "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie") definitively Piedmont?

When I visited Bobert a few months back and we were able to swap a few songs, I played a Mississippi John Hurt song ("Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me"), and he said "Oh, you play that Piedmont style." Now, John Hurt was not from the Piedmont (which is the foothills of the Appalachins), but his music is not at all typical of Mississippi but rather shares many characteritics with Ms Cotton's playing: fingerpicking featuring a steady alternating bass underpinning a melody line.

I endorse Stephan Grossman's instructional meterials pretty strongly myself. I learned much of what I know about guitar playing from his books, back in the old days before videos or even casette tapes. Of course, it's a mistake to try starting out with his most difficult lessons. Before you tackle that Blind Blake and Gary Davis ragtime stuff, work on "Freight Train" and/or "My Creole Bell."

This style of playing is "deceptively simple" ~ in other words, it's easy once you know how, but in order to learn you have to break it down and study one measure at a time, and it isn't necessarily easy at first. It takes patience, but the results are worth it.

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: GUEST,van lingle
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:45 AM

Good post, PG. A lot of what I learned in the alternating bass style when I was starting out was from two Happy Traum books called, I believe, Fingerstyle Guitar. They started you out with fairly easy tunes like Freight Train, Railroad Bill, Bully of the Town, Creole Belle, etc. and increased in difficulty from there. Traum, course is the founder of Homespun Tapes and has put together all kinds of lessons for players at all levels.vl

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: Peter T.
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 05:45 PM

Continuing thanks. I might try the Etta Baker video.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: Peter T.
Date: 18 Apr 06 - 01:54 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Books/sites on Piedmont Style playing
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 10:10 PM

Archie's Barbershop in Washington DC:
http://acousticblues.com/

If you can make it some Saturday afternoon there, you will learn more than you can imagine (and they are very welcoming to both beginners and outsiders). A trip to DC on some weekend would be well worth your while, if you live in the Eastern US.
If you can't make it, follow the links from the site.

--Charlie Baum