Breton tunes on the Brooks Banjo

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Sometimes I will just hear a tune and know I have to try and arrange it. Such was the case this set of tunes, an unnamed Breton tune and the second, Scottish Du Stockfish. I learned them both from Bryan Owens, a Portland musician who plays a variety of music on guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, and fiddle. I initially intended to arrange them for solo guitar, but the rhythm of the music just called out for some clawhammer banjo. They fell so easily on the fingerboard and within in minutes it seems like I had a workable arrangement. That does not happen to me often but when it does it sure is nice. I ended up arranging them for guitar later on, and I like that setting as well. But they are such a blast on the banjo.

The instrument is my new Brooks Spartan I mentioned back in January.

Orkney Guitar Chords

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Way back when I first started this blog I put up some basic chords in the CGDGCD (Orkney) tuning. They were created using a piece of software called Fretty Charts, which was put together by guitarist Simon Fox. I think he has since taken it down, but this software filled the simple need of quickly being able generate chord graphics and charts. Programs like Finale and Sibelius are great, but if you want to slap a bunch of chord symbols on a 8.5 x 11 PDF file they can be overly complicated. It would be great to see Simon bring this software back.

I recently came across a fairly convenient way to output chord charts on my iPhone. The Guitar Toolkit app plus add on allows you to generate chords, place them on a chord sheet, and print or email the file. Not bad for being totally self contained on the iPhone. The software isnt perfect, if you notate chords with a capo on the capo shows up as a fretted string on the chord diagram, which is a bit problematic. But other than that it works well, and its very convenient to able to notate chords when I have a few minutes and email them to students.

The Orkney chord chart below is for a guitar with no capo. Whenever I backup irish music I almost always have a capo at the second fret. So try that as well and move the chords up a whole step. C becomes D, G becomes A, etc. I have tried other tunings for backup and I just keep coming back to Orkney. Perhaps I am just used to it. Other people certainly sound great in Drop D or DADGAD. The one downside is Orkney is not great for flatpicking, not having a D on that open fourth string is awkward. But I do not really flatpick a ton of irish tunes, so its not a big deal. If I need to I just go to Drop D, though i would like to explore the CFCGCD tuning more that John Doyle uses. Its not a far leap from Orkney, and with a capo at II makes it DGDADE, which is much better for flatpicking. I guess in the end its hard for me to settle on one tuning.

Download Orkney Chord Chart PDF

Guitar Bench Issue 1

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Guitarbench.com recently revamped its content into an online magazine format, and I am happy to say I have an article in the first issue. It covers some right hand fingerstyle techniques, melodic playing in Orkney tuning, and includes an arrangement of O’Carolan’s Receipt. I am happy to be writing for these guys and looking forward to doing more in the future. Its free to view and subscribe, so be sure and check it out.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine has one of my favorite guitarists, John Doyle, on the cover of the current issue. I don’t know if its on the newsstands yet, but issue is featured on their website and I am sure subscribers have gotten it by now. The online content is great because you can download the TAB and also view video content, which is a big help. I use the Download Helper Plug In for Mozilla Firefox to download the individual flash videos for later viewing. If you buy the physical issue it should come with a password to access the online content at a later date, which is cool.

I have been lucky enough to see John Doyle on concert a few times and took a weeks work of classes from him at the Swannanoa Gathering Guitar Week last year. Those classes covered flatpicking, chordal backup, and accompanying singers. John’s strumming backup style has been pretty well covered on his DVD and other places, but I really liked that the most recent article notated out some of techniques he uses to backup songs. He does this using a flatpick and his middle finger, and gets a sound that is closer to fingerpicking. Its cool because he go from a fingestyle kind of accompaniment to flatpicking lead lines to faster rhythmic strumming in the space of the same tune. He went over the hybrid picking technique in the class I took, but it was hard to really grasp it just by watching him. Being able to work on some of these notated examples will be handy.

Portland Fingerstyle Guitar Night 2012

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Portland Fingerstyle Guitar Night

Join three of Portland’s top acoustic guitarists for a night of brilliant acoustic music! Guitarists Doug Smith, Eric Skye, and Anton Emery will appear at the Tabor Space coffee house at 7 pm on April 7th, for an evening full of eclectic music including jazz, celtic, bluegrass, and modern acoustic compositions.

Tabor Space is at 5441 SE Belmont Street in Portland, and tickets for the evening are $10. Contact Anton Emery, antonemery@gmail.com, for more information about this event.

Doug Smith is a Grammy-award-winning acoustic guitarist, and, in 2006, winner of the prestigious Winfield International Fingerstyle Competition. Doug’s original music has been widely heard on radio and television, finding its way into programs such as “True Hollywood Story” and “Martha Stewart Living”. Doug weaves folk, classical, jazz and contemporary forms into a unique, flowing fingerpicking style — you’ll hear echoes of Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges, and Alex de Grassi. www.dougsmithguitar.com

Pacific Northwest guitarist Eric Skye occupies a unique niche; he’s squarely in the classic jazz guitar camp, but uses the intimate sound of the acoustic steel-string guitar for his music, drawing from many eclectic influences — bluegrass, Latin music, vintage soul, jazz, and even a little funk . . . all threaded together with the blues, and a very healthy respect for the groove. Eric has been featured in magazines such as Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Player, Jazziz, Jazz Improv, and 20th Century Guitar, and is an endorser of Santa Cruz Guitars. www.ericskye.com

Anton Emery has developed a unique, personal musical voice. As a player and arranger of Celtic tunes normally heard on the fiddle, flute, and bagpipes, Anton is a master at translating the rhythm and feel of this music to the acoustic guitar, giving the music a fresh voice while losing none of its magic. His material ranges from traditional, driving jigs and reels to gorgeous slow airs, harp tunes, and unusual selections from less-well-known Celtic sources in Galicia and Brittany. Anton studied extensively with players such as Tony McManus, Al Petteway, Robin Bullock, and Steve Baughman; his debut solo release, “Noone Lasses”, was selected as one of the top Celtic recordings of 2010 by Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. www.celticfingerstyleguitar.com

Some concert footage

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Hi folks, just a quick blog post with a few things.

I forget if I have mentioned this before, but I am really enjoying the simple timer at http://e.ggtimer.com/ for monitoring my guitar practice. Like most of us that work a day job and have other responsibilities I often do not have as much time to play as I would like.  Sometimes its just 30 or 45 min after work, and being able to see my practice time count down on the screen really helps me focus and stay on task while playing. I know you could do the same thing with an iPhone or stopwatch, but I enjoy using this little application.

I just got a bunch of footage of a concert I played last year with mandolinist Tim Connell at Newberg Music.  Thanks alot to G.D. for filming the whole thing. I put a few clips up on youtube, and will be uploading more over the next few days.


Hope you enjoy it.

Anton Emery

Some new music

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I recently added a new page to my website called Ensembles. I play in a few different duos around town and wanted a place to showcase music and video separte from my solo work. I’ve included the tracks and video below, and you can also access the ensemble page by hovering over the About Me link in the navigation bar.

Rich Rosencrans
Rich Rosencrans and I play traditional and original material influenced by celtic, bluegrass, and folk genres. Rich is a simply fantastic singer as well as a wonderful bouzouki player and guitarist. He writes his own original songs as well as arranging traditional ones. I alternate between guitar and flute, and occasionally clawhammer banjo. We enjoy mixing it up between songs and instrumental tunes.

Song – Willie Taylor

An arrangement of a traditional song by Rich

Flute and Bouzouki Reel of Mulnivat/Man of the House

I’m on flute and Rich is on bouzouki. My flute playing needs a bit of work but I like Rich’s driving rhythm.

Guitar and Bouzouki Slow Reels – Silver Spire/Brendan MacMahons

I am on flatpicked guitar and Rich is fingerpicking his four course bouzouki. On its own these slow reels might be kind of plain, but I really like what Rich’s bouzouki part adds to the arrangement.

Tim Connell
I met Tim Connell though jazz guitarist Eric Skye. Eric and I connected through the Acoustic Guitar Forum, and he later invited me to open for his Jazz Trio at a house concert. Tim is a part of the trio, and upon finding out we both played irish music we decided to do some tunes on mandolin and flute during the set. Tim studied irish music in Boston, starting out on the whistle and later transferring his repertoire over to mandolin. Tim is an amazing player in a variety of genres. I recently got some more video from this concert at Newberg Music, so i hope to post that soon.

Fretboard Jounal – Romero Banjos video

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The wonderful folks over at the Fretboard Journal recently filmed a small documentary on Jason and Pharis Romero of Romero Banjos.

A Visit to Romero Banjos from fretboardjournal on Vimeo.

Romero Banjos are one of the top boutique banjo makers around, and many of their instruments are more like words of art, with fantastic looking carvings, binding, and inlay.

In addition Jason and Pharis are very fine musicians and have put out a few cds. I recently picked up their latest, Passing Glimpse. Its just the two of them on acoustic and national guitars, plus some banjo. The album is mostly songs along with a few instrumental numbers. The sound quality is great and the musicianship is wonderful.

As you probably guessed I am a big fan of handmade instruments, and figured some folks would enjoy this video.

Anton

Licensing Acoustic Music

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When my cd first came out I submitted it to various music licensing services. These are agencies that will make your music available to companies that might want to use it for TV, Film, Radio, Videogames, etc. The service is usually free, and in return they take a cut of the licensing fee. Companies like this include Pump Audio, Rumblefish, Triplescoopmusic, and most recently CD Baby’s Sync Licensing.  Even though they take a cut I consider it a good service as I do not have the contacts to market my music this way. Plus you can still get composing/arranging royalties from your performing rights organization.

I recently got my first statement from Pump Audio and someone from Disney/Hyperion Book group licensed one of my tracks! Specifically the jig set, Ship in Full Sail/Trip to Sligo/Christy Barrys #2. I made $17 out of the $50 licensing fee. So yea, its not alot of money, but I was still excited that someone chose my music.

Its got me motivated to sit down and write some music specifically for licensing, and then submit it to these various agencies. You can make alot more money if something gets placed that you wrote, as opposed to arranging  public domain material. I would stick to genres I am familiar with, acoustic based sounds using mandolin, banjo, guitar, and flute.

I think there is a place for this kind of stuff on TV and other mediums. Often when watching a show or commercial I will hear a simple fingerpicked guitar or banjo that really adds alot. I don’t expect to make a living doing it, but it would be fun and perhaps make me a little extra money.

David Hamburger is a musician that has transferred into writing music for tv and film.  Alot of his themes use acoustic instruments and have a Blues/Americana sound. Its really neat to see how the music and whats on the screen interact.

New Brooks Masten Banjo

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I recently got a new open back banjo and wanted to post a few pictures of it. Its made by Brooks Masten, has an 11″ cherry rim, fiberskin head, walnut neck, ebony fingerboard, and brass tone ring. Its basically a stock Spartan model except for his custom tailpiece. Brooks was great to work with and lives about fifteen minutes from me here in Portland. Thanks to him for allowing me to use his photos.

I had an old Lyon and Healy banjo from the early 1900′s but just ended up being not that thrilled with it. My new banjo stays in tune better (for a banjo), and the neck is just alot more comfortable. The neck and string spacing are also wider, which is beneficial for clawhammer. I know alot of folks like older banjos, which is cool. They can have a neat vibe, are often cheaper, and can sound good. For me in this case I just preferred a modern instrument.

I have been playing clawhammer banjo for a few years, it was kind of a natural progression from doing clawhammer style things on guitar. I am attracted to instruments that are fun to play in a solo context, where melody, rhythm, and other voices are all self contained. Playing clawhammer banjo this way is so much fun. Its very relaxing to sit on the couch and frail away. Of course playing in a group is fun, and the duo of clawhammer banjo and fiddle is especially nice.

I know some of the standard old time repotiore but am more interested in the banjo as a vehicle for arranging non typical tunes. I play a set of Breton tunes that work quite well on banjo, and some irish reels are nice too, though I would play them in a standard session.

Ill try to post a few videos of these arrangements sometime soon.

Drop D Chords for Celtic Backup

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There is a bit of discussion going on at the TradConnect forum on guitar backup, and someone asked for guitar chords in Drop D. I thought I would post some here so everyone can benefit.
Despite this being “celtic fingerstyle guitar” I also like to flatpick a bit, both backing up tunes and playing melodies. Orkney tuning is nice for backup but to me not so great for flatpicking. The lack of an open D note on the 4th string makes various passages in tunes difficult. D is a pivotal note in celtic music. The way the notes are laid out in Drop D or standard tuning makes flatpicking melodies easier. I guess what it comes down to is I will never be able to settle on one tuning.

Like many folks I was first attracted to Drop D for celtic backup listening to John Doyle’s playing. Thought its fairly old now his DVD on Homespun offers good insight into his chord shapes and right hand rhythms. I think Drop D gives a nice chunky sound with the opportunity for full chord voicings from the sixth string to the first string. Like John I use a thinner pick, a Dunlop Nylon .73mm. Its thick enough for flatpicking celtic tunes, but thin enough for the fast strumming and playing triplets.

Below are a handful of the basic chords I use in drop D. Alot of them I got from Doyle’s playing and the list is by no means complete. For those that are interested I created the images in the Guitar Toolkit app on my iPhone. Then I took a screenshot and transferred the images over to my computer. Pretty neat. Click on the thumbnail to view the full size image.