"but it's to our benefit, as we haven't lost him to th US like Richard Thompson."
That's an unfair statement. R. Thompson just happens to resonate, rightly or wrongly with a large group. This doesn't make him any better or worse. Carthy is a genius and will remain a genius whether he's huge in the U.S. or not. Besides, without American folk/blues music, you'd have neither Thompson nor Carthy. It'd be something different altogether. Point is: ditch the Nationalism in music.
Back in 1975 Davey Graham was interviewed by a British guitar magazine and mentioned he had the idea of bringing something approximating sitar tuning to the guitar-i.e. the close intervals of the 2nd and 3rd strings.DADGAD was what he came up with.in a later issue of the same magazine Martin Carthy backed up this claim and confirmed this. Before Davey Graham your average folkie just strummed in 1st position. Or to put it another way-if Davey Graham didn't originate DADGAD,who did?
@ruben1kord Invented isn't a good word with guitar tunings - I thought I'd 'invented' a tuning once and then discovered that somebody 'invented' it in the 70's. However Davey Graham was the first person to even have the concept of tuning the acoustic guitar into an adapted version of a sitar tuning and it opened up countless possibilities to thousands of other guitarists. So yes - he did 'popularise' it too!
I love how says that standard tuning is an orchestra. Yet when he plays in Martin Carthy tuning it sounds like he is playing more tha one instrument. Absolutely bloody marvelous.
I love how says that standard tuning is an orchestra. Yet when he plays in Martin Carthy tuning it sounds like he is playing more tha one instrument. Absolutely bloody marvelous.
Please anyone who has anything by Martin, post it! The man is a genius (and a real Gentleman). I've seen him several times and chatted to him - his modesty is his downfall in a way - but it's to our benefit, as we haven't lost him to th US like Richard Thompson.
Actually, it's a "000-18MC Martin Carthy Signature Edition". If it looks like an OM it's because it's based on the old 000-18 that he played since the mid-60s and which had undergone several modifications/repairs. This one has a small OM-style pickguard (the old one was even smaller), old-style rosette, and a zero fret but it doesn't have the two-piece bridge that had been fitted to the old model.
For the full spec go to the Martin website and search for 000-18MC
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Please keep anything Banjo-oriented away from the guitar. The Banjo is surely the most repulsive sounding musical instrument of all time and has the most abrasive, trashy repertoire.
Complete nonsense! The banjo - like the guitar - is in the lute family of musical instruments, and its repertoire includes Classical music. A well made banjo has a superb ringing tone, but less sustain than a guitar. It just needs a different approach.
@fingal42 The banjo is INTIMATELY related to the african cora the way it is played in the mountain variation this gentleman talks about. This is not the bluegrass style. It what they call in parts of US i've played 'mountain or 'oldtimers. It REALLY does use very very African rhythm patterns/loops/shapes. on the other hand i play renaissance lute and i'm telling you, there is strictly nothing in its logic, structure or way of playing in common with the banjo which is on skin like cora.
@hallobaaaby - I can well believe the banjo has African roots; it's an interesting subject. Having heard a couple of cora players, those instruments have a hell of a lot of strings! The banjo was the first stringed instrument I heard as my dad used to play one (sadly no longer)... I bow to your superior knowledge on this. ;)
@fingal42 Oh no supperior please we're all friends :D Funny thing with the cora is that despite many strings they typically play a rhythmic figure that repeats for a given section of a song, rather than melody phrase -kind of like if you check guit. of Seasick Steve on 'Cut my Wings' song. so to play this(wish i could show what i mean)you make the thumb & index fingers in this shape(what Carthy insinuated) & produce these rhythmic figures--these r the african/oldtimer style ones.Cheers
@hallobaaaby It's interesting that Martin derived at least part of his technique from listening to Big Bill Broonzy's finger picking style, so the African influence is implicit even there. Martin's style is quite percussive - but it's melodic at the same time. I see it as multifaceted in fact. It interests me that what is called 'English guitar style' is nothing of the kind when you really boil it down. Davy Graham invented DADGAD after a spell of foreign travel...
@fingalYes i feel it the same way: percussive and with whole lot of harmony voicings. What he does often is putting a bass line or chords on the rhythmic grid of the melody phrase while purposefully skipping some notes leaving them voice-only,others playing inbetween accented notes like this creating this percussive off-beat swingy feel to the music.What i like is that, while using who range of harmonix,he doesn't exagerate with heavy poliphony,like Hendrix.What miss r bluesey curves:)
@fingal42 (cont)...because Hendrix, also like Martin, i notice, would typically rarely play more than 4 notes at once which sounds fresh and light while allowing mobility/fluidity and execution of figures where one note dances around while the rest still resonate...fascinating stuff!
@hallobaaaby You've hit the nail on the head there. He duly bigs up standard tuning here as it is indeed the ultimately versatile tuning - but there is a lot you can do with open tunings, DADGAD, Carthy's tuning, etc. that you can't in standard. After all an open string has a different timbre than a fingered note and when you have to move your hand that fingered note stops.
@fingal42 I'm sorry to correct you but the entire lute/oud family of instruments do indeed have roots in north africa----quite easy to trace, actually
@slowuncle; I see - thanks for that. Ethnomusicology isn't my strong point. Do you know of any good books on the subject? Trying to be objective, I'm not sure it matters much what family an instrument is in; though I recently saw a gourd banjo on YouTube (played by Mike Seeger) which put me straight on the subject. Anyway - I love any stringed instrument, irrespective of its family tree.
"but it's to our benefit, as we haven't lost him to th US like Richard Thompson."
That's an unfair statement. R. Thompson just happens to resonate, rightly or wrongly with a large group. This doesn't make him any better or worse. Carthy is a genius and will remain a genius whether he's huge in the U.S. or not. Besides, without American folk/blues music, you'd have neither Thompson nor Carthy. It'd be something different altogether. Point is: ditch the Nationalism in music.
Rockhorns76 5 months ago
Back in 1975 Davey Graham was interviewed by a British guitar magazine and mentioned he had the idea of bringing something approximating sitar tuning to the guitar-i.e. the close intervals of the 2nd and 3rd strings.DADGAD was what he came up with.in a later issue of the same magazine Martin Carthy backed up this claim and confirmed this. Before Davey Graham your average folkie just strummed in 1st position. Or to put it another way-if Davey Graham didn't originate DADGAD,who did?
maxwellc13 6 months ago
Davey Graham invented DADAGAD? - Bollocks,
DADGAD was popularised by British Davey Graham
ruben1kord 8 months ago
@ruben1kord Invented isn't a good word with guitar tunings - I thought I'd 'invented' a tuning once and then discovered that somebody 'invented' it in the 70's. However Davey Graham was the first person to even have the concept of tuning the acoustic guitar into an adapted version of a sitar tuning and it opened up countless possibilities to thousands of other guitarists. So yes - he did 'popularise' it too!
themachinist1000 1 month ago
I love how says that standard tuning is an orchestra. Yet when he plays in Martin Carthy tuning it sounds like he is playing more tha one instrument. Absolutely bloody marvelous.
wordweaver58 10 months ago
I love how says that standard tuning is an orchestra. Yet when he plays in Martin Carthy tuning it sounds like he is playing more tha one instrument. Absolutely bloody marvelous.
wordweaver58 10 months ago
Please anyone who has anything by Martin, post it! The man is a genius (and a real Gentleman). I've seen him several times and chatted to him - his modesty is his downfall in a way - but it's to our benefit, as we haven't lost him to th US like Richard Thompson.
iwct 1 year ago
err, okay!
CarthyOnline 2 years ago
Actually, it's a "000-18MC Martin Carthy Signature Edition". If it looks like an OM it's because it's based on the old 000-18 that he played since the mid-60s and which had undergone several modifications/repairs. This one has a small OM-style pickguard (the old one was even smaller), old-style rosette, and a zero fret but it doesn't have the two-piece bridge that had been fitted to the old model.
For the full spec go to the Martin website and search for 000-18MC
CarthyOnline 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Please keep anything Banjo-oriented away from the guitar. The Banjo is surely the most repulsive sounding musical instrument of all time and has the most abrasive, trashy repertoire.
Novantii 2 years ago
Complete nonsense! The banjo - like the guitar - is in the lute family of musical instruments, and its repertoire includes Classical music. A well made banjo has a superb ringing tone, but less sustain than a guitar. It just needs a different approach.
fingal42 2 years ago 3
@fingal42 The banjo is INTIMATELY related to the african cora the way it is played in the mountain variation this gentleman talks about. This is not the bluegrass style. It what they call in parts of US i've played 'mountain or 'oldtimers. It REALLY does use very very African rhythm patterns/loops/shapes. on the other hand i play renaissance lute and i'm telling you, there is strictly nothing in its logic, structure or way of playing in common with the banjo which is on skin like cora.
hallobaaaby 3 months ago
@hallobaaaby - I can well believe the banjo has African roots; it's an interesting subject. Having heard a couple of cora players, those instruments have a hell of a lot of strings! The banjo was the first stringed instrument I heard as my dad used to play one (sadly no longer)... I bow to your superior knowledge on this. ;)
fingal42 3 months ago
@fingal42 Oh no supperior please we're all friends :D Funny thing with the cora is that despite many strings they typically play a rhythmic figure that repeats for a given section of a song, rather than melody phrase -kind of like if you check guit. of Seasick Steve on 'Cut my Wings' song. so to play this(wish i could show what i mean)you make the thumb & index fingers in this shape(what Carthy insinuated) & produce these rhythmic figures--these r the african/oldtimer style ones.Cheers
hallobaaaby 3 months ago
@hallobaaaby It's interesting that Martin derived at least part of his technique from listening to Big Bill Broonzy's finger picking style, so the African influence is implicit even there. Martin's style is quite percussive - but it's melodic at the same time. I see it as multifaceted in fact. It interests me that what is called 'English guitar style' is nothing of the kind when you really boil it down. Davy Graham invented DADGAD after a spell of foreign travel...
fingal42 3 months ago
@fingalYes i feel it the same way: percussive and with whole lot of harmony voicings. What he does often is putting a bass line or chords on the rhythmic grid of the melody phrase while purposefully skipping some notes leaving them voice-only,others playing inbetween accented notes like this creating this percussive off-beat swingy feel to the music.What i like is that, while using who range of harmonix,he doesn't exagerate with heavy poliphony,like Hendrix.What miss r bluesey curves:)
hallobaaaby 3 months ago
@fingal42 (cont)...because Hendrix, also like Martin, i notice, would typically rarely play more than 4 notes at once which sounds fresh and light while allowing mobility/fluidity and execution of figures where one note dances around while the rest still resonate...fascinating stuff!
hallobaaaby 3 months ago
@hallobaaaby You've hit the nail on the head there. He duly bigs up standard tuning here as it is indeed the ultimately versatile tuning - but there is a lot you can do with open tunings, DADGAD, Carthy's tuning, etc. that you can't in standard. After all an open string has a different timbre than a fingered note and when you have to move your hand that fingered note stops.
themachinist1000 1 month ago
@fingal42 I'm sorry to correct you but the entire lute/oud family of instruments do indeed have roots in north africa----quite easy to trace, actually
slowuncle 2 weeks ago
@slowuncle; I see - thanks for that. Ethnomusicology isn't my strong point. Do you know of any good books on the subject? Trying to be objective, I'm not sure it matters much what family an instrument is in; though I recently saw a gourd banjo on YouTube (played by Mike Seeger) which put me straight on the subject. Anyway - I love any stringed instrument, irrespective of its family tree.
fingal42 2 weeks ago
thats not a 000 its a OM
Stefanrocks 3 years ago
Yes, but the video was posted in response to a video where a Martin was used.
kcuhcsniknej 2 years ago
Yes it would have been nice to hear a tune but you rarely get a chance to hear him talk about music. Thanks for posting.
geordie1833 3 years ago
agreed
jaymyer57 3 years ago