How John Fahey destroyed my life

This is an early version of the piece on my album "American Post-Primitive" by Jeffrey Hillgrove http://cdbaby.com/cd/hillgrove2
"So let me tell you something. It could be of use to you. If you're ever somewhere and you hear some maniac playing minor thirds on a mandolin against an E-major chord on guitar - run. It's bad ecology, man." John Fahey from "How bluegrass music destroyed my life"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• american
• primitive
• fingerstyle
• acoustic
• guitar
• original
• john
• fahey
• skip
• james
• charlie
• patton
• leo
• kottke
• jeffrey
• hillgrove

[matthami]

Fingerstyle is the direction I want to take my playing. Any advice on where to start? I've only learned to play with a pick with some hybrid picking and I'm at an upper entry skill level with that.

[clumsystrummer]

@matthami You may want to consider starting with John Fahey's early stuff, there is a web site that has a lot of his pieces tabbed out -just goggle "John Fahey tablature."

[TheHauntOfEriatarka]

I'm not an experienceed folk player, so can someone explain the john fahey quote in the info box. I know what a minor third is, its an interval thats 1 whole step and 1 half step. Like A to C. But why is playing them over major chords bad?

[clumsystrummer]

@TheHauntOfEriatarka What I think Fahey meant, is there are tunes that haunt you, which have certain chords that just grab you (and for some, you have no choice but to dig deeper into the music to a point where it becomes obsessive.) In his book, Mr. Fahey used Jimmy Rodger’s “Blue Yodel #7” as an example, for myself an it would be Charley Patton’s “High water everywhere (pt2)” Musically (theory) speaking, it’s when Patton plays an A chord with a minor 3rd in the bass and the major 3rd on top.

[funkathighdoses]

just baught this on itunes :) is it in open C? have you made tabs perhaps?

[clumsystrummer]

@funkathighdoses I haven't gotten around to tabbing any of my original stuff yet, with my bad memory it's something I need to do - on more than a few occasions I had to go back to my yt vids just to figure out how I played something. I play this in D/C tuning: DADGCE.

Thanks, Jeff

[iTwitchAlot1]

you sir are amazing

[Chaddyxp]

Dislike! On grounds that your youtube name is far from the truth!

[lectrikdog]

@TheHauntOfEriatarka I think there's a bit of sarcasm as to how Bluegrass sucked him in, be forewarned

[sheltech12]

very nice working of the material . nice box too!.

[dantean]

@TheHauntOfEriatarka I get the idea that what he meant was that the music gripped his soul and never let go, and that he was being facetious in saying they "destroyed my life." Probably he meant "destroyed" in a good way.

[ioriorioriorio]

Yes....an old jefferson airplane trick, as well as other folk groups then.....they all kind of copped Charlie patton, or guys like Charlie Patton...adds so much richness, I can't understand why a pro like fahey might say that about mixing major and minor like that

[pjherron]

@clumsystrummer You're not clumsy. you play this with great touch and feel.

[GoldenFinchFellow]

@irchristo haha yes clumsystrummer is awesome! this made my day, not in the Arnold Schwarzenegger way lol but I do admit it... doomed! hey, a guy found an Oscar Schmidt in the garbage perfect except the neck was broken off(don't ask me how it's amazing..) he bought a new tuning piece for one side, got lazy and charged me only for the piece he bought. I glued Oscar up and renamed him Oscar the Grouch cause he came from the garbage. so I've upgraded at least