Category Archives: Fingerstyle

LIVE 023 • Horn – Nick Drake Cover on Nylon String Guitar

Classic Rock, Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tunings, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Appearing as a sort of interlude on the Pink Moon album, Horn is a fascinating little study of a song in its own right. I love the simple melody and the atmosphere created by the space between the notes. I also really like the way this song works on nylon string guitar. (Apologies for the intonation in places – still getting a feel for this guitar and nylon again.) Of course, Drake apparently used really old, beat up steel strings, so his guitar work translates well to nylon. I don’t know what it is about the deceptively simple genius of his guitar parts, but they get me every time. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

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Tranquility – fingerstyle on nylon string guitar

Pua Lililehua – Slack Key Guitar

GEAR 532 • Taylor 414ce-NR through a Fishman Loudbox Artist

Amps, Fingerstyle, Gear, Open Tunings, Slack Key, , , , , , , , , , ,

Here is a video featuring a couple of relatively recent purchases for me – a Taylor 414ce-NR (nylon string, rosewood/sitka) and a Fishman Loudbox Artist. This is meant to serve as a sound demo for what the Loudbox sounds like with a nylon string guitar and what the Taylor nylon pick-up (ES-N, not the ES2) sounds like. I close miked the amp to get a truer representation, but you get a little bit more open sound when you hear it from across the room.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce nylon string) into a Fishman Loudbox Artist amp miked with a Sennheiser e906 dynamic microphone. Reverb is from the amp, not an added effect.

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Tranquility – fingerstyle on nylon string guitar

Pua Lililehua – Slack Key Guitar

LIVE 022 • Tranquility – original fingerstyle on nylon string guitar

Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tunings, , , , , ,

Up until now, you’ve mostly heard me play steel string acoustic guitar. “Tranquility” is a song I recorded a years back on nylon string guitar. It’s a mellow, contemplative, and relaxing song. My friend Chris in Kona (no slouch on guitar himself) says it’s his favorite thing he’s heard me do. With that vote, I thought I would dig this out from the vaults for you.
Anyway, I haven’t had a nylon string guitar for going on 10 years… up until recently that is. I’ve made several recordings with it so far, and I hope to have them edited and posted before long. Meanwhile, please enjoy this song.

All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform it in public.

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Sarah – Solo Acoustic Guitar

Pua Lililehua – Slack Key Guitar

Magic Sands – slack key guitar

LIVE 019 • Blue Bells (Demo, Open Tuned Electric Guitar)

Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tunings, , , , , , ,

From the vaults, here is a demo of a tune I wrote some years back called Blue Bells. I think this might be the only recording I have of this song, and although it’s not fully finished there’s something I love about this take that made me want to stop working on it for a while. Sometimes you capture a feeling – for yourself alone even – well enough to leave a song be – to come back to it later, or not at all.

Recorded with a late 90’s Olympic White Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster and a ’68 Fender Vibro Champ with some sort of Boss delay pedal in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, 6/18/06.

All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform the song in public.

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Pua Lililehua – Slack Key Guitar

Magic Sands – Slack Key Guitar

Here Comes the Sun – fingerstyle guitar arrangement

LIVE 017 • Pua Lililehua

Fingerstyle, Slack Key, , , , , , ,

Here is a rendition of Pua Lililehua from the vaults. I always enjoyed this song because it is mostly sweet and mellow, but still has a bit of tension that creates a sense of yearning in it. I recorded this while living in an ohana unit with a large, tiled room that I kept mostly empty because I enjoyed the acoustics. (Plus, I don’t own a lot of furniture.) Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 2/27/08.

All rights reserved to this arrangement.

LIVE 016 • Iris

Fingerstyle, Live, Open Tunings, , , , ,

Iris has a lot of harmonics, which creates a light, chimey atmosphere. A thunderstorm rolled in while I was recording and gave some interesting punctuation to the take. I’ll probably try to record another version of this song, but thought the lightness of the song coupled with the thunderstorm left an interesting contrast. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, Gotoh 510 tuners, strings are Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform the song in public.

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Bron Yr Aur – Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin

Here Comes the Sun fingerstyle guitar arrangement

GEAR 504 • Polytune Clip with Open & Altered Tunings

Fingerstyle, Gear, Open Tunings, Slack Key, , , , , ,

Not long ago I picked up the Polytune Clip from TC Electronic and have since been very pleased with the way it works on acoustic guitar in particular. (Of course it also works on electric guitar and other instruments as well.) I do a lot of open and altered tunings and this tuner handles them like a champ. In addition to latching on to notes quickly and accurately in chromatic mode, the Polytune picks up the low 6th string bass notes well (I tune down as low as Bb). Tracking is great and you can see the note steadily move into tune as you turn the tuning pegs. Of course the polytune mode doesn’t really work with open / altered tunings, but the Polytune Clip works so well as a chromatic tuner that it’s worthwhile for that alone. Highly recommended.

TC Electronic: http://www.tcelectronic.com/polytune-clip/

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Video on the Gotoh 510 tuners I have on my guitar here

Here Comes the Sun fingerstyle guitar arrangement

How to tune your guitar to Open G

LIVE 015 • Morning and Night

Fingerstyle, Live, , , ,

Morning and Night started out as a fingerpicking study I wrote for one of my students way back when. I added a little to the study to perform it as a slow, relaxing solo piece and it has stayed in my repertoire ever since.
A few years back I decided to write a harmony part for the song, which I almost forgot about until I found a demo take while combing through some old files. I think it’s interesting to hear the song both with and without the harmony. Hope you enjoy both versions.

All rights reserved to this song, however students may perform the song in public.

You may also like:

Bron Yr Aur – Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin – Fingerstyle Guitar

Magic Sands

OPEN 103 • How to Tune Your Guitar to C6 – Bron-Yr-Aur Tuning

Classic Rock, Fingerstyle, Open Tunings, , , , , , , , ,

While a lot of people use more common open tunings like Open D and Open G, this C6 tuning (C-A-C-G-C-E) is most often associated with Jimmy Page. Page used the tuning on the Led Zeppelin songs “Friends” (Led Zeppelin III), “Bron-Yr-Aur” (Physical Graffiti), and “Poor Tom” (Coda). It sounds great on acoustic guitar, providing you with lots of drones in the key of C. (The tuning may not easily work on electric, depending on your set-up.) I find the tuning tends to work well where you’re mostly on the I chord and vi chord, with a little IV and V chords thrown in. While I’m sure someone somewhere will figure out Giant Steps in the tuning, I try to play to the tuning’s natural strengths and focus on chords that are easy to play and make use of the open strings. I hope you enjoy using this tuning. You may also want to check out my covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and Page / Zeppelin’s “Bron-Yr-Aur,” links below.

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I’m On Fire by Bruce Springsteen – Fingerstyle Guitar Cover

Bron Yr Aur – Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Fingerstyle Cover

CORE 101 • Melodic Fingerpicking Exercise in E

Fingerstyle, , ,

This is a fun and melodic fingerpicking exercise that would work to develop coordination for those new to fingerpicking, or serve as a warm-up for more experienced pickers. While there are a lot of possible variations to this exercise, I recommend you stick to the diatonic shapes and four note / four string patterns introduced in the video. Hope you enjoy this melodic exercise.