tag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:/blogs/playing-jimi-s-martinPlaying Jimi's Martin2020-03-08T15:59:16+00:00Stories and anecdotes, observations...life with flamenco and the blues and a guitar...to jazz fusion, rock and the rest. Chris Dair - a musician's journeyChris DairfalseChris Dairchrisdairmusic1@gmail.comtag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:Post/62416642020-03-08T15:59:16+00:002020-03-08T15:59:16+00:00Playing Solo Guitar<p>Response to a forum question: How can I become a good lead guitarist? </p>
<p>One thing I remember doing, (about 6 years old) was choosing a phrase, making up my own scales I suppose, and working out a pattern, way before I even knew about scales. I now call them Dairian scales. I even made up my own chords. The phrases were based on flamenco because that was mainly what I had heard at the time, and what I wanted to do, and continuously playing this pattern. I'd fall asleep playing and wake up thinking about this pattern, subconsciously it was going in. Over the hours, days, I changed the pattern somehow to another one, still incorporating things I'd done with the first one. Eventually over a period of time, around ten or elven years old, I learned hammers and slides and pull-offs and all the other techniques you use. </p>
<p>Some years later I started to actually learn guitar scales, but not really taking too much notice of them. I still preferred my own. It's much later, say in my twenties when I more or less sat down and concentrated on actual guitar scales and also Indian classical Sitar scales, but I have to be honest I still really play what I played originally but with many variations. I didn't even know what I devised as a small child was a scale at all when I began. I never even had a chord book until I was about seventeen and that of course opened up a whole new world and I still use it for reference today. It's called the Leeds Guitar Dictionary by F. Chierici </p>
<p>When I was a kid I watched and listened to the guitarist in a band, always tried to get as close as possible to see what they were doing. I remember one time, I was about thirteen year old, I couldn’t get close up to the band, a blues band, and they were playing a lovely slow blues. The guitarist did a sliding chord and I couldn’t see what it was. When I got back home, remembering the sound in my head, I started trying to reproduce the sound. I just persisted until it sounded right, and now I can tell you it is a beautiful slide from the B to the A in an open E blues. </p>
<p>So I have to say the only real way is non-stop playing. Listen and watch other guitarists when you can. Backing tracks are of great assistance in playing and learning, and you need to keep it simple at first with scales and just build it up. Listen very carefully to what you are doing and don’t try to go too fast too quickly. Everyone thinks solo guitar is all about speed. It isn’t. It’s about creativity, precision and a great deal of feeling, particularly for blues and jazz. </p>
<p>Chris Dair </p>
<p>17 December 2010</p>Chris Dairtag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:Post/62416422020-03-08T15:45:58+00:002020-03-08T15:45:58+00:00Just saying...<p>Just want to say... </p>
<p>I want to make the point that with my music I use very few electronic techniques. I do not use any looping or sampling and all of the instruments are played live by me for the duration of the song or instrumental piece. There is no doubling up, no chopping tracks. If it doesn't work I play the whole thing again. I use two guitar multi-effect processors, that I've been using for many years and the sounds that I use with them I have programmed in myself. </p>
<p>Amplifiers: I tend to stick to the same make, and guitars I limit myself to half a dozen, which at the moment give me everything I need in guitar. For the percussion, it is all performed live, also with the addition of a drum processor, and the addition of live drum sounds also. Occasional keyboard, but this is limited as I have developed most keyboard techniques on the guitar for what I need. I don't use stand alone pedals in the studio, except the WahWah, but would utilise them for live gigs, obviously for practicality. </p>
<p>With the solo guitar I am a firm believer that everything should be played in one stretch. I feel that to do a few bars and then maybe swap tracks is not good. I believe that if you can't do it in one stretch you are going to lose the ambience and power of what you want to say. You should plan this out in your head, and know on the fretboard where you are going to go. I have always played solo guitar for an hour or four, it doesn't bother me, and that's what you need to be able to do. You need to be able to play non-stop for a very long time as a solo guitarist, and if you can't, you are not doing your job. I feel very strongly about this. </p>
<p>With Lost in Wasted Time, which I regard as fairly short, people ask me if it was done in one take. Well the answer is yes, and I invite anyone to look at my wav file, there are no breaks, and no swapping tracks. </p>
<p>I remember being in a studio once and the producer wanted me to play, I guess the solo would be about almost a minute. He asked if that was OK, it's a long time. I just looked at him and said, just press record. It's the way it is with me, I don't practice anymore, but in the early days I would never put the guitar down, and would play for a very, very long time. Purely because I would get lost in what I was doing and time became irrelevant. The realisation of the length that I'd been playing was that the band members had changed ! </p>
<p>I don't believe in gadgets too much, I believe that you need to learn the techniques to play. Tapping and shredding is not for me. </p>
<p>Just needed to clear a few things up. </p>
<p>Chris Dair</p>Chris Dairtag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:Post/62416412020-03-08T15:41:07+00:002020-03-08T15:41:07+00:00Bukka White Remembrance of Charley Patton<p><strong>Bukka White Remembrance of <a contents="Charley Patton&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Patton" style="" target="_blank">Charley Patton </a></strong></p>
<p>Always wanted to be like old Charley Patton. </p>
<p>Long ago when I was a kid, I hear him an' play those numbers about I'll hitch up my buggy and saddle up my black mare. </p>
<p>An' I used to pick cotton an' come around in Clarksdale after them cafes, eatin' cheese and cracker </p>
<p>None of the other boys they didn't have an idea what I was thinkin' I say, I wants to come to be a great man like Charley Patton but I didn't want to get killed. </p>
<p>He did, the way he got killed the way he had to go. I've always realised I knew I had to die but I didn't want one of those ol' sand-foot woman, womens to come up an' cut my throat or do somethin' to me that was unnecessary </p>
<p>And so goes on down an' got me old piece a-guitar and I always wanted to play about Hitch up my Buggy and Saddle up my black mare. I wanna find my baby in this great big world somewhere </p>
<p>I got chance before he was passed so he wasn't even thinkin' about passin' and I shaked his hand once, his brother in Clarksdale have a brother that work at The Compress. And I said, if I ever live to get half way grown, or grown, I would wanna be just like Charley Patton was. </p>
<p>An' after I heard about his death after I got a might near grown I would have liked at that time </p>
<p>to met the one that caused him to have that dead. Cause he was a great boy and ah used to play-a, a number by Old Blue Jumped the Rabbit and they Runnin' One Sold Mile when the rabbit fell dead he cried just like a child and you know I felt so good over that I quit eatin' rabbit cause them rabbits y'know do holler when the dogs catch up to 'em. He could bit in a new born baby an' they was screamin' and cry'nin' and ah, after I hear, Charley Patton went on an play that number I 'cide I just stop eat rabbit if had my dog catch 'em and I take away from 'em. </p>
<p>And so as I went on to say, you know Clarksdale is a little ol' small town that-a-way a lot of good boys been in there. But in travelling through them little small town like that, a good thing I found a good man can do is take it easy and take his time and don't fool with things that you don't have. </p>
<p>Ah that not worth while you don't have time even to fool around with just take life easy cos verything shine like gold and gold y'know they's lot of brass, y'know shine like gold. </p>
<p>And so Charley Patton used to sing that song about hitch up my buggy and saddle up my black mare and I hear, would just knock me off my feet. I was barefeeted, little barefeeted boy, too. </p>
<p>And I like it so well after I growed up, the first record I put out when I was comin' up about Downtown Woman Sickin' them Dogs to Me I was one that kind-a compare with it. </p>
<p>Ah I think I made a pretty good hit of that ! </p>
<p>But now, I done forgot I don't play it so much. But at that time he was goin' so good, y'know ? and ah if he's got any friends or relatives his mother or father wherever might be to hear me sayin' that I just wanna let 'em know that old remember never do be forgotten things that then went on y'know </p>
<p>So I gratulates to it, to all his friends, his cousins, to everything I tried to be the second behind ol' big Charley Patton. </p>
<p>He really did, and to tell you the truth the first drank of whisky that I ever drunken Charley Patton give me little in a spoon he said «you're too young to drink too much whisky but I'm onna give you enough to know what it's about « , and I still think about that. I wish I'd aks him to give me the spoon. </p>
<p>And so while we're here I rather thinkin' of ol' time things like that we've got to take thing 'un of consideration y'know thing like that suppose to bring a man mind back. </p>
<p>If you're goin' too fast you're supposed to take a consideration an settle down and think about cause that's your best you can hardly get over. </p>
<p>I just wish the day I could shake Charley Patton's hand. </p>
<p>Bukka T White </p>
<p>Transcript from a recording of spoken word by Bukka White, no copyright infringement intended.</p>
<p>Wikipedia extract:</p>
<p><em>Charley Patton (died April 28, 1934), also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians. The musicologist Robert Palmer considered him one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century. </em></p>
<p><em>Patton (who was well educated by the standards of his time) spelled his name Charlie,[1] but many sources, including record labels and his gravestone, use the spelling Charley.</em></p>Chris Dairtag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:Post/62416402020-03-08T15:32:54+00:002020-03-08T15:32:54+00:00Rory Gallagher<p><a contents="Rory Gallagher&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Gallagher" target="_blank">Rory Gallagher </a></p>
<p>I was just a kid when I met Rory. I can't remember the venue (I really wish I could). It was a bar in Manchester sometime in either '73 or '74. </p>
<p>A friend of mine introduced me to the band and I ended up playing. Rory asked me what my name was, I said Chris Dair, and he said "it can't be Dair, it must be O'Dair", which I later found was true! I remember we played Catfish Blues and it was absolutely brilliant, a knockout. </p>
<p>I met him again at the Free Trade Hall awhile after that. The guy I was with knew the singer out of the support band and we were backstage saying Hi, talking and drinks etc. All of us, including Rory of course, went back to the Imperial for drinks after the gig, and I was there till about 5 am, Rory just played all night. I remember he played Traintime Blues on this old steel guitar (not sure if it was a Dobro) for about half an hour. Rory also played my Dobro. </p>
<p>He was a very down to earth guy, there was no edge to him whatsoever, he said what he believed and that was it. I got the impression he wouldn't say anything unless he meant it. He believed very passionately in what he was doing. </p>
<p>I remember having to get a taxi to the station and coming back home on the "milk train" in the morning. </p>
<p>The way I feel about people like Rory now is very different to how it felt at the time. Then it didn't seem that much out of the ordinary to any of us. </p>
<p>Hope this is of interest to you - It was a very special time for me as a guitarist, and I treasure the opportunity I had to meet and play with Rory. </p>
<p>Rory Gallagher was a complete other dimension to music, he was formidable in what he did. His whole being was music. This is a perfect example of the energy that this guy had in him for his music. The people that were there were fortunate to witness an incredible happening. A pure genius in what he did, he was an artist of the greatest calibre. His music... See more has great ferocity, passion and also tenderness. He is one on his own, a truly outstanding musician. During the early 70s I had the good fortune to meet him on two different occasions and play guitar with him. Without a doubt his presence left a profound influence on me. As a person he was a very realistic, down to earth, caring guy, and passionate in his love for music, and greatly missed.</p>
<p>Chris Dair</p>Chris Dairtag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:Post/62416272020-03-08T15:22:56+00:002020-03-08T15:25:19+00:00Meeting Bukka White<p>Meeting Bukka White </p>
<p>I met <a contents="Bukka White" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukka_White" target="_blank">Bukka White</a> when I was a very young guitarist, he was doing a tour with several other great jazz/blues players - I am pretty sure it was in Leek, Staffordshire in the UK - I wish I'd chronicled all the people I played with during that period of my life! </p>
<p>As a musician it was the really important things that stuck in my mind, for instance, who he was, what he was playing. <a contents="Bukka White" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/Pkhj9z14TBo" target="_blank">Bukka White</a> played with incredible technique on his right hand - kind of playing a double rhythm (slide with left), he was playing a Dobro, I don't remember the song. Afterwards he was a true gent as always and said to me "That's some fine guitar!". Needless to say I never forgot that!</p>
<p>Chris Dair</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>Chris Dairtag:chris-dair-music.com,2005:Post/62416252020-03-08T15:19:39+00:002020-03-08T15:19:39+00:00Playing Jimi's Martin Guitar<p>Playing New Rising Sun on Jimi's Martin Acoustic Guitar </p>
<p>Playing Jimi's guitar...It's hard to pinpoint the exact date...it was maybe around 1998 /1999, I was at <a contents="Noel Redding" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Redding" target="_blank">Noel Redding</a>'s house just outside Clonakilty, Ireland. </p>
<p>First of all Noel said "I want to show you something" and then he disappeared and came back with a guitar case and opened it and said "this was Jimi's" and I just looked at it in amazement, and then he said "would you like to have a go with it?" and I said "what?", and he said "would you like to play it?" I can't remember my answer to that, I must have said yes, because he handed it to me. I could see it was a Martin and had been strung back to right hand. (My wife Vivien was sitting across the room from me, Noel's mother Margaret was also there). I just felt it, it sounded in tune...and then I started to play New Rising Sun...I don't know why. I finished playing after a few minutes, turned the guitar towards me and looked at it. Noel then said "why did you play that?", and I said "I really don't know", handed it back and said thank you. That was it, he took it away. It was extraordinary because it's not a piece I normally play, and usually when you pick up a guitar like that you just doodle around a little. </p>
<p>I remembered this morning that when I turned the guitar towards me and looked at the neck and the body, and tilting it in the light (the windows were behind me) I noticed that the sweat marks and wear on the fretboard were closest to me around the 12th fret...so that says to me it had been played by a lefthanded guitarist. One person we knew, who had known Noel for some time, said that he NEVER let anyone touch those guitars. He said "I've never known Noel let anyone touch those guitars let alone play them". </p>
<p>I did many gigs with Noel at DeBarras in Clonakilty and he had many musician friends come down to play with him there on a Friday night...a lot of the music he played was Lennon, Beatles and basic 60s and 70s music. I said to him one night, can we play one of Jimi's and he said "if we play one of Jimi's you sing it" and at the time I wasn't singing so it didn't happen. We played one night with John Coughlan on drums (Status Quo). Most of the time Noel played bass, but sometimes he played an acoustic guitar and sang. </p>
<p>Chris Dair </p>
<p> </p>Chris Dair