Back in March, I posted a feature on Bob Evans and I mentioned that I would be seeing him play live on May 1st. I did, indeed, see him play, and it was a great show. One of the tunes that he played was “Dune”, probably his most famous tune (if a fingerstyle guitarist can have a “famous” tune – maybe “famous-among-guitar-geeks” would be more accurate). He also mentioned that a free transcription was available on his website… So, on May 2nd, I started working on the tune. Now, here it is in late July and I almost have the tune down, except for one bar at the top of page 5, and I’m pretty sure that a few more hours spent with my trusty metronome will have it beaten into submission.

Here is Bob Evans playing “Dune”

Bob Evans – “Dune”

(If the link doesn’t work, you can listen to it here.)

Bob Evans’ Website

Bob Evans’ YouTube Channel

The second video of the month this month is a nice tune called “Sleepytime” played here by Ben Kammin and written by Alex DeGrassi. If you are a decent fingerstyle player and have ever wanted to try DADGAD tuning then this tune is a great place to start. This was the first DADGAD tune that I ever learned and it was from watching another video of Ben playing an excerpt from “Sleepytime” that I was inspired to learn it.

The tune is pretty straightforward, except for the bridge section where you need to get a “four-over-three” feel. Otherwise this tune is all about creating a mood – there are no flashy pyrotechnics – you just need to play cleanly and let the notes ring for as long as possible. Transcriptions are available from Alex DeGrassi’s website.

Ben Kammin is a graduate of the Fingerstyle Guitar program at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.  He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona where he teaches guitar and does research for UWM.

Ben’s Website: www.benkammin.com

Ben’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/benjaminkammin

Alex DeGrassi’s website: www.degrassi.com

For the half dozen (or so) of you that read this blog regularly, you know that a little over a year ago, I committed myself to getting out and performing more. Shortly after that, I reported on performing at my first open mic as a solo instrumentalist. Now, I am pleased to report that yesterday, I played my first full set as a solo instrumentalist.

It was at the Stouffville Strawberry Festival. I played a full 50 minute set as part of the York Region Fingerstyle Guitar Association’s “Showcase”. It was… not horrible. It was… fun… fun in the way that I imagine bungy-jumping is fun. I lived, therefore it was fun.

I realized shortly after I was invited to perform that I was going to have to play pretty much every song I knew. I had to go back and dust off a couple of tunes that were all but forgotten to fill out the full fifty minutes. I even learned a new tune. In a new tuning! It meant more practice. It meant more focused practice. All good things.

Now I’m looking forward to next time. Next time I will try to remember that I don’t have to tune by ear when I have a tuner on the ground in front of me. (Sorry for the delay folks – though it did help fill out the set.) Next time I will have more repertoire. And next time, (hopefully) it will be more fun… maybe even fun like a birthday party is fun.

In another departure from my usual video of the month, here is a really cool video that demonstrates differences in brain activity between improvising music and playing music from memory:

I first came across this video on Sean Dricoll’s Blog: So Much Sound. Sean’s comments on this video are worth a read.