I have no affiliation with FingerstyleGuitar.ca, except that I am on their mailing list, but I have been introduced to a number of excellent fingerstyle guitarists as a result of being on that list. September’s Video of the Month features Adam Rafferty, who is playing a show at Chalker’s Pub in Toronto on September 15th at 8pm. You can get information and tickets at FingerstyleGuitar.ca.

Here is his bio from their site:

Adam Rafferty was born and raised in Harlem. He was mugged in front of his building when he was 10. He played in a hard rock band at 12, got ripped off by a club owner on his first gig at 15, and by 18 he was a rapper on a gold record overseas.

By 19 he was playing guitar professionally and at 20 he was playing an after hours joint in Harlem on 137 street and Adam Clayton Boulevard where the bandleader would drink himself into to oblivion and regularly threaten customers with a 10 inch kitchen knife.

Adam has played the New York City subways and street corners – and played the most upscale music rooms New York has to offer such as Birdland and The Jazz Standard. He’s led his own band through Europe, produced his own albums, and played with Dr. Lonnie Smith, The Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, L.A. Studio legend Bennie Wallace (who wrote the soundtrack for “White Men Can’t Jump”), bassist Bob Cranshaw (from the original Saturday Night Live band), Alvin Queen (drummer for Oscar Peterson), and Mike Longo (Dizzy’s pianist).

Adam’s playing is as colourful as his experiences. There is no doubt he is a first rate guitarist but, more important, he understands that with great power comes great responsibility – i.e. he understands that the greatest purpose of music is to make people smile.

(Incidentally, if you are feeling brave and want to “open” for Adam, there will be a open stage for fingerstyle guitarists immediately before the show at 6:30.)

Adam Rafferty’s website: www.AdamRafferty.com

Adam Rafferty’s YouTube Channel: www.YouTube.com/user/crescentridge

The second video of the month for August is a tune that’s fun to play and very accessible to fingerstyle players of moderate ability.

Years ago, Richard Gilewitz recorded a tune called “Echoing Wilderness”. I’ve never heard the original, but I’m told that it was eight minutes long. In 1986, Leo Kottke covered the last section of the tune and titled it “Echoing Gilewitz”. In this video, Richard Gilewitz plays Leo Kottke’s version of his own tune.

The tune is in Open D (DADF#AD) and is fairly straightforward. The right hand plays a steady thumb-index-middle-thumb-middle-index pattern, with the thumb playing melody, primarily on the third and fourth strings, and the fingers droning the open first and second strings.  Make sure you let all the notes ring for as long as possible and if you’re playing through an amp, crank up the reverb. Have fun!

Richard Gilewitz’s website: www.RichardGilewitz.com

Richard Gilewitz’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/gillazillamusic

This month’s video features Peppino D’Augustino playing the title track from his latest CD, “Nine White Kites”. This tune was transcribed in the July 2011 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine. Should you wish to try it, the tuning is relatively unique: C#G#EF#BD# – though if I ever decide to tackle it, I think I’ll risk damage to my fourth string in favour of the more accessible tuning of DAFGCE (one semi-tone higher).

Peppino’s Website: www.peppinodagostino.com
Wikipedia Bio: Peppino_D’Agostino

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

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.

Yes, I know. This is the second video-of-the-month this month. It seems that I’ve got a bit of a backlog of great guitar-related videos to share, so for the next couple of months, I’m going to do two videos each month. This will also help to fill in the void of “real” posts that I assume will form with the onset of summer weather.

This video is a very entertaining look at Steve Vai’s audition to play in Frank Zappa’s band, “The Mother’s of Invention”. But it also drives home the fact that the more you know about music theory and musical styles, the more options you have if you want to make music for a living. Or, as a former employer used to say, “Learn more, earn more.”

And, for the record, I see no shame in being Linda Ronstadt’s guitarist…

This month we have yet another young fingerstyle virtuoso.

Joe Robinson is a young man from Australia who, in 2008, at age 16, won Australia’s Got Talent as an instrumentalist. He has also won the World Championships of Performing Arts in 2009, beating out 75,000 other performers.

Joe grew up in rural Australia and learned much of his skill from watching videos on YouTube. He was especially influenced by fellow Australian guitar guru Tommy Emmanuel. He released his first CD Birdseed in 2005 at the age of fourteen, and few years later released Time Jumping. His songwriting and performance skills continue to improve and a new CD is expected shortly.

If you are in the Greater Toronto Area you can see Joe perform at Deer Park Church (1570 Yonge St.) on Saturday, June 4th at 8 pm. You can get tickets at www.FingerStyleGuitar.ca. (Once again, I have no financial interest in this event.)

Joe’s website: www.JoeRobinson.com

Joe’s YouTube channel: www.YouTube.com/user/7680joe

This month’s video features another CandyRat recording artist, Craig D’Andrea. This tune, called “As We Go” is from his most recent CD: “…and the B.L.T.s”. Once again this month, biographical information is hard to find as his website is still under construction, but I can tell you that he is roughly 26 years old and that this CD is Craig’s third release on CandyRat records (who seem to have a monopoly on solo fingerstyle guitar players). I also know that he won the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in 2007 and that he lives in Connecticut.

Tuning: GBbEbFBbD
Craig’s Website: www.craigdandrea.com
Craig at CandyRat Records: www.candyrat.com/artists/CraigDAndrea/ – sheet music available

Okay, this isn’t my typical video of the month, but it is very cool, nevertheless. In this video Bobby McFerrin (of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame) demonstrates to an audience (without speaking a word) how the pentatonic scale is universal and highly intuitive, if not instinctive.

Edit: For those of you who may not know, the pentatonic scale is a five note scale which corresponds to the intervals between the black keys on a piano. It is usually the first (and sometimes only) scale that we guitarists learn.

Macyn Taylor is an up-and-coming young guitarist who hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biographical information is sketchy, but I’m pretty sure that she’s not more than seventeen years old. Despite her youth, she is a brilliant fingerstyle guitarist who is studying guitar at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

This is her version of Simon Fox’s “The Fisherman”

Macyn Taylor’s website: http://www.macyntaylor.com/

Macyn Taylor‘s MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/macyntaylor

Macyn Taylor‘s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/busker12

UWM guitar students’ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarStudentsAtUWM