Introduction to Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar

Product Description Fingerstyle guitar champion Pat Kirtley presents challenging arrangements in the DADGAD tuning of six traditional tunes from Ireland and Scotland. These arrangements are aimed at students of intermediate level who want to explore a different musical style. The structure and form of Celtic tunes are also examined, along with a study of dance rhythms, jigs and reels. Songs featured include 'The Skye Boat Song', 'Moran's Return' and 'The Blarney Pilgrim'. Review Imagine that you're an acoustic guitarist who has been playing for a few years and you d like to become a proficient fingerpicker. You want to learn some open tunings, you d like to play a few nice Celtic tunes, and most of all you want to get your thumb to play alternating bass notes and do that cool boomchuck thing. If this scenario describes your situation, I highly recommend Pat Kirtley s three new videos from Stefan Grossman s Guitar Workshop. Kirtley is a knowledgeable and accomplished picker who in recent years has won major guitar competitions and put out several fine CDs. He s a good arranger and an even better writer, yet all that might not mean a thing to guitar students if he wasn t also a good teacher. As Kirtley s three video lessons show, lie s personable and articulate, and his method is deliberate and patient. He also teaches some really nice tunes. A good place to start is with Kirtley s Introduction to Thumbstyle Guitar. Being from Kentucky, the birthplace of boom chuck, Kirtley has a particular affinity for thumbstyle, yet he s not a dyed-in-the wool Merle Travis devotee. In fact, Kirtley encourages students throughout each of his lessons to play the way they feel these tunes should be played. If you play what you feel, you ll be playing better music, he says. Still, Kirtley offers plenty of specific instruction and advice. He covers how to use a thumbpick and get a good sound with it. He also recommends developing a smooth, rhythmic feel with your thumb before working in the melody notes instead of trying to make it all happen at once. Kirtley s interpretations of thumbpicking standards such as I Am a Pilgrim, I ll See You in My Dreams, Deep River Blues, and Guitar Rag capture the essence of the tunes without mimicking the players who made them famous. In Introduction to Alternate Tunings, Kirtley covers the most popular variants-dropped D, open G, and D A