Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 24, 2023
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February 24, 2023
This week I got caught up revisiting some early Fleetwood Mac stuff, particularly the 1971-74 line up featuring Bob Welch, but the first incarnation with Peter Green as well. I have always loved Sentimental Lady and I figured it might be time to add a lesson on to the TG Library. I used to play it instrumentally frequently, without ever even checking on what key it was in. I explored thoughts about that at the top of today’s Update. By the end I was messing with Albatross having hit on the idea of retuning one string to get the bass line just right.
Today’s tip followed in those footsteps, and I want to encourage everybody out there to not be afraid of trying some alternate tunings. Many of them just have one or two strings changed, which is not much more difficult than just tuning up in standard like you should many times a day. A point in fact I mentioned quickly was even using a banjo tuning by dropping the high E to D and just using the top four strings. This is how one of my students will be approaching Hard Times by Gillian Welch.
We got one new lesson out this week – I’m An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande), a novelty tune done by lots of singing cowboys and Bing Crosby-type crooners. It was on my radar thanks to my recent Dan Hicks kick.
Other than that, life here is still keeping an eye on the hummingbird babies. The daily feed will always be updated with all the previous days below it.
See you next week,
Neil
Love the Fleetwood Mac look-back. I’ve seen them about a dozen times, in all incarnations. Before they were real famous, they’d come through Tampa about once a year, often on double bills with the likes of Black Sabbath and such. This was the early 70’s and I was in my peak concert-going years. To this day, one of my favorites is Sands Of Time, an absolute masterpiece of Danny Kirwan’s.