This week’s Folky Fridays free online guitar lesson live stream from Folk Friend will be all about drop D tuning. This versatile tuning is hugely popular amongst Irish trad guitarists and can be used in a huge range of keys for super low bass notes.
Author: Folk_Friend
This week’s Folky Fridays free online guitar lesson live stream from Folk Friend is something special in honour of 50 episodes in the series- I’ll be welcoming my friend Theo to Finale Guitar to live stream some tunes! Theo is a man of many talents- as well being a fantastic banjo player, programming various useful bits of musical software (see below) and being a veritable library of music theory knowledge he also builds exquisite cellos and violins.
As well as playing tunes and drinking tea we’ll also be discussing approaches to harmony, the theory of Celtic music and all sort of other useful tidbits so join us on Friday 30th April 2021 from 5:30GMT!
Here are Theo’s various websites and social media profiles: Parmakis instruments
Theo’s Chord Generator (as used in all my books and lessons)
In today’s Folky Fridays free Celtic guitar lesson livestream, I will be running you through the basics of how to incorporate tetrads (major 7, minor 7, 7 etc) and more advanced jazz chords (9s, 13s, altered dominants, inversion etc) into your trad guitar backing for Irish and Scottish tunes!
In today’s Folky Fridays free Celtic guitar lesson livestream, I wanted to discuss my thoughts on what makes Celtic music sound Celtic, and how it’s different from more modern music or folk music from other cultures. I’ll also be relating this to guitar backing as much as possible and doing my best to show you how melodic conventions can influence your guitar accompaniment choices for traditional/ folk music.
In this week’s Folky Fridays free online guitar lesson live stream from Folk Friend I will be showing you how you can pick chords for the most popular Irish tune on Youtube, Swallowtail Jig. I’ll show you how to pick simple chords by ear, how to use substitutions to make them more interesting and then loads of cool variants and techniques to make your chords more interesting! If this sounds like something you’d enjoy then please join us from 5:30GMT!
In this week’s Folky Fridays free online guitar lesson live stream from Folk Friend I will be showing you how you can use the humble “power chord” as a super easy move-able chord option for Irish, Scottish and general Celtic guitar accompaniment in loads of different keys! If you’re looking for an easy way to super charge your chord armoury with just one shape (and maybe a few extras) then join us from 5:30GMT!
I’ve been putting this one off for a while, but it’s finally time to examine the style of one of the absolute giants of Irish backing guitar- John Doyle! Famous for his work with Solas, The Teetotallers, McCusker, McGoldrick and Doyle, Usher’s Island and many more, John Doyle is a hugely versatile player who brings a wealth of interesting techniques to Irish guitar accompaniment. In this series I’ll be breaking down the most common chord shapes he uses for backing tunes, by examining a live clip of John Doyle and Liz Carroll at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston from 2009 (see below). In the next part I’ll be going into more detail on the chord techniques he uses later in the clip, and in the final part I’ll be examining his simple strumming style for reels and how he uses syncopated accents to make loads of cool rhythmic variations.
Here’s the original clip:
And here are all all four parts of my guide to John Doyle’s unique Irish guitar backing style:
In this week’s Folky Fridays free online guitar lesson live stream from Folk Friend I will be having a look at some of my more unusual reel strumming patterns, including the dubstep inspired “half time” strum. These are a fun way to add variation to high-speed tune sets and can really enhance your rhythmic fluency.
In today’s Folky Fridays free Celtic guitar lesson livestream, I’ll be having another crack at streaming some tunes with my mum on the whistle!
In this week’s Folky Fridays free online guitar lesson live stream from Folk Friend I will be taking questions on any aspect of Irish / Celtic guitar playing. Whether you’re struggling with barre chords, can’t seem to get your ears tuned in, don’t know what to learn next or need to find ways to stay focused and motivated, I will be more than happy to help with your questions, whatever they may be!