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.
Category: Drop D
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:
https://youtu.be/K-2QuP35y70
In this free lesson from Folk Friend I’ll be running complete beginners through the top 5 tips for complete Irish guitar beginners! I’ll be showing you how to hold your guitar and plectrum, some of the best things to learn to begin with, which chords fit with tunes in the most common keys and general tips for how you can improve your Irish guitar backing fast!
It can be difficult to get started learning Celtic backing guitar. There is so much to learn, from ear training, to music theory, to strumming patterns to rhythms to memorising tunes…. So much to practice- so little time! In today’s free Celtic guitar lesson from Folk Friend, I’m going to be telling you my top ten practice tips to make your guitar practice time more efficient.
I’ll also be demonstrating my brand new invention, the Folk Friend Guitar Practice Diary (click the link to buy now)! It uses a targeted system of quarterly, monthly and weekly reviews alongside an events calendar and my revolutionary Tablusic system to help you achieve your goals quickly. It also contains lots of handy tidbits for the budding Celtic guitarist, like chord shapes, mode diagrams, practice techniques and a ready made section for you to write your own tabs and chord diagrams quickly and easily.
The Stephen Guise book I mentioned (Mini Habits) is available here.
I receive a small affiliate commission if you buy it through the above link.
This free Irish guitar lesson from Folk Friend covers one of the most popular tunings out there; drop D. This is a great tuning for beginner folk guitarists as it has the nice low, booming bass notes of a tuning like DADGAD but without the need to learn loads of new chord shapes!
If you are interested in finding out more about the amazing guitarists Tim Edey, John Doyle, Arty McGlynn or Paul Brady who I mentioned in the intro then please consider buying their music through the links below. These are affiliate links so I receive a small commission if you buy through them, which enable me to continue to make free Youtube content for you! Please note that you will need to click the link for your country otherwise they WILL NOT WORK.
Tim Edey: UK: https://amzn.to/2TlMzwg
USA: https://amzn.to/3klj75K
Canada: Not available- sorry!
Arty McGlynn:
UK: https://amzn.to/3jmZBEH
USA: https://amzn.to/2FQRQJg
Canada: https://amzn.to/2HvuGZf
Paul Brady:
UK: https://amzn.to/3ohpFVk
USA: https://amzn.to/2HpkodI
Canada: https://amzn.to/3okRzj0
John Doyle:
UK: https://amzn.to/2Hx0Wez
USA: https://amzn.to/3klux9q
Canada: https://amzn.to/2TiKwcI
You can also buy a full DVD of John Doyle teaching Drop D guitar here:
UK: https://amzn.to/3kqc3F0
USA: https://amzn.to/31xN62Y
Canada: https://amzn.to/37AK01Q