Correct guitar playing.

[Old Cremona]

My buddy Tim Twiss is playing 4 tunes from Robert Kelley's 1855 Companion for the Guitar. (His guitar is not period, that's not the point of this video.)

Is there any interest out there for learning this stuff? It seems to me that this is one true way to play correct period guitar- from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Perfect for a garrison-type event.

I'm trying to get Tim to make a tab book of this kind of material. Attached is a preview- Tim's tab for "Jordan is a Hard Road," the last tune in this set.

[toccoa42]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

My buddy Tim Twiss is playing 4 tunes from Robert Kelley's 1855 Companion for the Guitar. (His guitar is not period, that's not the point of this video.)

Is there any interest out there for learning this stuff? It seems to me that this is one true way to play correct period guitar- from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Sure is. His style is almost exactly like mine. I studied classical waaaayyyyy back in college and it's no different. I have arranged a series of period songs played in classical method on my reworked Republic "parlor" guitar:

Dixie
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
Lorena
Just Before the Battle Mother
All Quiet Along the Potomac
SC War Song ("Annie Laurie")
Drummer Boy of Shiloh
My Country Tis of Thee
Shenandoah
Hard Times Come Again No More
Old Kentucky Home
Johnny Is Gone for a Soldier
Maryland My Maryland (and a bunch of other Christmas songs)
Battle Cry of Freedom
Tenting Tonight
Auld Lang Syne
No Place Like Home

And a whole bunch more I can't recall right now.

But yes, I would love to see that. There's a book out now of CW songs in tab, but I can't remeber that title either, and I own it. Jeesh.

Thank god for muscle memory or I'd forget the songs too (although forgetting the lyrics is usually bad enough).

[Old Cremona]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Well, it's interesting. The classic fingerstyle of guitar seems not to have changed all that much since the "waw." A qualified fingerstyle player can apparently produce his own arrangements in stylistic harmony with the style as heard by our 1860's ancestors. Tim Twiss told me when he was playing this stuff that it was not all that different to what you find in modern beginning classical guitar books

If I were a guitar player, I would delight in playing the tunes from the period method books, exactly as written. That's the way most of us minstrel banjo players do it. Of course, the banjo style has changed completely and the old style was dead until Bob Winans re-discovered it in the 1970's, so we're quite dependent on the original material.

If people are interested in learning from the old method books, I recommend looking them up in the Library of Congress American Memory, or getting in touch with Tim for some Tabs and advice if desired.

[toccoa42]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

If people are interested in learning from the old method books, I recommend looking them up in the Library of Congress American Memory, or getting in touch with Tim for some Tabs and advice if desired.

Back to your original query -- is Tim seriously considering putting together a book of tabs on period guitar songs that he has accumulated? Or would he consider providing tabs on songs that we might suggest?

[Danny]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Lynn -

How's that reworked Republic RP working out for you? I've found mine to be loud enough without steel strings (at least I'll not have the bracing scalloped to be made more responsive to the lower tension string set). I play with finger picks when more loudness is needed. For appearance only I replaced the Phillips-head screws on the tuner plates and axles, and am making up a more period-correct ribbon strap for playing when standing.

There are period guitar tutors available as downloads from the web to get the idea on style -- though Tim's Twiss' expert hand at arranging and tab is certainly much appreciated. Those couple of period sources I've been able to find are:

"New Method For the Guitar, Those Who Study Without a Master", 1855, Charles Converse

"Sunbeams, 16 Favorite Melodies arranged in a simple manner for the Guitar" Also from C. Converse but 1856, which includes familiar tunes to practice on Hail Columbia, Yankee Doodle (see attached), The Old Fifer, and Hail To The Chief. From there you can get some idea how guitar might be applied to the multitude of sheet music compositions (typically for piano, voice) from the period, at least as interlude.

"Instructions for the Spanish Guitar, Containing the Elementary Principles of Music", 1855, Francis Weiland is more comprehensive but not all that different from modern guitar how-to books if you allow for the quainter language. This full-blown tutor has much music included, as with any tutor not much of it from the popular venues of the time, but still, to pick up the technique...

Dan Wykes
fellow Artillerist

[toccoa42]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Lynn -

How's that reworked Republic RP working out for you?

Quite nicely, thank you. I've swapped out the stock tuning planks and subsituted a "folk" style with open gears and changed the phillips head screws to slot or hex where appropriate. I'm using silk wound steel on 1 - 4 but still haven't switched to gut on 5 - 6, and I won't until I cut a new nut, which I haven't taken the time to do because I'm just having too much fun with it. I'll get around to it one day. I've also removed the strap peg but have not yet found a wood peg that I like.

I was also fortunate in that a member of my unit, who is a woodworker, built me a really nice coffin case, lined in sheep's wool, for a wedding present. Can't say no to free.

Right now, most of the songs I learn are ear-adaptations of traditional songs, or ripped off from others, such as Wayne Erbson, who does a really great arrangement of My Old Kentucky Home. Some I take from sheet music, but I'm not the greatest at sight-reading, as it takes a while to figure it out when you have a total of only 6 tones to work with at any time, and you're working with a piano score.

I'm not aware of any tutors, are they something you download, or do you purchase them somplace?

[Danny]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Quite nicely, thank you. I've swapped out the stock tuning planks ...etc...Right now, most of the songs I learn are ear-adaptations of traditional songs, or ripped off from others, such as Wayne Erbson, who does a really great arrangement of My Old Kentucky Home. Some I take from sheet music, but I'm not the greatest at sight-reading, as it takes a while to figure it out when you have a total of only 6 tones to work with at any time, and you're working with a piano score.

I'm not aware of any tutors, are they something you download, or do you purchase them somplace?

Lynn -

The Library of Congress site has skads of downloadable period sheet music, most for voice or piano so it's certainly not tabbed, nor are any guitar chords indicated. Universities have downloadables too, that's where I got the guitar tutors I mentioned. You search words like "guitar, 1856" and stuff pops up. (PM me if you come up dry, I can at least forward you what I have).

On that sight reading thing, I can do some of that but I am as much a "by-the-ear" player, though it helps to understand the "circle of 5ths" even for playing by ear. It also helps to have jammed in a Bluegrass group format -- you soon learn to fill in chords blind from any key a song is started in, or you're quickly relegated to the outer-outer circle.

For period style, to get away from strumming that is, I began by picking individual notes contained within the chord shapes - first with the flat pick, and later with individual fingers. A genuine musician, more like yerself, probably is more familiar with the fretboard and need not think in terms of chord shapes so much. I wonder the skill level of an amateur player during the CW - were they mostly by-the-ear players? Were they strummers?

I've also got the Erbsen Folk / Front Porch / Civil War etc. songbooks and they are an easy way to get into it. I only recently began weaning myself away from flat-picking to more period-correct finger style. Dave Corbett (Battlefield Balladeers) and I have discussed this issue (he's got a little Republic parlor guitar also*), but interested to know what others have experienced in that regard.

Dan Wykes

* btw the detailed measurements of the Republic are 96 percent match to an Antebellum Martin I found listed for sale on the internet, which is better than many of the typical early 19th century parlors used by reenactor musicians.

[Old Cremona]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Back to your original query -- is Tim seriously considering putting together a book of tabs on period guitar songs that he has accumulated? Or would he consider providing tabs on songs that we might suggest?

Yeah, Tim is considering putting out a tab book of this stuff, if there's enough interest.

[toccoa42]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

A genuine musician, more like yerself, probably is more familiar with the fretboard and need not think in terms of chord shapes so much. I wonder the skill level of an amateur player during the CW - were they mostly by-the-ear players? Were they strummers?

Sort of, but not necessarily. Most of the playing is done in the first position (up to the 3rd fret), and there are only so may keys and chord shapes that are truly adaptable to the human hand -- primarily, C, G, E, A, and D, with their attendant dominant sevenths and relative minors. From there the position moves to the third (at the fifth fret) and then generally only on the top four strings, with the bottom played open. In either case, as you mentioned, when scales are built around the chord shape, the scale shape will remain the same no matter where it occurs on the fretboard. For instance, the barred G at the 3rd fret will have the same scale shape as barred A at the fifth fret, barred B flat at the 6th fret, and so on. Since most songs are written in only those keys that occur in the first position, you need only remember the applicable chord in another position to recreate the correct scale (i.e., C in the first position, barred C at the eighth fret).

When I first started noodling with guitar, I learned blues. There is a blue scale in G of flatted 3rds and 7ths that generally starts at G on the 6th string, third fret, and continues up the fretboard to end at C on the 1st string, 8th fret. That pattern of notes will stay the same if even you move the first note up two frets to a new key of A. I thought it was the most innovative concept imaginable for a beginner. From there it was an easy step to apply the same concept to chord shapes.

My guess (I know, they hate guesses here, just cold hard research) is that most casual CW players back in the day learned just like we did -- by ear, and with someone showing them the basics. They remained strummers until they gained the expertise of finger-picking by watching those who knew how, and immitated them -- same as we do today. No doubt some were classically trained, but I'd venture to say the vast majority were not.

[toccoa42]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Universities have downloadables too, that's where I got the guitar tutors I mentioned. You search words like "guitar, 1856" and stuff pops up.

What university databases would be good to search?

[Danny]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

What university databases would be good to search?

Lynn -

Where to begin? Some recent I've been searching are Brown University, University of South Dakota (check out the National Music Museum there), the Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA), but for the "mother lode" see the Duke University site with the sheet music consortium listing of nearly all universities with searchable music collections in alpha order:

http://library.duke.edu/music/sheetmusic/collections.html

You'll never hit bottom.

Dan Wykes

[dedogtent]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Yeah, Tim is considering putting out a tab book of this stuff, if there's enough interest.

Carl,

I for one would be interested in Tim's tab book.

[spondulix]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

I am new at this site it looks promising. As to your post, I would be very interested in any tabs on civil war music, guitar especially.
I recently purchased one of those republic guitars, and really have a hard time adjusting to it from my martin. Also as to what is and isn't historically correct ways to play civil war period songs, I have a old tape by a person who claimed to have been taught civil war guitar by his father, who was in turn taught by his father, who was taught by his father who played a martin guitar in the civil war. He claims that each of them played the song as it was taught to them and it is orginal as to how he played it then.
The song is Richmond is a hard road to travel, and it is played in a foke style more than the style presented here. Would you say that both styles are period correct? By the way he plays it on the same guitar as his civil war ancertor did.


curtis payne

[Old Cremona]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

Carl,

I for one would be interested in Tim's tab book.

Great, John, I have a few other inquires, so I will keep on Tim 'til he knocks out a little booklet of tabs. I think there's a real need for accurate guitar music in this wing of the hobby.

[Outrider]

Re: Correct guitar playing.

"I think there's a real need for accurate guitar music in this wing of the hobby. "

Agreed!


Hey Carl,

I would be all over this too! Now if I just had a period guitar.