Watching a hero at work

[glenatron]

Last night we went to see Michael Chapman (if you click on that link I recommend the second track) and it was pretty much awesome. Seeing him in person really helped me appreciate how amazing he is as a guitarist- those really aren't double tracked guitars on those albums - and just how influential he has been on my playing. Seriously, if you imagine his style played by someone about an eighth as good you've pretty much got my sound right there. Actually an eighth may be overstating things- at a couple of points he dropped bits of slide guitar into songs by playing them with his wedding ring.

I really want to learn to play ragtime guitar, which is where some of his style comes from, but it's really hard to find a good starting point because it's all very hard to play and guitar teachers who specialise in fingerstyle are very hard to find indeed.

Comments

[oifonly.livejournal.com]

coo, I love it! Don't know a thing about the technicalities of playing the guitar, but I really love the sound. It vaguely reminded me of John Renbourn and some of the Pentangle stuff I've heard. Although of course as a music numpty I have no idea if I'm committing some kind of mortal sin by comparing them. Heh. Anyhoo, love it a lot. Thanks for the edumacational link - s'pect I'll be rushing off to buy a Michael Chapman album now!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Actually those are his exact contemporaries, he just never quite had the same profile as they did. He was certainly part of the same circuit for many years and I know a lot of top guitarists really rate him as a player.

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

Oh, curses. Now you've made me painfully aware that my taped copy of 'navigation' is somewhere inaccessible in a box. Still, must have been an awesome gig...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Really awesome. Better than I expected, and I expected it to be good.

Like a lot of the old folk guys he's really entertaining between songs, which he needs to be as they're all in different tunings...