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Your first
guitar rag.
Dale Miller is a
fingerstyle guitarist, guitar teacher, music store owner, freelance
writer, and computer consultant living in Berkeley, California. He has
two book/CD combos available from Mel Bay Publications, and his 1974 LP
Fingerpicking Rags and Other Delights
has been rereleased by Fantasy Records. He has contributed to a number
of String Letter Publishing books, including Fingerstyle
Guitar Essentials and Acoustic Blues Guitar
Essentials. In addition, Miller has recorded a self-produced
CD of fingerstyle and slide guitar duets titled Both of Me,
which is available through his Web site at www.dalemiller.com.
To hear the examples, you need the RealPlayer
plug-in. Enjoy your lesson, and check out the instructional
book/CD, Acoustic Blues Guitar Essentials.
Find out more about Acoustic
Blues Guitar Essentials.
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Guitar
rags have been popular with fingerpickers at least since the mid-1920s,
when the invention of electronic recording made it possible to record
softer instruments like guitar. In fact, the steady alternating bass of
traditional fingerpicking probably resulted from guitarists imitating
the steady left hands of ragtime and stride piano players. Rags are
often flashy, usually humorous, and fun to play—the perfect contrast to
the sometimes overly artsy, moody, self-conscious new age noodling so
prevalent among today's pickers. Mastering ragtime guitar takes a
lifetime of work and dedication, but for those of you who know
first-position chords and have some experience picking individual
strings with your right-hand fingers, it shouldn't be too difficult to
get started.
The
style is usually based on a steady 4/4 bass line that looks like
Example 1 when played with a first-position G chord.
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 Tune Up
Example 1
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On top of this steady bass,
the fingers usually get very busy, playing streams of arpeggiated
eighth notes. Try the pattern shown in Example 2 over the G, working up
to medium tempo. Be sure to make it swing. The fingering indicated
suggests using the right-hand ring finger. You could just as
efficiently use the right-hand index finger. The important thing is not
to use the same right-hand finger twice in a row when playing streams
of eighth notes. |
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Example 2
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Now try out this basic
pattern over different chords. You'll have to change the bass line
depending on where the root note falls. In a first-position C, for
instance, you should execute the pattern as shown in Example 3.
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Example 3
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Play the low G note by
moving your left-hand ring finger from the fifth string, and keep your
pinky free for fretting treble notes. Practice the pattern through a
few simple chord progressions. |
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