Recently I posted a number of simple acoustic guitar arrangements which were reasonably simple to play and great for helping guitar players develop their repertoires and were they also designed to help players move away from playing straight chords.  By breaking songs up into simple melodies and oyther basic moving parts, the melody stands out a little more and it becomes much more interesting to the listener (even if the listener has no idea what is going on).

An Australian guitar player by he name of Steve Gadd based in Tasmania has been very kind enough to allow me to post a few of his arrangements for acoustic fingerstyle guitar and make them available to guitar players.  (Thanks Steve).  Steve and Marjorie have a website, check out what they are up to at Music Tasmania I also heard a whisper that Steve has been in the studio lately, I’ll keep you posted on that as well in the near future.

The tune is called Above the Braeside

For other simple acoustic arrangements Acoustic Guitarist Fingerstyle

I will also be posting other arrangements here in the near future

Here’s another Harp Guitar Youtube, this one features Canadian Andy McKee

To see Don Alder playing Harp Guitar, Click Don Adler Youtube

Here’s another great guitar player Don Alder playing Harp Guitar.

If you are interested in Harp Guitar, check out builders from the early 1900’s like the Larson Brothers. Click on the link to go to Whaley Guitars, a site that has info on Harp Guitars Whaley Guitars

To Hear Michael Hedges on Harp Guitar Click Michael Hedges Youtube

Here’s the great Michael Hedges on Harp Guitar playing a tune called Because it’s There

For more Michael Click the Link to go to The Guitar Player Blog Micheal Hedges

Here’s Tommy Emmanuel doing an Acoustic Guitar Video on Youtube. This has some great practical ideas on how to practice.

So simple and sensible

And here’s Tommy reinventing Classical Gas Tommy Emmanuel Youtube Classical Gas

Tony Hogan

Here’s a great Acoustic Guitar Video on Youtube by Antoine Dufour, extremely funky and percussive,  It’s called Drac and Friends

And if you liked that, check out this: Antoine Dufour Acoustic Guitar

Tony Hogan

So why would a guitar player write an article about Iranian politics?

When I first saw the stories about Iran filtering out and into the news, it didn’t really catch my eye. Although I have compassion as much as any other person who has contemplated his or her navel, burnt a truckload of incense and bowed to false and real Gods, I generally don’t involve myself in political issues because I don’t trust the media at all and also I have a total distaste for private political agendas of any sort.  So, what got me on this one?

Firstly, I’m not prepared to get caught in the trap of throwing insults at any foreign government or political party and start screaming ‘human rights!’, if I was to do that I feel I would be disrespectful to the people of Iran, and by saying this I am not in support of the government there or the opposing powers; I think it is essential to clarify this.  I am in support of the Iranian people and the underlying principles which unite humanity. It is important to be unbiased and look at other things here; there are tyrants in every country, both in power and struggling for power and many faces that we don’t see who hide behind various political parties and call the shots.  Find me a country that does not have such people.  Many supposedly friendly people in politics have been involved in committing the most heinous crimes and gotten off unscathed, even totally unnoticed.  It’s very easy to be judgemental when we see news articles about issues in other countries and jump in with an opinion.   Yes issues are real, yes we need change and yes we need to help in some way, sometimes the methods of help have more to do with the way WE live than pointing the finger elsewhere.

What has struck me with this issue in Iran is the use of Social Media and what I would call ‘the power of grass roots digital media’.  It is important that we in the West and others outside Iran speak, in fact scream loud and clear that we support the Iranian people, not the political opinions but the rights as human beings to be treated with respect, to be heard and that we actually do care for people of other countries in some way.

The most important barriers to break down in the world are the cultural and religious barriers that separate us.  Not at the expense of sovereignty but there is a need to remove the walls that divide us; to embrace the unity in diversity and to be tolerant of differences that in the end are not so important at all.  So for me, what I need to say to the people of Iran and also all the rest of the world is we need to change our thinking and remove our limited thoughts.  Thoughts that arise and make us feel better in some way than someone else from another culture, religious or social standing.  Until we can do this we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over, (think Groundhog Day),  and the governments and political parties will only reflect what is at our core; this is what I call ’the separation in diversity’.   These times that we live in, houses are divided, families are shattered, neighbours hate each other, brothers and sisters can despise each other. We really have a lot of work to do, and while we look at Iran and ask for basic human rights to be respected, we need to look at ourselves as well.

And pray for peace in Iran, other countries and our own hearts.

I just saw the show Rockwiz on television it had Lior and Serena Ryder performing Neil Youngs Heart of Gold.  Very nice.  Lior also did a very good acoustic tune. Excellent backing band as usual.  I love it when music is live and there’s combinations of people peforming who don’t normally work together but manage to create something fresh.  Nice harmonica too.  I’ll update soon about where Lior is performing, he’s a Sydney based musician and he’s very musical. I’m glad they put this tune on youtube to share with us.

Liors website Lior

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

It is with great sadnes I received the news that one of thw orlds greatest musicians has died.  Ali Akbar Khan the great Indian Sarod player died on the 18th of June.  The great violinist Yehudi Menhuin once said “Ali Akbar Khan is the worlds greatest musician” .  John McLaughlin studied with him.  I studied with a student of Ali’s by the name of Ashok Roy.  This line of Indian music runs back to Tansen the great court musician of Akbar the Great.

News article about Ali’s passing.

Ali Akbar Khan College of Music

Quote from Collge website, “Our most beloved Khansahib passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family on Thursday evening.  Khansahib had been a dialysis patient since 2004, and had been enduring numerous health issues ever since.  The great Maestro had continued his music teachings publically at the Ali Akbar College until just weeks ago, and continued to teach music at home until the day he died.”

Here is Part Five of my Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar Arrangements in TAB and music Notation.

This one is the old Irish tune, Danny Boy also called the Londonderry Air.  This is in the key of C, as usual I have kept it reasonably simple.  This is a two page arrangement.

Danny Boy Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar Tab and Music Notation

Here is the the Printable Version DannyBoy Acoustic Finger Style Guitar TAB and Notation

Here is the computer generatedMidi File Danny Boy Midi File

 I just heard the news that the great singer songwriter guitar player Kenny Rankin has passed on.

I am grateful to him for his beautiful music which I have listened to since the early seventies.

Sending well wishes and Bluessing to Kenny Rankin’s family from all those who loved Kenny’s music in Australia, Kenny holds legendary status amongst many people that I know. 

Here is Kenny in action

Also, this is so perfect, the song that he wrote Peaceful Kenny Rankin

Here is a news article about Kenny’s passing 

Kenny Rankin

Here is Part 4 of my Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Arrangements.  It’s a traditional song called Down By Sally Gardens.  I’ve put this into the key of G so it  is easy enough to play.  It is a two page chart in TAB and music notation.  The first section on page one is a standard bass and melody part, wheras page two has a slight variation around the the theme.  There were quite a few variation options but I think what I have written works well, you may like to create your own versions, when you play solo guitar, nothing is set in stone and there’s always room for reinterpreting a piece of music.  

Down By Sally Gardens

Here is a link to the computer generated midi file to give you a rough idea of the way the bass and melody parts work together and to help guitar players who concentrate more on TAB than reading dots.  Remember, a human would phrase this a bit more musically.

MIDI FILE – Down By Sally Gardens Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar

To access or download the  quality printable adobe pdf version of the song click   Down by Sally_Gardens

I really enjoyed arranging this, I hope you get plenty from this tune.

Tony Hogan – Acoustic Guitar Blogger –  Guitar Player – SEO

Here is Part 3 of my Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar Arrangements.  This is a tune called Maree’s Wedding (Marie’s Wedding), an old Irish tune with the words “Step we gaily on we go etc “.  

I’ve thrown it into the key of E so I’d be able to stay in normal tuning.   What I’ve also done is eliminate all the chords and just imply them, it is only a melody line and a very simple bass part.  When I studied with a guy called Don Andrews about 35 years ago, he would always create arrangements with one or two small things to push the skll level of the guitarist a little further, I have done the same here.  In this tune, I’ve written it in such a way that the player has to move around the fretboard just a little, this sort of adds a little bounce to the tune and forces the player to be foused. if everything was stuck at the same fret, the player is more inclined to go into automatic mode.

To view and or download the printable Acrobat reader version click here Marees_Wedding

EDIT//: Bar 9, 3rd beat move to fret 4

Marees Wedding

I’ve added a midi file, a compuer generated music file to give the listener an idea of the tune.  I realize that many players only read TAB, please add expression, personality and your own phrasing Marees Wedding

Click here for Part One of the Acoustic Guitar Arrangements 

Here is a very interesting Acoustic Guitar video of a guitar player by the name of Justin King using acoustic guitar tapping techniques.  Justin has an album called Bleu.  To hear samples of Justins music, go to the website at the following address, Justin King

To hear another brilliant contemporary acoustic guitar players go to Acoustic Guitar Player, go to Antoin Dufour

I have just noticed a major change in the way that Google Search is indexing websites, blogs and social networks.  So I thought I’d let new readers of this site know that I also have another very good acoustic guitar blog / website at The Acoustic Guitar Player .  There is also a shortcut to this site at The Guitars Net