Jethro Tull is one of my all time favorite rock bands. Ian Anderson and Martin Barre have been very influential in how I conceive of the confluence of light and
New arrangement: Jethro Tull’s Aqualung (part 1)
Jethro Tull is one of my all time favorite rock bands. Ian Anderson and Martin Barre have been very influential in how I conceive of the confluence of light and dark (acoustic & electric; flute & guitar; etc.) in a rock setting. Most directly, Ian’s acoustic guitar playing heavily influenced how I play acoustic guitar and octave mandolin. There’s a uniqueness to his strumming style that has become a core of how I approach acoustic.
In many ways, I think Tull were much more successful than Led Zeppelin in incorporating acoustic tones into rock music (Zeppelin’s IIIrd album has received much credit for bridging the acoustic and rock worlds, but Tull–and Fairport Convention before them–were the true pioneers in doing this). It’s unfortunate that Ian dismantled Tull 3 or 4 years ago (though he continues to tour as “Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson”). I saw Ian last summer when he toured for the Thick as a Brick 40th anniversary tour. Ian’s voice was the best I had heard it in many years, but it was very disappointing to not have Martin Barre there. Unfortunately, I came to Tull in the late 80s after Ian’s voice had already peetered out, so never had an opportunity to see Ian live in the fine form you would have found him in the 70s.
An arrangement of the head of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung has been posted to the Tablature page. This is the 1st section of the tune up to the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar section and solo will be posted at another time soon to come.
New arrangement: Wanted Dead or Alive, Bon Jovi
Per request of tablature subscriber Barry Hines, I’ve arranged Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive for mandolin. It’s a great choice for mandolin. This is not an arrangement of the full song, but all the parts are there. Love Sambora’s playing on it and the solo, though not a note for note transcription, pays homage to the style of the original. The opening riff of the tune was made for mandolin, as it uses doubles stops (based around Dm/F) and crosspicking to full effect.
Tablature available on Tab page. Remember, you need to be a tablature subscriber to reach that content.
Richter Mandolin PDF formatted book now has linked video and audio
Richter M
andolin 3rd Edition PDF (sold through this site; digital interactive version sold through Apple iTunes bookstore for iPad only) has been updated to include links to audio and video of the book’s lesson. For sale for $10 through this website’s store.
Aerosmith “Dream On” tab now posted & Progression Files added
I have now posted Aerosmith’s Dream On to the tablature page. It is the tablature for this video:
Also I have now begun attaching Progression/Notion files to tabs. These can be viewed on your iPad, Mac, and PC with either the Progression or Notion apps (the iPad apps are called Progression for iPad and Notion for iPad). This is the best tab software I’ve found that is intuitive, has a great interface, real audio instruments, great sheet music production, and allows for combination of both written and tabbed music. These can be purchased through PreSonus and the iTunes App store (for iPad). – See more at: http://www.jimrichter.com/?page_id=15#sthash.aaxzMaOX.dpuf
Richter Mandolin 3rd Edition blues/rock Instruction now available as PDF download
Richter Mandolin: Postmodern Blues, Rock, & Alt-Folk Mandolin Edition 3 now available as a PDF Digital Download
jimrichter.com is now offering Edition 3 as an immediate PDF digital download. It has everything from the iPad version of Edition 3 except for the embedded media files and interactivity. Most audio and video files can be found at this permanent location on the jimrichter.com website. Price is $10 (immediate digital download-45MB)
Dream On (Aerosmith): YouTube video
An interesting mandolin arrangement of Aerosmith’s Dream On. Tablature to be posted in September.
New Tab added: Grant Street Rock
New tab added–Grant Street Rock. This is a tune I wrote for this year’s 4th annual Richter Mandolin Camp for the Rest of Us. It is a slinky tune w/ lots of syncopation. As was last year’s tune (Grant Street Blues–also on the tab page), it’s named after one of the Camp’s sponsors and seat of activities, the Grant Street Inn in Bloomington, Indiana. Website tabs are now available through a low $5 per year subscription (to help cover the cost of this website, as its bandwidth is taxed by over 50,000 visits per year–most to the tabs page).
Richter Mandolin Camp T-Shirts Now Available in Store
I have several left over T-Shirts from all 4 years of the camp in the Storefront. These are available for $20 shipping included in the USA. Each year has limited sizes available.
Live and Let Die: Bouzouki
This is a demonstration of my arrangement of Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney) that I developed for a class I taught at my mandolin camp this summer on arranging rock standards for mandolin. Obviously, the cool part of the tune–the Gminor hook between the opening verse and the reggae-influenced bridge–is what drives this arrangement. As the tune is in G, the Gminor section translates very well to mandolin. Instead of playing in open/first position, I play in third position and allow the open G and D strings to drone while playing the melody. This approach gives the tune a larger, symphonic sound. The tab is on the Tablature page.
New tabs/lessons: box patterns and triads
Straight forward triad and minor pentatonic box pattern exercises/studies available on the Tablature page.
