Andrew Lardner

When the Catfish Is in Bloom

Welcome back friends. We are back with another month of John Fahey, the focus being "When the Catfish Is in Bloom" as it was recorded on The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick. 

This is a special Fahey post for me, because it is a piece I've wanted to transcribe and record for a long time. I initially thought I would wait until I locked down a Gibson made Ray Whitley Recording King for a video, which is what it I believe Fahey used for this record. That was almost 10 years ago,...

Master index of lessons thus far

Hello friends:

Here is a master index of everything that has been posted, I hope it makes the blog easier to navigate. The titles are links so you can just click on them to go right to the post. I'm pinning this to the top and will keep it updated each month.

"House Rent Stomp," Big Bill Broonzy, June 1, 2025

2021-05-02 13:59:29 +0000 UTC View Post

"Blackwaterside" and "Reynardine" by Bert Jansch

Welcome back friends. This month I'll be teaching you how to play two of my favorite arrangements by Bert Jansch, the traditional folk song "Blackwaterside," thought to be of Irish origin, and the English Ballad "Reynardine."

Though these are best known as vocals, the focus will be strictly on the guitar arrangement. It is true that I'm breaking my tradition of only transcribing unaccompanied guitar solos, but this is for good reason. I feel the arranging of the guitar is so well done i...

Room 8

Well, it's April fools day, but this post is no joke.

Welcome back everyone. This month let's have a look at Kottke's 71 recording of "Room 8."

Room 8 was the name of a cat who lived from 1947 to 1968 who had a unique story. It is said, one day in 1952 the cat wandered into a classroom in an elementary school in California. The cat basically lived in the school during the year, leaving during the summer and returning each new year. Unfortunately I'm not much of a story teller, you...

Little Martha

Welcome back friends. This month we're going back to an older YouTube recording I made of "Little Martha" that I transcribed from the Leo Live record. I corrected, revised, and typeset the old transcription to arrive at what will be the best piece of music you put your fingers on this month.

Tier 2 Patron lesson: https://youtu.be/taJEziUFsvM

My original YouTube performance: 2021-03-01 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post

Improved lesson videos

Hey everybody. This month I invested into improving the quality of my lesson videos. There is now an additional camera better capturing the right hand position and improved audio all around. My lesson on "Little Martha" will post at 9am.

Blind Arthur's Breakdown

Happy first of the month everybody. We're back with another Blind Blake solo, "Blind Arthur's Breakdown." I hope to engage in some lively discussion about this one. Most of the pertinent details are covered in my talking play-through lesson. Have fun, this is about as good as it gets.

YouTube recording: https://youtu.be/gJ-j2vAp7IU

YouTube lesson only for Tier 2 Patrons: 2021-02-01 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Tomorrow, 9am central

Hey everybody. Tomorrow we have another Blind Blake lesson coming. Youtube video, lesson video, and transcription to be posted at 9am central time. Hmmm, wonder what it will be.

Living in the Country

Happy New Year everybody. We have a most excellent 2-for-1 post this month. The attached transcriptions and lesson videos are based on Pete Seeger's 1965 recording from the first episode of Rainbow Quest and Leo Kottke's arrangement from a 1971 broadcast of The Dr. Demento Show.

There wasn't much justification for which Seeger version to transcribe, I chose the one that was most accessible and "iconic" in my opinion. There was however, much consideration when choosing ...

December 1, "Twelve Sticks" by Rev. Gary Davis

Welcome back everyone. What a month it has been, or two months for that matter. I started "Twelve Sticks" back in September, not knowing the path I was starting down. I haven't gotten this wrapped up in a piece of music in a long time, in a good way. This will be one of the more challenging posts. It's taken me two months to finish this transcription and get the song under my fingers. It might be my favorite thing I've posted so far.

Please familiarize yourself with Davis' 1965 recordin...

West Coast Blues, instructional play-through

As a thank you all for your support, here is the play-through discussion video for West Coast Blues, my first post from September of 2019. Let me know if you have any questions. Have fun!

https://youtu.be/hu821qrJXPk

General questions. Monthly discussion.

Good morning everyone. I want to start a thread for general questions. One of the liveliest discussions we had was our thread a few months back asking you to suggest songs for upcoming posts. Many of you send me great questions privately, and to respect everyone's privacy I wouldn't post them publicly without permission. Often times the questions are really good and I think many of us would benefit in participating in the discussion. If you have questions about guitars, technique, elements of...

Red Pony

For November 1st we're discussing John Fahey's 1969 recording of "Red Pony" from the Laura Weber television show. This is a classic Fahey tune in open D minor tuning. 

My performance on youtube is here: https://youtu.be/uD9UY1y4vZg

The Patreon only instructional video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...

Notational Symbols

Hi everyone. I'm currently working on the transcription for Nov. 1 and remembered one of our friends here asked about notational symbols. I'm attaching a copy of the symbol glossary from my book John Fahey: Blind Joe Death Vol 1. Hopefully it will clear up any confusion about what you are looking at in the sheet music. I'm looking forward to the next post, November 1st couldn't come soon enough. With Halloween right around the corner it's the perfect excuse to release something in a ...

Doc's Guitar 1970

Hi all,

I hope you enjoyed the first iteration of Doc' Guitar. As I mentioned, I couldn't decide which version to transcribe as each was unique and posed different questions about what was intentional and what was a "happy accident." This is from the Doc Watson on Stage album, recorded live in 1970. There is more regularity in the alternating bass, and the B section is a little different. This one makes his original recording sound slightly relaxed, as he is playing over 300bpm...

Doc's Guitar

This month we are looking at Doc's Guitar. Areas to consider when tackling this one, he uses only thumb and index finger in the right hand, and he's playing just over 280bpm! My video is faithful to his right hand approach, I cheat a little in the left hand which I'll explain more in the instructional video. 

Doc's performance career started to pick up in the early 1960s as the folk revival grew. He played several folk festivals in 1962, but the ignition point for his career was hi...

Livestream?

Hello friends,

Over the last couple months I've enjoyed doing the play through videos and have been thinking about how I can make them more engaging and interactive. Would anybody rather I do a live stream? The logistics would be difficult because our Patrons are from all across the world, so the stream would have to be saved and uploaded afterward. If it seems like there is interest I'll create a poll to see what time would be able to accommodate the majority of our members.

What to do next?

Happy Sunday Patrons. I hope everyone is enjoying the sheet music and tutorial video for "She Moved Through the Fair."  I'm having a hard time coming up with a sharp idea for the October 1st post. At this point in the month I usually have the new piece selected and am hard at work on the transcription. I have a few ideas, and maybe I should post a poll that you vote on, but first I was hoping you could suggest artists or solos you'd be interested in learning. If you don't feel like shari...

She Moved Through the Fair instruction video

Here is the link for the instructional play-through:

https://youtu.be/Yy0JMx84T54

If there are additional questions post them in the comments below!

She Moved Through the Fair

Good morning Patrons! This post is a big one for me. I think of Davy Graham as possibly the most important figure in the British folk revival, so it is an honor to represent him with such an exciting piece of music. This month we're looking at "She Moved Through the Fair," which I transcribed from the live recording in 1963 on the television show Hullabaloo. We are very lucky footage was preserved from the original broadcast and is available on YouTube here:
2020-09-01 16:31:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Judy, by John Renbourn

Judy is the first track on Renbourn's first LP, John Renbourn on Transatlantic Records, released in 1965. I had originally considered a post on "Angie," as recorded by Bert Jansch, but it seemed too obvious a choice for my first dive into the 1960s British Folk Revival. Renbourn later played "Judy" and "Anji" as a medley, and I believe he certainly thought of the two as companion pieces since the early 60s, and it's possible he wrote "Judy" as a nod to "Anji" which was recorded just ...

Michael Hedges, "If I Needed Someone"

When I first started playing the guitar seriously, about 20 years ago, I only wanted to learn how to sound like Leo Kottke. About 5 years later I discovered the book Rhythm, Sonority, Silence, which focused on several of Hedges' solo compositions. I started learning the pieces in the book and couldn't believe the sounds I was able to get out of my guitar. The magic of Hedges' composition and arrangement is in part a study of the tonal palette of the acoustic guitar, and his arrangement of "If...

Impressions of Susan play-through video

Good morning everyone. Here's the play through of Impressions of Susan. It's broken into two parts both about 20 minutes. Part 1 covers mm 1-89. Part 2 is mm 90 through the end. My left hand became fatigued by the end so measures 214 onward could have been cleaner, a testament to the importance of good practice habits and giving yourself plenty of time to rest and recover!

Video Part 1: https://www.youtube.c...

Impressions of Susan

Hey everybody! This month we are doing a throwback to a previously recorded John Fahey solo. I plan on doing a play-through video in the coming weeks to talk about some of the subtlety and nuance present in this masterpiece. Because I didn't need to take all of the time to practice and record I used it to put much more detail in the tablature, reminiscent of my published work.

See the video here: https://www...

Shuffle Rag play-through

Good morning everyone. In the last post I mentioned I would experiment with a talking play through of "Shuffle Rag." I'll be interested in seeing if this is helpful to anyone. Please leave additional questions here so I may be able to further clarify difficult areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dumtnxc1R7w&feature=youtu.be

"Shuffle Rag"

Hello all, welcome to the May 1st post!

I wanted to focus on Big Bill Broonzy this month, and specifically on an instrumental solo he recorded on May 7, 1957, a little over one year before his death.

“Shuffle Rag” was originally included on the LP Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee 2020-05-01 15:48:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Upcoming posts

Hey everybody! Welcome to the many Patrons who have joined us this month. For May 1st I'm going to release a recording of a very hot Big Bill Broonzy solo, I think you all are going to love it. I was thinking of also recording a slow version for Patrons only, about half speed to assist in learning. Would that be useful to anyone? Alternatively, have you tried using the speed functions for playback in youtube?

I'm thinking ahead about June 1st. So much to choose from. Are there any Micha...

I'm Gonna Do All I Can for My Lord

We're back to John Fahey this month with the 1967 recording of "I'm Gonna Do All I Can for My Lord." When the Blind Joe Death record was issued for the third time in 1967, nearly every rerecorded track was shorter than on the 1963 album, and "I'm Gonna Do All I Can for My Lord" was a new addition to the record. The transcription here is a final draft of what was to be included in the new release of my Blind Joe Death book. The plans with Mel Bay were to discontinue the first edition and relea...

Thank you, and welcome to all the new members!

Hello all! We are in the midst of uncertain and I'm sure for many of you, stressful times. I wanted to thank all of you for keeping the group together, and for continuing to support this project. I've been off of work for almost two weeks now, playing a lot of guitar and writing down a lot of music. I'm constantly reflecting on what could make this Patreon site better as we continue to grow. I've received many many suggestions from our members, and I thank you for sending those along. We've c...

Turnpike Terror

Peter Lang recorded "Turnpike Terror" on his debut album released on Takoma records in 1973. My transcription corresponds to that recording. I had an old, handwritten, partial manuscript of this laying around that was done by John Stropes in the late 70s, maybe a possible inclusion in the 20th Century Masters of Fingerstyle Guitar book or potentially for a larger Peter Lang project that never materialized. There were only a few fingerings written in the score so I used them in the fi...