I think I'll send this to my friend who taught me General Monroe song I think it was written in the 1800s but I can't find it on Google... I find this very interesting. My friend is anti electric guitar he will never play anything but a classical song and I don't understand. He's in college for music but he doesn't seem to really be into it like have the soul... it's more like going through the motions. And I told him what I think that it doesn't have to be perfect but it has to have feeling
How old do you think he is, my guess is at least 300 year's or more. This vampire been around a very very long time now, you can tell with how well he plays and his manners...💯 You gotta respect a blood suckers will to survive and now cultured they are.
I just like listening to Brandon, he's so nice. And all the music he spreads and the knowledge he shares - I think the idea of teaching tabulatures is absolutely perfect and brillant. Thank you :)
There's ppl like me who don't comment a lot, but really you should know people appreciate this content! It's always exciting with a new upload from you
That was fun to play. I love music from the english renaissance and this just opened it up for me on guitar. Now all I need is to stop thinking the note "A" when it says "a" in the tablature :D
This channel's content is always so beautiful, informative, and instructive. Mr Acker not just gives you tips, advice, and tutorials; he also includes some music history, the background on what he is covering, and (indirectly) a lesson in humility. He is hands down one of the best guitarrists I've seen, yet he is so humble and down to earth. Also, he is always very attentive to his viewers. That is a true artist and gentleman, folks. Also, he projects this vibe of being honestly such a good person. Thanks for your videos, @Brandon Acker.
This channel have made me interested in the older tablature. It was on my to do list to look into it when I had time this summer. But this is exactly the starting point I didn’t know I wanted. Having someone who is knowledgeable pick out a good starting point and go over it with great detail. And then it can be a spring hoard for other songs in the manuscript, and then venture out stating with ones written in a similar way and slowly building more
Brandon, just to give you (finally) a word of appreciation - as I moved from classical piano to harpsichord, getting more and more "in love" with baroque and renaissance music, whilst being a lousy guitar player, this video gave me such a joy to master the lute tablature in 10 minutes (I secretly started to admire lute players). Really a moment of joy to have learned a new thing, thanks to you. Your videos are truly a joy, for its reassuring and calm fashion you explain/shoe all necessary aspect of guitar (or lute) playing. Thank you again
*It's good to know that Brandon is spreading awareness about the Lute and its importance in music.* *Thank you very much for the tablature.* *BTW I am the first to comment.*
I'm a Scottish fiddler learning English Guittar (got an original Preston on eBay and had it fixed up!), and this and the next video on rhythm and finger choices will be a great help to me in exploring historic tab. Thanks!
Hi, Brandon. I really enjoyed your video and learned a lot from it. It is very clear and helpful even for beginners. Could you please share what software you used to create the beautiful and readable lute tablature pdf you posted? Thank you! :)
Wow thanks man.. glad I came across your channel. Been a guitarist for over 20 years started when I was young. I enjoy these video’s because I’ve recently switched to playing with no pick like the dynamics more.. there are definitely applications for picks don’t get me wrong but these help me develop the hand dexterity ✌️❤️
Brandon did anyone ever tell you that you visually resemble John Williams a bit? LoL. Maybe it's just me. Anyway you play beautifully. It is unmistakable.
Nice stuff Brandon, I'm definitely going to learn this, but I might cheat a bit and go by ear and write my own modern tab instead after the first couple measures.
Transcribing it into legibility surely would help build familiarity with the script for the transcriber.... we read Shakespeare in modern print, once transcribed there's no need to squint
@@HeathcliffeMcHarris I purposely avoided that. I don't want viewers to play it in modern notation. Tab is easier than modern notation so I believe viewers should just go straight to it. I did create a modern computerized version of the tab so it's more legible though.
Planning to do a Curse of Strahd campaign, & make Brandon either the penultimate bigbad or the tritagonist that they fight first almost die to and end up working for against Strahd.
Wonderful choice and beautifully played. I'm glad I can play this on guitar (which I knew--but the lesson is helpful), but I do regret selling my lute.
Nice video, as usual Brandon. May I add something : With Dowland tablatures, there is a trap... On all 17th cent. French tablatures, the courses below the low G are noted : a for F, /a for E, //a for D, ///a for C, 4 for E, 5 for A, 6 for G and 7 for F... which is kind of logical diatonic chromatic. But sometimes Dowland writes a for F, and then /a for D or for C !!! wtf ? Because at that time the 10 courses lutes or 15 courses archlutes, as Brandon is playing with, were this notation prevails were not common, Dowland used mostly a 8 courses : so given he had only 2 extra open bass courses, he tuned the first in F and the second directly in D or even in C according to the tune !! Hope I make me clear ;-)
Thank you, Jean-Yves! I also think much of Dowland's lute songs are written for a 7 course so the low A is just a D. But I don't find it too difficult to infer which note is in the bass. Thankfully, it's consonant music so the low bass note is almost always the root of the chord.
@@brandonacker You're right, in this tablature, the "a" is a D, so intended for a 7 courses lute, and as you demonstrate it with an archlute you've to make the conversion while reading... easy and usual for confirmed players, but not so for beginners. Regarding the root bass... I did not check all Dowland, but later, many 17th composers liked to play a strong "a" or even a "b" on the 7th course, standing for F or F#, i.e. first inversion of D minor or major chord.
I just came across this video learning of you for the first time. I experienced such joy learning this beautiful 400 year old piece. I feel like I've connected with John Dowland from across the sea of time. Thank you!!!
No. No I cannot play your 400 year old song. I will not play it on a plane, I will not play it on cocaine. I will not play it wearing a hat, I will not play it if I get fat. I will not play it in a bar, I will not play it with a tadpole in a jar. I will not play it while I eat, I will not play it with my feet. I will not play it smoking a bong, I will not play that 400 year old song.
Browsing the net for free music to play, or even our local music store, I get the strong impression, that tab is dominant even today. You top-notch musicians are exceptional. There is one thing that really goes for it: If well made (not auto-generated), it will give the budding amateur a good hint which of the, e. g., five (!) 'B3's to pick (it is, admittedly, rarely the one on fret 19 of the 6th string). And that's quite a service. Dynamics? They can do that, too.
As always, nice video Brandon! You're truly talented and inspirational. And btw, i saw what you did with the tablature showdown at 1:04.... NO STAIRWAY ALLOWED !!! XD
@@brandonacker I see! Maybe there will be a video on how to read tablature for instruments with more courses like the theorbo or the baroque lute ? (I must admit that I'm having this last instrument built by a luthier and I have trouble finding information on how to read tablature, how to play, how to tune... ). Baroque music is the best 🥰
Yes, it's great! Tabs are great but you need the right instrument or at least the right number of strings with the same tuning. So if you have a 13 string instrument tuned in dm then you can play from the French tablature by Weiss, Visee, and many more great composers. Reading it is mostly the same as what I taught here. If you want to get better at it faster, you could have some weekly lessons with one of my lute teachers at my online music school Arpeggiato.com
A very good tutorial. I'll be learning this and write some variations on the theme. The melody has a lot of potential. Your tuning doesn't sound 440 though so I'll explore that too.
Geez, Brandon, you really know how to nerd snipe a guy! :) After watching this video I suddenly found myself unhappy with the lute notation produced by MuseScore and have been looking at alternatives. So far it seems that Wayne Cripps' "tab" typesetting program for tablature is the best at producing French tablature with fingering, flagging and alignment bars closest to Margaret Board's own style.
I would like to try that modern tablature at a guitar store
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There was a lute piece I was searching for a few years and I couldn't find it, 'cause I heard on a recital by Álvaro Pierri. The Piece is Galliard 2 by Jakub Polak Reys. Is such a nice short piece
Your channel is such a fantastic resource!!!! It has been a lot of fun learning these manuscripts? Would it be possible for you to do a video on some tips on actually sourcing some of these early instruments? Or just give me some advice lol. Id love to get a lute but i have no idea where to start
Thank you! There are links in the video description, as mentioned in the video. They contain manuscripts with enough pieces for a lifetime ;) Best way to get a lute is either rent or buy used from this website: lutesocietyofamerica.org/resources/instruments/lutes-for-sale/ Enjoy, Brandon
I found your comment in another video about there being enough tablature for guitar from that 200 year period to last a couple of lifetimes very interesting. I wonder if there wold be any way to scan all of them and somehow convert the handwritten text to midi files or something similar. Just to have them all together, maybe in an open source.
This isn't likely to happen in our lifetime because the handwriting or engraving is different in each manuscript. Thankfully this isn't necessary. You just need to learn what i teach in this video and then you can play directly from the manuscripts and bring the music to life in a musical way as opposed to a terrible midi sound
I agree with what you say about the midi sound. I was thinking that with AI it could be possible to interpret different notations. Not for performance purposes but for possible musical analysis of a large body of work over time to identify trends in harmonic development or something like that. They are using AI to help read ancient texts and even help date them so I do think there is a good chance it could be done.
I first encountered (modern) tab about 1970, when I bought a book (I think pub. by Amsco) of Arlo Guthrie music. I could read very little notation at the time, and I remember how satisfying it was to be able to play a fingerpicking arrangement of "Alice's Restaurant". I confess I never understood the derision with which some classical guitarists look down on tablature for all music written more recently than, say, 1750. Of course they both have their place. Now I only have to think about deciphering the handwriting on those old manuscripts. Thanks for the clear explanation of tablature!
Can anybody direct me to a good video explaining the stuff underneath the tabs in the modern tab google doc? I don’t normally read any kind of music and the deftones riffs I spent my time learning from tabs as a kid sure didn’t have all the stuff going on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have a ton of digitized keyboard scores from the 18th and 19th centuries. These too feature some interesting archaic conventions. Likewise these quirks are relatively easy to figure out and assimilate, however the most challenging part of using these manuscripts is their readability. While some were originally handwritten, some are facsimiles of rudimentary prints. Some are clearer than others but they all suffered the ravages of time to varying degrees before being preserved digitally. The question is, would it be time better spent transcribing these treasures into more readable formats or should one learn to read them as they are?
Yes, you are missing the fact that the letters do not refer to pitches. They are simply coordinates. In tablature, a=0, b=1, c=2, etc... So b means play the 1st fret regardless of what string you are on. I hope that helps you! B
Thank you Brandon, I'm so glad to live in the age of dowloadable content 💯 these books are like looking back in time. Definitely getting interested in Lute. Beautiful instrument and sound.
Brandon I love you but some of us electric guitarists while we are dumb some us have the hybrid picking skill and can finger pick while also holding a pick. This does sound better picked with the thumb though.
You’re probably not going to see this, but could you or someone in the comments section tell me what piece of music is playing in the background at 2:32 reading from the manuscript section? Thx 😊
