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Winnie the Pooh – Little Black Raincloud for solo Ukulele

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This video is dedicated to my late mother on her birthday. She loved, and lovingly passed her emotional connection with Winnie the Pooh to her children. I’m the oldest of three, and I have fond memories of singing along to this song as each of my younger brothers wore out VHS copies of the adventures of this silly old bear. I chose ukulele for this arrangement because my first, and later, my first nice ukuleles were both gifts from my mom. It never ceases to amaze me how many melodies can be pulled from such an unassuming little instrument. I hope that wherever this video finds you in these crazy times that you are keeping safe and healthy. I’ve been putting in a lot of studio time recently and plan to be much more active with video for the next little while. Stay tuned:)

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Guitarborist Student Performance Volume 3 – Derek plays Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”

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I played several wedding ceremonies this summer. One such opportunity involved arranging eight different pieces for the guitar that had previously never been arranged. The couple had great taste in music (a big plus for me) and one of the songs I arranged was Perfect Day by Lou Reed. This song jumped onto my radar in the film “Trainspotting” and had a nice resurgence a couple years ago on a playstation add. What a poignant choice it is for a wedding! I’m actually amazed that more people don’t consider it for this purpose. For the past several years I’ve taught lessons on Google Hangouts to my buddy Derek in Alaska. He started as a student with me when he was quite young (in person) and has really bloomed into a great teenage guitarist. When we had a chance to meet up this summer he performed my wedding arrangement of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” with mics and cameras rolling. Derek has a great future as a lifelong guitar player and really did a nice job bringing out all the different parts of “Perfect Day”. I feel that one of the greatest things about the guitar is it’s ability to take on…

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3 Dave’s – Radiohead – Everything in it’s Right Place

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Heyo! Here is a fun little something I’ve been cooking up. I love Radiohead, and have a fond relationship to this song in particular. Watch a minute and try to find all three of me, and please feel free (and compelled) to pass this along! Music Nerds, I’ve always found this tune so warm that I never noticed some of the outstanding and perplexing musical shifts that take place within the song. The main rhythm alternates 4&6 and there are occurrences of 5&7 on the book ends of the “LEMON”. Really Cool. If you like this and are interested in getting my guitar arrangement, like the main Guitarborist​ page, subscribe to my youtube, then tap the contact link, and hit me up. Thanks!

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Carolan’s Draught with Jeremy, Age 11

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This is Jeremy, age 11, playing a piece from blind Irish harpist Turlough O’Carolan. This was Jeremy’s first time playing in front of a microphone and camera and I think he did a great job with a pretty difficult arrangement! Turlough O’Carolan was one of the most famous musicians of the 1600’s and traveled Europe extensively while only accepting payment in coin. Lots of his music has been adapted for guitar, probably because it sounds great! Please give this post a boost in any way you can. Thanks as always for your support!

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Kids cover Kottke

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Here is a video played on the tracks featuring students Maia, Alex and me playing Echoing Gilewitz by Leo Kottke. In playing this sweet lullaby-esque piece the players pass each measure clockwise to their fellow musicians. IE, everyone gets to play every third part of the music. Leo Kottke was one of the first fingerstyle guitar players I ever heard play guitar. I can remember the sense of wonderment that I felt trying to figure out how he could play so many notes at the same time. It gives me great pleasure as a teacher to be able to introduce the player (Kottke), and his ideas to a younger generation at such a young age. If you listen closely you can hear the tone of the individual guitars change. This piece is in 6/8 time so you can basically count to 6 and listen for changes as the song progresses. Kottke modeled this arrangement after a long form created by Minnesota guitarist Richard Gilewitz.

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Mulberry Street

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Mulberry Street is one of the catchiest instrumental tunes that most people have never heard. I first discovered this piece, and it’s composer Dylan Ryche by watching video of him perform at the Canadian Guitar Festival Competition (he won). He sells transcriptions for all of his compositions at www.dylanryche.com/ The “locations” shown in the video are from a collection of time lapses myself and my “video assistant (boss)” @baylorswift17 have been assembling. Please share any cool time-lapses (or drone footage) you’ve shot with me for consideration in future videos. This single take video is a “warts and all” sort of affair. There’s definitely a few mess ups (this is a tough piece to play!). I wanted it to have a live sort of feel. I’m a huge fan of how technically demanding “Mulberry Street” is, while still feeling airy and unforced in the hands of the right person (hopefully me(sometimes)). I hope it’s appreciated by you listeners as much as I enjoyed it when I heard it the first time. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe to this blog, and my youtube channel here. There’s a lot of noise in the world, with your assistance I can be a LITTLE…

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6 Minute Drivelapse from Lander, Wy to Missoula, Mt

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This is a drivelapse featuring a cool six minute representation of the 10 hour drive between Lander, Wyoming and Missoula Montana. The drive features hours of quick hitting views of mountain country, one of America’s most beautiful national parks and 30,000 feet of ups and downs in elevation gain and loss. Likes, shares and comments are always appreciated.

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Area Man is Thrilled with One-of-a-Kind Guitar

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Many months ago through the helpful suggestion of mutual friends (shout-outs Chad & Kindi Lantz!) I was put in contact with a modern master of guitar building, Maxwell T. Sipe.  I imagine when he reads this, he’ll feel a little bashful seeing phrases such as master, the best, the shizz, and maestro of wooden things thrown his way because despite his unequaled talent as a builder, Max is a modest fellow.  Honestly, it’s true, for the last couple weeks I have been playing the best sounding and best looking guitar that I’ve ever seen. As an ambassador for Sipe Guitars (if you don’t click these now, please make sure to visit the provided hot links to some of Max’s other work and to keep up with him on social media) I am going to tell you the story of, and share a ton of pictures showing the process of how my piece of playable art was created.  You’ll be seeing this insane instrument in action on all my future projects. When you place an order with Max you instantly feel at ease in your decision.  Prior and concurrent to his career as a luthier and guitar repair person, Max earned…

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As it is in Heaven

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Hey y’all, please help me out with an experiment! It’s been a while since I’ve tried running a post through the Guitarborist facebook page. You may, or may not be aware that as of calender year 2015 FB requires businesses to pay for their posts to show up in their followers timelines. It really stinks for small business, and anybody without a monstrous budget trying to be recognized, or just reach their friends with a tune they’ve been working on. Organic likes and shares seem to be the only way around this new model, and I surely appreciate yours. This video was filmed at a pretty spot on a road trip by my medium (not very little) man about a month ago. The piece is “As it is in Heaven” by Phil Keaggy. For those interested this was recorded in a single take using a pair of AKG 414’s and a direct line running into DTAR soltice via a Strymon Timeline. Thanks for the help getting this into the world, and please check services at guitarborist and tons of cool videos at my gallery.

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