Topic: Skip James' Guitar Style--Queries and Tips

[westside ryan]

Elderly also carries the Cephas series including a compellation DVD. I picked up two and they work for me. One of em is only 8 bucks!

Thanks for the link! I wonder why one is $8 and the others are $29? Did the DVD come with a PDF of printable tabs?

*I just realized that it says "comes with CD/ROM - print it out or follow it onscreen!"

There's a detailed article by Orville Johnson with stuff to get you started here: http://skipjames.com/?page_id=94

Thanks for link!

[Johnm]

Hi Ryan,
It may sound weird coming from someone whose profession is teaching, but you ought to consider figuring out some of Skip's tunes by ear.  None are very difficult in the left hand.  Get in tune with his recordings, whatever tune you're interested and hunker down!  Good luck with that.
All best,
Johnm

[matt milton]

I second the above post. Even the John Cephas videos I've seen on youTube don't really nail what I hear when I listen to Skip James. They seem to "normalise" Skip's playing a bit, to my ears.

Cephas's version of "Cherry Ball Blues" for instance, leaves out the lovely spooky spindley duplicate-note riff that Skip plays in the verses. A sort of two-finger unison drilling of a D on the open D string with the same note, same pitch of D, on the string below. Accompanied by alternated octave Ds in the bass. (Or, of course, Es if you're playing it in open E rather than D) That for me is the most charismatic part of the song: sounds particularly evocative against the line "she's just like a spider/hanging on the wall"

And there's the fact that Skip rarely seems to play the same song the same way twice: that verse riff sounds (to my ears) slightly different on the 1930s version - sounds as if it's the open D but played against a C, not in unison with a D.

Likewise, with "Sickbed Blues" there's one 1960s recording where the main chord see-saw is D to a G minor sounding chord (IV). But there's another 60s recording of the song where that same main thing is D to an A minor 7th somethingorother chord.

[westside ryan]

You guys are right!  I should just sit down and try to figure some of the tunes out.

[orvillej]

Yep, you should. I had a good time immersing myself in his music for a few weeks to write that article. I mostly illustrated some of his common motifs but he certainly strung them together in many different ways. As John M correctly noted, once you're in his tuning the left hand shapes and moves aren't too difficult. Playing the bass/treble counterpoint as he so often does, instead of an alternating bass, is where it gets tricky.

Something that's fun to do is take a song you know and arrange it as Skip James would do it. I did an arrangement like that for the song Duncan & Brady that will be in a future issue of Acoustic Guitar and it was really fun to recast the harmony and rhythm into a Skip James-y sound.

[matt milton]

while we're talking Skip James, can anyone tell me which songs Skip DIDN'T play in open minor tuning? In conventional tuning, or other? I'm sure I've seen a thread somewhere where this was mentioned, but can't find it now...

[Rivers]

Special Rider Blues in Spanish, see http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=4717.0

[uncle bud]

"All Night Long" is in E position, standard tuning. As is "Crow Jane" as I recall. As is his version of "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" I believe.

[Johnm]

"Drunken Spree" is in A position, standard tuning and the post-rediscovery "Catfish Blues" is in E position, standard tuning.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Here is the Skip James guitar style merged thread.
All best,
Johnm

[CanadianStringPicker]

Currently learning Crow Jane, the Skip James version.

It's pretty straight forward. Some interesting bass line change ups every chord change, makes it really fun to play, you really got to get into the foot tapping rythym of the piece.

She's going to be a pain to start working on the singing, I can tell already lol

Technical question though: the tuning is standard for sure from what my ears can tell on the "rediscovery" recordings as well as all videos I can find of him playing it based on his chord shapes etc. But it doesn't sound right. Did Skip tune flat for his "standard" tuning songs? I tried a half step down and then a whole step down. The whole step sounded better. Is this correct?

Thanks!

[uncle bud]

Following up on songs Skip played that weren't in a minor tuning, Look Down the Road sounds like E standard to me.

[uncle bud]

Another one in E standard is Skip's Worried Blues/Worried Blues.

[McLeod]

He is tuned down at least a half step in the video from the folk festival. I just learned this song and it is extremely fun to play, very hard to sing!

[Blues Vintage]

An accurate TAB (note for note like James played it) is in this book but I think it's out of print.