Topic: Frank Stokes' Guitar Style--Queries and Tips

[Richard]

Welcome mole, I thought you might have been doing "Down by the riverside"

[Mark Miller]

Thanks Chris.  That helps a lot.  Like you said, I'll have to file some of it away for later reference since I'm just getting going on this type of playing, but it's great to know even just as a listener.

Richard, "mole" is from the Bascomb Lamar Lunsford song "I wish I was a mole in the ground"--I used it on another board and couldn't think of anything better.  At least it's old-time rural music, if not exactly country blues.

[Gumbo]

Richard, "mole" is from the Bascomb Lamar Lunsford song "I wish I was a mole in the ground"--I used it on another board and couldn't think of anything better.  At least it's old-time rural music, if not exactly country blues.

seems good to me - almost blind, with strong fingernails, pops up all over the place and you always know where he's been but you're never sure where he's going! 

[uncle bud]

First, there's only Stokes on "It Won't Be Long," so that should make learning it easier, at least conceptually.

He definitely does more of a brush on the 2 and 4, but it's not a gentle brush. The trick is to hit the bass note in such a way that it sounds just like if you were doing crisp alternating bass but then the thumb takes a chunk out of the adjoining strings, too. I would go so far as to say that this is the way most country blues fingerpickers play alternating bass; players who play a crisp, articulated single bass note without any brush are few and far between. (There are a few -- Elizabeth Cotten comes to mind, for instance).

Also in "It Won't Be Long," there are a couple of other things going on: First, at the end of the sung lines, as he repeats the E and/or C notes on the first and second strings, his index finger (and/or middle finger, if he used it, which it sounds to me like he probably does) is also doing a bit of brushing back toward the middle strings of the guitar in exactly the same way that his thumb is. In other words, he's not just brushing, but he's picking forcefully enough that his finger is getting sound out of adjacent strings. So you have thumb and index/middle contributing to that C7 sound, for instance.

And also, in the breaks, and sometimes during the sung parts, especially at the end of the sung lines, Stokes is doing something that's very common in old-time music from back in the '20s but became less common as time went on. Instead of his "strum" (what he's playing with his thumb) being bass-chord-bass-chord (or boom-chick-boom-chick) he's playing bass-chord-chord-chord (boom-chick-chick-chick). It gives you the same 4/4 time but a different feel and emphasis. Try it just with your thumb and you'll see what I mean.

I would worry more about practicing to get a good loud and even sound and rhythmic feel before you worry too much about the bass-chord-chord-chord thing; that will be easier to learn once you're relaxed playing it the other way.

Great advice, a number of important tips in there, and I'm glad Chris mentioned the boom-chick-chick-chick pattern. It's a simple thing, but rarely done now, and it adds such a nice rhythmic variation and bounce.

Welcome to WC, mole. Good song choice, lots of Frank Stokes fans here.

[GhostRider]

Ladies, Gentlemen and Unkie Bud:

I'm out in rural Quebec working. I brought my CD player and have decided to learn the Beale Street Sheiks "Sweet to Mama". This one has a great rhythm and adds some new Frank Stokes licks to my repertoire.

Theres one thing I cant figure out. In Bar 10 of each verse (but most audible in the beginning introductory verse) he plays a little lick over the V chord (D, capoed up). Can anyone figure this one out.

Sorry I can't upload an .mp3 of this tune, as my CD player on my laptop is broken. Could someone else possibly upload it for me.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[Gumbo]

Here you go, Ghostrider. (hoping this works)

[attachment deleted by admin]

[uncle bud]

Hey Alex, I play this one. I don't think Stokes does anything special over the V chord. I think what you're referring to is played by Dan Sane - bass run lick? Stokes played this one out of G position capoed up, while Sane played out of C position. Pitch was around Bb, so Sane was tuned down.

I play the Stokes part as a solo and it works well. I have taken to integrating that bass line riff, since it can be played out of G position as well on the 5th and 6th strings. The notes (capoed) would be A Bb B A G E G. I think when Sane played it, he also played the V note before that final I, which would be A Bb B A G E D G if transposed to Stokes' G position. But that low D is not available out of that position, so I just leave it out.

[Pan]

Just to add to what Uncle Bud said, it sounds to me like in the opening chorus Stokes is playing the regular D shaped chord for three beats in the 9th bar, then a quarter note break (or maybe just the bass strings?), the in bar 10 two beats of the said D chord, then two beats of a D chord where the top note is the open 1st string; X-X-0-2-3-0, before resolving to the I chord.

Thanks for the mp3, Gumbo.

Cheers

Pan

Edited to correct the measure numbers!

[Rivers]

I play this one too, and have played it in a steady 2-guitar duo context. Agreed, there's a tight little bass lick played under the melody line. My analysis is as follows, take it or leave it!  

Stokes hangs on the V (maybe even drops the top string to D minor (F note) on the IV, which harmonically leads him naturally back into to the I chord G, since the dangling F on top is the dominant 7 of where he's going, G

Sane, on the other hand, moves through on the bass with another implied IV, the lick starting on the flat III on the A string.

In other words Sane's bass lick starts on a pickup bass B flat with a fast hammer-on to B, down to G (bass), E (bass), up to D (on the open D string using a dropped thumb, which falls naturally to hand (or rather 'thumb') when resuming the alternating bass pattern), resolving to G (bass).

Brilliant duo work, the tension and subsequent resolution I think are created by Stokes hanging onto the V or implied IV (D minor) under Sane's playing-through the implied IV using a harmonized lick on the bass end.

Plus with that bass lick you can snap the strings with the thumb; the dynamic contrast in there is also intrinsic to the effect.

This is one of my favorite Stokes / Sane arrangements on all fronts, not least for that move, and the lyrics are brilliant too which is the icing on the cake.

[GhostRider]

Thanks, guys.

I listened again and in the last two beats of the 10th bar, Stokes does play (at least in the first verse instrumental introduction) four 1/8 notes, which sounds like a pair of hammerons, possibly from the Ab to B on the third string, 3 and 4 frets, repeated. This is the spot in the tune I'm refering to.

Thanks again,
Alex

[uncle bud]

I think the riff that occurs on those beats is the tail end of the riff played by Dan Sane and is as I described above. At the same time, Stokes plays the D chord with the open first string as Pan describes above, getting the open E string, then the D on the 2nd string, then open E, then resolving to G.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Here is the Frank Stokes Guitar Style merged thread.
All best,
Johnm

[Rivers]

It's quite funny reading one's own posts years later without any context.

I have no idea what I was talking about in my last post, though at least the intervals seem to make sense.

[frailer24]

Another interesting chord is the G chord played in the instrumental breaks: 3-x-0-0-0-7. Quite a stretch! The high B moves down to A, and then to G and F, in the "normal" G -chord position

I, myself, play this chord with my thumb on the bass E. Just thought it may help some others.

[Forgetful Jones]

I tried looking at the Weeniepedia for this info but didn't find it. Sorry if this is a redundant topic.

When it comes to songs with both Frank Stokes & Dan Sane, I'm trying to figure out how to distinguish between tunes that are considered Beale Street Sheiks and those that are simply Frank Stokes. From a quick Google search of record labels, I assume this was just a way for Stokes to get around contracts to release material with other labels, as it seems the only Sheiks records I found were on Paramount. The other Stokes records were mostly on Victor.

As a guy who listens to most of his music digitally (iTunes), I want to get my Artist info correct. I'm wondering if I should handle this like other artists who used multiple names (Masked Marvel, Blind Sammy etc.) and just list all the Sheiks tunes as Frank Stokes. How do others handle this?