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April 2012
Free Flatpicking Lesson
from
Flatpicking
Guitar Magazine
"Ardeleana"
Arranged for FGM by Mickey Abraham
Hello
and welcome once again to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine’s free lesson
portion of our monthly newsletter. This month’s tune is a Romanian folk
song called “Ardeleana.” I learned this melody from my friend and
amazing cellist, Rushad Eggleston. Rushad is of course most known for
his virtuosic cello playing, but he is also a wonderful flatpicking
guitarist and I am most grateful for him to have taught me this neat
tune on the guitar!
“Ardeleana”
is a three part tune with each section consisting of eight measures.
One of the unique aspects of picking this arrangement is that it is in
the open Bb position. Not many fiddle tunes are in the key of Bb, and
even when they are, most flatpicking guitarists would choose to play Bb
tunes out of “G” position with a capo on the 3rd fret. Although the open
Bb shape on the guitar is under explored, it’s actually finger-friendly
and fun to play. You will noticed the intriguing sound the open Bb
shape adds to this tune due to the open strings being used in other
places than would normally be encountered when flatpicking a tune out of
the traditional G, C, or D shapes. For example, the D string is now
the major third of Bb, and the G string is now the major third of Eb
(the IV chord of Bb).
When
you begin picking “Ardeleana”, your left hand will be in second
position, but by the time you make it to the second measure, your hand
will have had to shift back to first position in order to strike the
first fret of the D string. Play the remainder of the section out of
first position. The B and C sections are also played out of first
position except for the few places that you will be sliding into the
fifth fret. Once you get this tune under your fingers I know you will
appreciate the magic of the open Bb position.
My
favorite part of this tune is the hip triplet ornamentation that
appears in measure 7 and then again in that same place throughout the
tune. I must say that until this tune, I had never placed this type of
triplet in this exact way. It really makes the tune stand out. What I
find most interesting and slightly mysterious is the use of the b9th
being played against the minor ii chord (C# note over Cm). Don’t worry
if you don’t know your chord and scale theory for you can still play
this awesome ornamentation. Click on the lesson mp3 to hear the triplet
in action.
There
is one little problem that arrises when playing a tune out of open Bb
and that is how to play tasty back-up. I choose to play the back-up with
my capo on the third fret to avoid every chord being a barre
shape/closed position. To me this sounds good but makes it really hard,
if not impossible, to switch from back-up to lead smoothly. The only
solution is to not switch back and forth between chords and picking when
playing this tune (one person capo 3 for the back-up and at least one
person picking in open Bb), or to actually play the chords without a
capo. Most flatpicking guitarists don’t like tunes with Bb’s and Eb’s
which is why I chose to write out the capoed shapes for you here:
“Ardeleana” capo 3 chord shapes:
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
G G D G
G G Am D G 2x
C G D G
C
G D
G 2x
G G D G
G Em Am D G 2x
Chances
are you may never have been exposed to a flatpicking tune played out of
open Bb position. Upon learning this piece, You may be so intrigued
that you will end up writing your own melodies based out of this cool
under utilized key. I hope you enjoy working on “Areleana” and adding it
your list of really cool tunes. As always, If you have any questions or
comments on this e-lesson or any great ideas you’d like to see featured
here in the future just drop me a line at
[email protected]
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