The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

I have been fooling around occasionally, trying to get some fingerpicking skills back. Here is a recent effort. It is a tune my Dad wrote years ago. It has one of the hardest licks I have ever tried to learn. It is a five fret stretch across six strings, then you slide the two notes to the same fret. (Index finger on the low E, first fret, pinkie on the fifth fret high E, then slide both simultanously to the third fret. HARD!) Then you walk it back up the way you came.
Anyway, here it is. I don't have it smooth anymore (even with lots of practice ) but there you have it...
download/file.php?id=40
It is called "Caterpiggle Crawl" (anyone here old enough to catch the Pogo comics reference?)
It is in kind of a reall loose time too. That is deliberate.
It is kind of a Piedmont style Ragtime kind of thing, so it could fall under the Blues umbrella.

VERY nicely done. After your comments about how about it not being smooth, etc, I was really expecting something not nearly as nice as this. You don't give yourself enough credit. I enjoyed it very much.

Dude!!! That was awesome!!! Is there any style or instrument that you don't play?

That kind of music seems to have a bit of everything. I hear blues sounds, jazzy chords, rhythm that sounds a bit like ragtime (no, more like stride), a lot of that Piedmont style, some humor, etc. Mostly it's music that makes you nod your head and smile, smile, smile.

Keeping the alternating bass going on 5 and 6, the melody going on 1, 2 and 3 and some middle fill going on 3 and 4 is mind boggling. And I can't do a five fret spread on one string - never mind across six strings. I read once that a player, after years of practice, had a spread across the fingers of his fretting hand that was an inch wider than his strumming hand. Maybe there's hope.

It's possible to listen closely and hear some imperfections in playing but that was just an excellent piece to listen to. Bravo!

I reckon your "Catterpiggle" crawled with great style there BB.

Played with a great sense of timing and rhythm too, and I really liked the tune too - it's a bring a smile to the face piece. I've got it repeating in the background as a write and each time it starts I have a silly grin on my face.

Given the technical difficulties ( a five fret stretch across six strings - get the nurse! ) - it has to be a victory when the mood and swing of the piece comes across well - never mind any minor imperfections in individual notes.

Sounds a bit like Saturday night shuffle, which is a lovely little piece... I have played it based on Eric Lugosch tabs...
http://www.ericlugosch.com/SaturdayNightShuffle-lo.mp3

This is great!
Really nice relaxed steady pickin' - that's not easy.

weelie wrote:Sounds a bit like Saturday night shuffle, which is a lovely little piece... I have played it based on Eric Lugosch tabs...
http://www.ericlugosch.com/SaturdayNightShuffle-lo.mp3

Very nice! Well played.
Have you ever heard Roy Bookbinder's version of that? (I think he calls it "Saturday Night Rag" or something)

Thanks for all the compliments, fellers
I used to do a bunch of fingerstyle acoustic and bottleneck stuff about ten years ago, and let the electric stuff slide. Now that I am playing more electric, I tend to let the acoustic stuff slide. Kind of hard (for me, anyway) to stay on top of both styles. There is some crossover, though, I play the electric without a pick at least half the time now. That has changed the way I sound.

That was the most fun I've had listening to anything in a long time- thanks Blindboy! Any tips for trying to learn it (other than "have big hands")?

leftyslim wrote:That was the most fun I've had listening to anything in a long time- thanks Blindboy! Any tips for trying to learn it (other than "have big hands")?

Thank you... I am flattered by your interest.
It's an alternating bass thing, C to F, then E to Am, then Am, D, G#, G. Then it repeats and goes to the lick described above. I will see about tabbing it out, but it will be a while. I haven't done much tab and this will be a VERY busy weekend for me.

BB, you're the man. Just gotta love this one.
Very well played, sweet song btw :)

Reminds me, Breda's Old style Jazz event is coming up in a week or 2

Good pickin' BB

That's another skill
I need 2 work on

Nice one

HalfBlindLefty wrote:BB, you're the man. Just gotta love this one.
Very well played, sweet song btw :)

Thanks, glad you like it.

Bluez2move wrote:Good pickin' BB

That's another skill
I need 2 work on

Nice one

Thank you...
It's not really that hard (nothing I do is very hard ), just takes some time.