Around Acoustic Guitar

The Acoustic Guitar video studio has been buzzing with activity in the last few weeks, so I thought I’d report on a few things that are soon to be featured in the magazine and at acousticguitar.com. To most of us here on staff, one of the most satisfying aspects of the gig is that we’re often able to work with and listen to great artists, and the last month or so has brought us an embarrassment of riches.

The recent string of players to pass through the studio started with fingerstylist Peppino D’Agostino, who stopped by to record a few of his fingerstyle tunes and to talk about the specifics of his unique style. This will be a web exclusive in the “players” section of our video gallery, and we should have it live sometime in the next month or so.

A few days later, we had Acoustic Guitar contributor Patrick Francis stop in to record the video portion for his Songbook article on the Prelude from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No.1 in G Major in the November issue. This video is already live on acousticguitar.com, and I’ve also placed it in the video gallery here at the AG Club. Patrick, who is a member of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet did a marvelous job playing the tune, and I’m pleased to announce that he also just wrote a feature-length article on classical techniques for non-classical players that will be in the upcoming January issue. Having seen a draft of the story, I can hardly wait to hear Patrick play through the examples of that lesson!

Our revolving guitarist door kept swinging when Celtic fingerstyle ace Steve Baughman came by to record video for an upcoming lesson on playing in Orkney (CGDGCD) tuning that he wrote for the December issue. Steve is not only one of the finest fingerstylists you’ll ever encounter, but he’s also a wonderful teacher, and I’m sure that many of you will find both his lesson and his video to be inspiring.

Finally, we spent a couple of hours with legendary fingerstylist Alex de Grassi last week. Alex came to us with an idea for arranging Elvis’s “Blue Christmas” a while ago, and what were we going to say? “No?” Of course we jumped on the opportunity, and the result is a really cool arrangement in drop D tuning that will featured in the December issue. Alex recorded the tune on video for us (which will be online in early November), and I for one will be working on getting this one ready for the season!