Guitarist's Forum

[ragtime]

Another lovely one to play is Let Me Down Easy. It's one of those Ralph songs with chords that look terrifying on paper, but fall quite naturally under the fingers (with a little practice) and sound exquisite. The song starts on a Bb diminished and then moves seamlessly back and forth between D major and D minor keys over a typically moving chromatic bass line.

Another favourite of mine just now is Gypsy. Its in double dropped D tuning (top and bottom strings tuned down one step) and then basically uses Dsus2 and C shapes as well as the same G chord with the 5th fret bass note as in Michael in the Garden. The jangling, gypsy chord (no idea what its msical name is) between the verses is a Dsus2 shape just shifted up one fret - brilliant! You can get a good bit of rattle and strum into this one too.

Chris

[Steve W]

I agree with let me down easy Chris.
Another enjoyable one is Maddy Dances from the Easy album. A simple but very effective use of melodic bass. I have learned a tremendous amount about Ralph's playing from that one album alone. I will always remember playing the the second chord in Maginot waltz for the first time, and just being amazed and delighted by its sound.

[Al]

"Gypsy" - I love playing that too  You can add little trill on the top string on the second fret, sounds very Eastern  I spent years wondering why my version sounded nothing like Ralph's yet everything seemed to be nearly right, of course I hadn't sussed the top E string being detuned - I discovered my problem when one day I thought I'd have a stab at Clown and read in the book about the top E being tuned to D and once I started doodling realized that this was why my "Gypsy" hadn't been sounding so good 

A real favourite of mine at the moment is "I'm not really blue" - just a nice little set of chords to noodling along with 

I was so excited all those years ago (  ) to find the tab book with "Not Till Tomorrow", "Easy" and "Streets" in it - along with Kicking mUle records that I discovered around the same time that included tab books - this was my guitar 'education'  as well as picking up bits that my brother had picked up at college and subsequently passed onto me  I spent hours and hours playing "Let Me Down Easy", "Maddy Dances" and playing T.Rex and Beatles songs in a band with my mates just when I should have been revising for my 'O' Levels  instead

[Domenico Mosca]

My favourite and easier to play for me is Peppers and tomatoes. I'm working to make better Streets of London.
Do you know if on the web I can found Ralph's tab?
Cheers
Domenico

[Al]

Hi Domenico,

of course the tab to "Streets Of London" is in the tab book available online from Ralph's official site 

[Al]

Hi Leighton, just wanted to tell you that I just listened to your rendition of 'Barges' - I really like it. I think the thing I like about it the most is that its 'yours' if you know what I mean. I find it impossible to find alternative arrangements to Ralph's songs and I think yours has real charm - very well done    Makes me think maybe I shouldn't have spent so long pouring over the tab books now 

[Steve W]

"Autumn".......Another fine set of chords in the same vein as "I'm not really blue"

[Leighton]

Hi Leighton, just wanted to tell you that I just listened to your rendition of 'Barges' - I really like it. I think the thing I like about it the most is that its 'yours' if you know what I mean. I find it impossible to find alternative arrangements to Ralph's songs and I think yours has real charm - very well done    Makes me think maybe I shouldn't have spent so long pouring over the tab books now 

What can I say Al, a great complement indeed.  Trying to play a song by ear rather than from tabs has a few benifits, as well as a lot of shortfalls. It was only recently I found that Ralph played First Song with a D shaped chord, and I had been playing it for years using C. Too late to change now. I also have a great problem with timing, and most of the time I finish the song with a faster beat than when I started it.

Your time spent on the tab books has certainly paid off, and I envy your skill in being able to read them. Your "Kenny the Kangaroo" is superb, well done. Do you have any more ?

[Gibson]

Just going back to the post by Domenico, I think there is very little to be found on the net in terms of chords or tablature.  The music books that exist (happy to hear of any more) are one containing all the songs from Not till Tomorrow, Streets and Easy (a mixture of tablature and just chords), one published around the time of the Water of Dreams album which contains songs such as Clown, Kew Gardens, The Ferryman (I'll post a full list if anyome wants it when I'm not at work and can look at the book!).  This is also a mixture of tab and chords.  There are the 2 books covering Blue Skies, Black Heroes and Stealin' Back, and the latest Songs for Six Strings book.  The rest we'll have to make up for ourselves.

Sorry if you already know this . . . . Something I saw recently from a guitarist who supported Al Stewart.  He put a capo 2nd fret, across all the strings other than bottom E.  Took me a while to figure this out, but eventually realised it gave him an instant bottom string dropped to 'D' effect without retuning!  To do this you need a Shubb type capo and not one that wraps right round the fretboard.  Also means you're stuck with the key change but you might be lucky.  Happy playing.
 

[Ian R]

"Gypsy" - I love playing that too  You can add little trill on the top string on the second fret, sounds very Eastern  I spent years wondering why my version sounded nothing like Ralph's yet everything seemed to be nearly right, of course I hadn't sussed the top E string being detuned - I discovered my problem when one day I thought I'd have a stab at Clown and read in the book about the top E being tuned to D and once I started doodling realized that this was why my "Gypsy" hadn't been sounding so good 

Doesn't Ralph then drop *all* strings down a tone again - i.e. to CGCFAC (lettered from 6th to 1st)? You then get that nice low C(no 3rd) chord with 2nd str/3rd fret & 3rd str/2nd fret, and then shove these fingers up one fret for some nice accidentals.

[Al]

"Gypsy" - I love playing that too  You can add little trill on the top string on the second fret, sounds very Eastern  I spent years wondering why my version sounded nothing like Ralph's yet everything seemed to be nearly right, of course I hadn't sussed the top E string being detuned - I discovered my problem when one day I thought I'd have a stab at Clown and read in the book about the top E being tuned to D and once I started doodling realized that this was why my "Gypsy" hadn't been sounding so good 

Doesn't Ralph then drop *all* strings down a tone again - i.e. to CGCFAC (lettered from 6th to 1st)? You then get that nice low C(no 3rd) chord with 2nd str/3rd fret & 3rd str/2nd fret, and then shove these fingers up one fret for some nice accidentals.

Well, he may well have done, its hard to tell whether this is deliberate or not on his part at the time he recorded it I guess - I certainly couldn't be bothered doing it every time I wanted to play it thats for sure 

[Al]

Quote from Songs2Play

What can I say Al, a great complement indeed.  Trying to play a song by ear rather than from tabs has a few benifits, as well as a lot of shortfalls. It was only recently I found that Ralph played First Song with a D shaped chord, and I had been playing it for years using C. Too late to change now. I also have a great problem with timing, and most of the time I finish the song with a faster beat than when I started it.

Your time spent on the tab books has certainly paid off, and I envy your skill in being able to read them. Your "Kenny the Kangaroo" is superb, well done. Do you have any more ?

My attitude to tab has always been to use it as a guide, like a really big hint how something might be fingered and played. For whatever reason my right hand style was already very much like Ralph's before I discovered him, so it always felt very natural to me to play his pieces and all I needed from tab were some of the fingerings and turnarounds etc.

I do work out lots of things without tab at all, I had worked out "After Rain" and "Jesus Wept" for example before the tab appeared and was quite chuffed to see I was about 90% right when the book eventually appeared  Actually I don't understand the tab to "Kenny" in the book, I play an arrangement I had already worked out 

I think to take something like "Barges" and transpose it, even if it was by "accident" , into the arrangement you've come up with is really good.

Because I bought the single sheet music to "Streets Of London" I used to play it starting on a D shape which caused me a real headache getting it to sound remotely like Ralph's ! But, like your "Barges", having got there I probably had something very unique and interesting - nowadays I do a straightforward romp through it (      http://homepage.ntlworld.com/poyners/stuff.htm   - beware of the Kylie cover that I did as a joke to prove a point one day           ) which is probably of less worth than the old way I used to play it - I mean, whats the point if 10,000 people all playing "Streets Of LOndon" the same way Raph does 

[Al]

re Gibson's post about tab books I was told recently about one that predated the one containing tab for "Not Til Tomorrow", "Easy" and "Streets" - I had no idea it existed before.

It wasn't tab but it included lots of early songs and, amazingly, "Another Rain Has Fallen". I haven't seen a copy myself but from the detailed description I got it was a really nice book.

I have kept an eye open for an old copy but to no avail so far.

[ragtime]

re Gibson's post about tab books I was told recently about one that predated the one containing tab for "Not Til Tomorrow", "Easy" and "Streets" - I had no idea it existed before.

It wasn't tab but it included lots of early songs and, amazingly, "Another Rain Has Fallen". I haven't seen a copy myself but from the detailed description I got it was a really nice book.

I have kept an eye open for an old copy but to no avail so far.

It was published just after the You Well Meaning Brought Me Here LP was issued and had a similar sepia monochrome feel with some interesting artistic illustrations. It did indeed have Another Rain Has Fallen in it, even before Ralph issued it on Not Til Tomorrow (did he record it during the YWMBMH sessions?). My sister bought a copy and it became my guitar Bible for a while. I learnt to play in open and altered tunings from those songs, and all those lovely 'gronky' chords (that what I called them) were revealed with chord diagrams. My sister's copy has been signed by Ralph twice - shortly after it was issued and last year. That must make it worth something.

Chris

[Dave Russell]

re Gibson's post about tab books I was told recently about one that predated the one containing tab for "Not Til Tomorrow", "Easy" and "Streets" - I had no idea it existed before.

It wasn't tab but it included lots of early songs and, amazingly, "Another Rain Has Fallen". I haven't seen a copy myself but from the detailed description I got it was a really nice book.

I have kept an eye open for an old copy but to no avail so far.

It was published just after the You Well Meaning Brought Me Here LP was issued and had a similar sepia monochrome feel with some interesting artistic illustrations. It did indeed have Another Rain Has Fallen in it, even before Ralph issued it on Not Til Tomorrow (did he record it during the YWMBMH sessions?). My sister bought a copy and it became my guitar Bible for a while. I learnt to play in open and altered tunings from those songs, and all those lovely 'gronky' chords (that what I called them) were revealed with chord diagrams. My sister's copy has been signed by Ralph twice - shortly after it was issued and last year. That must make it worth something.

Chris

...this one?
I picked up my copy in 1974

[attachment deleted by admin]

[MAJ]

Evening all,

Yes, that's the book.  I got mine when it first came out in 1972.  It has some 'interesting' artwork by Peter Thaine and Melinda Peterson to accompany some of the songs.  Plus a few photos.  All in sepia.

Mine is also signed.  I wonder how much that puts on the 'collectors' price?

This book regularly comes up for sale on ebay so keep a look out there.

Marianne

[Al]

This book regularly comes up for sale on ebay so keep a look out there.

Marianne

Not since I've been looking out for it it hasn't !!     

[MAJ]

Keep on looking, Al.  It does appear.  I know that John B got a copy recently and there was another one for sale at the same time.

If I see one I'll post the link on the board.

MAJ
Researcher

[Leighton]

I haven't seen a copy of this since I was in my teens, and guess what, not only did I see one last night, but I also met up with a board member at our local folk club.   

I met Geoff at Wigan Folk Club last night, and he had brought his copy of the songbook. I was instantly transformed back to my youth. Geoff started off with a cracking version of Nanna's Song, and I kept the ball rolling with Barges. There were more Ralph songs to follow, and I had a great night swapping tales, chord shapes and "intros". Cheers. 

[Geoff]

One of my most treasured possessions (signed too!) and in amazingly good nick considering the use it's had!
 Priced at £1.25 (!)
Enjoyed last night immensely, Leighton; I'll be in again next week, hopefully having had chance to practice a bit more!