Blog: John Knowles Discusses "Chet Atkins Note-for-Note."

[RandyBuckner]

Hi everybody! I recently had the honor of talking to John Knowles, for my blog, about "Chet Atkins Note-for-Note." He talked about working with Chet, and what he learned during the process of writing the book. My blog address is: www.bucknerguitar.wordpress.com. Thanks for looking!

Randy Buckner

[Norm]

Good stuff!

Take the time to look at all three parts...

[ajbremer]

That was very informative, thank you Randy.

[Ray Bohlken]

Thanks for the link to your blog, Randy. I really enjoyed reading it. It had a lot of interesting info. I am going to check out some of the other subjects you've discussed. I'm looking forward to them.
Ray

[ajbremer]

I got to thinking about Chet's question: "What are you working on?"

That's what we always need to be doing, those of us who love and concentrate on finger style tunes (Chet tunes).

Chet is quoted as saying:

"You leave the guitar alone for three days and it doesn't know you when you pick it up. It's just a constant battle getting acquainted with it and staying acquainted."

Everyone has there own method and level of playing. It's hard to believe that Chet himself would have any problems with the guitar after leaving it alone for three days but hey, that's what he said.

Personally I know that I'll never get far with learning a Chet tune to the point of playing it clean if I'm not working on it. If a day goes by where I didn't pick up the guitar and work on whatever tune I'm working on, that's one more day of not being able to play that tune. Sounds silly but that's just me. Many players here are gifted and great, y'all can play tons of tunes by memory but that's not me, I definitely have got to do my homework.

I've chosen to pick out one tune a month and try to learn them and clean them up everyday. Last month for me was, "A Man and a Woman", this month it's "Music To Watch Girls By". These tunes are tough for me and I'm trying every trick in the book (and not in the book) to get them right. Another rule I've tried to stick to is: Morning, Noon, and Night. I try to play every day at least morning, noon, and night.

So everyday I'll keep plucking away while I hear Chet's voice say..."What are you working on?".

Thanks again for the post Randy

[DWolfram]

Great stuff Randy. I especially like what John said about Chet's music being more difficult to play then it sounded. I am always looking for ways to describe Chet's music and I will include those words.

Note-for-Note brings back many memories. When it first came out there was not a whole lot of Chet songbooks in tab. I was so excited about the book until I opened it up and saw it was in standard notation. I don't remember how long I had it(years) before I got so desperate for Chet music I learned how to transcribe standard notation to tab. Not so easy for a non music person to understand things like the meaning of the flats and sharps in the key signature,etc.

The first song I transcribed was Man and a Woman and it about ended my quest. You see the book erroneously started the song somewhere other than the beginning. It was frustrating until I figured out what was going on and then cut and pasted(literally) the parts in their proper order and completed the transcribing.

David

[keener]

Randy, that was great! Super!
Thanks for doing that.

Bruce

[craigdobbins]

Slightly off topic...

At first I thought the title was "Big John Knowles Discusses..."

I guess it's time to get my trifocals adjusted.

Craig

P.S. Great job, Randy. John showed us all the way. (Tommy Flint, too.)

[RandyBuckner]

Thanks for your kind words, everybody! In a few days I'll post my review of the book, which will have more quotes from John. Thanks again. Randy

[John Knowles]

Big Thanks to Randy for having the idea to write about "Chet Atkins: Note-For-Note." DWolfram, I think that was Charade that had the measures out of order. The publisher made that mistake and didn't send me a proof. A similar thing happened when someone at Mel Bay reversed a negative on one page of Blue Finger in "Jerry Reed: Heavy Neckin'". Big John.