RK
That Sound
Jul 7, 2007
I first heard "that sound" in 1960 through Josh White, Brownie McGhee, and Libba Cotten. Forty years later the internet lead me to Blind Blake, Kid Prince Moore, Blind boy Fuller, and many others. They all have that sound, and they are all different. That sound is bluesy, syncopated, rough and sophisticated. It almost always has separate bass and melody lines and is played with right hand thumb and fingers working independently. It is fingerpicking, not fingerstyle. That sound is throaty and immediate. I tap my feet and feel the tension as notes bend and resolve.
If you wanted to make that sound, as I did, you learned to fingerpick. Back in the day you found someone who could do it and stole from them. You wore records out by holding your finger on the edge and slowing it down trying to unlock the patterns. Today you can find nearly anything in tab form accompanied by a CD or DVD that explains it all. Either way you have to play - endless hours spent forcing your fingers to remember a pattern- waiting for it to start sounding like one whole instead of a lot of separate notes.
If you want to make that sound you eventually discover that some guitars have the sound in them and others don't. Some guitars are too bright, or sparkly, they ring too much and you get lost in the overtones. When a guitar is described as having "punch" or people speak of it's bark, it usually has it.
This blog is about my search for that sound both in music and in guitars. It's about the players that have that sound, past and present, and what they mean to me. Its about the guitars that have that sound and how they affect my playing. Its about the search for that sound. A search that has stopped and started multiple times, that fades in and out of public awareness. A search that reaches into the past while trying to establish something in the present and looks to the future.
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