Roy Harper es cantante, compositor, poeta, historiador y por supuesto un gran guitarrista acústico y uno de los más influyentes compositores británicos, muy amigo de Jimmy page, el cual le puso el nombre a una de sus canciones en el disco Led Zeppelin III llamada Hats off to (Roy) Harper. 14 años más tarde harian un disco juntos llamado Jugula. Además ha trabajado con Paul McCartney, David Gilmour, Kate Bush y Keith Moon, entre muchos otros artistas.
¡Cuatro años de duro trabajo!Este mes de mayo cumplimos cuatro años al aire. Seguimos trabajando en la difusión de este maravilloso instrumento, ¡gracias por participar en nuestra historia!
[Song: Roy Harper "Highway Blues"] [Transcription by Dave Coniam ([email protected])]
I dunno which open tuning Roy uses but you'll a lot of stuff is in some open tuning or other - as Gordon's naming of chords like G1 and Bm1 suggests.
I play a lot of stuff in open E tuning - just crank the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings up so that when you hit them you get the E chord without holding down any strings. I find it's a great tuning for a lot of old Joni and Beatles songs.
Here's an attempt at Highways Blues, which, like a lot of Harper songs, requires very few chords.
In the "main" verses you hammer a sort of E and a vague D6; following Gordon's line, I've called these E1 and A1.
The chorus then shifts to a good old E - A - B run.
I've only included a few of the words. Mebbe some kinder soul cd stick the whole song on the list: the last verse I cant remember/work it all out.
E1 D1 E1 Take a walk down your highway, tell me what you see
E1 - D1 - E1 - D1 -
E1 D1 E1 If you're down my way, well it could well be me
[.....]
A E1 A E1 Please give me a lift man, you know it won't be for far
A E1 AB The way that you shift man, in your empty car
[.....]
E1 D1 E1 D1 I got the Highways Blues in my holey shoes
E1 D1 E1 and I cannot choose what I look like
[.....]
Like anything in an open tuning, this is pretty approximate, but hammer away at it after a beer or two and it shdnt sound too bad!
"Once" goes pretty OK in open E as well- you basically fiddle around on the top and second strings, picking out the melody, and plonking a few chords (A, G# and B) in here and there. I'll bung that up on the list as well if anybody's intrested.