Midnight Special Taught by Harry Lewman
We went over a simple song that “Where did you sleep last night” which was also known as “Black Girl” or “My Girl” and we’ll get into more complex pieces believe me. One thing that I wanted to mention about the 12th string is again I’m going to tell you, it’s a different animal to the 6th string and the construction style greatly influences the sound of the guitar. Now I talked about the strings, the heavy weight, we got right here when you look at my right hand we got a 64 on the bass, got very heavy strings, its going to be a very different sound but its not just the stings that make the sound, its also the construction of the guitar. We have a lateral bracing system up and down the guitar and there are very few guitars that are made in large production quantities that have that particular construction. The Gibson, Saint Martin’s are all great guitars but they’re made in a style of cross braced which all of the six strings are made in.
They don’t give the same sound, please feel free to contact me through the guitar work shop for names of builders who are building in that style of lateral construction, light weight guitars because if you really want to try to recreate led belly sound, you need not only the heavy strings but a guitar that’s built to carry that and to emphasize those frequencies. Now I’ll also want to talk about led belly and some of the incredible things that happened in his life. At one point in his life he assumed an alias; he was named Walter Boyd to his friends in Texas and as Walter Boyd, he end up committing a homicide. Now Led Belly was not a mean guy but he was dynamic, he could be very mean, he could be very sweet. His life has inspired many people; his actions have inspired painters, sculptors, musicians all over the world. But as Walter Boyd he ended up in prison and as Walter Boyd he was pardoned by the governor of Texas and the amazing thing was he was pardoned after the governor heard him sing and Led Belly Wood performed for the governor on regular occasions.
The governor will come down to the prison where Led Belly was and Led Belly would sing for him. He even composed a song and one of the last acts the governor did and one of the things that he’s remembered for is pardoning Led Belly. Led Belly had a song that he arranged The Midnight Special” which was a song that floated around many different parts of Texas and Louisiana, Tennessee throughout the south and “The Midnight Special” led Billy arrange a certain way that we now think of it. So in many ways it’s really his song although he picked it up from others and we’ll go explore “The Midnight Special” and I’ll play that for you and then we’ll explore it later.
One of the wonderful things about Led Belly’s music is the vocal components to the song and they’re really meant to be sung. Led Belly had a wonderful tender voice and not in the bass range, not in the Barrington range and could express his songs well. He had a great natural talent and he also honed his talent to where he could spread out his voice and penetrate. Get right in through the crowd. Penetrate walls, penetrate them into the microphones, into the systems and it’s a good talent to have and the vocal component is probably the key to all his song. So as you study the songs don’t be afraid to sing them in your way and don’t be afraid to play them in your way. That’s what everybody has done with his music, he has inspired all kinds of people to sing and play his songs in their own way. You’ll be lucky enough to be able to understand the guitar and to play it as well but the vocal component is really what you want to go for.
I know the thing that Led Belly did which is a little but unusual, he often increased his temple as the song went along. It’s not terribly unusual but he was pretty much standard with the way he did. This probably is due the fact that he played for dances, parties and often played for people who were enjoying his music and it’s just a natural sort of urge to increase the temple as he went along and since he was a soloist that worked out just fine. Another thing that you want to make sure you do with the 12 string is let it sing out. The 12 strings is a beautiful little instrument in the right hands and if you have it under control and keep those strums careful, keep those bass notes careful, the instrument will really sing out and become special. It’s different than the 6 strings and its qualities are different so you want to accent the good parts of the 12 string and keep it under control.
For the midnight special, now we’ll take a look at the split screen and I’ll show you some of the intricacies of this particular number on the guitar.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services