Andrew Lardner
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"On the Sunny Side of the Ocean" by John Fahey
🕑 Added 2025-02-01 14:02:03 +0000 UTCFriends:
Welcome back for another monthly lesson. I've decided to take the opportunity to celebrate Fahey's birthday with a post one one of his compositions this month. Fahey was born on the 28th of February in 1939. It's a special day for me, besides the obvious reasons, because I celebrate mine on the 28th when we don't have a leap year. Yes I'm one of the oddballs who has a real birthday on the 29th which only once every 4 years.
"On the Sunny Side of the Ocean" is among Fahey's most well-known tracks. First released on the 1965 record The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death and again 9 years later on the Fahey, Kottke, Lang record, I decided to transcribe an even later live version from his 1978 performance on the German music television show Rockpalast. I would have been happy teaching any version of the piece, but the Rockpalast version was the first I heard, and I'm a sucker for nostalgia.
I would feel comfortable saying this is a lesson that most here should feel comfortable approaching. The piece utilizes many short repeated patterns in the right hand and simple chord configurations in the left. As I mention in the lesson video, the most challenging aspect of this piece was memorizing transitions. I suspect most here will say the brief passage beginning at measure 55 poses the greatest challenge, though I think I break it down in an easy to understand manner in the lesson video. Here's to finally having a score where that part is written as Fahey played it!
My recording on YouTube is mostly a nod to the Rockpalast performance, with two measures removed because of the excess repetition beginning at m15 and with a slightly different ending, taken from the Fahey/Kottke/Lang record. Maybe it's my age starting to show, but I also felt Fahey's tempo in the Rockpalast performance was a bit too aggressive with the majority of the piece hovering around 146-152bpm. I sit at a much more relaxed tempo of approximately 130bpm. This is about where he plays it on the Fahey/Kottke/Lang record, but is faster than the original on Transfiguration.
The lesson video can be accessed by following this link:
https://youtu.be/tzoSmFf2Fno
As always, the score is attached below.
Thank you everyone for your continued support, I really feel I'm still growing as an educator and I continue to be excited to release every post, feeling that each represents an improvement over the last. These wouldn't continue without your support.
Comments
mark blomquist
Hey Andy! Got it "under my fingers" now and really enjoy the song. Has become one of my favorite Fahey tunes! Really enjoy all the nuances that are included. Very, very cool! Thanks for choosing this great piece!
mark blomquist
Hey Andy! Finally got around to doing the lesson and loved it! Been pretty busy this month. Agree with John Good's comment on revealing the mystery of M 55 and 56. Came pretty easy after your excellent suggestions. Also loved the different ending found on Kottke, Fahey and Lang. Great job as usual and a big thanks. I'll really enjoy getting my fingers under this one.
