Andrew Lardner
patreon
"Future Shot at the Rainbow" by Peter Lang
🕑 Added 2023-01-01 14:02:00 +0000 UTCFriends:
This is an emotional post for me. This month has been an especially difficult one, highlighted by the passing of my friend Tony Klassen of New Era Guitars. I suspect many of you may have known him, or at least been aware of his work.
It is no surprise our mutual love of Larson brothers instruments and American Primitive guitar forced our paths to finally cross in early 2018. What was initially planned as a short trip out to his shop in Indiana to drop off my Euphonon for some repair work turned into an entire day of talking guitars, drinking espresso, and playing every song we knew for each other. He had a wonderful 1930 Martin 00-28 at the house that I must have played for 2 hours straight. I was obviously very much aware of Peter Lang at this time, but I admittedly couldn't have named more than maybe a half dozen of his titles. Tony was very passionate about Peter's music and he played a number of tracks off of The Thing at the Nursery Room Window for me on his Nick Lucas, another one of his favorite guitars he had at the time. Our friendship continued and we'd try to get together every few months - we sent each other leads on guitars on what felt like a weekly basis (He found my maple Euphonon dreadnought for me). Tony's passion for Peter's music got me more interested in his repertoire and led to its continuing inclusion here. "Future Shot at the Rainbow" was another one of his favorite tunes and there couldn't be a better time to add it to the Patreon.
If I look rough in the beginning of the lesson video it is because I started to relay this story but I just couldn't get through it without breaking down. You may notice I'm continuing to try to increase the quality of the lesson videos. Please bear with me as I learn the proper settings for the new camera, I notice a few instances in the lesson video where the autofocus stopped tracking my left hand. I also way overexposed the YouTube video which is why the color is so off. We'll continue to improve!!
Please enjoy this "epic" by Peter Lang. You'll notice I did not take the long repeat all the way back to the beginning in my YouTube recording. This is in line with how he performed this piece live in the mid 70s. I've had a surprising number of requests for this particular tune over the last several years, so I hope it delivers.
The transcription corresponds note-for-note to the original album recording. I make reference to several spots that seem to have obvious errors, but all of these are in the spirit of Lang's method of delivery. Melody is the most important aspect of these compositions, and sometimes the notes being played in the bass seem to be random, they always belong in the harmony but it would be difficult to memorize the inconsistencies in the bass patterns. I find it helpful to "normalize" passages with these inconsistencies and let the variations come out as "happy accidents." For example, the section starting at measure 27 almost certainly is intended to follow a very regular pattern in the bass for each measure, 4th string on the first eighth of the first triplet and 3rd string on the middle eighth of the second triplet, then the same pattern repeated on the 3rd and 4th triplet.
Patron lesson here: https://youtu.be/a0xitYMEans
YouTube performance here: https://youtu.be/GioBJjWOmDs
Transcription attached below.
Comments
Andrew Lardner
My friend who has helped with a lot of archival Peter Lang material has said I should prioritize that for the next Lang lesson.
Gregory Greer
Thank you for this posting Andrew! "Future Shot at the Rainbow" and "Thoth Song" are my two favorites by Peter Lang. That said, I'm a little surprised that nobody ever seems to mention "Flames Along the Monongahela" since I find that also to be a very beautiful song.
mark blomquist
Also, as you mentioned in the lesson, paying attention to keeping the fingers on a string to make it ring, following your guide lines. Like string stopping, really makes a difference.
