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El
McMeen in a Nutshell
I
began playing the acoustic guitar
at Harvard College in 19... well,
a long time ago. In those ancient days, the
alternating-bass/Chet Atkins approach to
guitar playing really appealed to
me: you could play
a melody and have a little bouncy bass
backup. You were a one-man/person
band!
Subsequently, I moved away from
relying solely on the alternating-bass technique and the standard
American folk repertoire. I
started exploring Irish
music, different tunings, and
different approaches. The CGDGAD
tuning changed my life: its
sonority inspired me to arrange
scores of tunes, and to publish
those arrangements for other
guitarists. (Recently, I have been
able to take my arrangements and
voice them for Dropped D tuning--DADGBE--which
is close to "Standard"
tuning.)
My exposure to
traditional Irish music, played on
instruments such as whistle, fiddle and harp,
stimulated me to adopt a more
arpeggiated approach to
guitar-playing. About that time,
I started having wild thoughts about whether I
might actually be able to find a niche in
music.
It's
been quite a run now--from my
first CD for Shanachie
Entertainment in 1991(called Of
Soul and Spirit) focusing on
spiritual music, to numerous CD's
of Celtic music, to my original
compositions, to books for Mel Bay
and video guitar lessons for
Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop,
and even to some recent incursions
into the world of
"Mo-town" - trying to
play the Temptations and Four Tops
on one six-string guitar. OK, it's
crazy, but I'm having fun! I
even chose to commence my touring
career at the tender age of 51.
Anyway,
thanks for visiting my Website.
Please check things out, including
new music books I've written and do stay in touch.
-- El McMeen
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