Be transported back to a C15th English Royal Court with a lute playing in the background! Let’s take an easy-picking look at a very accessible version of Richie Blackmore’s (Deep Purple) haunting, Memmingen. It’s a lovely repertoire piece.
FOR BEGINNERS
Richie Blackmore is best known for his blistering DeepPurple rock songs – we’re really slowing things down in this course! Every so often he would throw his fingerstyle song Memmingen into the gig mix for a breather!
It’s a deceptively tricky fingerstyle piece with a beautiful melody but we’ll look at a much simplified version which doesn’t sacrifice the overall effect (as well as going through sections that make it the real deal!). The other thing is that it’s a short piece – yes, we can make it longer by repeats but its core is quite short. In fact, even within the body there are lots of repeated sections.
It makes me think of being in some English Royal Court scenario of the C15th with a lute playing in the background and letting my mind wander about the countryside, politics of the day, executions, etc. Let’s get back on course!
When I first heard it, Greensleeves immediately came to mind. Ignore the fact that its tempo and time signature are totally different to Memmingen! Greensleeves still rings true to me.
The simplified version of Memmingen is definitely accessible to fingerstyle newcomers. Yes, it will require work but it’s slow and deliberate with a beautiful melody but with no formal ‘chords’ – mostly only two notes at a time.
We’ll cover the song at two levels:
* Most of the lesson will focus on item 1 above.
If you know how to read basic TAB and have maybe started a bit of fingerpicking then you should be fine. It’s a slow piece that we can play e v e n s l o w e r and it still sounds great.
No barre chords needed! A knowledge of basic open chords is good and knowing their root notes but the TAB will spell out what to play, when and where.
This is an excellent piece to get into fingerpicking – it’s playing a melody rather than fingerpicking patterns over chords.
Some Prep Sheets will be available for the course. These will be available a few days before the course for practice and revision.
The session is 60 minutes long; don’t expect to master everything during the session. The tutor will go through all the key parts, demonstrating them and discussing the associated techniques and know-how.
Always remember the real work is done by you afterwards. Armed with the materials (PDFs, backing tracks and video recording), you’ll have all the tools to work on things at your own pace.
When you book you’ll have two options:
1. You want to join the live Zoom session.
You’ll receive the joining instructions on the day. Being live, you’ll be able to put your own questions directly to the tutor during the session. Choose option 1, Live lesson and materials.
2. Maybe you’d like to attend but can’t make it on this occasion?
You can buy the materials and receive them after the session (i.e. lesson PDF(s) and access to a Zoom recording of the live session). Choose option 2, Materials only.