Andrew Lardner

"Rosslyn" by John Renbourn

Added 2024-02-01 14:02:01 +0000 UTC

Friends:

Welcome back for another monthly video and lesson. This month we're back to some John Renbourn. I knew I wanted to go back to the British Isles this month, and was unsure of what to do. I felt it would be well worth the effort of transcribing another Renbourn solo, and I really wanted to work from video so we had excellent documentation of the right- and left-hand fingerings.

The only known recording of "Rosslyn," to my knowledge, is this take from the BBC's 1974 broadcast titled Five Faces of the Guitar. I was unable to find an entire video of the broadcast to link here, but many excerpts are available on YouTube. The program featured players from several different genres of the guitar, and Renbourn was in incredibly fine form as a representative of the folk/blues scene. Here is Renbourn's appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0r42Th0Y8c

I refer to this as a multifaceted piece in my YouTube video description, and it's because I hear so many different influences in this piece. British folk, Celtic, American Blues and Bluegrass. I wonder what others hear?

I usually don't like to feature pieces here that have been published previously, but there were enough critical errors in the available transcription that I felt this work was warranted.

We are fortunate to have documentary footage of Renbourn playing this, all fingerings are taken directly from his performance and are reflected in the editing in the transcription. This piece is a good excuse to get your ornaments back in shape. All sections are quite short, and I think the piece is a great candidate for someone who is working on their memorization skills.

The lesson video for patrons should arm you with everything you need to play the piece with style. Access it here: https://youtu.be/qvgBWLqhA1s

I feel like I am continuing to budget me time better every month so I can continue to pack more and more detail into these transcriptions. I am especially proud of this one and I think you will be too. It is attached below.

Thank you all again for helping me complete this work, and I'll be back before you know it.