Here Comes the Sun

walrus

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Great clip! Every time I see him play, his (seemingly simple) "thumb use" boggles my mind!

walrus
 

idealassets

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Richie had a few tricks in his tuning and technique that made him unique with his style. And it was that golden era of the 60's, what a time it was!
 
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Bonneville88

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Joe, thanks for the link... went on an hour-long Richie tear on youtube last night after reading
your post... guy had a really interesting technique, sure knew how to use his left
thumb like no one I've ever seen... an amazing musician!
 

SFIV1967

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I can't find the interview where he told about this but on that site they wrote:

“I learned how to play in order to sing the songs I heard in Greenwich Village in the late 1950′s into the early 60′s. They were a different kind of song than the Doo Wop songs I sang in Brooklyn with my friends. They were songs that made me think and even confirmed many of my own theories about Human Beings and what we were supposed to be. So I wanted to learn fast. I wanted my friends in Brooklyn to hear these songs, I thought they might hear what I heard and felt them, And many of them did.”

"Havens, took on an alternative approach to quickly learn the songs he became fascinated with in Greenwich Village, and to do this he started by tuning his guitar to the DADF#AD tuning. To accommodates his lack of guitar knowledge and skill, Havens wrapped his hand around the neck of the guitar and used his thumb to fully bar or bar only certain parts of a fret to play rhythm guitar- occasionally adding a forefinger to another fret to spice up his chord changes. With how the guitar is alternatively tuned, by barring the frets in a particular manner you can achieve playing different chord variations (such as Minors, Majors, Major 9th, Major 7th and etc) with little to no hand contortions."

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adorshki

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Here is Havens with a black version of his two pickguard Guild. You don't see one of these very often
Pretty sure it's a Richie Havens D40, they only came in black and natural (and you can see a natural on stage behind 'em) Can't tell for sure, but looks like TRC has his signature too.
Might even be Coronas, he had at least one natural before Tacoma opened up.
 
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SFIV1967

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Pretty sure it's a Richie Havens D40, they only came in black and natural (and you can see a natural on stage behind 'em) Can't tell for sure, but looks like TRC has his signature too. Might even be Coronas, he had at least one natural before Tacoma opened up.
Al, the NH D-40 Richie Havens signature came out 2010, the video is from 2009. Origianally the D-40 Richie Havens signature came out 2003 already. Yes, you are right, looks like the TRC has something written on, so no G-41 but D-40.
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Westerly Wood

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his strumming is my fave part of his playing, so easy, natural, and powerful. looks effortless. he has a cool voice too.
the thumb thing does not look easier than if he used his forefinger to bar the frets. clearly, to him, the thumb was the more natural digit to use :)
 

adorshki

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Al, the NH D-40 Richie Havens signature came out 2010, the video is from 2009. Origianlly the D-40 Richie Havens signature came out 2003 already.
Ralf I think we're having semantic or translation syntax misunderstandings recently.
I know the Havens D40 signature models were introduced in '03 in Corona, I have one.
In fact that's it in my current avatar..and my comment was directed to Walrus' post about a black D40.
Since it had dual 'guards and was black, the odds were very high it was a Havens signature model even if I couldn't make out the TRC clearly.
In fact I think black was only offered on the Havens models (not the "Standard" orBLuegrass" versions), and only in Corona and Tacoma.
I don't think it was even offered it in New Hartford, but not sure about that.
 
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refret

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There was a really nice segment of SNL with George Harrison and Paul Simon doing Here comes the sun and Homeward bound. Paul Simon had his F-30R.
 

MLBob

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Anybody else give me a listen? (post #11)

Sure did! Wonderful rendition.

Funny that Walrus should have posted the video of Richie singing Fire & Rain on the Chuck the Security Guard Show. It's the same one I used to figure out what he was doing in Open-D to try and learn his cover of the song.
Just posted the version I recorded on Soundcloud over in Members Music thread.
Used the JF 30 12 string. Strangely enough, my thumb was able to reach the suspensions he used on most of his chords :biggrin-new:

Richie sure was a master at covering other artists songs. One of the reasons I always loved his music so much.

Bob
 

Stephen

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My arrangement of Here Comes the Sun.

Started this years ago on my GF-60 (since sold to LTG member), and finished on my Blueridge BR-183A (I needed a smaller bodied guitar).

 
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