"Little Martha"

I'm way behind on my posting - and it's not because I have nothing to write about. Quite the contrary, I have lots to write about - new gear, new songs, possible upcoming gigs with the classic rock band, and confirmed upcoming gigs with the acoustic band. And I'll try to write all about that as soon as I can.

But first, a post about "Little Martha", the Allman Brothers' sweet little acoustic guitar piece. This has always been a favorite of mine, and I just assumed it was way behind my ability to play. So I was very pleasantly surprised when I found this YouTube tutorial. As an aside, Tonedr is a fantastic musician, and his YouTube channel has loads of great song tutorials on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and mandolin.

It turns out the song isn't that complicated. The most complicated thing is the tuning. It's in open-D tuning (D/A/D/F#/A/D), with a capo at the 2nd fret. Once you know that, and the basic riffs, it all falls into place. I can't play it at speed yet, and won't be mistaken for Dickie Betts - but it sounds great, and I'll be practicing it a lot - just because it sounds so good, and has me so pleased that I can actually kinda play it.

Actually, I may have to get another acoustic guitar, so I can have one tuned to open-D at all times.

Just kidding. :-)

One other thing that occurs to me. Before the Internet and YouTube, how on earth would you ever learn to play a song like this? Or Led Zeppelin's Rain Song - a song that stumped me for years, and turned out not to be that hard - once you know the crazy tuning it's in. I find it hard to imagine that anyone would ever figure it out on their own. Fortunately, I have YouTube.