Dave Keir

acoustic fingerstyle guitar & songs

Category: A Blog… of sorts

  • The fashion for genealogy

    I refer to the genealogy websites and TV programmes that I’ve recently noticed which are serving a desire among an increasing number of people to delve into their past and draw up family trees. Whence this increasing interest? Is it from a suspicion that one may be descended from some noble lord or be an…

  • Songwriting – a fact of imbalance

    Proportionality is a lost cause. I have the curious knack of making my major key output sound more minor than most peoples’ minor key output! It might tell of a deeply troubled nature. I would, there is no doubt at all in my mind, be a deeply troubled individual did I not have the therapy…

  • Songwriting – a question of balance…

    … between the melancholy and joyful. What the heck? What is it about melancholy songs that they just seem to drip from the fingerboard seemingly without call or effort. Whereas, in contrast, happy songs require the skills of a musical sorcerer. I can sometimes approach a pastiche with burlesque outbursts or strains of manic hysteria,…

  • Can I sing?

    Nah! Not for nuts. Not likely. I excuse myself with the idea that I’m more a deliverer of songs. How’s that for sleight of hand? Some folks have been complimentary though, which I find curious. And today someone wrote something nice about my voice on a forum not too far from here which is why…

  • Fingerpicking or Fingerstyle?

    If I’m playing something up-tempo and aggressive then I’m definately a down-home, primitive fingerpicker. If, on the other hand, I’m doing something moody or contemplative then I’m a sophisticated, city-slicking fingerstylist. Another thing ’bout pickin’ nomenclature: whence the “Travis Picking” terminology? I learned alternate bass picking mostly from Mississippi John Hurt, whose style, I think…

  • John Renbourn

    Ah, now, he of the mercurial fingers! I first came across John’s playing surprisingly by way of a solo record and not as part of the Pentangle which is most people’s experience. At my youthful age (in 1972 or ‘3) he represented a totally new way of playing and a new sonic landscape. Anyway, I…

  • Guitar Playing – On ageing “chops” and other surprises

    I’ve always kind of had stiff little fingers and had to warm up extensively before a gig or recording session, but these days it seems to take longer and longer as each year passes to get my chops into gear. My biggest dread is being taken by surprise in the office or at a party…

  • When I was a young boy…

    …my first experiences of music were by way of the classical music records that my father played and the ’50s records that my brother played. Those, and the background of the BBC “Light Programme” as it was known back then, were the musical wallpaper of my childhood. There was also a little Puccini that my…

  • My first fingerpicking lesson

    Sometimes I look back wistfully and muse upon odd events that have defined the directions I would take in life. Apropos my music, one of the events that had a profound impact was a casual ten minutes with a friend back in 1971 when he showed me my first fingerpicking pattern. Here it is: It’s…

  • The act of songwriting…

    …has never been a challenge for me. I think it’s because I’ve been doing it so long – since I was so uninhibited as a kid – that it’s a habit that’s simply been ingrained. I’ve never thought about how to go about the task. I did it before I thought about it. Like a…

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