00:13Hey, Sue Foley here. I'm at Guitar World Studios in New York City and I was going to talk about
00:20my album One Guitar Woman and some of my influences, my female influences in guitar,
00:25namely the female pioneers of guitar. And that was what the concept of my new album One Guitar
00:31Woman is about. It's about a tribute to the female pioneers of guitar. And in it, I cover stuff by
00:37Mabel Carter and Elizabeth Cotton, Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Ida Presti in classical,
00:47even Charo. I do a little flamenco piece dedicated to Charo. So all these women are big influences on
00:54me and they all made great contributions in guitar music, in guitar culture, and in their own
01:00cultures. So, um, and I learned a lot. I had to actually study a lot of different techniques when
01:08I was working on this album and it was really fun and challenging in a lot of respects as well.
01:13I already kind of had my hand around a little bit of Piedmont folk finger picking, but that
01:20I never really played with a flat pick. I've always used a thumb pick, which really helps
01:25being able to keep your right hand open and, uh, access all the strings with your fingers. I also
01:31have acrylic nails on, so that is a big help as well. These are all like little finger picks,
01:38um, and they look pretty too. But also I'm playing the whole album on a nylon string guitar. This is
01:45a
01:45flamenco negra handmade in Poracho, Mexico, a wonderful town of guitar makers in Mexico.
01:52And this is built by Salvador Castillo, a great builder. So I bought this guitar specifically for
01:58the album and I played every song on this flamenco guitar, which is kind of interesting because I played
02:04blues on it. I played classical, I played flamenco and I played, you know, the Piedmont style and the
02:11Maybel Carter, Carter Scratch. So let me walk through a few of the styles I learned for the
02:15album, but, uh, Piedmont folk finger picking is something you would use with a thumb pick
02:21generally because you want to have an open hand and be able to access the top strings with your
02:27other fingers because you're, you want to keep that oscillating bass going the whole time, you know?
02:33So you're either going to do that or that, you know? And then these other fingers will be like
02:42picking out the other strings, but also melodies, right?
02:48So in, uh, for instance, in Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie, which is the first single off the album,
02:53that's by Elizabeth Cotton.
03:19It's hard for me to play it slow because you get used to the patterns and then you,
03:23you really get into playing them fast, but even like her Freight Train.
03:30I highly recommend any guitar player learn Freight Train the way she played it.
03:34Um, she's not easy to copy, um, verbatim because she played left-handed upside down, which is,
03:40makes copying her a little challenging because her, her approach is very, very unique.
03:46But if you can just kind of grab that melody,
03:50even just that part.
03:57You know, you learn that, you bring it to a friend's house and play it, everybody loves it.
04:01So highly recommend any Piedmont folk fingerpicking.
04:05Um, it's fun music to play, it's melodic, it's, it's, it's more sweet sounding than say a typical
04:11blues thing.
04:12Generally, you don't use picks on these guitars, but I just kind of did my own thing.
04:16I've got my thumb pick on, I play blues on it.
04:19I'm using a capo, which, um, a lot of flamenco players do use a lot of capos.
04:24You can all say now.
04:25guitar solo
05:10That was the way I approached playing Memphis minis in my girlish days on the One Guitar, One Woman album.
05:16I used the capo.
05:18I kind of approached it from like as if I was playing in the key of E, but I'm in
05:22G and I'm in the third fret.
05:28I'm in the third fret.
05:29I'm in the third fret.
05:29I'm in the third fret.
05:29I'm in the third fret.
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