Develop a “Babe Ruth” Thumb!

Posted on 1 CommentPosted in Uncategorized

Tip From Mark Hanson As a fingerpicker, if you are having any trouble producing good, consistent tone and accurate string selection with your thumb, consider this: Think of your picking-hand thumb as a baseball bat. It is powerful and accurate when it’s straight, in its natural relaxed position. If you find that you bend your thumb’s first knuckle when you pick, visualize a baseball bat with a hinge in it a foot from the end: You have no power and no control! (Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani would refrain from having a hinge in their bats, of course!) For maximum power and accuracy, your thumb […]

Cool Chord Progressions

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in Free tabs, Stories, Tips from Mark

By Mark Hanson It was fun to read about Sting studying scores of French Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel (“Bolero”) for new harmonic and chord progression ideas. In this article we’ll study a chord progression you may not have seen: a dominant 7th chord resolving down 1/2 step (G7 to F#, or D-flat7 to C, for instance) — the “Augmented 6th” progression. First, here’s a fundamental harmonic movement to understand: You all know that V7 chords (“dominant 7th”) resolve regularly to the I chord (“tonic”): G7 to C, for instance. They also resolve effectively up to the vi chord of the […]

Mark Hanson’s first live, in-person concert in 17 months is broadcast this Friday, August 6, 2021!

Posted on Leave a commentPosted in Announcements

Mark Hanson’s first live, in-person concert in 17 months is broadcast this Friday, August 6, 2021, at this url: https://www.wilsonvillearts.org/summer-performance-series The show was presented and filmed July 16 at Meridian UCC in Wilsonville, Oregon, in front of a well-spaced ‘crowd’ of about 25 enthusiastic people. It’s (almost) all original music from a fingerstyle guitar master. Good to be onstage again!  Viewable after the Premiere, too!