Play in a day

Product Information

The introduction to Play in a Day claims that "this book will enable the reader to play the guitar up to a standard suitable for playing in a jazz, skiffle, or dance combination". He joined the BBC Show Band directed by Cyril Stapleton in the 1950s, when he began to be featured as a soloist. Brian May stated: "There's not a guitarist in Britain from my generation who doesn't owe him a great debt of gratitude.

Bert was the master who started many artists on the road to success, my only criticism is that the DVD needs to be remastered as the sound and vision is of poor quality.The Hogarth Press where I’m working, is in the heart of the literary world, with authors coming in all the time. Nursery Rhyme Time presents 31 of the best-loved nursery rhymes, skilfully arranged for the young pianist by Fanny Waterman. Well, I have a couple of LPs signed by Bert himself and of course I too started with 'Play in a Day'. Pick A Chord follows the ethos of Weedon's hugely influential Play In A Day book and DVD, giving guitarists the tools needed to start playing from day one.

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band mentioned Weedon in their song "We are Normal" on their album, The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (1969). His name is B B King and I just happen to have in front of me a 1993 copy of Ralph Denyer's The Guitar Handbook open at a photo of B B. I was stunned to discover fairly recently that this is still in publication, though in slightly different guise from the copy I had in October 1963.He regularly played on hits by such luminaries of the time as Tommy Steele, Adam Faith, Billy Fury, Alma Cogan, Dickie Valentine and Frankie Vaughan, as well as backing big names from the US, including Frank Sinatra,Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett and Nat "King" Cole. Apparently many well known guitar players (including "The Rolling Stones") have learnt fro this book. Bert Weedon could only claim one Top 10 hit in his career but his influence could be heard on countless No 1s, not least through his best-selling guitar manuals.

Herbert Maurice William 'Bert' Weedon, OBE (10 May 1920 – 20 April 2012) was an English guitarist whose style of playing was popular and influential during the 1950s and 1960s. Leigh Wieland-Boys… I worked in the same building as his agent (Duke Street, London in the 70s) and sometimes covered their reception as a favour. Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy. I was given a couple of Bert Weedon Guitar Guides, which I gave to my Dad, they’re probably in the loft….Bert has been repeatedly namechecked by subsequent generations of British guitarists as being the man who inspired them to first play the guitar, most notably Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Hank B Marvin, Joe Brown, George Harrison, John Lennon, Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, Mark Knopfler, Brian May, and many more. He made regular appearances on television, and a string of solo singles made him the most famous guitarist in the country; he was perfectly placed to take advantage of the birth of rock'n'roll. I bought this book after reading an online interview with Jimmy Page (LedZep), who said it was a big part of his formative learning as a youth.

Many thanks to Stratmangler for posting the B B King video - a supremely moving performance and many good close ups of his LH thumb in action, both on the neck (in particular when executing string-pulls, but also most of the rest of the time except when using vibrato) and off (when he moves his entire hand except for his fretting fingers away from the neck to execute vibrato). The independent-minded quarterly magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. But as for actually learning to play guitar it was 'Stevie's Blues', the flipside of 'Keep on Running'; one of my sister's singles, that got me started properly 12 bar blues stated simply and, if I remember, perfectly .Perhaps the first simple intelligent 'pop' guitar tutor - without which Jimmy Page, Hank Marvin and many others may have stumbled. Iain Cobby… Was walking on Brighton Palace pier some years ago when I looked up on a raised part of the cafe deck and there he was with his wife sitting enjoying the sun and a cup of tea. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page. Although this of course proves nothing, it does seem to suggest that the vast majority of those players who have been innovators and major influences in that vast field of music where blues, rock and jazz intermingle did or do, at one time or another, employ the thumb over LH technique.