Adapted from an article in Total Guitar, May 1999
Nick Drake is a guitarist
few of us can imitate. Nick Drakes chords are easy to master but few us could play those
complex fingerstyle rhythms with such ease. Most of Nick's chords are simple one or
two-finger shapes.
Nick's friends recalled the
way he would endlessly retune his guitar by loosening the strings until they were
completely slack and then tuning up. Drake's close colleague and fellow guitarist John
Martyn recalls Nick Drake being "extraordinaryily secretive" about his tunings.
Some of the tunings used are
fairly unusual but they are simple modifications of existing tunings. For example, Pink
Moon uses a Csus4 tuning which is acheived by simply dropping one tone on the G string.
However, mastering Nick
Drake's chord shapes is only a small part of understanding the incredible guitar sound he
created. Most of the sound came from his right hand. Listen to Black-Eyed Dog or River Man
to see what I mean.
Sadly, there is no film
footage of Nick playing, even few pictures of him playing a guitar. So getting a precise
idea of his style is not easy, but his arranger Robert Kirby recalls Drake's
"virtuoso classical technique".
Nick played small-bodied
guitars, like the Guild M-20 that he used for most of his recording work. He made the
guitar sound bigger and played loud, using long fingernails to pull the strings firmly,
while his thumb controlled the rhythm parts on the lower strings.
Nick Drake Tab Collection
The following are tablatures
taken from the On-Line Guitar Archives Nick Drake collection. Unfortunately, my guitar
playing is not adaquete enough to even play Nick Drake's songs, let alone tab them .....
The people who tabbed these
songs are given their due credit, but if they'd rather I didn't post the tabs here, let me
know. Any revisions or additions to this section would be most welcome. You can mail them
to me at: fiveleavesleft@dellmail.com
Black Eyed Dog
Cello Song
Chime Of The City Clock
Clothes Of Sand
Fly
From The Morning
Fruit Tree
Harvest
Hazey Jane II
Joey
Know
Mayfair
Northern Sky
Parasite
Place To Be
Ride
River Man
Road
Things Behind The Sun
Time Has Told Me
Voice From The Mountain
Which Will |