Learn an Acoustic Blues Classic: Vestapol

[@rhomacity]

I have seen quite a few guitar instructional videos and this is the clearest and best presented yet. congratulations.

[@PeterWasted]

Sebastopol is a guitar tune from the 1880s by Henry Worrall. It would have been well known during the popularity of Parlour guitars. As fashions changed, it is quite easy to imagine that the guitars and music sheets would have found their way to servants. Vestapol, as played here is much altered but still, recognisably the same tune. Interestingly, Henry Worrall, also wrote Spanish Fandango which lends its name to "Spanish" tuning - or open G... Excellent lesson too. I'm getting closer to being able to play it!

[@theman36951]

Stefan Grossman got me interested you got me the rest of the way there.

[@iainbrennan5606]

Brilliant tutorial, step by step visuals,very well explained, such a relatively simple picking style to this great little blues number, but very effective, well done young sir.

[@leeman692306]

Yet another great lesson Adrian. When I get the notifications I'm straight on to it gleefully anticipating what it is. If I may be bold and pass on my limited experience on learning this travis picking classic. I'm not a finger picker (nor a finger pickers son) and have been plodding away at this for probably 6 months. I'm pretty much there now, just some 'finessing' to do (he says). The thumb thing took me ages and I mean weeks. Then the melody notes. I spent more weeks just trying to get one note going along with the thumb. One day all of a sudden I got it. Absolutely delighted, top of the world. Here I go..... Then more weeks with another finger and more notes with the thumb thing interspersed with frustration, anger, tears (almost), joy and despair. It was/is a long slog and to be honest hard work. But good god its great when it comes together. My thumb gets going and yahoo, off I go down the rabbit hole for hours. It's really really satisfying. My point is it takes ages and ages but if you just stick at it, bits will click together at each stage and all of a sudden you've opened up a whole new world of possibilities both on acoustic and electric. And it's really good fun! Apart from keeping the guitar in tune all the time that is.......Oh, and go slow and use a metronome from the beginning and you'll save a heap of hassle later on. Cheers!

[@cskueny]

Thank you for those words of encouragement from farther up the hill!

[@acpg]

Yes, totally agree with all that. With fingerstyle it's mainly a question of patience and perseverance. Sometimes you need to take it one or two beats at a time, very slowly and gradually piece it all together. But once you have a handful of picking patterns down you can use the to play thousands of songs. So well worth the initial effort and frustrations.

[@SSRT_JubyDuby8742]

I've never come across this one, it's a beautiful melodic piece, thankyou for bringing it to my attention. Excellent tutorial as always, looking forward to the next one.

[@acpg]

Thanks Julian!

[@AlexNTexas89]

I hear a little Sunflower River Blues in there as well.

[@billallen1594]

Definitely, that’s what I thought 😊

[@gibby6904]

Your lessons are great Adrian! I also play a Martin 00-15 so our sound matches up well......great job!

[@ChristianLemon]

This one is a lot of fun. I was able to pick this one up mostly by listening! Great video.

[@Ja.So.Bergman]

Oh another great lesson, thannnnnnks!

[@ebemaes2862]

Awsome video. Super clear explenation, it took me some time but im so happy to be able to play this.

[@Pwecko]

This is one of the first tunes I learned, from a Stefan Grossman book. Lovely tune.

[@bluesdlc]

I learned freight train from your tab and now i’m learning this one. thanks for these i love playing ragtime bluesy songs like these

[@SketchingRocks]

Meeeeeee tooooooo!

[@jeffbrewer402]

Great lesson. I always wondered how that was done. Thanks from Oklahoma!

[@ErnestoGarcia-pu2cq]

great lessons and always the best songs

[@duanerykhus9425]

Thank you again had a good afternoon doing this one :)

[@SketchingRocks]

Another GREAT LESSON Adrian thank you!!

[@martinarthur2597]

Wonderful lesson. Thank you so much, love this tune

[@zaxxx1975]

Thanx ACPG ..you are the master and i am the pupil! Much thanx for this post!

[@Michael-yy8od]

Such a calming piece to listen. Can't wait to learn this style. Thank you!

[@TheDennzio]

did you learn it?

[@davidkelly1220]

Super..will give ya few bob on patron...keep up the fingerstyle accustic tunes please

[@davidkelly1220]

Just did, great content on patron....u won't get rich of my donation mind

[@duanerykhus9425]

Thank you !!! I Love this lesson ☺

[@cskueny]

Good morning, Adrian! I always enjoy Friday a.m. with you. I didn't know this piece but have slowly been working on your Stag-o-Lee lesson and some John Prine (whom I just saw again last night!) so this one was welcome.

[@andrewhibben6562]

As they used to say on 'Ready, steady, go' - the weekend starts here...except in California it's Friday morning - still, first thing I do is check out your lesson of the week. Work is overrated anyway, so it's time to get the Martin out!

[@neilpaterson3886]

20 mins on the net would tell you the tune itself had no Russian origin. Henry Worrall composed a piece called The Siege of Sebastopol depicting an incident from the Crimean War of the 1850s. To make it easier for beginners he used open D tuning. Perhaps because he also used open D in his influential guitar tutor which I believe was shipped with mail order guitars and so became widely used. Country blues players called it Vestapol tuning (a corruption of Sebastopol) and someone made up the tune you’re playing. The same story goes for open G which was often called Spanish tuning after Worrall’s Spanish Fandango which he put in that tuning for beginners.

[@daviddouglas7950]

Great Adrian, just great! More exercise for the little grey cells. Thanks! Dave in the Adirondacks 🤠

[@leeman692306]

Adrian. I just figured out the cat buddha thang on the amp is the metronome. He's well in the pocket! Brilliant.

[@harmondraws]

I actually wasn’t gonna grab my guitar for this because it sounded really hard, but I read the description and you gave me some confidence. You sound very competent, and turns out not to hard to play, but I’m far from it sounding like a finished piece.

[@mjohndenver]

Man oh Manacheviz this was great!

[@johnmurphy1466]

Superb tutorial 👌

[@jubileeflymusic]

I've been looking at learning sister rosetta & vestapol comes up. Could u do one of her songs?!

[@campparsonssundayschool7844]

Sounds like John Fahey’s ‘Poor boy long way from home’.

[@imannonymous7707]

That guitar looks like a ooo15 . If it is i mustve made a good choice, i bought the same one last year....im gonna take a shot at this piece.. looks challenging for sure.....nice

[@brettmidd2250]

Finger pickin good

[@martinevans4010]

Great lesson, lovely sound ! Thankyou. Finding it bloody difficult to get melody and bass in sync, but i won't give up. Do i need to become a member to access the tabs ? Thanks, Martin from sutton coldfield 👌🇬🇧

[@paulterl4563]

lovely the golden cat waving in time 😁

[@Oooo-bi7bi]

I heard it was first written down during the time straight after the Crimean war battle in the city of Svestapol. I learnt it from the Max Milligan KZbin channel.

[@duaneulman9915]

Thank you Again 😊

[@duaneulman9915]

Thank you

[@gpwalltickler8591]

Gonna take a while but I’m definitely giving this one a go. Great tune thanks

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Merci. Didn't Elizabeth Cotton play a right handed guitar turned over since she was left handed?

[@nckwlch]

Extensive research = 10 minutes on the internet. Same here Adrian.

[@pishbot]

I love your acoustic lessons. Did you manage to give 'Live At Oberlin College' by Mississippi John Hurt, a listen?

[@CherryPhosphate70]

I'll check it out. Thanks

[@G_C340]

I think you might find the 19th century sheet music which was written down is far more complicated and was given with mail order guitar.

[@Jollynoose]

dude that was a wonderful video and i am going to work on it alot developing that picking style but what caught my eye was that cat. MAN I WANT THAT CAT !!!!! where did you get it ?

[@acpg]

Yes, the cat's an important part of these videos so glad you like it! Got it somewhere in London's Chinatown.

[@ChuckMarteau]

This reminds me of the Stones' "Prodigal Son".

[@acpg]

Yes, I can hear that.

[@TheTora75]

Oh yeah.

[@terminaltom1662]

Uh yeah because that's basically what Prodigal Son is.

[@justaguy2365]

Except that's in E. Same picking style though

[@arnaupericas8626]

Steffan Grossman likes this video.

[@roblarson9065]

“Poor Boy Long Way From Home” (Fahey) and “Stag-o-lee”

[@acpg]

Yes, definitely both pretty similar...

[@laugher2211]

My thoughts exactly. It's so nice to see people appreciating Fahey to this day.

[@mausmartin9596]

Ah yes, I thought it sounded very familiar to me, but I didn't know the Grossman version. Thank you so much for an excellent lesson! Much easier to learn than I thought.

[@mausmartin9596]

Even more fun to play since I have exactly the same guitar ... :)

[@WhiteZombieWayne]

Umm yea... the song he plays came out 70 years before he played it

[@kevincolliss2877]

Excellent!

[@jesusolmosmartinez4723]

You are the best

[@terminalpreppie8439]

Elizabeth Cottens rendition is the best one

[@dawesgap6544]

Is it just me or is the bit at 16:49 missing from the instructions? Brilliant tune and lesson as ever though

[@flav0r]

Was thinking that myself. Great lesson, im about half way throo, thank you.

[@wilbimcs]

Awesome

[@chriss1492]

Am I loopy or is the picking pattern for the V chord not shown in video. I keep looking for it but can’t seem to find it. Great selection for tutorial!

[@SergeCeyral]

have a look at my tutorial presentation on my YT channel (chords in open E tuning) : it also works with open D tuning! A7 chord in open D : string 1 : 2 string 2 : 0 string 3 : 1 string 4 : 2 string 5 : 0 string 6 : X

[@acpg]

Yes, you're not going mad. For some reason that bit got cut out in the edit! Hope you'll be able to get it down by watching the slow run-through. The same basic pattern works on V as it does on IV. But you can add a bit more interest by moving your 3rd finger over to the 2nd string to create a little melody. Shown correctly on the tab - email me if you'd like it.

[@chucku.farley]

sounds like John Fahey...

[@PostalDude667]

More like John Fahey sounds like this...

[@harmondraws]

@@PostalDude667 your comment made my head hurt

[@phillipscott7653]

Very good ...video...The word is that Russian Sailors took this tune and tuning from the port of Sevastopol Ukraine to New Orleans...in 1800s....

[@wintermatter]

The cat in the background is in sync with the music

[@SergeCeyral]

Yep, some ppl call that thing a metronome!..

[@michaelgallagher3640]

@@SergeCeyral No.. It's definitely a cat.🤪

[@wintermatter]

It's a Maneki Neko lucky charm that makes you happy and wealthy and your playing rhythmically consistent

[@njuham]

Sorry I can't read the headstock, which guitar is this? I play a sweet 1985 Takamine lawsuit copy of D-18.

[@acpg]

It's a Martin 0015M. Nice Takamine - some of those 80s copies can be better than the real thing!

[@manuelleonardomagana2369]

Well I Wonder by the Smiths!

[@kevlavis8736]

I so want this to be true, but I don't hear that at all. The Smiths song is a big strumming number. Am I missing something?

[@tomscotland]

I hear some Bert Jansch too

[@deannilvalli6579]

Isn"t this the basis for the Rolling Stones' Factory Girl?

[@acpg]

Definitely some similarities there...don't know if it was a direct influence or not.

[@TheTora75]

Factory girl is standard tuning mostly using the D shape and A.

[@danieli.9252]

The cat keeps pretty good time. I could use a visual metronome like that one.

[@brandonabbott6225]

Elizabeth Cotten is where vestapol is from

[@tomy8339]

The Japanese lucky cat was moving its paw in time with the music. 😅

[@spino.urchin]

0:30 : The secret chord is hidden behind the mic :-)

[@PaulOwens]

fIREHOSE's "In Memory of Elizabeth Cotton" uses this tune.

[@acpg]

Not heard that for years - I'm going to dig it out later!

[@cubistblues]

That tune references Elizabeth Cotten's 'Freight Train'. Ed Crawford actually cover's it (as 'Vastopol') on 'fROMOHIO'.

[@PaulOwens]

@@cubistblues You're right. I was getting my fIREHOSE acoustic songs mixed up.

[@luckyfamilyman]

👍

[@bah667]

yeahhhhhhh

[@itsallaroundyou7085]

Hahaha. Coming off of Stefan Grossmans video. Turns out this is the only song anyone can play on open D

[@terminaltom1662]

Poor boy took all he had, started down the road

[@RichLeespage]

Is the Cat a metronome? OH nevermind lol

[@stingaling]

That wavy cat has to go. Are you trying to woo the Asian market?