Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar According to Tony McManus Vol. 1 – Tony McManus

“Tony McManus is the best Celtic guitarist in the world.”

-John Renbourn

Tony McManus is an adept master of Celtic fingerstyle guitar, both in terms of adapting Celtic music to the guitar, and in its performance – presenting all its intricacies, graces, and frills, yet at the same time maintaining the pace and drive which characterizes the style of this music.

In this first lesson, Tony discusses in detail the importance of ornamentations and triplets in Celtic music and how this can be technically achieved. He illustrates these ideas with several melodies played in a Dropped D tuning. This is followed by a discussion of scales and fingerings and playing reels in the DADGAD tuning. This is a challenging lesson for the fingerstyle guitar student interested in learning Celtic music from one of the finest players of this idiom.

Tunes include: Dropped D tuning: The Islay Ranters Reel, Ye Banks and Braes, The Ewie wi’ The Crooked Horn. DADGAD TUNING: Hector The Hero, Catherine Kelley’s, Charlie Hunter’s Jig, Jackie Coleman’s Reel.