TrueFire - DADGAD Explorer: Guitar Intuite with Pierre Bensusan

Every generation of guitar players produces a handful of artists that push the boundaries of the instrument beyond everything that’s come before. They explore new harmonies, right and left hand techniques, and treat their audience to musical territories that are fresh, inventive and evocative.

Pierre Bensusan is one such artist. The L.A. Times describes him as "one of the most unique and brilliant acoustic guitar veterans in the world music scene today.” Guitar Player magazine’s readers voted him Best World Music Guitar Player. Pierre’s pedigree overflows with international awards and critical acclaim for his recordings and performances.

"The way guitar would sound if it played itself.”

We’re very proud to welcome Pierre to the TrueFire family and bring you his insightful, inspiring and highly illuminating DADGAD Explorer: Guitar Intuite.

I’m excited to share with you many of the concepts and techniques that I use all of the time in my playing. While I play in DADGAD, you will find that most of the material I present here will be applicable to any tuning of the guitar. Of course, I will also cover many of the qualities and nuances of DADGAD that make that turning so special to me.”

Pierre organized the course into six sections. In the first section, Pierre performs Le Voyage Pour L'Irlande and then breaks it down across five video segments, each segment revealing key concepts and approaches.

In the second section of the course, Pierre shares his DADGAD story and shows you his approach for tuning the guitar, how to build chords, how to find chord locations and then passes on a few of his favorite DADGAD chords and progressions.

The third section focuses on right and left hand techniques: Finger Independence, Adding Accents - No Bass, Bass On The Beats: 1, Anticipating Finger Placement, Bass On The Beats: 2, Bass In Between Beats: 1, Bass In Between Beats: 2, Bass On & Off The Beats, Right Hand Variations, Stretching Exercise: 1, Stretching Exercise: 2, Left Hand Ornamentation: 1, Left Hand Ornamentation: 2 and Right Hand Ornamentation.

Pierre guides you through nine Arpeggio Etudes in the fourth section designed to help you develop your own technique. You’ll be focused on the separation and independence of the fingers of your right hand, starting slowly and then working the etudes up to speed.

The fifth section reveals many of the other more advanced techniques that Pierre uses in his playing: Shokes, Tapping, Damping, Nail Return Technique: 1, Nail Return Technique: 2, Harp Effect Technique: 1, Harp Effect Technique: 2, Harp Effect Application, Harmonics and Rhythmic Independence.

You’ll play your way through the sixth and final section of the course, where Pierre demonstrates and then breaks down five Performance Studies: Hekimo?lu, Lendemain De La Fete, Wu Wei, L’ Alchimiste and Intuite.

All of the key examples, Etudes and Performance Studies are tabbed and notated for your reference purposes., although Pierre highly recommends that you work with the video for optimum feel of the music.

Grab your guitar and let’s explore DADGAD with Pierre Bensusan!

Pierre Bensusan
About the Educator

Born in Oran, French-Algeria, in 1957, when France was decolonizing its Empire, Pierre Bensusan's family moved to Paris when he was 4. He began formal studies on piano at the age of 7 and at 11 taught himself guitar. Influenced in those early days by the folk revival blooming in Britain, France and North America, Bensusan began first to explore his own diverse musical heritage and then moved to the horizons beyond.

At 17 he signed his first recording contract, and one year later his first album Pres de Paris won the Grand Prix du Disque upon his debut at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland.

also You can look my other last: Guitar Lessons-posts