Back DANCER’S CHOICE ‘The buck dance was a popular dance step in the 1920s. Many blues guitarists from. that period had an instrumental in their repertoire that could be played for the occasion, Both Rev. Gary Davis and Mance Lipscomb played instrumentals that they titled “BUCK DANCE.” The arrangement that | have transcribed comes from the playing of a 1920 recording by Sam McGee. Sam McGee was a popular white guitar player who accompanied Uncle Dave Macon at the Grand Ole Opry as well as on countless recordings. He was an excellent fingerstyle guitarist whose playing was firmly rooted in the country blues tradition, This is an interesting instrumental. It uses an altemating bass and is played in the key of C, You will be using first-position chord (C/F/G and E), but there are some rhythmically tricky passages in the second section. The first section is pretty straightforward. Remember to accent the even beats. This will give that dance feel. The 7th measure has a lovely end phrase that has an F chord followed by a G and then resolves to a C. You cannot play this F fingering with a bar, but rather you will have to stick by your “normal” F with your thumb hooking over the fingerboard and playing the sixth string/first fret, ring finger the fourth string/third fret, middle finger the third string/second fret and index finger the second string/first fret. You can forget about the first string, as you will not be playing this. Notice how your index finger will be called upon to liftup so that the open second string can be played. suggest you put the index finger back into position for the next pinch even though you will not play that string. Whenever possible you should try to maintain your full chord positions, as this will help you pick up extra sound with sympathetic string vibrations as you strike your guitar. The second section offers a variation on the alternating bass. You begin with aC, and this rolls into an E position. Check out carefully the 10th bar. Here you play an open fifth string and then pinch the third and fourth strings of your F position. This immediately goes into a C chord where you are pinching the fifth and third strings and, instead of the alternating bass traveling down to the fourth string, it surprises us by going to the sixth string/third fret. Your ring finger will need to jump from the fifth string/third fret to the sixth string/third fret. In the 1 1th measure you pinch twice on the C chord and then change position to a transition G fingering which has the middle finger on the fifth string/second fret and little finger on the second string/third fret. This then leads into a full first-position G. You repeat your opening phrases and end this section as you did the first. This instrumental should be played up-tempo. I enjoy placing my capo on the fourth fret so that I get a bell-like sound from my guitar. ‘SUGGESTED LISTENING: MISTER CHARLIE'S BLUES (Yaz00 1024) Rey. GARY Davis (HERITAGE 02) 165Back DANCER’S CHOICE SECTION ONE c F c REGULAR T tT 3 TUNING ousune 166STEFAN GROSSMAN