Chris Proctor – Techniques for Contemporary 12-String Guitar

This DVD lesson provides new insights into the sonic possibilities and boundless opportunities for innovation on the 12-string guitar. Chris Proctor tackles a wide range of ideas and techniques, taking this richly toned instrument into new and undiscovered territory.

This course is jam-packed with invaluable information, including important tips on tuning, stringing and setting up the 12-string for maximum output and intonation. You’ll learn the open G and C tunings pioneered and widely used by Leo Kottke and other leading 12-string stylists, and the way Chris tunes down a step to get more resonance and depth from his instrument.

Most 12-string players strike the octave and unison pairs of strings simultaneously. Chris shows you a revolutionary way of picking the twelve strings individually, using alternate thumb and finger picking within the pairs of strings. Fiddle tunes such as “Sailor’s Hornpipe” and “Fisher’s Hornpipe” can be played with flowing melodies and resonant, ringing tones using a minimum of left hand movement.

Chris covers many other important skills, including use of the bottleneck slide, fingerpicks, string mute, harmonics (especially lush on the 12-string guitar), and other techniques that will help you to play powerful and evocative instrumentals. You’ll learn, in detail, “Halfway,” “Bells of the Harbor,” “War Games” and “Over the Pass.” The session ends with Chris’ beautiful performance of his arrangement of “Merrily Kiss the Quaker’s Wife.”