Song List: 1)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 2)
With A Little Help From
My Friends 3)
Maxwell's Silver Hammer 4)
I Am The Walrus 5)
Blackbird 6)
Piggies 7)
Strawberry Fields
Forever 8)
Michelle 9)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 10)
I Will 11)
All You Need Is Love
Hiroshi Masuda -
With A Little Help From My Friends (USA) Hiroshi
music (2004) 11 tracks/33:01)
"Mark
Easley also distributed and co-produced the instrumental Beatles tribute
album by Japanese acoustic guitarist Sketch (Hiroshi Masuda) The CD
starts with the Sgt Pepper opening medley, via four White Album tunes
(including Harrison's Piggies) to All You Need Is Love and Michelle as
the only pre-Pepper song: at least a song selection that looks very
promising! All arrangements are his own, except for Blackbird - which is
from John Knowles, which features some alternate melodies. For the
remaining tunes, he doesn’t take any extravagant improvisational
excursions but follows all the melody lines (lead and backing) of the
original compositions - right up to the inclusion of She Loves You at
the end of All You Need Is Love. But then again, these acoustic solo
performances are highly skilled, varied and beautiful - as such, vocals
are hardly missed. A perfect example of how renditions of the later
period catalogue can be both challenging and rewarding."
The
Japanese guitarist Hiroshi Masuda (Sketch) has sent us his CD "With A
Little Help From My Friends", an instrumental tribute performed on
acoustic guitars. The selections include big hits with melodies for
which Sketch feels a special predilection, almost all songs being of the
second stage of the Beatles. An exquisite refinement is the general tone
of the entire disc. We emphasize the complexity of the arrangements and
the excellent interpretation presented by Sketch, which is not the
usual thing in most tributes which are often too simple and because of
that, not very pleasing. The musical approach here does not vary too
much from the structure of the original recordings, following the melody
that the original authors conceived. Altogether there are eleven songs.
And for the fans of the six strings, we mention specifically that the
guitars used are a Tacoma ER22C, a Papoose P1 and a 1983 Classical
Nishino. Made in the USA.
Introduction by Mark Easley:
"Japanese acoustic guitarist Hiroshi Masuda has created a
beautiful album of classic Beatles tunes for solo acoustic guitar. His
exceptional guitar skills are evident in these recordings, and his
arrangements capture these songs perfectly."
Hiroshi Masuda plays "Penny Lane"
Production Credits:
Guitars by Hiroshi Masuda. Arrangements by Hiroshi
Masuda except Blackbird arrangement by John Knowles. All songs written by Lennon/McCartney except Piggies written by George
Harrison. Produced by Mark Easley and Hiroshi Masuda (Sketch). Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Mitsugu Sato at Studio migmig, Kawasaki, Japan. Cover Design by Hirohiko Takahashi. Photos by Makoto Yokokawa. Licensing through Harry Fox Agency. Distributed by GoldHat Music USA.
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Tacoma ER22C Strings : D'Addario EXP16 Recording date : January 13, 2004
This is the title cut from the one of the most popular
albums in rock history, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". In the
original album, there are two versions of this song, one at the beginning
of the album with a relatively slow tempo and another later with up tempo.
My arrangement is based on the first slow version. I tried to capture the
horn section part as close to the original as possible. There was a scene
in the Beatles "Anthology" video where Paul says "Jimi Hendrix was playing
this song in a live show a week after the album was released", and as I
was playing around with the chords I was imagining how Jimi Hendrix
played, and this arrangement came from that.
With A Little Help From My Friends
Tuning : Standard (tuned a half pitch down) Capo : None Guitar : Tacoma Papoose P1 Strings : DeSalvo Folk 12*54 Recording date : February 17, 2004
Also from the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band", this song comes right after the first one in a medley form. Since
my album was made with many people's support, I decided name the album
after this song which I think fits perfectly. I used a Tacoma Papoose P1
guitar on this arrangement which was tuned down a half note to match the
original key.
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Classical guitar made by S. Nishino in 1983 Strings : Augustine Red Recording date : January 21, 2004
This song is from another rock legend Beatles album,
"Abbey Road". Although this song is not really as popular as others in
this album, it is my favorite one. There is a scene in the movie "Let It
Be" where Paul is teaching this song to the other members. I picked up the
basic chords from there. In those days, although it was illegal, many
people brought a cassette recorder to the movie theater. I remember seeing
rows of recorders lining in front of the screen. I myself brought one but
there was no space left, so I had to hold mine in a position where the
built-in microphone faced to the screen. This arrangement is played with a
nylon strings guitar, because I felt the sound fits the song's nostalgic
character more nicely than with steel strings guitar.
I Am The Walrus
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Tacoma ER22C Strings : D'Addario EXP16 Recording date : January 13, 2004
This song is from the album "Magical Mystery Tour". It
has a unique chord progression and the intro begins with the B chord,
which is very rare for a guitar solo piece. I believe John liked this
chord very much and it can be heard in lots of his other compositions. The
idea of playing this song in solo guitar form was never in my mind until I
found the chord sheet on the Internet and started playing around with it.
At first, I was just following a chord progression and then started adding
melody above them. The arrangement was done that same night without any
trouble at all. This one was the trigger for me to begin writing a series
of Beatles arrangements. Although the movie "Magical Mystery Tour" wasn't
much of a success, Paul commented about this movie in their Anthology
video saying " It is worth it, because it includes us playing
‘I
Am The Walrus’ ".
Blackbird
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Classical guitar made by S. Nishino in1983 Strings : Augustine Red Recording date : January 16, 2004
This song is from the Beatles album we call the "White
Album", and it is the only arrangement not done by me on my album. The
first and last parts are basically from the book "Sittin' Back Pickin'" by
John Knowles, and I added the middle part I made with the inspiration from
Kenny Rankin's version. For a long time, I believed that this arrangement
was played by Chet Atkins until I heard his version of Blackbird a few
years ago. It was completely different. I still haven't heard anyone
playing this version. Since the original Blackbird is very famous for
Paul's beautiful acoustic guitar accompaniment, it is not easy to arrange
it for solo guitar form because you have a very strong image of the
original guitar playing. But John did excellent work and turned this into
a beautiful ballad. Since this was not my pure arrangement, it was not in
the list for this album at first, but with co-producer Mark Easley's
strong recommendation and after acquiring permission for usage directly
from John Knowles, I was moved to change my mind.
Piggies
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Tacoma Papoose P1 Strings : DeSalvo Folk 12*54 Recording date : February 17, 2004
This is the only George Harrison composition in my
album. My feeling is that this song has to come right after Blackbird. The
original song has a bit of classical flavor and so does my arrangement.
The interlude section sounds much like an etude for classical guitar.
Piggies must be one of the least known Beatles songs, since hardly anyone
recognizes it as one of their songs when I play it at gigs. I used to play
this with a normal guitar with no capo, but I just found out that if I
play it with the Papoose it would be in the original key, so I used the
Papoose this time which gave the tune a little bit of a baroque taste.
Strawberry Fields Forever
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Tacoma ER22C Strings : DeSalvo Folk 12*54 Recording date : February 12, 2004
This is another selection from the album "Magical
Mystery Tour". When this project started at the end of the year 2003, Mark
requested a few songs to include and this was one of them. At that time, I
felt the arrangement wasn't complete so I refused, but with a promise that
I would finish it for the next album if we have a chance. However, towards
the end of the recording sessions, after we had finished the other
recordings of what we were planning to include in the album, I tried it
again with what I had so far and it came out pretty good. So I changed my
mind and decided to include it in this album.
Michelle
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Classical guitar made by S. Nishino in1983 Strings : Augustine Red Recording date : February 10, 2004
This is from the album "Rubber Soul", and this was also
one of the Mark's requests. I had recorded this about a year ago at home,
but I had not played it since then and I had forgotten how I played it
back then for the most part. So I started to do the arrangement from
scratch with small bits of memories. Since some of the songs included in
this album aren't the most popular Beatles songs that everybody knows, I
wanted to include this one.
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Tuning : Standard Capo : 3rd Guitar : Tacoma ER22C Strings : D'Addario EXP16 Recording date : January 13, 2004
This is another selection from the "White Album". The
arrangement is a straight forward one which keeps a steady base line. It
is close to ragtime or galloping style. I used a capo to make the
arrangement in the same key (Bb) as the original and to make it easier to
play, since there are a few chords that need a little bit of stretching.
Sketch plays "I Will"
I Will
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Classical guitar made by S. Nishino in1983 Strings : Augustine Red Recording date : January 16, 2004
This one is also from the "White Album." Although this
song has a very nice and easy to remember melody, it is not as popular as
it should be. I had a request to play this song once in Tokyo a few years
ago, but I had to say no back then because I had not even started thinking
about doing the arrangement. Now I have it ready but no one has since ever
requested me to play it so far. I use a lot of high positions in this
arrangement which may look pretty difficult to play but really aren
’t
since most of those high positions are used with open strings.
All You Need Is Love
Tuning : Standard Capo : None Guitar : Tacoma Papoose P1 Strings : Elixir Nanoweb Light Recording date : February 5, 2004
My album ends with the song famous for being played by
the Beatles on the world's first live satellite broadcast. The arrangement
was done completely by my memory of the song with no other reference. When
it was done, I tried to write down the score, but I became puzzled about
the time. I checked with a published score and I found out that the time
signature is constantly changing. This must be one of the most well-known
songs in the world that has this kind of peculiar rhythmic pattern. My
arrangement includes George's short but nice guitar solo as well.
Song Notes By Mark Easley
Among my own favorites are "Blackbird", "Strawberry
Fields Forever", and "Michelle", but all of the songs are something
special.
The only arrangement not by Sketch is "Blackbird" by the
famous Nashville guitarist John Knowles. I contacted him and he was kind
enough to give us permission to use his arrangement. He also told us this
story about his arrangement.
From John Knowles: "My wife Becky used to sing
Blackbird as a lullaby to our son and daughter. I listened to that
haunting melody without the rhythmic guitar accompaniment and
decided to work it out that way. I played it in the key of E because
Paul McCartney's guitar part reminded me of Francisco Tarrega's
"Lagrima," a tune that classical guitarists play. I worked with all
those influences until I had my own classical Beatles lullaby."
I especially want to mention "All You Need Is Love", and
tell a little story about it. This is really a classic tune and a great
arrangement by Sketch. This is the Beatles song that I remember fondly
better than any other, because of the way I first heard it. In 1967, the
USA had launched a satellite that would for the first time allow TV
pictures to be transmitted live between Europe and USA. There was very
much promotion and excitement about this first international live TV
program. So on June 25th 1967 everyone gathered around the TV to watch, and the announcer
said "And now, the world's first international satellite TV broadcast!"
You can imagine how thrilled we were next, when we
immediately saw the face of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They and the other Beatles were
gathered in Abbey Road studios with some friends and an orchestra, and
they started to play "All You Need Is Love". It was the first time we had
heard it, and the first time we had seen the Beatles live on TV in several
years. It is hard to describe how exciting and breathtaking this
experience was, and those who saw it will never forget it.
You can watch that Beatles satellite broadcast right now!
Just click the Play ( >) button below.
On the Beatles Anthology DVD, Paul McCartney said that
the one thing he was most proud of about the Beatles, and that he hoped
they would be remembered for, was their simple message "All You Need Is
Love". This album by Sketch is a fitting tribute to that philosophy.
April 1964, The Beatles occupy a
record-breaking 14 spots on the U.S. Pop Chart ranging from
#1 down to #81 … "Can't Buy Me Love" (1), "Twist and Shout"
(2), "She Loves You" (4), "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (7),
"Please Please Me" (9), "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (14),
"I Saw Her Standing There" (38), "You Can't Do That" (48),
"All My Loving" (50), "From Me to You" (52), "Thank You
Girl" (61), "There's a Place" (74), "Roll Over Beethoven"
(78), and "Love Me Do" (81) …
