License $25

Single $0.75

Album $10

A flowing, continuous acoustic guitar instrumental with the distinctive sound of 'electric nylon'

singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso

Solo singer-songwriter and tunesmith playing British fingerstyle steel and nylon string guitar, and historic instruments. Scots and Irish influences.

I've been writing and playing songs and tunes since teenage years in folk clubs and pubs. I co-organise the Kelso Friday night live music sessions at the Cross Keys (hosted singaround 7.45-10pm) and Cobbles Inn (10-12pm open mic with The Cobbles Band) with the help of many friends. All welcome! Visit us at kelsofolkandlive co uk. It is worth clicking on the tab because the sound quality of my tracks is far higher than the auto player on this page. Many can be streamed or downloaded at 320KBps and the enhancement for solo guitar/voice far exceeds the benefit you get for highly compressed band recordings. My recordings are full dynamic, not compressed. Just select Hi-Fi for the first song, and an MP3 high bitrate window will open - you will still get a sequence of songs. Most of my downloads are free, but some 320KBps tracks are paid-for. These are selected because they make up my main instrumental album. I now have a YouTube page and have started doing some video recordings for fun: @daviddkilpatrick I have mainly played Lowden guitars since 1999. I current play a 1985 S5FN (nylon string), 1986 S22 (jumbo O-size mahogany/cedar), and 1995 S32 (small body rosewood/spruce). I also play my own 1997-built Martin 'kit' Grand Auditorium rosewood/spruce, a Sigma OM-T, Furch Little Jane, Tacoma Papoose, Guild 8-string baritone, Vintage V880 parlour guitar and Gordon Giltrap signature model, a Troubadour mahogany/spruce classical and an Adam Black 12-string. And that's just the guitars... also viola, mandolin, mandola, waldzither, bouzouki, Appalachian dulcimer, low D whistle, keyboards.

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Guitar

Charts

Peak #12

Peak in subgenre #5

Author

David Kilpatrick

Rights

David Kilpatrick

Uploaded

February 07, 2008

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.2 MB • 320 kbps • 4:33

Story behind the song

The legendary - and real - wizard of the Scottish Borders, Michael Scott, tricked a familiar spirit into 'weaving ropes' from the sands of the North Sea shore... an endless task, which you can see renewed every day and still keeps the imp out of mischief. 'Ropes of Sand' is an instrumental where the music weaves a continuous pattern that can continue as long as the players wish - it is intended for two guitarists, and here I play both parts. The accompaniment is played using drop D tuning in open position, on the lower five strings of the guitar only: the chord sequence is G - F - D - Em - C - G - Am - D. The second part is played with a guitar capoed at fret five, and does use the top E string for the main theme; I also play this part with the bass string dropped a full tone, but that is not necessary. The tune resolves to a G chord to end, but can always 'swallow its tail' and continue. My recording is made with both parts played on a Lowden S-25J nylon string acoustic jazz guitar using its bridge pickup. The strings are the unusual Savarez plastic wound type, in which all the top three strings - normally made of a soft smooth clear nylon - are silk filaments wrapped with a polyester spiral. This gives the guitar a sound entirely different from a classical or Spanish guitar, and better suited to electric recording.

You can download a 72dpi screen GIF image of the sheet music for the basic guitar backing - sorry, no TAB as I can't find a Macintosh TAB editor. This is two-stave music written using Songworks II and it is just the thumb bass line and main fingerpicked melody to the underlying pattern. Find it at: http://www.maxwellplace.demon.co.uk/pandemonium/ropesandscore.gif