JamPlay Videos

Series Introduction

Basic Chords and Strums I

Basic Chords and Strums II

The Learning Process

Your First Song

Song Two

Song Three

Song Four

Right Hand Techniques

Fingerpicking Techniques

Useful Music Theory I

Useful Music Theory II

Open Tuning I

Open Tuning II

Randall’s Guitar Toolbox I

Randall’s Guitar Toolbox II

Exploring Songs I

Exploring Songs II

Exploring Songs III

Exploring Songs IV

Exploring Songs V

Exploring Songs VI

Exploring Songs VII

Singing with the Guitar

Singing with the Guitar II

All of these lessons and more on songwriting, performing, and guitar playing can be found on Randall Williams’ JamPlay Website.

                  

Randall Williams: Cut Capo Guitarist

He felt that classical music lacked the inclusiveness of folk music, and that the inevitable
division between performer and audience was unbearable. And so Randall returned to the world of traveling with his guitar, writing songs in train stations and sleeping
on couches, then singing and playing on street corners, cafï, and pubs. For a time he lived aboard a 20′ sailboat that he bought for $800, teaching himself how to sail by
single-handing through the Baltic and North Seas with his guitar sleeping in the berth beside him at night. He wrote a book about the trip, which begins with the story of
almost getting squashed by a tanker before dawn one morning in the North Sea.

He moved to North Africa, then set off across the Sahara by hitching with locals – bouncing through a minefield on the way that made his mother have bad dreams.
He loved the adventure, but he missed the music.

In 2005, Randall returned stateside to scrounge up a career as a performing songwriter, hoping it wasn’t too late. So far, it hasn’t been. As the “Partial Capo Guy,”
Randall has written two books for Hal Leonard, recorded a DVD for Kyser Musical Products, and given workshops at some of the biggest festivals in United States.
As a performer, Randall has been a finalist in the Founder’s Title and Mid-Atlantic Song Contests, A regional finalist at Kerrville, a showcase artist at Northeast and
Midwest Folk Alliance, and at the International Folk Alliance in Memphis, and an Audience Favorite at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. His 2007 live release,
“One Night in Louisiana” made a respectable dent in the folk DJ charts (One single, “Lebanon,” was #8 in May,) and he’s generally a nice guy to have around, capos or not.

Randall is as much at home in a Bangkok slum or a Senegalese village, at the Kennedy Center in D.C. or the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels sandwiched between a twitchy orchestra and a full house, or shoeless on the floor of your living room. Randall has sung in a dozen languages in over 35 countries.

Lynne Andrews: “When Randall left the confines of classical music largely behind, they lost a great talent, but the world gained a good friend – a friend who will tell its stories with grace, compassion, humility and humor.”

Guitar Playing and Teaching
Randall began playing guitar seriously in 1988, and played his first open mic one year later. Randall kept playing and learning more and more. Randall began teaching guitar in 1992, while studying musical composition, analysis, and performance. Randall got his undergraduate music degree in 1996, then studied flamenco for about a year (1997) before beginning studies at the royal conservatory of music in mons, belgium.

From 1998 to 2001, Randall studied voice, analysis, and harmony at the conservatory, with classical guitar lessons on the side for about 6 months. Randall’s undergraduate study and the conservatory courses added a degree of musical structure to his improvisational ability, and gave him a strong music theory base. He recieved the premier prix for concert singing from the conservatory in 2001.

Randall’s most recent discoveries: how to build a structure for creating chords in open tunings, and learning how to structure placement of partial capos in standard and alternate tunings.