At the turn of the last century (sounds great doesn't it
) I had the great fortune for a number of years to go to an annual weekend guitar workshop that Martin Simpson hosted in Little Grove, Chesham. I learned so much that shapes my playing and arranging now on guitar and it was a real turning point. Amongst other things we got to see the evolution of a lot of the material that became Martin's "The Bramble Briar" CD. At the 2000 workshop Martin played us one of his "works in progress" - his arrangement in DADGAD of "With A Little Help From My Friends" in the Joe Cocker style rather than from Sgt Pepper. This was a fabulous "constant motion" arrangement in Martin's trademark style that haunted me. Martin kindly allowed us to video the Workshops and from these I tabbed and transcribed what he played. Martin's "works in progress" can take years or decades to evolve and I haven't heard him play it in concert or record it. A couple of months ago I found the tab I had written down and became immersed in it and added a few bits of my own (you can easily tell those 
) - this is essentially Martin's composition though. I finally got a version complete enough to record using my (or rather my daughter Suzie's 
) Euro spruce/Black Limba 13 frets clear Grand Concert with 24.9" scale length:
The title seems appropriate for a Forum where friends hang out to talk about instruments they make and play so I thought I'd run it past you all to see what you think:
With A Little Help From My Friends
