The Guitarist Way

Even in Michael Chapman’s vast and wildly diverse catalog of releases, Playing Guitar the Easy Way is an outlier. Issued in 1978 during his association with Criminal Records, this is the innovative and storied guitarist’s instructional album. Like all things Chapman, this one has a twist or two. For starters, it can be listened to on its own. The music is played on acoustic six- and twelve-string guitars—there is even an electric piece in “English Musick”— that come off as standalone originals and/or original derivations on folk standards.

After two successful years and three seminal albums, violinist Darryl Way departed Curved Air in search of a tougher, heavier sound. Gathering a trio of little known musicians around him - future Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge, vocalist/bassist and future Caravan member Dek Messecar, and future Trace and Marillion drummer Ian Mosley, Darryl Way swiftly inked a deal with Decca's Deram imprint.
The band's debut, Canis Lupus, was produced by King Crimson's Ian McDonald, who also provided his own piano skills to "Chanson Sans Paroles," one of a clutch of stellar instrumentals on the set. Here the band create a series of shifting moods, incorporating classical, rock, and jazz elements into the piece…