Photo courtesy John Stropes
John Stropes with Gibson harp guitar
John Stropes with a Gibson harp guitar in the Chapman Mansion on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee in the 1980s.
John Stropes was a pioneer finger-style guitar teacher. As chairman of Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s guitar program in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and founder-director of UWM’s finger-style guitar program, he broke ground by establishing a pedagogy around a distinctive playing style with deep roots in American folk, country and blues. Stropes was inspired by the recordings of Leo Kottke, starting with his seminal 1969 LP, 6-and 12-String Guitar on the indie Takoma label.
Recently, working with guitarist Benjamin Kammin, Stropes published 6- and 12-String Guitar: A Companion, a handsomely designed, two-volume set of Kottke transcriptions plus commentary and interviews with the guitarist. “Frankly, I was overwhelmed by a musician doing something so interesting,” Stropes said, recalling the 1969 album’s impact. He was turned on to 6- and 12-String Guitar by his brother, who worked at Milwaukee’s musically venturesome record shop chain, 1812 Overture. “It became my mission to teach finger-style guitar, to make it available” to a wider audience.
Leo Kottke 6-and-12-String Guitar: A Companion by John Stropes and Benjamin Kammin
Stropes was in touch with Kottke about publishing transcriptions as far back as the early ‘80s. “His initial response was ‘No’!” Stropes says, but persistence and the power of example paid off. Published under the imprint of Stropes Editions Ltd., the Finger-Style Guitar book caught Kottke’s eye. So, when Milwaukee sheet music giant Hal Leonard approached Kottke about publishing transcriptions of his music, the guitarist tapped Stropes for the task. The resulting Hal Leonard book, Eight Songs (1986), exposed Kottke to a new audience of guitarists. Stropes’ latest venture in transcription, 6- and 12-String Guitar: A Companion, also includes archival photographs and testifies to Kottke’s devotion to his music. Quote: “The guitar required me. It really saved my skin and gave me a life.”
Kottke’s music poses challenges for transcribers. Not unlike jazz artists, he’s not a note-by-note composer but often improvises as the spirit moves his fingers. “He likes being out there, going to the end of the branch, and you’ll never know where he’ll jump next,” Stropes says. He adds that Kottke never comes to a concert with a set list. “Leo might know the song he’ll start with and the song he’ll end with, but in between, he’ll let it happen.”
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Mindful of those challenges, Stropes thinks of his transcriptions as equivalent to literary translations as he “moves from audible sound to the printed page—it’s a complement to the original.”
Photo courtesy of John Stropes
John Stropes - Music of Leo Kottke Summer Workshop (2012)
John Stropes teaching at the Music of Leo Kottke summer workshop in 2012
In 2008 Stropes began conducting Leo Kottke workshops at UWM, drawing students from as far as Europe and Australia. He became an amanuensis, Kottke’s Boswell. “Leo is like my best friend. He’s the most brilliant guy, a voracious reader, the nicest, most generous person,” says Stropes.
In addition to Stropes Editions, which published a similar book on Michael Hedges and individual transcriptions of music by Alex de Grassi, Willy Porter and a dozen other guitarists, Stropes has amassed “the world’s largest archive of print, audio and video resources relating to finger-style guitar,” including sheet music from the 19th and sound recordings from the 20th centuries.
