In a prison cell at Kongsvinger, a former policeman sits alone and strums a guitar. Eirik Jensen wants to learn to play while serving 21 years for corruption and drug offences. The instrument was sent to him by some supporters. – It’s a damn good guitar. So I drive it and sip on it. I play a lot of blues, he told VG this summer. But where does he get help to learn this, all on his own? Same place as everyone else. In Lillebjørn’s guitar book, of course. 18 EDITION: Lillebjørn’s guitar book in two different editions: On the left the original from 1973, on the right the slightly expanded edition from 1987, which was named “Lillebjørn’s big guitar book”. Photo: Oddvin Aune / news Next year it will be 50 years since this textbook was first published. Since then it has been printed in 18 editions and sold a staggering 200,000 copies. Very few – if any – technical books have sold more in Norway. Lillebjørn Nilsen has helped countless Norwegians to master the world’s most popular and popular instrument, whether they are hobbyists and nachspiel sufferers or our most skilled musicians. – The book is simply a national treasure, says artist Sondre Lerche. Loose sheets in a carrier bag The 72-year-old artist receives us at home in the apartment on Sagene in Oslo, where he lives with his wife Mairead. Here he allows himself to be interviewed for a documentary on news, where he looks back on his career. With songs such as “Alexander Kiellands plass”, “Tanta til Beate”, “Crescendo i gågata” and “Stilleste gutt på sovesal 1”, Lillebjørn Nilsen is behind some of the finest moments in Norwegian music history. Nevertheless, his guitar book may have left an even deeper mark. THE CITY SINGER: The guitar has always given Lillebjørn Nilsen security. – There is something about having an instrument next to the body. It kind of gives you a natural reference to the music, he says. Photo: Jon Anton Brekne / news As a 22-year-old, he cannot have known what kind of values he carried when one day in 1973 he joined Gyldendal publishing house in the center of Oslo. In his hand he held a shopping bag full of loose papers. The thick stack contained typewritten texts and hand-drawn sheet music and constituted the nearly finished script for a guitar playing textbook. Gyldendal agreed, and Lillebjørn took the bag with him to meet his friend and fellow troubadour Finn Kalvik at their regular watering hole. Lillebjørn tells: – After a couple of beers, Finn said: “What do you have in that bag ‘a Lillebjørn?’ “It’s going to be a textbook on guitar playing,” I said. “I have no faith in that,” replied Finn. They sat there all evening drinking beer. – Then I got home late to my dormitory, luckily without forgetting the plastic bag. Because if I had done it, it would have been serious, he says. – I have to say frankly that I have earned an insane amount of money on that book. An encouraging voice In radical Bokmål, Lillebjørn welcomes you to his guitar book and takes us back to where it all started for him: The book contains a little bit of each of the things that I have learned, stolen, heard, read and found out since I was a once at the age of 14 I came across a cracked old guitar during an attic clearance organized by the Oslo Fire Brigade in our street. He had an unusually short journey from finding an old, cracked guitar in the attic to becoming a famous artist. At just 15 years old, Lillebjørn, whose name was then Bjørn Falk Nilsen, joined the band The Young Norwegians together with Bjørn Morisse (Storebjørn) and eventually also Steinar Ofsdal. They released records and held a concert on TV, and the whole country got to know them first name. In 1973 he had a double breakthrough. He released his second solo album, “Portrett”, where the warm voice sings about children of the rainbow and being a street kid. The album topped the VG list for two months. In the same year, Lillebjørn’s guitar book was published. YOUNG TRUBADUR: At 18, Lillebjørn Nilsen was already a nationally known musician as a member of the band The Young Norwegians. Photo: Per Ervik / NTB The productive young man had already published a couple of books of wisdom. At the same time, he carried a dream of teaching people to play the guitar. Lillebjørn had never gone to a guitar teacher, but had learned a lot in the musician’s environment he was in, which was connected to the vice club Dolphins. – I have always felt like an educator, so I would like to share with others all the funny things I have found, he says. The book aims to be a complete instruction book for new guitarists. It offers sheet music and guitar tablature for songs in a wide range of genres, such as blues, shows and folk songs (hello sann, “Tom Dooley”), drawn instructions for chords, tips on various playing techniques, a buying guide for the guitar-less (- shall I buy with steel or nylon strings?), and so on. Illustration: Lillebjørn’s guitar book / Gyldendal Throughout, the book is characterized by Lillebjørn’s friendly, encouraging and personal narrative voice. Folk music guru Pete Seeger’s instruction book “How to play the 5-string banjo” was the great source of inspiration. Although Lillebjørn wrote the entire script, it was one of his closest friends, artist Steinar Ofsdal, who physically designed the book. Ofsdal says that Lillebjørn was dead serious about the book, and that it was important to him what kind of tone it should have. – There were not many other such books at the time that had the light and un-academic approach. At the same time, it was important to lift the show tradition of which we were a part. There were few singers who made a living from their profession before our generation, he says. Lillebjørn says that at the time there was a prejudice against singers, that they could barely play. – People thought it was about three moves, so they were probably a little surprised when they realized there was a little more. In the book, I start with the very simplest, before slowly taking it up. Singing artists with an acoustic guitar, or singer-songwriters, were a big thing in international pop music when the book came out. Everyone should have a house guitar. If you bought a guitar, Lillebjørn’s guitar book was as common an accessory as a piano stool for the piano buyer. OUTDOOR HOURS: City poet Lillebjørn Nilsen entertains children with his banjo. It would be very surprising if this photo was not taken in Oslo. Photo: Rune Myhre The birth attendant In 1987, the book had reached sales of 130,000 copies. At the same time, it was expanded and renamed “Lillebjørn’s big guitar book”. An hour-long supplementary instructional video was also made for the lucky pigs with a VHS player in the living room. In that context, Lillebjørn told Aftenposten about the response he had received to the book. – In these 13 years since the first one came, it has not happened once that I have stood in a ferry queue somewhere in Norway without someone coming up to me and telling me that they have used my book to learn play. Countless artists have cited Lillebjørn’s guitar book as a midwife for their own ability to play the guitar. Erlend Øye, Lauren Savoy, Thomas Dybdahl, Knut Schreiner, Bjørn Berge, Tuva Syvertsen and Frida Ånnevik, to name a few. Lillebjørn was a guest at Crown Prince Haakon’s 18th birthday in 1991, and the guitar-savvy, incoming regent could reveal that of course he also had Lillebjørn’s guitar book. Lillebjørn’s daughter, the artist Siri Nilsen, said at home that she wanted to learn to play the guitar. Then she was told by her father to look for the guitar book in a cardboard box under the stairs. – I think I got to page three before I put the book back on the shelf. Then I discovered the ukulele instead. When I opened a book on how to play the ukulele, of course it said that Lillebjørn Nilsen brought the ukulele to Norway. I didn’t escape there either, she told VG. THE GUITAR TEACHER: Lillebjørn Nilsen with his ukulele, one of the many stringed instruments he masters. Photo: Privat Marie Amdam, vocalist and guitarist in the now defunct pop band Razika, was in her early teens when she systematically worked her way through Lillebjørn’s guitar book. She had just realized that playing the guitar was much cooler than the piano. – I work in a library and had to go and look in the book again when you called. Just seeing the book cover took me back in time, she says. She believes that the book is a product of its time, and that not all the songs in it appealed to her equally. Still, it felt relevant and was good at explaining things simply. The knowledge she acquired, she used to go wild on the songbook with Beatles songs. – Lillebjørn’s guitar book provides quick mastery because he quickly gets us started playing songs. I immediately got a feeling of “shit, this went really well”, says Amdam and laughs. Artist Sondre Lerche remembers the guitar book as an outstretched hand. Already at the age of eight, he started taking guitar lessons, but it was a big disappointment for him. He received training in classical guitar playing, where there were strict requirements for technique and body position and little pop and rock on the menu. – Lillebjørn’s guitar book was much closer to the expectation I had of playing the guitar. It became the opposite of “footstool hell”, he says, laughing. GUITAR TIME: In 1983, Lillebjørn Nilsen visited the news program Hobby! to teach young viewers how to play the guitar. The presenter was Halvor Kleppen. Protecting a singing tradition Since Lillebjørn’s guitar book was published, we have all started to make use of a great invention called the “internet”. On the one hand, this can be a time stealer that destroys the necessary concentration needed to learn to play an instrument. At the same time, you will find instructional videos, chords and guitar tabs for millions of songs that you want to learn to play. Sondre Lerche was one of those who fired up the house printer when he discovered as a teenager that the internet was full of guitar tablature for the music he liked. An open question is whether there is a market for a new guitar book for our time. deLillos published a guitar book a few years ago which has sold approximately 15,000 copies. Lerche has also considered the idea, but it seems more natural that such a book is made by artists who sing in Norwegian. He believes that Lillebjørn’s guitar book is also relevant for today’s young people who want to learn to play. – The book preserves a singing tradition. Today’s popular music is created in a completely different image, and according to a different method. Lillebjørn’s guitar book will give an extra dimension in that it brings up and safeguards another tradition of songwriting. Illustration: LILLEBJØRN’S GUITAR BOOK / GYLDENDAL When Lillebjørn has talked about the guitar book in previous interviews, he has taken the opportunity to mission hard to learn to play an instrument. – The absolutely fundamental discovery that you can produce a tone yourself, I wish that to absolutely everyone, he has said. At the same time, he has reminded that nothing in life should be easy, and that you cannot learn anything without wanting to. Just get started, was the admonition. GOOD NIGHT OSLO: Lillebjørn Nilsen has had the fretboard on his guitar modified to match his declaration of love for Oslo. Photo: Jon Anton Brekne / news Still, maybe it’s not always that simple? Even if you are never so motivated, it can be difficult to get over the problem. Some are just left with deep frustration and sore fingertips. Even Sondre Lerche agrees that it is extremely difficult to learn to play. – As fond of music as I was: For the first two or three years I understood little. It was very difficult to get the fingers to move and retract. I have a lot of sympathy for anyone who tries to learn to play a social and useful instrument, he says. But those who make it, make a friend for life. Lillebjørn can thus smile in the rear-view mirror, knowing that he has redeemed countless close friendships. Also some secret ones. Once, while eating with his family at a restaurant, he noticed a group sitting at the next table. They had long, black-dyed hair and obviously played in a hard metal band. As the band was about to leave, one of them came over and said: “Little bear, we’ve all played from that guitar book of yours.” Before he added: “But don’t tell anyone, then.” DOCUMENTARY: On Christmas Day, news’s documentary about Lillebjørn Nilsen premieres, where he tells his own story about music, fame and an eternal longing for peace. Recommended further reading:
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