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Location: Canada | So we had some reports of the evil b-major chord and what to do about it. Now in a similar manner, is there a "basic" song you have been struggling with that you wish you could play, but some reason just can't?
I have a long list of these nemesis songs, and partially can blame it on my total lack of discipline when it comes to practicing. I only play 12-string (6756lx) and one song I thought would sound great and suit my voice was "Message in a Bottle". So I tried to figure it out, and for me this song is a SOB I can get it done REALLY slow, like note by note but not in the fluent way it's supposed to be played. Maybe my hands are just too small for the span required, but I'm also wondering if there is some trick to playing this or a practice pattern? |
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Location: Sydney, Australia | One practice pattern is to find the bad bit - whether it's two notes or two bars - and just play them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ... |
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Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | Never heard of that song |
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Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | But when you are done practicing don't forget to play it over again! |
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Location: Canada | nerdydave - 2013-03-23 7:13 PM
Never heard of that song
Oh boy, not the best video here but the first that came up on google. The part I am struggling with is visible for a bit on the telecaster in the foreground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE
or here is a more recent solo version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zru9S4i09GU
Thought it would be a nice one to acousticize on 12-string.
Edited by d'ovation 2013-03-23 7:36 PM
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Location: Michigan | i prefer this one as far as sting doing it solo . GWB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEBbIq2atrw |
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Location: New Bern, NC | I have never been able to figure out all the nuances of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel," although I admit I have never really tried that hard to figure it out. I bet I could find a hundred tutorials on YouTube for it if I looked now. LOL. "Angel" is my favorite Jimi Hendrix song. |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | A song that I think I play reasonably well is James Taylor's 'Fire and Rain', BUT there is a particular note I can NEVER sing right. It's not a high note or a difficult note, I just can't seem to find it. It's the last note of the second and fourth line in each verse. For example... 'I just can't remember who to send it TO' 'I won't make it any other WAY' '...In pieces on the GROUND' Not at all difficult, unless you're me...
Edited by muzza 2013-03-23 11:24 PM
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Location: Flahdaw | I change that note up sometimes anyway, after hearing JT sing that live during the 911 concert. He sang that note a step up....sounded really cool, so I adopted it |
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Location: Italia, Zianigo di Mirano (Venezia) | nerdydave - 2013-03-24 2:13 AM
Never heard of that song .... and then run immediately to listen. great song and great riff
Edited by titti191730cm 2013-03-24 8:06 AM
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Location: Utah | I find some artists really mesh into my internal wiring, whereas others conflict with my sense of timing or note selection. The ones that mesh I can play without too much struggle even if they are technically difficult. But the ones that conflict with my musical internal programming I have a hard time playing even if it is technically easy. I may love listening to their music but I really struggle playing it. |
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Location: Michigan | i have been working on guinevere by david crosby for about 4 months and i am almost at the stage of getting thru it without to many missed notes but then i cant sing worth a s%#t so it is so frustrating to me that when i do play it decently i have to keep my mouth shut and pretend that i hear those great vocals that crosby & nash do on it . the frustration will never end for if i ever do nail playing the song i will never be able to sing it,so i will most likely implode one day while playing and trying to sing it.GWB |
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Location: Texas | GWB,
What tuning are you using for Guinnevere ?
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Location: Michigan | starting at the low to high i use ( e b d g a d ) i don't know if that is a special tuning or not i just picked it up on a you tube cover . GWB |
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Location: Texas | guitarwannabee - 2013-03-24 12:55 PM
starting at the low to high i use ( e b d g a d ) i don't know if that is a special tuning or not i just picked it up on a you tube cover . GWB
I believe that's the tuning he used on the original recording. Crosby did a (mostly) solo version last summer on the C,S&N tour. Despite his age, previous lifestyle, and abuse his body has been through, his voice is still remarkably intact. His Guinnevere that night was gorgeous, at the end there was a quiet moment when you could hear the word "wow" murmuring through the crowd before the thunderous applause started.
For what it's worth, in my opinion (double cliché: 5 points!) the only person who can sing remotely like David Crosby is David Crosby, so anybody else tackling Guinnevere is better off giving it their own spin anyway. If you've got the guitar part down, maybe you could record it, then work on your version of the vocal while singing along to your recording until it feels right to you, then try them together?
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Location: Michigan | as dirty harry once said " a mans got to know his limitations " and singing is where the slogan applies to me . GWB |
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Location: Michigan | standing, you said it was a csn concert so did crosby do the song without graham nash backing him on vocals? that would be rare.
i think that graham nash brings out allot in that song.
GWB |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | guitarwannabee - 2013-03-25 1:34 AM i have been working on guinevere by david crosby for about 4 months and i am almost at the stage of getting thru it without to many missed notes... ...GWB Well done. I love that song but when I think about learning it, I think it's too hard to even think about - so my thinking stops me thinking about it. I think. Maybe I think too much. Maybe I should just have a crack. Any YouTube lessons you can recommend? |
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Location: Jet City | darkbarguitar - 2013-03-24 4:44 AM I change that note up sometimes anyway, after hearing JT sing that live.. So... "JT" has pretty much lost the status of being "JT" in the mainstream audiences. I found this out the hard way, it made me feel my age. I was with a friend at a local concert, and she brought her workmate, a gal just about hittin' 30 I think. Well they were chatting away, and I heard her say "Yeah, we're going to go see JT next week, he's playing down at...." And I got all excited and said, "Oh, I love James Taylor, I wonder if there are still tickets available!" She looked at me like I was from another planet and said, "Who the hell is James Taylor??? I'm talking about Justin Timberlake!" After seeing him on Fallon, SNL, etc. I gotta say, he's taken the title. I hate to say it, but he's actually one hell of a performer and was very entertaining. |
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Location: Michigan | muzza this is the you tube video that i used,and as it seemed impossible to me when i first tried it . it has allot to do with finger picking the right strings at the right time. that was the hardest part for me. i also don't practice very much so it might not be as hard as you think. good luck on it and let us know how your'e doing with it. GWB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aiBIzjZvtU
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Location: Texas | guitarwannabee - 2013-03-24 4:04 PM
standing, you said it was a csn concert so did crosby do the song without graham nash backing him on vocals? that would be rare.
i think that graham nash brings out allot in that song.
GWB
I agree with you that their two voices together are the definitive version. I seem to recall that when they did it last summer, Crosby sung the first verse solo, then Graham joined in, but the only half-decent video I could find from that tour has Graham singing the entire song, (as it was on the record,) so, my memory may be incorrect (as it often is these days…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1lqoIwvBjc
Better still, while searching for a 2012 version, I found an amazing video of them doing Guinnevere in 1970:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPvOTVVbMko
I don't use words like "breathtaking" very often, but I can't think of a better description of that 1970 performance. Wow!
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Location: cincinnati, ohio | CSN does a great version of "Guinnevere" on the "CSN 2012" Blu-Ray. I saw that tour when they came to Cincinnati last summer. Great show; the best CSN's been in years. |
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Location: Flahdaw | My "nemesis" songs would be "Pretzel Logic"/ Steely Dan and "Stay Close To Me"/ Tommy Emmanuel. I can play them satisfactorily for my ears, until I try to record them. I must have tried 50 times, never happy with the outcome. Pisses me off.... |
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Location: cincinnati, ohio | Wow! Steely Dan and Tommy Emmanuel...I consider playing their songs and then chuckle at my own audacity for even THINKING of trying to attempt them. I can't think of a song either of them do that I could pull off, Bob. You set the bar very high for yourself - but I've heard you play, and I think you could pull them off.
Edited by rick endres 2013-04-04 10:02 AM
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Location: Denver, CO | I don't play guitar well enough to even comment, but as a drummer...back in the day there was Jeff Porcaro's "Rosanna," which I never did master, and Larry Mullen, Jr. with the groove he laid down for "Bullet the Blue Sky." Funny that Garibaldi and Peart were moderately challenging, but the most difficult grooves are usually just that: grooves. |
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Location: Northwest Arkansas | For you James Taylor folks. He's giving lessons on his own songs. They're on his site. He's said he always wanted to do it, well now he has. Interesting. They put a camera on the inside so you can see his fingers. |
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Location: cincinnati, ohio | Great lessons too. One thing to keep in mind with James Taylor - he plays garden variety 1st position chords with unorthodox fingerings, especially the plain old D. So if you can't quite get it to sound like him, you probably have to change your fretting fingers positioning. Watch JT's fretting fingers; sometimes they look tortured... |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I just watched a video on justinguitars last night on Fire and Rain. He explains some of JT's unusual fingerings for A and D. |
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Location: Flahdaw | That's kinda where I draw the line doing covers. I'm NOT going to relearn how to play chords just so I can sound EXACTLY like someone else. I'll just have to leave the unique hammer-ons to JT and play his stuff my own way... |
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Location: sitting at my computer | darkbarguitar - I'm NOT going to relearn how to play chords just so I can sound EXACTLY like someone else. +1 I just play JT with my own "unorthodox" style. Him and everybody else!!!  The lessons are still great though, never know, might try something new, like it and start using it. The more I learn, the more I learn there is to learn. |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | JT is the only other person I know, other than the person that taught me, that plays a D like I do. |
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Location: Michigan | + 1 to bobg and sobeach , the songs i play are most likely about 80% actual and 20 % the way i learned them or the only way i can play the chords or notes just as long as it sounds right. i have a friend that plays and he has to play every song the exact way it was written by the artist and it drives me nuts to hear him tell me that was not the right chord you just played it should of been an a minor , it drives me crazy . he loves the beatles so now when he sings their songs he has put on a english accent to try and make himself sound like john or paul , i won't be surprised if he doesn't go out and get some beatle boots and a sargent pepper outfit when plays out next. GWB |
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Location: cincinnati, ohio | I play a D with my middle, ring, and pinky fingers, which leaves my index finger free to find bass notes and runs. I play a weird A, too - imagine a regular D fingering, but played all on one fret. My fingers are big and not excessively long and get in each other's way. With all that, I manage to do a pretty fair approximation of JT - but I don't try to play exactly like him. Let's face it - only James Taylor can play like James Taylor.
And only I can play like Rick Endres.
Edited by rick endres 2013-04-08 7:14 PM
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Location: sitting at my computer | rick endres - Let's face it - only James Taylor can play like James Taylor. yup! and that's what makes him JT, well that and the fact that he played it that way before anybody else did. I've seen musicians change up their own stuff from the "original" version. And seen 'em goof up their own stuff too. To each their own, but I'm not interested in being a technically precise robot. Might as well just play a CD for the audience. imho ymmv
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Location: Miami | FlySig - 2013-03-24 10:13 AM
I find some artists really mesh into my internal wiring, whereas others conflict with my sense of timing or note selection. The ones that mesh I can play without too much struggle even if they are technically difficult. But the ones that conflict with my musical internal programming I have a hard time playing even if it is technically easy. I may love listening to their music but I really struggle playing it.
+1! |
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do you have a nemesis song or remedy?