Entertainment For Lively Minds
Aspiring Guitar Players
Posted by carabara on 6 August 2010 - 9:49am.
I suspect this site is littered with with amateur guitarists like myself. I'm wrestling with Time Of No Reply by Nick Drake at the minute which is in a brain melting CFCFCF tuning.
Just wondered what songs others are attempting at the moment and what your party piece is - I can just about manage a passable Blackbird. Also any good internet tab sites anyone can recommend?
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Eulogy To Lennie Bruce
I've grappled with this over the years and can never nail it (beyond the intro & first verse, anyway).
Just invested in a decent acoustic guitar at last and, unbelievably, even that hasn't helped…
Been playing this a lot recently, though - it's a two-chord wonder, but slightly tricky to get the picking+vocals spot-on.
I'm also a big fan of noodling in DADGAD. It's one of those tunings where almost anything you play sounds good.
tunings
Being a fan of John Martyn I love the idea of playing in different tunings. I have no problem getting the guitar into alternative tunings but having done so I grind to a halt as I dont know what to do with the bloody thing beyond general noodling as I cant fathom how to voice chords!
Very frustrating!
6 months after starting lessons....
This is my party piece. Quite easy to play, really, but people seem impressed by it:
I'm now working on this. A lot more of a challenge:
But I really want to master some Jethro Tull acoustic stuff...but Ian Anderson doesn't make life easy with some insane rhythms and horrible chords.
Ian Anderson
Just came across this post.
IA is a very clever guitar player, but he has a few tricks he reuses especially on the early stuff. It's invariably in A or D with a capo, and he uses lots of pulled off or hammered on suspensions and little half chords. This might help
http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/TRA/Ian_Andersons_acoustic...
Also
Ignore what he says about finger picking the solo bit. It's all flat picked. You have to think through the up and down strokes but it works a treat with half an hour's practice.
BTW - Life's a long song is on A with a capo at the 7th fret so you're playing in D.
Have fun.
At the risk of blowing my own trumpet...
... (or should that be twanging my own G string?) I am proud to say that after many years I finally mastered the solo to The Pretenders "Kid" a couple of years ago.
I tried learning "Pink Moon" but gave up.
I often stumble through
Fruit Tree, again a most unusual tuning - BBDGBE I think. I lack the delicate touch and sense of rhythm - it sounds more like "Swede Tree" when I play it.
Anyone bought the Richard Thompson Songbooks yet? I was hoping for a tab fest, but the examples that were published looks a bit Chord/Vocal
RT Songbook
I was tempted to splash out on the RT Songbook collection but was worried they might be beyond my ability. would love to hear from anyone who bought them for a review.
You can play the 'Kid' solo? I'm impressed!
One of the reasons I stopped playing guitar was that I knew I'd never be able to do that in a million years. Quite possibly my favourite guitar solo ever.
RT
"Vincent Black Lightning" by Richard Thompson is the one which generally gets people's attention - very odd tuning - CGDGBE capoed at the third fret. It took me a few months off and on to get a reasonable approximation of the guitar part, only to discover it is then almost impossible to sing it at the same time...so a few months after that it was dooable. Worth all the hard work though.
Chord sites - I find Chordie.com most useful as it has a transposition feature which is useful, and a proper print function. In my experience most of them are wrong though if the song is in any way complex but provide a basis for working it out.
***shamelessly namedropping***
In 1995 I started helping out at London radio station GLR and got to sit in on a session RT was doing for the Johnnie Walker programme. Afterwards I met him briefly and asked if he'd mind showing me the chords to Beeswing, which he did. The trouble was I was so in awe of him that I completely failed to pay attention. All I could think was "Richard Thompson is teaching me guitar! Richard Thompson is teaching me guitar!"
Guitar Noise
I find Guitar Noise (http://www.guitarnoise.com/)the most comprehensive and interesting guitar site. There's something there for any level of expertise and interest and David Hodge's patient step-by-step articles about musical theory and suggested ways of playing certain classic standards are always illuminating. It makes a good accompaniment to the mainstream chord and tab sites.
And it's all free.
My new VG Strat arrived the other day.
You can click it straight into a variety of tunings. First job is to work out Watch The Sunrise by Big Star.
Can't do the twiddly bits
I've tried but just not dextrous enough (or just need more practice)
Strictly Rhythm and strumming for me.
Favourite Plays:
Maggie May
Pretty Vacant
Teenage kicks
New Rose
The Passenger
Nothing Ever Happens
Most of the AC/DC songbook (Big Balls and Highway to Hell being the most accomplished)
Streets Of London
Daydream Believer
and a just about passable version of And Your Bird Can Sing
www.ultimate-guitar.com is a good resource
Also have a copy of GuitarPro5 which is a useful learning tool.
"Can't do the twiddly bits"
If ever there were a guitar expression written for me..
I'm with you, Rigid. Let's find someone with an ego and too much spare time who wants to play lesd.
It Occurred To Me
that the reason most guitarists make it look so easy is they usually wrote the bloody thing in the first place. And also many of the commercially available tabs are wrong, wrong, wrong. At the end of the day you will look more competent if you think up some of your own licks. Learn some basic blues licks and take it from there. That's how Nick Drake started, after all.
That Paul Simon is a bugger to play
at least for an incompetent E-A-D-C-G hacker like me. But my party piece is '50 ways to leave your lover'. Can't say anyone's much impressed by it though.
Paul Simon
I'm impressed.
Have tried this song - too many 'jazzy' chords for my little fingers to manage. Can just about busk Me And Julio......though. Would dearly love to be able to play his song Hearts And Bones.
Paul Simon
I'm impressed.
Have tried this song - too many 'jazzy' chords for my little fingers to manage. Can just about busk Me And Julio......though. Would dearly love to be able to play his song Hearts And Bones.
Anyone who wants it - Wichita Lineman!
This is a goodie. Not too hard to play, very impressive, and these chords came from Glen Campbell who ought to know them.
Bass solo?
Is it? It sounds to me like a guitar in baritone tuning as per Duane Eddy.
I think
That is from a gig I did where the bass player played it, rather than the original. I agree, it sounds more like a baritone!
Fender Bass VI...
...if I'm not much mistaken.
EDIT: yep. It's a Bass VI - I looked it up. Nothing sounds quite like them, and they're utterly beautiful.
Blimey..
What a thing!
Never heard of or seen one of them before. I must away to Wikipedia to learn more. Fine spot, Idiotbear. Once again, The Massive comes up trumps.
And what does Wikipedia say?
"The Fender Bass VI, originally known as the Fender VI, is a six-string electric bass or Scale Baritone Guitar by Fender."
So I was right with my original point. But Idiotbear was more right than me.
If you're interested in the Bass VI...
...I'm a founder member of www.offsetguitars.com , which has a TON of information about Bass VIs, Jazzmasters, Jaguars and all the other offset-waist Fenders (and other brands).
Let me know if you want me to nerd out at you: I've got most of this stuff from memory by now. It's genuinely tragic.
I'm rubbish at acoustic guitar.
My fingerpicking is rubbish, except where I've made up the part myself. I'm really bad at copying "real" fingerpicking, and I will never ever be able to play any Nick Drake.
However, give me the right electric guitar (I'm a bit fussy, and tend to get on best with Jazzmasters) and with a bit of practice I can make a decent fist of most things except the very very quick stuff.
To be honest, the stuff that makes me happiest to play these days is the old balls-out rock business. I get a lot of pleasure from playing The Hold Steady, and recently got the solo from "Lord, I'm Discouraged" down pretty much note for note.
It's at 3.00 exactly.
Right now, I'm finally trying to nail the Sweet Child O' Mine solo. It's really a genuine classic bit of playing: inventive, exciting and singable. Everything you want - I must have listened to this solo a thousand times, and it still makes the hairs on my arms stand up.
It's at 2:52.
A Lovin' Spoonful
I'm trying to get a bit of finger fluency with Darling Be Home Soon.
The Cult
I am now wrestling with She Sells Sanctuary. Sounds OK till I play along with the record...then it's back to the drawing board ( or should I say the fingerboard! ).
Folsom Prison Blues
I can pick away at the solo to this without too much hassle and am pretty proud of the fact. However, anything too fancy and my fingers tend to wander elsewhere. Talking of tunings, I've just bought a lap steel. How hard can it be, I said to myself. Answer.... bloody hard.
Good fun though.