Graham
Venerated Member
Working on Operator by Jim Croce. The fingers are starting to cooperate more lately. :mrgreen:
ok then, what song are you perfecting right now?
- Thread starter dreadnut
- Start date
"Northwest Passage" by Stan Rodgers - but I may have to admit defeat and realize it's better acapella...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZetHPFxJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZetHPFxJk
JimBetts
Member
Well, I wouldn’t say I’m perfecting any song but I thought I’d add to this post with what I’m working on…
I’m working out the final details of Clapton’s Tears in Heaven. I just need to work out a couple changes and I’ll have it.
I’ve begun working on McCartney’s Blackbird. I’m really excited about playing this one.
Yes, obviously, I’m still a beginning player but I love the sound and challenge of finger picking.
I’m working out the final details of Clapton’s Tears in Heaven. I just need to work out a couple changes and I’ll have it.
I’ve begun working on McCartney’s Blackbird. I’m really excited about playing this one.
Yes, obviously, I’m still a beginning player but I love the sound and challenge of finger picking.
Hey JB, I love "Tears In Heaven", my friend fingerpicks it on the guitar and I play some soft harmonious runs in the background on the mandolin 
Keep pickin' JB!
Keep pickin' JB!
Graham
Venerated Member
JimBetts said:
You're ahead of me Jim, I struggle with Blackbird still. What's the second note to that anyway?
Dr Izza Plumber
Senior Member
Toyin' with Dan Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band", and Tull's "Mother Goose".
Qvart
Senior Member
JimBetts said:
Hmm, looks like we need a solid-body rep here.
I usually plug in and ad lib something in pentatonic / major scales, with some barre chords. Play a bit randomly until a little detail stands out, then work it into a riff of some sort.
The old S-100 doesn't lend itself to certain styles of picking, like triplets and palm muting. Those are a bit easier on the '96. But the '94 is definitely a jamming guitar and somehow makes me want to bend strings a lot. The tones resonate so long and clear I end up listening to the sounds that come out of it more so than actual song playing.
I don't work so much on perfecting songs as occasionally playing along with an album and working up some kind of fills that fit with it. That way I never really get tired of the tunes. Clutch is a must for this. I find myself playing "Escape from the Prison Planet" a lot. It's a killer basic platform kind of song that one could build all kinds of structures around. Sabbath and AC/DC work well too. Even the S-90 pulls of the Angus sound freakishly well.
When I finger pick I play "Tears in Heaven" a bit. I've forgotten a lot of it and don't have the patience to try to recover what I knew without a copy of it handy, but that's really the only one I know a substantial amount of. And I don't have an acoustic at the moment. Guess I'll have to walk in the other room to borrow one and then get back to you (but it's a - gasp! - Larivee).
That's my $.02 (SPPU - Standard PayPal Units).
-Geoff.
Graham
Venerated Member
Qvart said:
What model Larry, Geoff? I played an LV-09 the other day that was just stellar. I like them very much!
JimBetts
Member
I really have a desire to play fingerpicking songs and my fingers are ssssooooorrrrreeeeee. I haven't worked on Tears in Heaven in a couple of days, all of my practice has been with Blackbird. It's coming along slowly.
Graham
Venerated Member
JimBetts said:
Slow and steady wins the race. I should know, I am now, officially, the smartest person in grade 3. :mrgreen:
"Boys of Summer" Henley/Eagles... I'm working out a rhythm part by ear, finger picking. Em, C, D/A with ring finger on the B string 3rd fret and some pinky hammering on the high E string 2nd/3rd frets. It sounds good. If I ever start recording, I'll have to play it for you guys on one of my F-50Rs. Unfortunately the singing octave is, well, a little challenging for el-Chazmo.
And, by the way, "perfecting" is surely a euphemism in my case.
And, by the way, "perfecting" is surely a euphemism in my case.
JimBetts
Member
Chazmo said:
True for me too
john_kidder
Senior Member
My first entry to this lengty and interesting thread.
I'm working on Phil Ochs' tune "When I'm Gone", to sing a a political meeting tomorrow for a friend who has been a tireless campaigner for the common good all his life. For those that don't know it, the song's all about the things we won't be able to do when we're gone, and the refrain is "So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here".
Pretty simple tune, in E but with Ochs' characteristic sprinkling of all the minor chords in the key signature, and never a fourth to be found. Fun to play up the neck starting in the seventh position and dicking about from there, coming back to first position for the refrain and (one hopes) the resounding sing-along.
I'm working on Phil Ochs' tune "When I'm Gone", to sing a a political meeting tomorrow for a friend who has been a tireless campaigner for the common good all his life. For those that don't know it, the song's all about the things we won't be able to do when we're gone, and the refrain is "So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here".
Pretty simple tune, in E but with Ochs' characteristic sprinkling of all the minor chords in the key signature, and never a fourth to be found. Fun to play up the neck starting in the seventh position and dicking about from there, coming back to first position for the refrain and (one hopes) the resounding sing-along.
john_kidder
Senior Member
zzrider said:
Now see what you done done. That's one of my all-time favourite songs.
I don't know where you're located, but if you ever get to Vancouver, let's go down to the Wolf and Hound and sing that tune together. It was written for acapella performance, and it's a rouser. I saw Stan sing it a number of times, and his brother Garnett now does a most unusual, highly electrified version in his solo act.
In the Stan Rogers songbook, Stan says that someone jumped up after a performance of the song in Halifax and shouted "By god, you've written a new national anthem". Sure feels that way to me - I was born in the north, learned all the stories about the explorers he mentions, and whenever I come back to Vancouver from our place in Ashcroft I get to "crack the mountain ramparts" and "race the roaring Fraser to the sea".
It's such a loss that that none of us will hear Stan's magnificent voice again - when he died at 33 he was just beginning his work of a whole new Canadian songbook.
JerryR
Enlightened Member
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JimBetts said:
How are the calluses coming along
JimBetts
Member
They're coming along just fine. In the beginning it was weird not have feeling in my fingertips but I've gotten use to it.
john_kidder said:
I had never heard of Stan Rogers before reading this thread... But now I've watched his stuff on YouTube and bought a couple of his albums on iTunes... You've made my Friday...and I'm going to start learning 45 Years this weekend...
I love it when a thread leads somewhere exciting...
Rc
GardMan
Enlightened Member
I was introduced to Stan's music by a friend in the summer of '83, just after his death. I remember hearing the news of the plane fire that killed him, not knowing at the time the effect it would have on my music. He had a magnificent voice and a true gift for telling the stories of his people... and all people... in song.
One of these days, I am going to have to get a new copy of his songbook... mine has seen so much use it's falling apart.
Qvart
Senior Member
Graham said:
I have no idea. Doesn't say on it:
There's also this Dean - SWOOD JCR
And this 5-string Michael Kelly bass - ST-AB5/NA
(I can only do crappy cell phone pics today)
They all belong to my housemate. The Larrivee and Dean he got from a guy he works with who keeps his guitars immaculate but doesn't know anything about setting them up. And they both need it.
I think I'll try them out this week while I have the place to myself. And the electrics too with my Marshall cranked up to 'leven!
Actually, it goes to TWENTY!!!
\m/ -_- \m/