"Vincent" by Don McLean (cover)

[Mr. Paul]

Fantastic job Glenn on a fabulous song. This record is full of beautiful melodies and this may be the most gorgeous of all. As always, in awe of the quality of your recordings as well

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Mr. Paul

Fantastic job Glenn on a fabulous song. This record is full of beautiful melodies and this may be the most gorgeous of all. As always, in awe of the quality of your recordings as well

Hi Paul,

How very gratifying to hear from you, Paul! Thank you for the kind words on my rendition of this great song and on the recording quality.

I also very much agree with you on the "American Pie" album of 1971. It really was a great album and perhaps Don McLean's very best!

- Glenn

[martingitdave]

Glenn,

Your guitar work is much more intricate then my "watered down" version. Were you able to find notation, or did get it all by ear? Very impressive!


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[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Glenn,

Your guitar work is much more intricate then my "watered down" version. Were you able to find notation, or did get it all by ear? Very impressive!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Hi Dave,

Thank you for the kind words on my video, Dave. Much appreciated!

Regarding how to play the song, I first listened to a couple of YouTube recordings of Don McLean, shown below.



This is a live version, but the poor guy's guitar is out of tune...



I did a search for chords and lyrics and found this as an example. I didn't follow these chords all that closely, because to my ear they weren't all that accurate. I also found that I needed to find a few sources for the lyrics because the lyrics in these arrangements were not always correct, either.

I never did write down what I was using for chords. I played with Don McLean's recording (the first version, above) and played it as closely to his version as I thought reasonable. I ended up printing out a version of the lyrics with no chords and in large type font so that I could read it without glasses, and I practiced off that to get the words memorized as accurately as possible. It seemed that my choice of chords most of the time was more intuitive than memorized.

So, I guess I did a lot of this by ear. The key of G is fairly easy for me after all these years of figuring out songs off the radio and records for top-40 songs, which I did for years. After a while, a person gets pretty good at this ear thing. And Don McLean's playing style is so very similar to mine, that this wasn't terribly hard for me.

When I sat down to record the song, I really hadn't worked very hard at the instrumental intro that I came up with. So, I muffed around with that until I actually worked it out while I was recording this. I felt a little stupid, but fortunately, nobody gets to see my fumblings.

If you would like me to write down what I did and post the chords and lyrics here, I will do that. Let me know.

Or, for those interested in learning the song from the video, I could post a version of this song showing only my left fretting hand and then list the chords on the video as the video plays. That might be kind of interesting.

Thanks again, Dave!

- Glenn

[flatbaroque]

Super Glen.What a song!You gave it the class it deserves.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by flatbaroque

Super Glen.What a song!You gave it the class it deserves.

Hi FB,

Thank you very much, FB! I so appreciate the kind words and your generous comments.

- Glenn

[Looburst]

Very nicely done, Glenn! Boy, I'm glad you're covering all these early 1970s hits so I don't have to. LOL, I cut my teeth on all this stuff too, but then I started listening to Sly and the family Stone and something happened. By the time the album "Living On The Fault Line" came out in late 77' by the Doobies, I thought I was half black.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Looburst

Very nicely done, Glenn! Boy, I'm glad you're covering all these early 1970s hits so I don't have to. LOL, I cut my teeth on all this stuff too, but then I started listening to Sly and the family Stone and something happened. By the time the album "Living On The Fault Line" came out in late 77' by the Doobies, I thought I was half black.

Thank you, Perry. I do like these songs, even if they go back a ways in time.

I never got into Sly and the Family Stone, but I sure listened to a lot of Doobie Brothers' music. I liked that combination of acoustic and electric instruments that so many bands were doing back then.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

- Glenn

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Hi Dave,

Thank you for the kind words on my video, Dave. Much appreciated!

Regarding how to play the song, I first listened to a couple of YouTube recordings of Don McLean, shown below.



This is a live version, but the poor guy's guitar is out of tune...



I did a search for chords and lyrics and found this as an example. I didn't follow these chords all that closely, because to my ear they weren't all that accurate. I also found that I needed to find a few sources for the lyrics because the lyrics in these arrangements were not always correct, either.

I never did write down what I was using for chords. I played with Don McLean's recording (the first version, above) and played it as closely to his version as I thought reasonable. I ended up printing out a version of the lyrics with no chords and in large type font so that I could read it without glasses, and I practiced off that to get the words memorized as accurately as possible. It seemed that my choice of chords most of the time was more intuitive than memorized.

So, I guess I did a lot of this by ear. The key of G is fairly easy for me after all these years of figuring out songs off the radio and records for top-40 songs, which I did for years. After a while, a person gets pretty good at this ear thing. And Don McLean's playing style is so very similar to mine, that this wasn't terribly hard for me.

When I sat down to record the song, I really hadn't worked very hard at the instrumental intro that I came up with. So, I muffed around with that until I actually worked it out while I was recording this. I felt a little stupid, but fortunately, nobody gets to see my fumblings.

If you would like me to write down what I did and post the chords and lyrics here, I will do that. Let me know.

Or, for those interested in learning the song from the video, I could post a version of this song showing only my left fretting hand and then list the chords on the video as the video plays. That might be kind of interesting.

Thanks again, Dave!

- Glenn

Ooh, this is a lot of good stuff! I'll sit down and digest it. Thanks Glenn!

Your videos are great and I'm happy you've found a way to make this medium so intimate. Well done.


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[richnrbq]

Just beautiful, Glenn. Perfect arrangement, perfect guitar for the song.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Ooh, this is a lot of good stuff! I'll sit down and digest it. Thanks Glenn!

Your videos are great and I'm happy you've found a way to make this medium so intimate. Well done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thanks Dave,

And I am glad to make a tutorial video if you feel it would help. I think I have all the raw material to do it aside from adding a short piece of video to explain how to do the non-obvious stuff once people know all the chords. Just let me know if you would be interested. Or, if anyone else would be interested?

Thanks,
Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by richnrbq

Just beautiful, Glenn. Perfect arrangement, perfect guitar for the song.

Thank you Rich!

How nice to hear from you! Thank you for the vote of confidence and the kind words! And I'm glad to read that you thought the guitar choice was about right, too!

- Glenn

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Thanks Dave,

And I am glad to make a tutorial video if you feel it would help. I think I have all the raw material to do it aside from adding a short piece of video to explain how to do the non-obvious stuff once people know all the chords. Just let me know if you would be interested. Or, if anyone else would be interested?

Thanks,
Glenn

Glenn, that would be terrific! The non-obvious stuff is definitely the area of interest for me.

That is very generous to offer. I hope it's not much trouble.

Thank you,

David


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[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Glenn, that would be terrific! The non-obvious stuff is definitely the area of interest for me.

That is very generous to offer. I hope it's not much trouble.

Thank you,

David


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Hi Dave,

It will be a new experience for me, but I think it will be fun. I'll give it a try.

Thanks,
- Glenn

[Ze.]

I have schizophrenia and tried to do this song as soon as i was able to fingerpick in a fashion but i kept crying when i ever tried to sing the words ...very well done