You are My Sunshine Fingerstyle Arr. w/tab

[TexCo]

Hey,
I'm working on putting together a fingerstyle tutorial page. This my first video.
There is no talking and no extraneous material. I think this is what people are looking for, but I would love some feedback. If you'd like a pdf copy of the arrangement hit me up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1g5Ef85UO8

[amyFB]

Nice arrangement!

Variation:
I put it in a minor key, and sing it as a dirge. The words to the verses are very sad and maudlin!

In that minor key, the chorus can be sung simultaneously with Dylan's "beyond here lies nothing" for a totally cool and unexpected arrangement. (with two discordant moments that are positively goose-bumpy; imo)

yours in tune, and musical fun
amyfb

[MuddyDitch]

That's very nice. Thanks for posting.

Erik

[jmkratt]

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

[Earwitness]

I am going to say you need to flesh it out more. I'm probably a good target audience for that type of song lesson--I can play a decent Freight Train (after a ridiculous number of practice repetitions), and can add in melody notes to a basic G-C-D song like this, and can about 90% play a recognizable version of You Are My Sunshine on about the second try. Probably with several days of focus, I could play that arrangement just as you do (minus the end flourish, perhaps). I'm just giving you this background so you have some idea where I'm coming from.

However, I couldn't follow what you were doing at all. I replayed the 40-second video over and over and tried to see your fingers or the tab (which I admit is not my second language).

So, while that minimalist style has some appeal, it goes by so fast that I barely have time to play one thing before I'm restarting the video.

So, for us slow learners, make it a little slower and longer, so I can practice it with the video, and tell me or show me what your fingers are doing. I'm sure that there are many people who could instantly pick up on what you were doing, and don't need the extra....

Thanks!!!

[Ciarre]

I have to second Earwitness' comments. Very good video, but a little rapid. Of course, one can always press the pause button, but then it becomes less learning from what you're doing and more reading the tab.
I think it's not too much for the viewer if you tell us chord shapes, picking patterns and/or specific notes.
It all depends on the audience you want, I guess. For a slow learner and slow player like myself, more is better. I can sit through 20 minutes of a detailed video without getting bored, maybe others can't.
Good start, though, keep up the good work however you want to do it.
I'd also appreciate the PDF if you wouldn't mind sending it to me.
Thanks!

[TexCo]

Earwitness and Ciarre: Thanks for the feedback! This is just a little prototype for what I hope will be a pretty big project. I plan on keeping the videos at roughly this speed with very little talking but I also want to provide viewers with a link to an mp3 of me playing the arrangement at a slower tempo in addition to the TAB. Additionally, this is what I would consider to be an "intermediate" video and I hope to produce a series of videos that relate to each other and act as building blocks, and in doing so, I hope to make further explanation within each video unnecessary. You have both labeled your self as "slow learners", and I don't know you two personally, so that may or may not be true. What do know is that I have had many new private students tell me that they are slow learners, when it turned out that they were just missing the fundamental (guitar) skills that would allow them to become "fast learners". Ideally, I would like to address those fundamentals in further videos.
Ciarre: Unfortunately, you are one of about 12 people on the internet who can sit through a 20 minute video Also, pm'd.

Seeing as this is the only video I have up right now, here are some tips:

Even though this arrangement sounds simple on first listen, this type of playing will always be a struggle for players who have not developed independence in their thumbs. To someone who has developed independence in their thumb, this arrangement is nothing more than a very simple bassline with a very simple melody on top. To someone who doesn't posses that kind of independence, it just looks and sounds like a jumble of notes.

The first step in learning this tune is this: Figure out the basic chords. There's three of them: G-C-D. The D chord is in first inversion. The whole arrangement is built off of these open chords.

Next: If you look at the tab in the video there are upward pointing note stems and downward pointing note stems. The former are all played with your pointer and middle finger and the latter with your thumb. Before trying to play both parts together, isolate them. Then, go bar by bar putting the two together.

[TBman]

I think its a good idea. I like the superimposed tab on the video. How can I obtain a copy of the tab? Thanks!

[LeftArm]

I think it's too short. I like the tab on screen but there is time to break it down a bit more. Thumb independence, the chord structure and the hammer on's.
Play it through at tempo, play it slow, explain it bar by bar, Play it again.
It's a very short tune so you could do it all in one video but for longer tunes you could break it into smaller chunks (A la Toby Walker)
The alternative is to have videos on technique that do not necessarily relate to a single tune. Eg a Hammer on video, A chord changes video and a thumb technique video. Then reference these in the training material for an individual song. This is more Justin Guitar style.

I play it for you
I play it slow
You play it for me
Now off you go

[StringFive]

I love it. And the video gives me just enough to learn the bones of the song and take it from there. Thanks for posting. Best of luck moving forward.

[TexCo]

Leftarm: Thanks for the feedback! I think we're somewhat on the same page, and I addressed most of these issues in my last reply. This is only a prototype for what I would like to be doing, I just don't have the time or money right now to start putting out a lot of videos (hopefully things will be up and running by January). Ideally, I hope to have some tutorials that address different techniques used here, thumb independence in particular.