I Feel The Same - Chris Smither....

Why? Love Smither and slow blues...great song to improvise with and add licks - and fun to sing as well...

Every morning when I have downtime, I go to youtube and just pick a random fingerstyle song that I think sounds good and work it out. This week I've done three:

1. 7 Years by Lukas Graham
2. River Flows in You by Yiruma
3. Owl City- Fireflies

It makes me feel very productive and it's good training for me. I think I will keep this trend going.

I'm currently on to "I'll See you in my dreams" from CHet atkins & mark knopfler :)

I normally have half a dozen under development....and many of them have yet get fully developed!

So I'm trying to focus.

Currently, C. C. Rider, John Hurt's version.

Ragtime Ramble, Richard Saslow.

I was doing pretty good focusing on those 2 until I heard an old Dylan song the other night, which sent me off to the internet. Found a neat finger style arrangement I'm trying to learn by ear and eye (I'm normally learning from tab ).

Just watched the Amazon documentary on Gordon Lightfoot...so maybe Early Morning Rain. Good excuse to tune up the F-512...

Playing Eric Bibb songs is inspirational and fun. Trying to play like EricBibb is humbling! Love his work!

Ever hear Bonnie Raitt's cover? Ends with a slide guitar workout between Bonnie and Lowell George.

Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits.

I'd played it years ago in standard tuning. Finally learned the song in open G and it sounds so much better and it's easier to play to boot. I've loved it since I first heard it way back in the 80s.

While I was in open G, I decided to write something in that tuning (it's coming along nicely, I think it's going to be called The Truth of the Matter - a phrase that comes out of my mouth much too much). My son often writes and plays in CGDGBD, so I've got the genesis of the new tune in that variation of open G. The only song I play in that particular tuning is Running on Empty by Jackson Browne; it gives me one more excuse to go there (and play an Am7 shape open position chord with that glorious low C ringing out). Plus, it seems that every time I pick up my guitar, he's left it in that tuning. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I also was working on Overseas, Dreamsicle and Tupelo. These three Jason Isbell songs were added to my long list of his tunes. The latest album has some really good stuff on it. I like Overseas much better with a stripped back arrangement on just acoustic guitar.

I was recently in Covid-19 quarantine. I used the time to work up arrangements of Breakfast in America by Supertramp (what a blast to play and sing), The old Marty Robbins song Big Iron, and When You're My Age by Lori McKenna. That last one I heard on Broken Record, the Rick Rubin podcast, and it stopped me in my tracks.

I have two assignments to work on. Gotta love lessons, they require so much accountability. I've just about got "It's a Wild World" in my pocket. The goal is to nail the timing. I'm getting there. I'm learning to love a song where the time signature changes for one measure in the middle of it. I just started "House of the Rising Sun" in arpeggio. Again, there is an emphasis on getting the timing nailed down. Gone are the days that I could add a strum while I think about what comes next or end up with a few extra notes at the end and just throw them on for grand finale.

Playing guitar...
~Bob

That was one of Bill Staines' best. He usually rolls through our area once a year. Haven't seen him in a while.

Ive been playing Sitting on top of the world, Doc Watson style. Open D tuning, but he actually plays it in Eb and Ive tuned my guitar up to that(a first). Ive also been learning a fiddle tune (don't often play with a flatpick) Its High Road by Time O'Brien, but I heard it on Bryan Sutton album. I have it down at 150bpm, but want to play it faster and it crumbles when I do. It just highlights my alternate picking weakness at those speeds, so a great tune to use to raise my overall ability in that area.

I just worked up an acoustic version of a Black Sabbath song from their first album. I will play it in our acoustic duo. I am not sure of the name because the songs are run together.

It is the opening riff to "Sleeping Village" plus the song that starts:
"The first day that I met you I was looking at the sky
When the sun turned all ablur and the thunder clouds rolled by...."

It's fun and sounds good on acoustic. :D

'Dust in the wind', together with my son.
Even the fingerpicking part at the beginning of the song. Very hard to learn imo...:hmm:

Have "Couldn't Be Better" somewhat under the fingers, so it is now on rinse and repeat. Although I might try arranging it for fingerpicking solo guitar sometime.

Starting on Jackson Browne's "Something Fine..."

About have “The Wide Ocean” by Tommy Emmanuel under my finger tips....beautiful melody.

Also, learning lots of Carl Miner’s short guitar demo tunes from the The North American Guitar site.......everyone should check these out.....excellent guitarist.

Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T's.

Incredibly simple finger picking and chord progression.

A couple of jazz/American standards:

Makin' Whoopee!
Yoy Go To My Head
La Vie En Rose

I am working on Fuel by Tommy Emmanuel. It is quite the challenge!

Spent the last couple of practises on Jupiter by Will McNicol.

Lovely tune, but not sure my fingers are enjoying the learning experience. Lots of ringing notes that my fat fingers love to mute, and chords where you pluck around the ringing strings.

This week i’ll be digging into Claptons ”Hey Hey”. I always thought it had some really cool parts in it but i never got around to learn it.

I usually have several going to better distribute my frustration.
These days I'm usually relearning/refining old ones along with the occasional new ones(to me). Focussing more on hybrid picking than fingerstyle lately. Newer ones now: Acadian Driftwood by The Band, Friend of the Devil by The Dead, 3 Roses by America. Revived: Helplessly Hoping by Stills, John Barleycorn - Traffic version.

Paul Simon's "American Tune". I've always loved the tune, some interesting chord changes, and classic Paul Simon riffs. I'd like to learn the structure of the tune and then try to figure out what Darrel Scott is doing in his interpretation. It's an interesting take on the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j57fvO4C9Mo

"Tears of a Clown."

Going back an reviewing a number of the solo flatpicking numbers that may have faded from my memory a bit.

Currently working on Roberto Dalla Vecchia's arrangement of Bully of the Town.

Fiddle tune of the week to explore is Soldier's Joy.

D

Working on an original fingerstyle piece, maintaining my repertoire, Prelude - Bach on my classical.

Love that one...will add it to my list.

In the hopes that someday I’ll be able to play in front of people again, working on three new ones:

• The Reach, Fogelberg
• In the Shape of a Heart, Jackson Browne
• Sun King to The End, The Beatles

Kicking off ”Lewis & Clark” today. Did not expect that one to be that hard in terms of getting the flow.

Working on

Waste - Phish

Layover - Michael Hedges

Renewal - Doug Smith

Trying to work on my string stopping with Layover, tricky stuff when youre trying to break the habbit of holding your pinky down for an anchor on the right hand.

Waste is just a song to learn some theory and improv stuff, the video Trey put up a few months ago of he and Page playing it made me really fall in love with this song.

Renewal is my newest project, I think trying to get the timing down in this one will be tricky, and switching between having the melody played in the bass to start then to the upper strings then to a chord based melody.. Makes it an interesting switch musically.