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..."