For No One (Doug Young Arrangement)
 

Here's my rendition of Doug Young's lovely arrangement of Paul McCartney's For No One from The Beatles Revolver album. The song was also beautifully covered by Emmy Lou Harris on her Pieces of the Sky album and she also plays it live (check out Youtube). The structure of Doug's arrangement follows the original in that he came up with a pretty cool solo acoustic guitar substitute for the French horn player McCartney used.

I took a Zoom class from Doug a couple of months ago that covered this song and I have really enjoyed learning it. I'm certainly not in Doug's league playing it but I aspire to keep listening to his playing to try to improve mine.

This was recorded on my Doerr Trinity 00 with two KM184 mics via Scarlett 2i4 audio interface into Reaper. Post processing is a high pass filter set at 60Hz and I added a touch of compression and reverb.

The song is played with the guitar in DADGAD, capo 2. My tempo is about 85% of Doug's performance tempo but I believe close to Emmy Lou's performance. I've been working hard on trying to improve my dynamics and bring out the melody notes more. I played this with Alaska Piks on middle and ring fingers, natural nail on index finger, and a Fred Kelly "regular" thumbpick. I made up a new set of Alaska Piks with slightly longer "nails" and I believe it helped bring out the treble/melody notes better. Getting a bit better at controlling breathing too but still needs work. I'm fairly pleased with it so far and I'm hoping I can improve it by playing a bit more "legato" in several sections.

Thanks for listening and appreciate any constructive critique.

Sounds very nice! :)

The only thing I noticed (in part because I have the same issue) is that your rhythm is just a tiny bit off. As in uneven.

I know that mine is off...but I tend not to notice when I'm playing. Somehow my brain just ignores it. Bad brain! The only thing to do is to work with a metronome. I resorted to buying a talking version, to help me know which beat/s I was off on (either holding them too long, or not long enough). Love the talking model! I also have an app that I use less often, but is still good for a different perspective and it's a visual metronome. Silent. Good to play with if you can keep it in the corner of your eye if you're looking at music at the same time.

Yea, I agree. I have done a lot of practicing with this song with a metronome to try to wire in the groove. I think I keep it pretty well in the pocket for the verse sections but struggle with the chorus sections a bit because the chord changes are a little more challenging. I also slowed down at the beginning of the "solo" section (where the French horn was in the original) but seemed to get it back a bit. I need to try the combination of a visual metronome and tapping my foot I think to stay better in the pocket for the whole song.

It's a work in progress as they all are. Thanks for taking a listen and the feedback.

I hadn't heard this arrangement from Doug. Your interpretation is lovely I find, the song does not seem easy to play
well done

Good job Bob. That doesn't sound like an easy piece.

Your recording tone is very good, btw.

Oh, very very nice, Bob!! That Doerr sounds as good as it looks!!!
Play on!
Fred

That's a lovely arrangement and I enjoyed listening. I'm quite sure in a few months you will have it nailed!!

Thanks Barry, this one could probably work nicely with a touch of reverb.

Thanks Fred, appreciate the encouragement and support.

Thanks Phil. Appreciate the listen. Always enjoy listening to your S&T threads also.

Nice work Bob, definitely more clarity on the melody.

Thanks Peter. I need to smooth out the chorus sections (sound "choppy" to me) and the solo section and then I think it will come together nicely.

Enjoyed your thread in the Record forum where you played in the church, that was too cool!

I got some recommendations from Barry on reverb plug-ins he has been trying. Any recommendations?

Cheers mate,

Bob

I really like it, Bob! A lot of moving parts on that one :) I do hear the melody nice and clear, and much less pick sound. Well done!

Thanks Bob for the feedback. It’s been a fun song to learn for sure. Hoping to re-post it in a week or two with noticeable improvement.

Check out the latest. I added some reverb and think it helped (a lot).