Ever work on a tune that you know won't end up well?

[TBman]

I'm working on something that is not my style of playing, but its a neat little tune to try to play. I'm not at a point where I should record it, but I might anyway

I know I shouldn't though and I also know that I'll probably never make it close to the original. Its hopeless, but fun at the same time.

Have one of these tunes lurking around your guitar too?

[rick-slo]

Don't need to record everything. I play lots of things I don't get around to recording.

[JonPR]

I often start learning something and never finish it. That's OK, it just means I don't like it enough to continue.

I.e., it's always about enjoyment. For as long as I enjoy learning a piece, I will learn it. Often that results in me learning the whole thing, which is obviously ideal. But if I give up along the way because it doesn't feel worth it, that's also OK. Plenty more great music out there.

Recording is a whole other issue. I very rarely record anything I do anyway. I would have to believe that someone somewhere (at some time in the future) might want to listen to it. I often do believe that (no false modesty here....), but then it becomes about choosing something (or writing something) that I think someone else might enjoy as much as I do. And of course, the whole recording process is its own craft, an additional set of techniques and skills.

[Aimelie]

Originally Posted by JonPR

I often start learning something and never finish it. That's OK, it just means I don't like it enough to continue.

I.e., it's always about enjoyment. For as long as I enjoy learning a piece, I will learn it. Often that results in me learning the whole thing, which is obviously ideal. But if I give up along the way because it doesn't feel worth it, that's also OK. Plenty more great music out there.

Recording is a whole other issue. I very rarely record anything I do anyway. I would have to believe that someone somewhere (at some time in the future) might want to listen to it. I often do believe that (no false modesty here....), but then it becomes about choosing something (or writing something) that I think someone else might enjoy as much as I do. And of course, the whole recording process is its own craft, an additional set of techniques and skills.

Isn’t that the truth?! I find it is such a pain in the neck, I don’t want to bother and just end up playing instead.

Also, getting a piece ready to record means (for me) practicing so much it sucks the life out of the music…all room for some on the fly improvisation goes out the window (or else I’ll end up too rattled by what just happened and make a mistake just after instead of being relaxed and able to go with the flow).

That being said, I’ll still record—it’s nice being able to share with likeminded folk here on the forum.

[Mbroady]

I’m part of a group that meets once a week to play a new song that we have written.
We force ourselves to put aside self judgment and have, at minimum, the basic structure (lyrics and music) ready to present (live) to each other, regardless of its good or not.

When I first started a majority of the tunes I brought in were poop. Now I actually like a lot of the newer stuff, at least enough to consider rewriting them. Now I just need to get over hearing my recorded voice

[Cecil6243]

I've memorized Classical Gas up to bar 37. There are 82 bars in the song. I'm been at this for a few months. Fortunately after bar 43 it mostly repeats sections so I'm a lot farther than it sounds.

I've wondered at times if it's worth it, but I figure I've come this far I'm not going to throw away the time I've spent on it.

And got another motivation recently to learn guitar pieces without vocals. Went on vacation and got together with some friends in another state that I used to be lead singer in a band with. At 63 I can't even sing half the songs we used to do anymore! I just don't have the range anymore! So I'm more inclined now to become an instrumental guitarist.

[mr. beaumont]

Yep. Still trying to learn the head to "Donna Lee."

[reeve21]

Hi Barry,

That describes most of my playing! But I'll often record it anyway--and again much later. It is nice to notice improvement.

I'm working on a finger style version of A Day in the Life. It is tricky for me. I'll never get it anywhere near up to tempo (especially the middle section sung by Paul) and the orchestral section is kind of hard to pull off on a six string. But I'm plugging away and will likely record it well before its time.

On the other hand I can play Blackbird passably well, but haven't been inspired to record it.

[jklotz]

I think it makes me a better musician to try to learn the really difficult stuff. I'll get to a point with them usually and put them on the back burner while I do other material, but I always come back to them. I don't always get them to a point where I will perform them live, but I tend to keep trying. Fortunately I enjoy the challenge.

As for recording them, I do that even if it mean an edit or two. That came from a few years back when my wife asked me why I never play certain a song anymore. I told her I just quit playing it because I was tired of it and she replied "all that work you put into it and now it's gone forever?" So now I record them, if for nothing else, just to have something left when I can't play it anymore. Here is a great example of that - I loved learning this, but I dumped it from my set because it was the only piece I played without a pick and I had to grow my thumbnail out to do it. That, combined with the odd tuning made it impractical to add to the set list. I can't play it anymore, but at least I have this video, mistakes and all:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=592716

[KevWind]

Interesting question. never really thought about it till you posted .....

Maybe I'm just overly optimistic, overconfident, or don't understand the question..... But I don't really work on a tune if I don't think will end up well

I have worked on tunes that are difficult for me to start with. And I will sometimes give it a good collage try , put it away for a period of time ,try again etc. etc. If I sense any improvement I may keep doing this for quite awhile sometimes a year or more . If I sense no improvement after a good number of tries , I have put it aside and moved on to something different .

[Tnfiddler]

Yes. EVERY song I’ve tried to learn to flatpick on!! I’ve got to face the fact that, I’m just a rhythm player!

[Glennwillow]

There are songs I record that I just don't feel are good enough to share with others or even to keep. Some stuff fits a person's style of playing and some stuff doesn't.

- Glenn

[rick-slo]

About the time I virtually stopped playing classical guitar I had been working through Segovia's transcription of Bach's Chaconne. Somewhere around half way through that I thought why am I bothering as I will just forget how to play it pretty quickly as I move on to some other pieces.

Outside of the pure enjoyment of just playing the guitar at the moment if I was to work on something that was an lengthy effort I would prefer to have a more permanent stamp on the effort (more like a painting) where the work is there after the fact and not like unrecorded music that is ephemeral.

Did not get interested much in guitar again until the digital age that made home recording more accessible. Then I started learning and composing tunes again and recorded the ones I thought I would like enough to listen to periodically in the future. That plus some CD projects were fun and thus motivating.

[tbeltrans]

When I played in a professional working group, part of our practice was playing through tunes and weeding out those that we could easily determine would never really gel for our instrumentation and/or capabilities as a group. We wanted those tunes that worked for us, flowed well, and we could learn in a reasonable amount of time. You don't want to struggle with half-baked material on the bandstand when you are getting paid to do just the opposite.

Tony

I've ditched way more songs than I've kept in my repertoire, like a 5:1 ratio. Some were too difficult, some were boring, some I just didn't enjoy playing anymore. Not everything sticks around. I've learned to let go.