One song you struggled to learn how to play, and got emotional when you did?

[rick-slo]

Usually something I wrote and when I get a good recording and performance of it. Often there is a lot more time spent getting there than when learning some other existing piece.

[_zedagive]

Originally Posted by LakewoodM32Fan

Check out https://youtu.be/CEfxka0kxkY for some really helpful tips on fingering changes. You may not end up using his exact ones, but it will stimulate your thinking in perhaps how to modify his to best suit your playing style.

That's exactly the video I've been using as a guide. His lessons are always top notch. Thanks for the tip.

[jaymarsch]

John Renbourn’s arrangement of Sandwood Down to Kyle. I hadn’t been playing finger style for that long so I did get emotional when I was able to play it cleanly while singing it with feeling. A total joy and worth all of the hard work.
Best,
Jayne

[JonPR]

What do you mean by "emotional"?
Bursting into floods of happy tears?
Or just a quiet pride, sense of smug self-satisfaction?

I'm English, so it ain't gonna be the former!

I think, relatively recently, the one that stands out for me is Bert Jansch's Chambertin. I'd taught myself fingerstyle way back in the 1960s, lots of it via Bert's music (yes, starting with his version of Angie). Never heard Chambertin (recorded in 1974) until 3 or 4 years ago, when I was digging into his music more, for the purposes of a book of transcriptions. By that time, it was many years since I'd last learned anything challenging - I was coasting along playing blues in rock bands - and I heard that track and though "no way! that's two guitars!! how does he do that???"

But I sat down with my transcription software and worked it out, bar by bar, note by note.
That still wasn't the hard part. (In fact I had a tab for it that had supposedly been done by John Renbourn, for reference, but it wasn't totally accurate. I still had to check every note.)
The hard part was actually learning to play each bit, and get it up to speed.
Then the really hard part - or rather the time-consuming part - was stringing all the bits together to be able to play it from memory.

I'll admit to a feeling a pretty strong sense of smug pride when I'd managed it. I might even have smiled to myself...
But "emotional"? Steady on there... we stay cool this side of the Atlantic

... and a deep sigh of relief when I got to the end of that take without screwing up too much... (I count all the mistakes when I watch it now...)

[PHJim]

I always loved Tommy Thompson's song I've Got Plans, on a Red Clay Ramblers LP. At last, in the eighties I decided to learn it for our monthly folk club open stage. For some reason the changes eluded me for about two weeks. When I finally got them, I couldn't stop singing it. It's still in my repertoire well over a quarter century later.

[cliff_the_stiff]

[QUOTE=LakewoodM32Fan;6365286]Haha I just saw a great video on BYA and was going to make that my next project (though I still have a lot of polishing to do on TRS).

Here's the video that 90%+ of my arrangement is based on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heT1mKjUJhs
I also mix in some variations from this video (including making some fingerings easier by omitting the root notes on certain hard-to-fret sections): https://youtu.be/_UKlGa1agtU

So cool. Music 365 has a sweet arrangement for Going To California too.
Rain song is my weekend project.

[TBman]

Many years ago I got pretty pumped up when I learned Mood For A Day and could play it well.

[Juliussharpe]

Chet Atkins “Maybelle” - took me about 5 months to piece it together. Still a little rough around the edges, but being able to commit it to memory and get through gave me confidence to try bigger undertakings.

[MLFLY]

On the way home from work, I was sitting at the railroad tracks waiting for a train in 1966. I'd been playing the guitar for little while - maybe a year. Mostly noodling as sheet music wasn't so easy to come by then and internet connections were really, really slow The song "Hanky Panky" came on and i immediately recognized the chords and changes. Obviously, a really simple song, but it was the first time I recognized how to play a song by ear. Pretty exciting. After that, it's not so much that playing guitar became easier but it became do-able.

So, I guess that's means Hanky Panky is the emotional trigger for me.

[eyesore]

Emotionally I have a hard time with "Cats in the Cradle". Difficulty wise ,"Time in a Bottle".

Not isolated to a single song but I have been known to do an enthusiastic fist pump after playing a difficult piece the first time all the way through without mistakes. I might even say "yesssss".