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  #1  
Old 11-02-2013, 02:57 AM
T1mothy T1mothy is offline
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Default blackbird

Started learning this little song yesterday. Thought it was a good simple piece to train my ear on. Just finished. Wanted to share. Anyone else like blackbird?
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Old 11-02-2013, 04:17 AM
saxonblue saxonblue is offline
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I think many of us like or have played Blackbird at some point, it's quite rightfully become a standard.

There's some tunes that are not only a pleasure to play but work as an excellent form of practice as well, more fun than scales anyway.

I'm sure you'll do it justice with your recently acquired Larrivee. Check out one of Paul's other tunes from the White Album, Mother Nature's Son, also a good one to learn.
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Old 11-02-2013, 04:18 AM
T1mothy T1mothy is offline
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Yes thats exactly how I felt about it. Will do. Thank you for the tip
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Old 11-02-2013, 06:11 AM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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I am still convinced there is a bLackbird tab somewhere with the final instructions to: "As soon as you get this down to where you can play it barely passably got to the acoustic room at Guitar Center and monopolize the room by playing a mediocre version of the song". I swear someone mangles it almost every time I am in there. The thing is there are tons of lesser known fingerstyle pieces that could showcase your abilities just as well or better and the novelty of them not being immediately recognized will go a long way towards achieving the recognition you seek.
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Old 11-02-2013, 08:58 AM
oldhippiegal oldhippiegal is offline
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It's a great acoustic guitar piece, harmonically simple and so lovely. I probably play it four times a week, still, and somehow it never bores me. I'm so impressed with what he did with two strings. Along with "I'll Be Your Water" and a couple songs I play with very simple arpeggios, I feel like I get a lot of "bang" for my technique "buck" out of it. I love to watch the delight of new guitarists getting it for the first time. So glad you enjoyed it, too! Have you eliminated all your string squeak? I think it's a great song for helping us to control that--or at least it helped motivate me to address that issue.

Has anyone steered to towards the song "Anji"? (I like this guy's instructional video because of the diagrams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntdGoKj2gE).
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Old 11-02-2013, 12:00 PM
T1mothy T1mothy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldhippiegal View Post
It's a great acoustic guitar piece, harmonically simple and so lovely. I probably play it four times a week, still, and somehow it never bores me. I'm so impressed with what he did with two strings. Along with "I'll Be Your Water" and a couple songs I play with very simple arpeggios, I feel like I get a lot of "bang" for my technique "buck" out of it. I love to watch the delight of new guitarists getting it for the first time. So glad you enjoyed it, too! Have you eliminated all your string squeak? I think it's a great song for helping us to control that--or at least it helped motivate me to address that issue.

Has anyone steered to towards the song "Anji"? (I like this guy's instructional video because of the diagrams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntdGoKj2gE).
squeaks quite a bit when I slide all the way up to the 12th fret. Im thinking of getting myself coated strings. Am I just unskilled? Honestly this Larrivee is so responsive! Quite skill demanding which makes it fairly motivating to get better to make it sound as it deserves.
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Old 11-02-2013, 12:18 PM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldhippiegal View Post
Has anyone steered to towards the song "Anji"? (I like this guy's instructional video because of the diagrams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntdGoKj2gE).
Yes, excellent lesson!
The only minor issues are differences between his tab and fretboard diagrams, and the way he plays it live. In the latter he adds embellishments which are not explained or pointed out. (Eg in theme A (live) he hammers on to string 2 fret 1 (B-h-C), instead playing A-C as he had it tabbed.)
That's OK, if one regards the tab/fret diagrams as merely an outline sketch - the rest is interpretation (Davy Graham added plenty of that ), and personal arrangement taste.

I taught myself Bert Jansch's more aggressive, bluesier version back in 1966, before I ever heard Davy's original. If anyone wants tab of either or both (including their different embellishments), PM me.
(Sorry to go OT )
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Old 11-02-2013, 12:52 PM
clintj clintj is offline
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I love that song too. As far as taming the squeak, using Elixirs and using firm finger pressure during the slide helped me reduce it to acceptable levels. If I loosen my grip, the A string squawks like crazy all the way up. Keeping my calluses smooth and moisturized makes a difference too.
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  #9  
Old 11-03-2013, 07:44 AM
oldhippiegal oldhippiegal is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by T1mothy View Post
squeaks quite a bit when I slide all the way up to the 12th fret. Im thinking of getting myself coated strings. Am I just unskilled? Honestly this Larrivee is so responsive! Quite skill demanding which makes it fairly motivating to get better to make it sound as it deserves.
It's less strings and more a matter of lifting your left fingers off entirely and moving to the next fretting position before putting pressure back on the strings there. It takes awhile to learn, and you'll have to slow back down to learning speeds (at least, I did) for awhile, but it's a really good thing to learn, to control extraneous string noises. There may be a time when you want that noise, but Blackbird sounds better without, cleaner.

It's all part of the learning curve. There are about a million other things to learn on guitar, too. It's the instrument that keeps on challenging. And it's part of why I can stay with a song for months and months. I get the notes down, but the song always has a lot more subtleties to teach me.
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