who wants to join a friendly "learn an new song" challenge?

Originally Posted by UncleJoe

I've been hesitant about this but decided, what the heck.

I started working on the Queen song; 39, from Night at the Opera. I played around with it a bit back in the 80's but didn't put much effort into it. Last week I decided to take the time to really learn it. I've got the basic structure of the intro so far. Needs a lot of smoothing out. I just keep repeating it and it seems the more times I loop through it the worse it gets.

So after an hour or so per night for a week, this is what I have. I think I'm going to record it once a week to listen for progress. I'll also start adding the verses and then work in the lyrics.

Nicely done UncleJoe. Looking forward to hearing more!

Well now that "Lonnie's Guitar" is done and recorded (see Show and Tell) I'd like to keep the ball rolling and learn another song!

My new goals:
- learn "A Night in Tbilisi" (a song in we started in Woody Mann's FPR class this year) and arrange a chorus of my own. This is not going to be easy.
- record and post it (again don't expect a masterpiece)

Here goes!

[LeftArm]

Great work on Lonnie's Guitar.
My "After You've gone" is still a long way off!!
But it is improving.

Originally Posted by LeftArm

Great work on Lonnie's Guitar.

thank you!

So I watched the video for "A Night in Tbilisi" last night. It's going to take some work! Trying to play the song endlessly in my head today which usually helps. Plus I have the video on my laptop if I need some reminders on how it goes.

[caster]

Originally Posted by UncleJoe

I've been hesitant about this but decided, what the heck.

I started working on the Queen song; 39, from Night at the Opera. I played around with it a bit back in the 80's but didn't put much effort into it. Last week I decided to take the time to really learn it. I've got the basic structure of the intro so far. Needs a lot of smoothing out. I just keep repeating it and it seems the more times I loop through it the worse it gets.

So after an hour or so per night for a week, this is what I have. I think I'm going to record it once a week to listen for progress. I'll also start adding the verses and then work in the lyrics.

Well done UncleJoe!

Update: had some time last night to practice so at the end I grabbed the tab for Tbilisi (didn't bother with the video, might be a mistake not watching it though) and tried to get the opening groove going. Took a bit. The timing and feel are different than what I usually play but I got together. There a pull off lick that you can add to the groove that came pretty easily. Next step is to add the melody to the groove. I think that is going to be a challenge. Hopefully I'll have some time tonight but I doubt it.

[UncleJoe]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Nicely done UncleJoe. Looking forward to hearing more!

Originally Posted by caster

Well done UncleJoe!

Thanks guys.

It's been brutally hot around these parts for a week and a half; and I work outside. I've been wiped out and haven't even picked up the guitar at night since I posted that. I will get back to it though. I made a commitment to myself that I would know it well (without having the music in front of me) by the 2nd week of October for an event I'll be attending.

[TBman]

Sweet Home Chicago will take me longer than I thought, so while I'm working on that in long term mode, I'll find something shorter to work on.

[LeftArm]

In the Fred Sokolow lesson I'm using he uses an over the side thumb to fret a number of the 7th chords. I was finding this restrictive as the rest of my fingers would feel cramped up so yesterday in a flash of inspiration I switched to full bar chords with a standard "E shape". This has made it much easier so progress has moved on in the last couple of days. I've also started to question some of the other fingerings.
I'll try to get something (in progress) recorded this weekend.

I had about a half hour total last night so I worked on the song. I'm trying to marry the steady bass with the melody which is harder than i thought due the fact that the melody starts on off beats. But after a while it came together and then I immediately put the guitar away. I prefer to end on a high note.

I was really burned out last night so I skipped my regular practice and just spent time on the new song. I now have section A down, bass and melody and all. I played it multiple times through to reinforce it and then put the guitar away for the night. On to section B next which looks tough.

[TBman]

Here's page one of Toby Walker's Dead Bass in E Across the Board. I've been working on this for a while, there's a second part which is cool and I can play but I didn't want to push my luck recording today. I got some new stuff from Homespun - Roy Book Binder's 2 dvd set which looks like it will be a lot of fun. I'll see what I can get out of it. The first thing is C Rag on the Black Dog Blues, easy and "complex" version. I'll see how that goes.


This is played on my resonator:

Originally Posted by TBman

Here's page one of Toby Walker's Dead Bass in E Across the Board. I've been working on this for a while, there's a second part which is cool and I can play but I didn't want to push my luck recording today. I got some new stuff from Homespun - Roy Book Binder's 2 dvd set which looks like it will be a lot of fun. I'll see what I can get out of it. The first thing is C Rag on the Black Dog Blues, easy and "complex" version. I'll see how that goes.


This is played on my resonator:

Very nice Barry!

So I spent the past two nights on section B. Seem to be getting it but not anywhere up to speed.