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

Lots of practicing today (holiday in Ontario). Spent an hour+ after dinner on the new tune. Played through part A without mistakes a few times and then got to work on part B. After lots of trying played B all the way through (lots of weird chords). Next up is solidifying what I know and then stitching parts A and B together.

[LeftArm]

All my good intention of getting a recording were lost over the weekend in amongst the BBQ and the Blues and Roots festival.
I still managed to get some practice in though and it's coming along. I even got the metronome out!

So I stitched parts A and B together! Yay me. Now to solidify it and then comes the tough part: coming up with an arrangement of my own for parts A and/or B. Part B is full of "jazz" chords so I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with that...

[TBman]

I just bought some more stuff from Homespun. I might just make up some variations on blues tunes I'm learning, without being too exact on copying exactly what's on the tab. I play better when I'm improvising then when I'm doing a cover of someone else's stuff anyway.

Not much time to play tonight so I just tried to play sections A and B together. That took a lot of effort. Oh well off to bed.

Not much time again tonight but I played A and B together then started to arrange something of my own for part A. Kind of like what I have so far so I captured it on my cell. Totally new experience for me this arranging stuff. I'm not creating anything earth shattering here but I'm finding it exciting!

[UncleJoe]

I finally got back to my new song (39) this week. I made a few changes. Took out some of the barre chords that I felt didn't sound right. I loaded it to soundcloud but they must be busy tonight. The message says the track is being processed. When it's finished I'll post it.

[UncleJoe]

Turns out it wasn't a problem with soundcloud. I forgot to render it to mp3 before I uploaded it.

It still needs work on all the nuances but I have the basic structure. Here is the opening intro, first verse and chorus. Now I need to work on the bridge and pull it altogether. Once I have the entire song instrumentally, I'll start working on the vocals. That could get ugly.

Originally Posted by UncleJoe

Turns out it wasn't a problem with soundcloud. I forgot to render it to mp3 before I uploaded it.

It still needs work on all the nuances but I have the basic structure. Here is the opening intro, first verse and chorus. Now I need to work on the bridge and pull it altogether. Once I have the entire song instrumentally, I'll start working on the vocals. That could get ugly.

Sounding great Joe!

Working on playing the part A I've arranged with the steady D in the bass. I've decided to only arrange the A section. Just feel like putting this one to bed.

[UncleJoe]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Sounding great Joe!

Thanks Doug.

I'm new at this recording thing. Maybe you can help me figure something out. I'm playing a 34 year old Alvarez 5054 12 string; spruce top, mahogany back and sides. It's a beautiful sounding cannon as I'm sitting here and playing. I record with an equally aged, passive soundhole pickup plugged directly into the computer on to Mixcraft 7. The sound from this big dread just seems to vanish and comes through sounding more like my mandolin. Any idea why the full, rich sound doesn't make it to the end product?

Originally Posted by UncleJoe

Thanks Doug.

I'm new at this recording thing. Maybe you can help me figure something out. I'm playing a 34 year old Alvarez 5054 12 string; spruce top, mahogany back and sides. It's a beautiful sounding cannon as I'm sitting here and playing. I record with an equally aged, passive soundhole pickup plugged directly into the computer on to Mixcraft 7. The sound from this big dread just seems to vanish and comes through sounding more like my mandolin. Any idea why the full, rich sound doesn't make it to the end product?

Hi Joe,

most pro recordings that I assume you are comparing your recorded sound to are not recorded via a soundhole pickup. Most professional solo acoustic recordings are made via high quality condenser mics expertly placed in a tuned recording room.

A soundhole pickup only picks up the vibration of the strings and none of that nice body and room sound our ears are used to hearing both live and on pro recordings.

Lots of advice can be found in the Record sub forum here. Beware though: home recording can become something of a seriously deep rabbit hole time and money wise. That's why I keep it simple. For my purposes I just use a handheld digital recorder, the Zoom H2n. It has built-in stereo condenser mics. The mics pickup some of that nice body and room sound you might be missing. The Zoom, a mic stand and some reading about mic positioning for solo acoustic guitar got me on my way. Might be worth checking out if you like the sound of my recordings.

YMMV.

Update: I was able to play my part A arrangement with the steady bass all the way through last night. Now to stitch the whole thing together.

[UncleJoe]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

A soundhole pickup only picks up the vibration of the strings and none of that nice body and room sound our ears are used to hearing both live and on pro recordings.

Never thought about it like that but it makes sense. Thanks.

[TBman]

I'm finishing up my Gstep Blues original that I started this past weekend. Just gotta tweak it and smooth it out, then I post it. My wife is working longer shifts this weekend so I'll have extra time to work on it.