Hardest song you've ever tried to learn.

[FoxHound4690]

What's the hardest song you've ever tried to learn on electric guitar?

I know most of you will probably have multiple answers (I know I sure do).

Currently having a hard time with Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam. I'm a reasonably good intermediate player when it comes to lead work but my fingers just do not want to play ball with this one for some reason....

[Dru Edwards]

Back in the Village by Iron Maiden was one for me. I tried to learn it back in the late '80s. I play it great now and it's one of the riffs I play every time I pick up the electric.

[RRuskin]

Temptation Rag, Life Is Within You & Without You, Gershwin's Prelude #2.

[Steel and wood]

I know we're talking about songs, but for me it's the whole Jazz rhythm/comping thing. (Chords and moving bass lines just for the fun of it). I've always been motivated learning to play in any number of styles and genres using all sorts of techniques (outside of metal) to become a better, more rounded player, than I am learning songs. (Helps that I can't sing and am no longer playing with others also).

Jazz comping and moving bass lines is particularly hard when I'm used to playing with a pick and not fingers for any type of rhythm playing.

[M Hayden]

Originally Posted by Steel and wood

I know we're talking about songs, but for me it's the whole Jazz rhythm/comping thing. (Chords and moving bass lines just for the fun of it). I've always been motivated learning to play in any number of styles and genres using all sorts of techniques (outside of metal) to become a better, more rounded player, than I am learning songs. (Helps that I can't sing and am no longer playing with others also).

Jazz comping and moving bass lines is particularly hard when I'm used to playing with a pick and not fingers for any type of rhythm playing.

There are a couple of good books for that. Arnie Berle’s “Jazz and Popular Guitar” has a bunch of good progressions that you can learn and then mod to your liking. Ted Greene’s “Chord Chemistry” talks about voice leading, which helps with figuring out how to construct bass lines. And Greene’s “Modern Chord Progressions” deals with all sorts of ways to navigate ii-Vs, which leads to greater facility with bass lines.

Hardest thing for me has been a Scarlatti piece (K.336) transcribed by David Tanenbaum. Amazing piece of music but there are sections with a lot of voices, and making them sound like intertwining voices instead of mush is insanely difficult if one is not a conservatory-trained classical player.

[Steel and wood]

Originally Posted by M Hayden

There are a couple of good books for that. Arnie Berle’s “Jazz and Popular Guitar” has a bunch of good progressions that you can learn and then mod to your liking. Ted Greene’s “Chord Chemistry” talks about voice leading, which helps with figuring out how to construct bass lines. And Greene’s “Modern Chord Progressions” deals with all sorts of ways to navigate ii-Vs, which leads to greater facility with bass lines.

Hardest thing for me has been a Scarlatti piece (K.336) transcribed by David Tanenbaum. Amazing piece of music but there are sections with a lot of voices, and making them sound like intertwining voices instead of mush is insanely difficult if one is not a conservatory-trained classical player.

Thanks M Hayden!

[M Hayden]

Enjoy! I wish I still had extra copies of them; I’d send them to you. They’re good stuff.

[jseth]

Probably "Prelude To A Kiss" by Duke Ellington... so many changes that have to be fluid and smooth for the song to be played with heart...

"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (Charles Mingus) always gave me fits, too... easy to get lost within the form, even when I'm singing the melody while playing...

[HughesDadX2]

“Drifting” by Andy McKee, first ever percussive slap style song I ever learned. Took me a long time to get decent at. “Ocean” by John Butler, another similar style percussive piece. I eventually gave up on it just because I felt like I couldn’t do it justice.

[M Hayden]

Originally Posted by jseth

Probably "Prelude To A Kiss" by Duke Ellington... so many changes that have to be fluid and smooth for the song to be played with heart...

"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (Charles Mingus) always gave me fits, too... easy to get lost within the form, even when I'm singing the melody while playing...

Almost ANY Mingus tune is like that, though GPPH is arguably more difficult than most bc of how clearly the harmony is defined. If you play a clam on it, the harmony lets you know really fast...

[spock]

I am not very good, so a lot of songs are hard for me, but a couple in particular took me months and months to learn - The Handing Down, by Ed Gerhard, and, Andecy, by Andrew York.

[Chipotle]

Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Francisco Tarrega. I got to where I could hack my way through it, but I doubt my tremolo will actually be even enough to make it sound good consistently.

[Mr. Jelly]

The halls of montezuma - The Marine's Hymn on the trumpet. I think I was nine years old or there about.

[tdq]

Julian Lage's version of Freight Train.
Needless to say I reverted to "my version" after a few bars.

[jeanray1113]

Mark Hansen’s arrangement of In the Mood. I’d been at it for months, making steady progress. When I first attempted it, l half seriously said that I might actually learn to play it decently before I died. I was getting close enough to ready to perform it for an audience that I set a goal for myself— I decided I would play it for the student concert at the music camp I planned to attend in July. That was before the shelter in place order, but even after I continued to work on it, hoping camp would happen, and, even if it didn’t, I still wanted to master this piece. Then, 5/1, I took a nasty fall and fractured my left humerus. No surgery, but arm immobilized in a sling. I did get the ok to play a bit, but I don’t have much mobility and too much pain to play much at all. About two weeks after my fall, I received the email that camp was cancelled. I WILL master this piece and it’s first public performance will probably be on Facebook live. See my ortho doc tomorrow and hopefully he will ok me for physical therapy.