What Are You Working On?

[Headless Axeman]

I’m polishing up a three song set to play at an upcoming mic with my buddy:

Beautiful World by Colin Hay
Fish and Whistle by John Prine (fingerstyle)
My Oklahoma Home by Pete Seeger (Bruce Springsteen version)

Then, working on the sweet solo at 2:10 of this version of Wildfire by Mandolin Orange.

https://youtu.be/r9jwGansp1E

Finally, with what little time I have left over, I’m trying to take some of the musical and lyrical seeds that I’ve been compiling, and turning them into full songs. My goal is to have a full first draft of four songs done by the end of November.

[Woolbury]

Ive been working on the oh so simple, yet very difficult version of Drifting and Drifting by Clapton off the From the Cradle album. The licks are simple, the rhythm is hard, and when you add the vocals it's so easy for the essence to fall apart. Got it to performable level now, but I want to own this one.

Also keeping my LG2 in open G these days and just playing sweet, clean slide on it. The simplest of licks, but trying for solid tones and eliminating all the banging around. Woke up this morning, looked round for my shoes...

[Vognell]

Working on variations of "cattle in the cane" as a vehicle work on improvisation. Starting with the Tony Rice version and the one taught by Banjo Ben. Hope to work out some chord and melody variations on my own.

Also working on fingerstyle arrangements of "Si Bheag, Si Mhor", "Merrily Kissed the Quaker" and "Morrisons Jig"

Just got a basic recording setup for recording myself and creating backing tracks to practice with. Should be fun trying to figure all that mess out. Got the Presonus Audiobox and the on-stage AS800 condensor mic. Lower end equipment, but should do for starters. I also have the option of running through acoustic IRs on my Helix, or maybe blending the IRs with the Condensor. Using the Presonus Studio 5 Artist DAW that came with the audiobox.

[warfrat73]

I've also been kind of working up a flatpick version of "Simple Gifts."

[SecondCity]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

"City of New Orleans" was written by Steve Goodman in the early 70s, which makes anything written in the 70s official "olde" folk music...

I just hit the big 4-0 myself . . . And that song is older than me. If it makes you feel better, I’ve started hearing stuff I listened to in high school on the “classic rock” station.

Where do the years go?

[min7b5]

Working on a collection of arrangements of vintage murder ballads for solo guitar with with a lot room for improv.. Technique-wise, and mostly unrelated to any particular repertoire, just fine tuning my righthand picking technique a bit with a lot of slow metronome practice early each morning. Audio-wise I'm taking some time each day to listen to more reference tracks and play around with both both high and low-passing my eq plugin to get a better idea where everything is living in the frequency spectrum.

[Bluenose]

I'm working on learning to transcribe solo fingerpicking guitar arrangements found on UTube. I like to play old blues and ragtime tunes.

There's a ton of videos from pro guitarists like Rainer Brunn, DanCHolloway, David Hamburger among others that play great old tunes and will gladly sell you the tab if you're interested. I'm sure many people do buy the tab but I'm kind of cheap so I bought the full version of Tabledit and have begun to transcribe some of the songs that appeal to me.

It's not that hard if you watch and listening very carefully and now that UTube allows you to slow the videos down without changing pitch, it's very do-able.

My memory isn't that great anymore (I'm 67) so even if I learn to play a particular arrangement of a song I can forget it in a day or two but if I have the transcription in my library I can relearn it again easily.

I find that I can transcribe any solo guitar song as long as I can count out the rhythm correctly. It's a great skill to have IMO and you can't help but learn the ins and outs of music notation, tab and standard.

[Ed66]

I've been working on a pretty tough (for me) fingerstyle version of Metallica's One. It's taken quite some time but I'm finally close to tying it up. I may jump back into Never Going Back Again, which I "back-burnered" a few months ago. I just love some Fleetwood Mac

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

Does that include the Bay City Rollers

Who? Must be a Welsh thing.

[TRose]

I’m working on Doug Young’s version of “Star of County Down”. The first half was a quick study but I’m struggling with the second half’s fingerings. I’m watching Remy’s video in the Show and Tell section of the forum for direction. Frankly, It may be beyond my ability. But I’ll stick with it.

[TRose]

Originally Posted by Twiddle Dee

I'm working on learning to transcribe solo fingerpicking guitar arrangements found on UTube. I like to play old blues and ragtime tunes.



There's a ton of videos from pro guitarists like Rainer Brunn, DanCHolloway, David Hamburger among others that play great old tunes and will gladly sell you the tab if you're interested. I'm sure many people do buy the tab but I'm kind of cheap so I bought the full version of Tabledit and have begun to transcribe some of the songs that appeal to me.



It's not that hard if you watch and listening very carefully and now that UTube allows you to slow the videos down without changing pitch, it's very do-able.



My memory isn't that great anymore (I'm 67) so even if I learn to play a particular arrangement of a song I can forget it in a day or two but if I have the transcription in my library I can relearn it again easily.



I find that I can transcribe any solo guitar song as long as I can count out the rhythm correctly. It's a great skill to have IMO and you can't help but learn the ins and outs of music notation, tab and standard.

I am one of those people who purchase the tabs from the artist whenever possible, or buy the book that have the tabs, etc..
But there are times when certain arrangements haven’t been tabulated by the artist and there is only an audio file, but no video. Is there software that can help to tabulate that arrangement? Or do I need to develop a better “ear” to get that done?
Thanks,
Tom

[mcmars]

I have been in vocal rest mode due to an unusual reaction to the booster shot I got in late August that wiped out my top 5 notes of my vocal range. Good news is I have been working on some instrumentals and in last 2 weeks my voice is coming back, just about 1 more note to get back to normal range.

Here is an instrumental I recorded tonight on my Iris OG 12 fret slot head. I am calling Joni's Blues in G tuning. I just loaded it to youtube and you will likely hear a few Joni chords you might remember from her early days. I tried to bridge the gap she never crossed into blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2888_B3_XM

[Mayfair]

I’m working on taking action vs. daydreaming about the albums I should’ve been making over the last 10 yrs since my last one.

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by TRose

I am one of those people who purchase the tabs from the artist whenever possible, or buy the book that have the tabs, etc..
But there are times when certain arrangements haven’t been tabulated by the artist and there is only an audio file, but no video. Is there software that can help to tabulate that arrangement? Or do I need to develop a better “ear” to get that done?
Thanks,
Tom

Hi Tom - I've never heard of any software that will tab out music automatically but maybe somebody out there knows something more about that.

Where I'm at right now it wouldn't be easy to transcribe a tune beyond the pretty basic if I didn't have a clear video of someone playing it. I need to see what chords and chord inversions the player is using and generally where they are on the neck at any given time. I can recognize various tunings by the chord shapes being used.

I have bought and used lots of tab over the years and being comfortable with tab and knowing some theory is definitely a prerequisite to transcribing.

I think one of the best things about the software I use is that though I write in tab, it converts the tab into standard and it won't let you get away with rhythm errors so it teaches you standard notation as a bonus. The online manual is very helpful in dealing with the tricky stuff. I had a hard time with notating triplets properly and finally had to break down and consult the manual about how to deal with those things.

Regards,

Tom (my name too)

[TRose]

Originally Posted by Twiddle Dee

Hi Tom - I've never heard of any software that will tab out music automatically but maybe somebody out there knows something more about that.



Where I'm at right now it wouldn't be easy to transcribe a tune beyond the pretty basic if I didn't have a clear video of someone playing it. I need to see what chords and chord inversions the player is using and generally where they are on the neck at any given time. I can recognize various tunings by the chord shapes being used.



I have bought and used lots of tab over the years and being comfortable with tab and knowing some theory is definitely a prerequisite to transcribing.



I think one of the best things about the software I use is that though I write in tab, it converts the tab into standard and it won't let you get away with rhythm errors so it teaches you standard notation as a bonus. The online manual is very helpful in dealing with the tricky stuff. I had a hard time with notating triplets properly and finally had to break down and consult the manual about how to deal with those things.



Regards,



Tom (my name too)

Hey Tom,
Thanks for the response. I think it’s just a matter of time before a tab formulating software exists. But until then I will need a video to track the fingerings, etc.
Thanks again,
Tom