What songs/pieces/ techniques are you all working on this week?

digitalkettle

axisus said:

As it happens I have also been learning an Etude - that one by the Beatles:

Etude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better ...

Take a bad song and make a lesson

Supportact

Thanks @digitalkettle, those are great. Maybe a bit advanced for me to play right now but I'll listen to some more of it, there might be something I can have a go at. 

guitars4you

fretmeister said:

"Splanky" - an old Count Basie Orchestra / Neal Hefti tune from 1958.

This isn't quite our arrangement, but this is the proper one



It's quite fun to play.

when I was in my late teens I played in a 20 piece NYJO style jazz/youth big band - Neal Hefti arrangements were often a nightmare - 4 chord changes in a bar that were a challenge to learn and pull off - Then I was given a good lesson by an older experienced rhythm player

A) as a rhythm player you are there to play rhythm - therefore you are better keeping the time, swing and phrasing right and play 2 chords to the bar - do this well, as against 4 changes in the bar played badly - it is still rhythm

B )  quite often the simple chord in each bar would be say G7 - the other chords are variations of this and would be there to compliment what the horn section are playing, as such you phrase with them - What I did not realise at the time, as a teenager, is that the likes of Freddie Green only play a simple format of the chord - Root/7th etc - Hence more simple, but more effective as he helped to make the song swing 

Count Basie was one of my dad's favourite artist - He saw him live twice in the 50's - So I was brought up listening to so much of such bands - Then in the late 70's and early 80's my dad and friend ran a Big band in the Derby area, playing weekly for many years at a local pub and I would go most weeks to watch them play - So recall many of such songs

Stuckfast

I'm trying to come up with a half decent guitar accompaniment for a traditional song called The Coast of Peru.

Bellycaster

Deep Purple - Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming.

Airmiles

Well, for a more low-ball bid:
RSL grade 3 (almost there - sweating it out in hope of  a Distinction)
Wake Me Up When September Ends (corny, but...)
Take the A Train

Dominic

Working on Smoke on the water ....it's tough going ......into my 4th year with this one

Sporky

I'm meant to be prepping Grade 4 pieces but I don't like any of the B selection, so a Beethoven Kontretanz. It's easy until you try to do it full speed. 

Bennyboy-UK

This last week or so I finished and submitted an entry to the Solo of the Month on the Making Music page. I don't do it every month, but when I do I find it great practice in writing, playing and recording.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/254427/voting-for-solo-of-the-month-sotm-98#latest ;

Totally recommend it to everyone to go and have a bash at it - its great fun

<<Disclaimer: I don't properly understand all the terms im using below so might have got the a bit/a lot wrong!!>>

Otherwise I'm focussing on memorising the pairs of strings 3-notes per string shapes and ascending diatonically through the shapes.

I'm doing it as extra legato practice and focussing on the first finger of my fretting hand damping of the string above every time, and will reintroduce the click when I think I've got that damping back on track.

The next stuff I need to do is learn the songs for the Western Jam coming up in only a week and a half  

newi123

Our band has 2 gigs in Oct which are a bit different - rather than the usual covers set we`re doing 1 hr 30 mins or Queen - so I`m upto my elbows in that............

We`re def not a Queen tribute, just playing music we like, trying to capture it rather than pretending to be Queen if that makes sense. But it`s still quite a job to work out what`s on the studio versions, what Queen did live and then work out how to approach it.

Hard work, but fun! :-) 

Dominic

Dominic said:

Working on Smoke on the water ....it's tough going ......into my 4th year with this one

Once I really get the hang of it I'm going to attempt to play it in a different key ......a rocker's work is never done !

bermudianbrit

on electric, I'm working with the Stormy Monday chord changes and learning to hit the tones in every chord as they pass rather than just rambling.
On acoustic, Beaswing by Richard Thompson because someone I know requested it and its fun.

Matt

digitalkettle

Dominic said:

Dominic said:

Working on Smoke on the water ....it's tough going ......into my 4th year with this one

Once I really get the hang of it I'm going to attempt to play it in a different key ......a rocker's work is never done !

Or you could...

joeW

Currently digging thro On Green Dolphin Street.  Chords and melody in 12 keys - soloing ideas and transcribing versions by Grant Green and Barney Kessel.  

It’s a great tune to dig into as there is good harmonic and rhythmic variation to dig into.  Then I’ll try and come up with a solo jazz guitar part - which will suck but it’s useful practice 

axisus

newi123 said:

Our band has 2 gigs in Oct which are a bit different - rather than the usual covers set we`re doing 1 hr 30 mins or Queen - so I`m upto my elbows in that............

We`re def not a Queen tribute, just playing music we like, trying to capture it rather than pretending to be Queen if that makes sense. But it`s still quite a job to work out what`s on the studio versions, what Queen did live and then work out how to approach it.

Hard work, but fun! :-) 

I'd pay to see a Queen tribute band! (that played material from the earlier years).

Danny1969

I’ve been looking at an old Van Halen song “I’m the one “ … to say this riff  is  difficult to pull off is an understatement. No one on YT seems to able to do it. Some of the supposed lessons are frankly laughable .. just miles away from the swing and groove in VH’s playing. 

Possibly the hardest VH song to do I reckon so I may be at this for some time. 

viz

Jess Fildes has done an ok version

Well done you for tackling it, deffo one of the best VH songs. 

JAYJO

Not working on any particular song. I am working on my whole playing technique. Being self taught i have plenty of stuff to revisit. I tire far too quickly,i grip too tightly,my speed is limited . The culprit  imo is my Thumb on my fretting hand. I need to sort that out and so thats what im doing. I have basically become lazy and sloppy with my technique. 

guitarjack66

I am enjoying playing bits from Winner Takes it All and SOS by Abba and Roxanne by The Police. Inspired by Rick Beato's interview with Dominic Miller,Sting's long time guitarist and his fantastic K Yairi parlour guitar. The fact he has a parlour guitar and I have one at a fraction of the cost of his,are where the similarities end.

Littlejonny

JAYJO said:

Not working on any particular song. I am working on my whole playing technique. Being self taught i have plenty of stuff to revisit. I tire far too quickly,i grip too tightly,my speed is limited . The culprit  imo is my Thumb on my fretting hand. I need to sort that out and so thats what im doing. I have basically become lazy and sloppy with my technique. 

Years ago my teacher introduced me to the concept of only using the bare minimum of pressure. Try touching the string and striking it with the pick or finger, so that you get a muted percussive stroke. Then gradually, gradually turn up the pressure until a buzzy note appears. Then you're almost there - just a tiny bit more and that's it. Any more and you're wasting your energy and potentially ruining your intonation (depending on string gauge and fret height). 

As for speed - the paradox is: you have to practice slowly. My theory is that speed comes when something is moved from the processing part of your brain into the memory part. Then repetition wraps the neural pathways in myelin, so you can access the movement without thinking.