I know this sounds like a radical idea…

JezzaSnr

…but I’m going to play my guitar today. 

Not just sit and fiddle for 10-15 mins, put it down and forget it for another month or two. Actually play. I haven’t done that for 12+ months. 

So the question is pick up where I left off and try to overcome the difficulty I found or something new, simple that I can hopefully make a little progress with? I need to discipline myself & commit to some practice time.
For those wondering, it was Freight Train. I’d managed the basic rhythm picking but when it came to adding the melody I really struggled, particularly getting the timing and tempo right. 

viz

Great idea! I’m going to try and do that too (when I retire)

digitalkettle

Whose version are you working on?

JezzaSnr

Elizabeth Cotton via a lesson with a local tutor  
I’ve got the video from the lesson to back to, but think I something to get me back to regular playing for now. 

digitalkettle

This isn't my bag...and I'm not sure if you're asking for ideas/advice...but...

With this kind of piece you've almost always got a handful of chord...the right-hand thumb is banging away on quarter notes...the melody usually comes nicely from the top notes of your chord voicing...there's a sparse middle voice every now and then when required/practical. The bass can be slightly muted and the emphasis may be on the 2 & 4 to give it some bounce.

I've got a version of this in a Tommy Emmanuel book and the order of things I'd go through is something like this:

• play just the chords
• play just the bass
• play just the melody

Then, after slavishly running through the whole arrangement, I'd probably start playing through the chords in some kind of rhythm with the thumb providing a quarter note bassline; not worrying too much about notes...more about feel...if you're holding chord shapes, the thumb will do its job.

The Cotten version is less harmonically rich than the TE version, so stripping back to basics gives:
| C | C | G | G | G | G | C | C |
| E | E | Am | Am | C | G | C C |

TE's version:
| C | C | G7 | G7 | Dm7 | G13 | C | C |
| E7 | E7 | Am Am/G | F B7/F# | C/G | G13 | C G9 | C |

If your ears get bored, freshen it up with a key change by adding a capo!

allen

My experience with learning those thumb-bass/melody/chet atkins things is totally contrary to what people normally say.

People say - get the bass line going with a rhythm and then add in the melody. To me that is a bit like the old pat your head and rub your tummy in circles advice (which works by the way).

However, I have had success learning it as one single pattern. Which unfortunately means going incredibly slowly and carefully at first and then building up speed. Once I get the pattern I find it pretty easy to speed up usually. And then do that bar by bar.

I can do a pretty fair approximation of Jerry Reed - The Claw. So it's based on tackling something pretty tricky.

joeW

I am working on Freight Trane - but looking at the chords am fairly sure they aren’t related.  Def worth checking out Burrell’s solo on it - imv his best…