The inaugural 'learn a song a day for a month' challenge.

octatonic

Day 12, Songs 16, 17 & 18.

Have lurgi but fuck it, let's crack on with the set.
What cheers you up if you have lurgi and need to crack on with songs...?

ABBA- "Mamma Mia" and "S.O.S."- you knew they were coming, right?

I'm also learning "The Mighty Quinn" -Manfred Mann version.

I might be a bit light on chat today as I've got some other stuff to do but I'll post up charts once I've done them.

Modellista

This is fun to follow, and I've copied your chord chart layout (personally I add lyrics but they do still fit on one sheet).  But good Lord Of Guitar, there's some mega cheese here.  I'm just waiting for Hi Ho Silver Lining, Come On Eileen, and The Birdie Song. 

You're making good progress, but rather you than me!

PS The Black Keys one is a good shout though

octatonic

modellista said:

This is fun to follow, and I've copied your chord chart layout (personally I add lyrics but they do still fit on one sheet).  But good Lord Of Guitar, there's some mega cheese here.  I'm just waiting for Hi Ho Silver Lining, Come On Eileen, and The Birdie Song. 

You're making good progress, but rather you than me!

PS The Black Keys one is a good shout though

LOL.
Yeah some of it is pretty cheesy- I'm trying to find the bright side- just not Mr Brightside.

Rocker

Does it really matter (to a gigging guitarist) what cheesy songs the audience like to hear and dance to?  If they want The Birdie Song or SCOM, learn it, play it and pocket the cash for the gig.

octatonic

Rocker said:

Does it really matter (to a gigging guitarist) what cheesy songs the audience like to hear and dance to?  If they want The Birdie Song or SCOM, learn it, play it and pocket the cash for the gig.

That is pretty much my approach.

Modellista

Rocker said:

Does it really matter (to a gigging guitarist) what cheesy songs the audience like to hear and dance to?  If they want The Birdie Song or SCOM, learn it, play it and pocket the cash for the gig.

If it's a job, regardless whether it's playing the guitar or screwing the lids on tubes of toothpaste, you do indeed do what's necessary to get paid.

I understood that Octa was encouraging people to join him on his journey to some extent.  Which yes, I/we are, but let's skip to crap tunes and join in with the good ones, eh?  Unless he's sharing his gig fee with us all? 

octatonic

Charts for yesterday's songs.
I'm not really an Abba fan but I certainly rate them as songwriters- some really, really good stuff in here.
So well thought out and well done. I actually like playing them too. Sort of.

Mamma Mia:
This is actually a bit of a sod harmonically speaking.
I need to go back and make some corrections in the chorus.
A lot going on but I've got enough to be able to do a decent job.



S.O.S.

I actually prefer this song- the chorus is particularly well written. 
Some weird bar placement stuff but given I know the song I don't notate them.
If I was doing this as a lesson I'd be including  more specific information.



"The Mighty Quinn"

This is more my sort of thing.
I'd prefer to do the Dylan's version (as it is in A) but sod it- we'll do it in B.
I resist the temptation to use a capo.

octatonic

The only problem with listening to Abba for the last two days is I dreamt about Abba.
It was horrifying.

So- we have nearly reached the halfway point with the time but  12/3rd's the way through learning the songs.
This is on purpose, so I can spend a few days at the end of the month just going over the set.
Once I have all the songs done I'll probably be stopping playing them daily on bass and guitar and just concentrating on drums.

Day 14, Song 19:

"Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz

Basically one chord progression all the way through A B C G D power chords.
I have a theory that this song was written as a challenge to do as little as possible in a top 40 song.
To say it is repetitive is a massive understatement.

Guitar: Drops in and out with one pattern.
Bass: Repetitive bass slap thing.Yawn.
Drums:Sounds like a drum machine in the track- I plan on making it more human by using some tip/shank on the hats and giving a bit more space to the drum pattern.

Here is the chart:

TheOtherDennis

Wow. Awesome stuff, @octatonic, right through the threads.

This thread has shown me just how far behind I really am.

Like @Philly_Q I too have supposedly been playing for a while - in my case, 16 years - without getting anywhere, indeed backwards compared to where I used to be. Basically, what's happened to me (these aren't excuses, just saying what I've been through) is that I took it up at 39, learned from a magazine partwork for the first 6 months, did a class for a year or so, really started to go places, but then it all fell apart - work got heavy (made redundant twice in 12 months), restarted freelance that got too heavy and left me short of time, got into making them and modding them instead, then the OH started to decline, we had to move blah blah blah and now I'm worse off than when I started. (Not an exaggeration - there are fingerstyle pieces I used to play fluently that I can barely stumble through now.)

I've tried listening to stuff to work it out, but I never get close, often wildly inaccurate. So I'm simply in awe of octatonic and anyone else who can do what you're doing.

I'd love to get into this sort of thing more, and especially be smarter about it all, but I haven't the time or the hearing to get stuff as right as this.

My main issue, though, is that I simply don't have any specific goals or targets or deadlines, so I tend to drift along and use that as an excuse to do something else instead.

Although I'm extremely late to the party, I'd quite like to start learning something more, maybe a piece a week, starting tomorrow. I'll stick to some chord-type stuff, to make it more achievable for me, and stuff I already have the original music to, to make it accurate, and see where I can get to by Christmas.

octatonic

Hi Dennis, 

Thanks for the kind words.

I completely understand what you mean sometimes you have to engineer yourself into a situation where you have to do the work, hence this thread.
I knew I had to learn some songs and I knew I mostly wouldn't enjoy learning them- so I came up with a way to make sure I would and tried to make it more fun that it otherwise would have been.
So I've actually used the social pressure of this forum, to make sure that I did the work.
Once I'd announced I was going to do it I'd put myself in a situation where I had to do it- I can't make a big announcement of doing a 30 songs in 30 days and not complete it.

Having practice goals is something I've always had though- I had a great guitar teacher when I was a kid and the discipline of purposeful practice is something that gets drummed into you at musical school as well.

Philly_Q

@TheOtherDennis  I can relate to much of what you've said, well put.

octatonic

Day 15, Song 20 & 21.

"Rolling in the Deep" - Adele

"Mr Blue Sky" - ELO

"Rolling in the Deep"- Yes, the song that makes everyone who can't sing think they can.
Well written of course, but really not my thing.
Pretty light on guitar parts, pretty simple on bass but actually decent fun on drums- 4 to the floor kick and single stroke roll fills.

Mr Blue Sky: Love this song- much more my thing.
Weird thing- for years I thought it as Adrian Belew, as I was familiar with his solo work and it sounded pretty much the same. Only later did I realise that Adrian Belew's solo work sounded like ELO.
Prescriptive guitar solo- won't sound right if you don't copy it.
Quite a work out on drums- lots of stops to remember.
BV's needed as well- the middle 8 is pretty hilarious if you can get everyone to sing it a capella.

Then it goes all neo-classical Hollywood film score, which I'm pretty sure we are leaving off- but I'll learn it in case I ever need to do it.

Charts incoming.

octatonic

"Rolling in the Deep" chart is below.

Thing to remember- some of the chord changes are on the 1& of the bar, not the 1.
Also the second chorus has a different chord order than the rest of the choruses.

octatonic

Mr Blue Sky chart is below.

Proper tune- nice to see some 7th chords and lots of interesting harmonic stuff going (for a pop tune).



I reckon I can get the rest of the songs in my head by the end of the week which should give me about a week of running through the set on the various instruments. 
I'll be concentrating on drums most of all, of course.

TheOtherDennis

Philly_Q said:

@TheOtherDennis  I can relate to much of what you've said, well put.

Ta I put my thoughts up because when I saw yours I thought "Kindred spirit."

TheOtherDennis

octatonic said:

Mr Blue Sky chart is below.

Proper tune- nice to see some 7th chords and lots of interesting harmonic stuff going (for a pop tune).



I reckon I can get the rest of the songs in my head by the end of the week which should give me about a week of running through the set on the various instruments. 
I'll be concentrating on drums most of all, of course.

It was only when I saw the Radio 2 concert they did a few months back that I realised the words for the "weird vocoder thing" say "Please turn over." And I remembered it was the last track on side one of the album. Durr.

octatonic

Day 16 Songs 22 & 23

"Somebody Told Me" - The Killers, A song I only really know because of the marvellous 'drunken jazz singer' version performed by Richard Cheese.

"The Heat is On"- Glenn Frey. Everyone's second favourite movie franchise tune. Or is that second favourite tune from a movie franchise?

Haven't looked at these in detail yet, so I will do the charts and then get playing.

octatonic

Charts for 'Somebody Told Me" and "The Heat is On".

"Somebody Told Me"

Quite a lot going on in this track.
Harmony: in Bbm, chart makes it clear. Nothing tricky. I imagine people will use a capo and play it in Am but sod that.
Guitar: Intro melody is a pedal Bb with a climbing melody note type thing. Easy. Otherwise some tremolo picking and opportunities to ponce about being a guitar hero.
Bass: Get your octaver on, or get a 5 string. Mostly pedal notes, octaves. Prescriptive part in the chorus.
Drums: A lot going on here- many stops and fills. Nothing too challenging but quite fun. 16 note hat patterns need to be right.




"The Heat Is On".
So cheesy.
Harmony: ignoring the silly synth intro. Otherwise a pretty standard harmony.
Guitar: Stabs in the verses, doubling the horn melody. Prescriptive solo.
Bass. It sounds like a synth bass, so play it straight- quite a stabby part.
Drums: 8th note subdivision, pretty standard.

octatonic

Gaaaah!
'Somebody Told Me' is a bit mental on drums.
Loads of different parts- all I am doing tomorrow is refining this.

PolarityMan

wld be interested t see a counterpoint to your last video showing building up a track like that on the drums. I don't know the song that well so watched a cover on you tube and there's a lot of variations but it strikes me you could bluff your way through the song on something a lot simpler.

also interested to see how you chart out something that's riff based rather than chord based.