The session is starting to wind down but we still have work to do.
Guitar 4 got started on a song by one of my favorite all-time bands, The Cars. Take note of the intro! You play eighth note down strums on the E string ONLY for 6 beats, and then you let the chord ring on the 7th beat. Do that four times. Then play the string alone for 6 beats, followed by the chord twice on 7 and 8. Listen and it'll make sense: http://youtu.be/TsPh-EgH65M
There are a number of small lead parts you can play on the high strings (tabbed out) which mimic the keyboard parts in the song. Listen and follow along and in our next meeting will spend some more time getting those nailed down. (But don't let Man Who Sold the World get rusty either because I'll want to run through that again too)
In Guitar 3 Rep we roped some Wild Horses. The strumming pattern is more or less the same as on Ziggy, but a little slower, lazier, and less precise. Don't worry about all the little up and downs, so long as you land clear strums on beats 1, 2, and 4. The rest of the doo-dads are just by feel. The split measures feature the root-strum root-strum-root stepping stones you'll hear here: http://youtu.be/UFLJFl7ws_0 Get to that root note! Especially on the Bminor. You've got a little extra time to form the rest of the chord after you nail the root on the one. Keep Never My Love and Ziggy fresh because they're all contenders for graduation. And bring your songbooks this week so we can do the song of the session fingerstyle!
And on Sunday, Guitar 2 Rep learned September Gurls, which I hope is now your favorite song. I love Big Star sooo very much. http://youtu.be/BNKSs1J38EA
I still can't believe this tune came out in 1974. Sounds like something you would've heard on the stage at Pitchfork this summer--though I bet you anything that all the bands on that bill are Big Star fans! The only thing tricky in that tune is the intro, but if you think of it in terms of moveable shapes, it's simple enough. Start with a D shape at the 7th fret (your 3rd finger will be on the 8th fret). Then make a Dm7 shape--which is like an F minus your 3rd finger--at the 5th fret (2nd finger at 6th fret). Finally, keep your fingers in that shape but slide them down to the 3rd & 4th frets. You'll strum the open D string through all of those moves to create a kind of background drone.
Incidentally, the documentary I mentioned is called Nothing Can Hurt Me. If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen at the Music Box Theater, and I came away completely inspired as a songwriter. It shows you all the beauty and horror, the excitement and the boredom, and all the other polarizing moments that comprise belonging to a band.
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