I think maybe one of our Songs of the Session has something to do with it. If we haven't played "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" in class yet, we will because I am OBSESSED with it. I've had Mahalia's soaring voice in my head for 2 weeks.
In Guitar 4Ever, we played one of my all-time favorite rock songs (finally!). Here's the boys playing it in Chicago last year during Riot Fest. http://youtu.be/UtlO5qtKYbo I like this clip because you can see J Mascis (another of my rock and roll heroes--the brains behind Dinosaur Jr.) standing in the wings nodding along. He's the guy in the glasses with the long grey hair and the ballcap.
Layer that riff in just about anywhere you please that isn't an A or a G/B chord! Mind the timing on the "Hurry Up! Hurry Up!" bit. You punch those D chords on the 2s and 4s only. And mind the stop chords. Silences are what make songs sometimes. This is one of those times.
This week we're going to work on Travis picking through the Dylan tune. I recommended doing an alternate bass strumming pattern this week (a la Johnny Cash and Guitar 2) to prepare. If you can also start trying to memorize the chord progression, it'll help you A LOT when you have 25 other things to learn once we get into the fingerstyle.
On Saturday, Guitar 1Rep spent some more time working on emphasizing different syllables. We started off with our old friends A, D, and E. Those three chords are often found hanging out together, because they're what's known as the I, IV, V chords in the key of A. (those are Roman numerals, not letters there folks!) We'll talk more about musical keys and what the heck I mean with my fancy numerals in the coming weeks.
We played the Everly Brother's When Will I Be Loved? https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rI0ll5SexV0 (look at baby Dick
Clark in that video!) and added in the timing for the opening bass riff. You'll put those notes on the "and four and one," which means it technically straddles two measures. Continue the rest of the measure with strums on a full A chord, and continue strumming into a second measure, but add the riff when you get to the and of 3. That's how it all loops together. Play the loop 4x at the top of the song, then flow into the verse instead of looping around another time. See if you can find other logical places in the tune to throw the riff in as a transition!
We also broke out a trusty Wilco tune, California Stars. It has a great, simple chord structure that just repeats and repeats and repeats, so you can stop thinking about your left hand altogether. It goes AAEEDDAA. That's it! After a few times through, your fretting hand should start to know what to do automatically and you can focus on strumming instead. For that, we talked about "The Golden Strum," aka the Tequila Sunrise strum, aka the folk strum. It'll become an old friend soon enough!
We broke it down into a couple of steps. For starters, we down-strummed just once on beat one (a quarter note), and then down-up down-up down-up (eighth notes) on beats 2 & 3 & 4. You can stay at that stage if that's where you're comfortable, but when you're ready, try dropping the downstrum on beat three. You'll still play the upstrum on the "and" of three. It feels pretty funny at first to skip a main beat like that, but the secret it to keep your hand moving as if you were still strumming, just don't make contact with the strings. Written with arrows, it looks like this:
V V^ ^ V^
You could also think of it like this:
D DU U DU
Here's Bob Seger doing a nice little cover of the tune at a recent concert. He's using different chord shapes than we are because he's got a little device called a capo on the neck of his guitar. We'll talk more about that later.
(it won't let me embed this one for some reason, but click here for the goods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOUbxsRlkO8
When you get bored with Wilco, use the Golden Strum on Under the Boardwalk instead! Just remember to break out of it on the "board! walk! board! walk!" part, and play those chords along with the lyrics as single, punchy downstrums.
We also broke out a trusty Wilco tune, California Stars. It has a great, simple chord structure that just repeats and repeats and repeats, so you can stop thinking about your left hand altogether. It goes AAEEDDAA. That's it! After a few times through, your fretting hand should start to know what to do automatically and you can focus on strumming instead. For that, we talked about "The Golden Strum," aka the Tequila Sunrise strum, aka the folk strum. It'll become an old friend soon enough!
We broke it down into a couple of steps. For starters, we down-strummed just once on beat one (a quarter note), and then down-up down-up down-up (eighth notes) on beats 2 & 3 & 4. You can stay at that stage if that's where you're comfortable, but when you're ready, try dropping the downstrum on beat three. You'll still play the upstrum on the "and" of three. It feels pretty funny at first to skip a main beat like that, but the secret it to keep your hand moving as if you were still strumming, just don't make contact with the strings. Written with arrows, it looks like this:
V V^ ^ V^
You could also think of it like this:
D DU U DU
Here's Bob Seger doing a nice little cover of the tune at a recent concert. He's using different chord shapes than we are because he's got a little device called a capo on the neck of his guitar. We'll talk more about that later.
(it won't let me embed this one for some reason, but click here for the goods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOUbxsRlkO8
When you get bored with Wilco, use the Golden Strum on Under the Boardwalk instead! Just remember to break out of it on the "board! walk! board! walk!" part, and play those chords along with the lyrics as single, punchy downstrums.
Finally, Sunday's Guitar 4 class tackled Man Who Sold the World. Or made a start, at least. I had you correct one note on the tab (it's a 3 instead of a 4 at the end of the C progression), and suggested that you could also play the C progression using open strings if you so chose. Experiment with both ways and see which feels more comfortable to your hand. You'll use the progressions at the bottom to replace the corresponding measures of chords written in the chorus (plus the preceding two measures of C at the end of the verse). Remember the timing of the Db progression is: one and-three four.
The intro can be accomplished with either a bend, a hammer-on/ pull-off, or a slide (which we didn't discuss but it's a solid option). The Nirvana version is a GREAT learning tool: http://youtu.be/fregObNcHC8 He's using more of a "golden strum" pattern than we are (we're playing down-up...up-down-up...up-down-up...with mutes in-between, which is more Bowie-esque), but it's still a great acoustic take on the tune. Plus how funny does Dave Grohl look in a turtle neck?!
I know this is hard, brainy stuff but do have some bits of advice. Bit #1: Look for patterns. Your fingers make certain shapes multiple times when you play scales. Look for those and learn to love them. Repetitive motions make life a lot simpler and there are really only like 3 maneuvers you have to make in that tune. Once you've isolated those motions, you repeat them on different string combos, and there you have it. Bit #2: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. The only way to take this from confounding to competency is to do it. A lot. Muscle memory is a real thing and your fingers will start to act on their own in the correct way but you've got to train them first and that takes time and repetition. You can't play it once, skip the next 3 days, and expect it to have gotten better. Be consistent and watch yourself improve like magic! I'm making you do the "project" songs early so we've got the whole session to perfect them. Be patient and stick with it.
See you soon!
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