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Songs you working on
Hey everybody, After about 5 years i am back to my guitar, back to Tac and and enjoying my guitar more than ever. I took my first guitar lesson when i was 12 and that was 55 years ago. One of my 90 day goals is to learn 5 songs that I can play from the beginning to the end. I have a good start on these songs – Landslide, Good Riddance, Wonderful Tonight, Hurt and Old man.
I was curious what songs you all are working on.
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30 Replies
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I just posted the one I have been working on: Horse With No Name – it was nowhere near ready but I wanted to have something out, a benchmark if you will to improve on. I’ve set the bar low enough that I should be able to jump over it given time and practice.
I’m working on Lay Down Sally, see you got Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton rocks!
Also working on A Message by Coldplay. I’ve got some others lined up too, but got to save some surprises!-
I really like Horse with No Name but I struggle with 2 things. First having enough endurance to play the entire thing and being able to sing along using the correct strumming pattern. I can sing if I just use down strums but as soon as I incorporate the up strum portion for the 2nd chord I lose my timing and can’t sing.
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Definitely struggled with the rhythm on the strumming too while singing, if you give it a listen you will clearly see that, but I was able to get through it ok.
I started recording over and over again after screw-ups until I finally just played through the problems, I was probably playing the song for over 30 minutes by the end.
I thought about recording a guitar backing track and then singing along with it but then I decided it was a good experience to try to just give it my best shot doing both. I know it sucks but it will probably be better by the next time.
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I’m working on Alice’s Restaurant (not the whole story) and Are You Lonesome Tonight and Whiskey for Breakfast a benchmark song (periodically)
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Alice’s restaurant would be daunting to do the whole thing. I remember how amazed I was the first time I heard that, it was probably around ’77. It used to come on our local station in Montreal pretty regular for a season.
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Are you trying to memorize the whole thing – yikes!!
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I only have 2 songs I feel are performance ready, everything else is a work in progress and has been for months.
Performance ready
- Mad World
- Stuck in the Middle with You
In Process but close
- California Dreaming
- Hotel California
- Coconut
- Wild Thing
Relatively New- Sunshine of Your Love
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Don’t Fear the Reaper
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Definitely some interesting songs in the works here, I’m looking forward to watching some of these!
Mad World
Hotel California
Don’t Fear the Reaper (I would like to learn that myself, along with Godzilla)-
I posted Mad World right around July 1st.
And may never post Hotel California because I don’t want my YouTube channel to be deleted.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Moose408.
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lets see, Eagles model or Grateful dead model. I am going with the successful grateful dead model. In 100 years nobody will know who Don Henley was and people will still be singing Robert Hunter songs. Don, you have gone too far. What Don does not recognize yet: He is robbing Future Peter to pay Paul today. I end with this. Those with a creative font overflowing like the gold of sunshine will not worry, their creativity secures the future. Those who got lucky and stole with sporadic creative flow will guard like a Doberman (Zeus and Apollo come to mind).
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I went looking for your Mad World post but couldn’t find it!
But I did find this:
Sierra Hull – Mad World (Tears For Fears) – DelFest – Cumberland, MD – 5/28/22 (youtube.com)
youtube.com
Sierra Hull - Mad World (Tears For Fears) - DelFest - Cumberland, MD - 5/28/22
Recorded live at DelFest in Cumberland, MD https://delfest.com/More sessions and interviews https://www.pastemagazine.com/studioAudio by Juan M Soria (@juanm...
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So enchanting!
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@langerking She was very good. Mine is about a 10th as good.
https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/my-first-time-posting-here-mad-world/
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Thanks for posting the Link, Moose! This was your first? A really good debut IMO! Your rhythm is almost perfect, voice steady – these things are hard especially in the beginning! I enjoyed it very much.
The girl is phenom, no need for us to make that comparison. Only posted for people’s enjoyment.
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Have you seen the one with Curt and his daughter…. amazing!
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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I wasn’t singling out those 3 songs as the only ones of interest, those were the 3 that I remembered as I was replying. I am interested to hear all of them!
Truly sad that eagles are big time blockers (purposely omitted article and caps, just in case!). You’re right, future generations may not learn to play their songs.-
for sure @langerking , it is sad. Apologies for ranting on your comment. My disdain for musical suppression is hard to contain. Yep that is a trigger for me : )
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Hi @Paul_B , I forgot to get to your question….I am working on Santana’s Europa. It is one of those songs that is a complete tonic story, I have been working on it for 6 years. I will probably never stop working on it because the more I work on it the more I unlock new secrets. Here is an example, I found a way to play melodically on one string and all the frets in a minor third for a 12 bar cycle. This song has been my ear trainer, finger trainer, and mind expander.
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Following the great format courtesy of Moose408 and assuming the singing will just flat out never be up to par, I have the following:
Performance ready
- With a Little Help from My Friends (key of D)
- Old Man
- Parachute
In Process but close
- Lyin’ Eyes (the Intro however is a work in progress and not even close)
- Fire and Rain (Chord vice finger picking)
- Norwegian Wood
- Dirty Work
Getting there Slowly
- The Last Time (finger picking arrangement)
- Roundabout Intro – will worry about the rest of the song later
- Blackbird (finger picking)
Next Up, but a Total Reach
Going to California
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Nice list!
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Here’s my list, I can play most of them ok, still working on a few. When I get bored I pull out this list.
1. I remember Everything – John Prine
2. Blackbird – The Beatles
3. Don’t Let The Old Man In – Toby Keith
4. Help Me Remember – Hays Carll
5. Sin City – Graham Parsons
6. Happy X-Mas – John Lennon
7. Wagon Wheel – Darius Rucker
8. Wish You Were Here (instrumental) – Pink Floyd
9. London Homesick Blues – Gary Nunn
10. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
11. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Bob Dylan
12. Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
13. Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
14. Willin’ – Little Feat
15. House Of The Rising Sun – The Animals
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ooo, cool idea.. can i play?
“Cosmic DooDoo” – Blaze Foley
“Here They Come” – Ten Years After
“Plymouth Rock Blues” – Memphis Minnie
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by CHEzjeje. Reason: is the juice worth the squeeze?
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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The OP is MIA.
It’s been an interesting thread to learn what people are working on! I’m looking forward to hearing the fruits of everyone’s efforts! Keep strumming, hammering and bending my fellow guitar geeks!
(the emojis don’t work so going back to old school) :; 🙂one of them converted to a smiley, lol!
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by petelanger.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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Great posting @Paul_B – I play so many songs, that it’s difficult to say what I’m worrying on. Here’s a few.
Tennessee Mountain Top, Kid Rock
Leader of the Band, Dan Fogelberg
Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sounds like something I do, Drake Milligan
Nights in White satin, Moody blues
American woman, Lenny Kravitz
Freedom song, Blackberry smoke
Just breathe, Pearl Jam
More to this, Mark Cabella
Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Eric Clapton version.
There are a lot more, but these were just off the top of my head
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I LOVE Clapton’s version of Over the Rainbow! Where did you get the music?
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I’m using the Ultimate-guitar.com version
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It’s been really fun seeing everyone’s replies and the variety of music we all enjoy listening to and playing. I’ve added some great songs to my playlists—ones I hadn’t heard before—and a few to my “want to play” list for the future. Someone mentioned they’re learning a song by Ten Years After, a band I used to listen to but hadn’t thought about in almost 40 years. So I’ve been listening to some Ten Years After this week.
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I have tickets to see Ten Years After in October, but the show got postponed over Visa issues they were having. But, it will be rescheduled.
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Would you Love to Change the World? 😉
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This is a great threa – thanks for posting everyone!
I can play about 30-40 songs (with some minor stumbles) and I try to learn 2-3 new songs every month. Sometimes I stumble on something that will take me a month just by itself. I struggle to balance learning new songs and practicing songs I already learned so I don’t forget them.
Short term goals: Some classic Beatles songs and maybe some of the popular Jason Isbell tunes – but they are really hard!
Long term goal: Never Going Back Again (learned it – just have to practice it about 10,000 more times)
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