[petelanger]

Nothing fancy to do! Just copy the YouTube link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbcT6zzzzVWA
(this is not a real link, I just made up the part after the “=”)

and paste it into your post, you will notice the preview of your video “automagically” appear.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  petelanger.

youtube.com

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

[petelanger]

This is great! Why not put this in the Benchmark Forum since it’s a Benchmark Challenge?

[petelanger]

I posted my first benchmark video, hopefully I can get more up over the next couple of days. I really want to document where I am at.

https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/peter-l-1st-benchmark-bill-withers-cloudy-day-monday/

I am playing on my wife’s Takamine because I just sent my Lava Me Air back to Amazon because it wasn’t setup right. I have to wait for the refund and then I’ll order a replacement. Not sure if I’ll order the same thing. I liked the guitar but I over 3mm action on the 12th fret after nearly every reviewer raved about how perfectly their Lava Me Air was set up from the manufacturer. Lava was good with the support though, very responsive and told me to just go ahead and return it.

tonypolecastro.com

Peter L – 1st Benchmark Bill Withers – Cloudy Day (Monday) - Benchmark Progress - Tony's Acoustic Challenge

Peter L – 1st Benchmark Bill Withers – Cloudy Day (Monday) - Benchmark Progress - Tony's Acoustic Challenge

[petelanger]

Thanks for explaining this. Since I’m a newbie at TAC it seemed this forum was here all along but somehow empty. I will be contributing my highly flawed attempts to wrestle with my instrument over the weekend.

[petelanger]

Fantastic, 9 years and dominating the fretboard! Congrats!

@Tony_S thanks for bumping this!

[petelanger]

Today I got confirmation that guitar strings have a shelf life even in a sealed package! I opened a package of Martin&Co Marquis, that I purchased for my wife probably about 20 years ago. She never installed them because she never actually played. Although sealed in the package inside the guitar case in air conditioning the high E and B strings had rust on them. I threw them all away of course, even if no visible rust is on the other 4 strings they can’t be much better than the rusty ones. It’s funny because the strings on the guitar are significantly older but still playable at this point.

I just ordered new strings because all the spare sets I have are for electric.

[petelanger]

If blues didn’t have the lure that it had and still has, the British Invasion doesn’t happen when it did and rock music would not be what it is today. I’m not saying we don’t have some form of rock and roll music but the men that became Beatles, Cream, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin heard blues music and said “That’s what I want!”
Just think of all the great players from England that we love, almost everyone started as a blues player. Most of them played either with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, the Yardbirds (where you had to be a blues player to qualify), or both: Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood (all of Fleetwood Mac), Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Jimmy Page, etc. Even Jimmy Hendrix had to go to England to get noticed because that’s where this great blues movement was happening!

[petelanger]

My sister used to play this song back in the 60’s when she was 15. Our whole family gathered in the living room and she would play and sing as we all sang along. There were a bunch of songs, let’s see which ones I can remember:
– The House of the Rising Sun (Animals)
– As Tears Go By – (Rolling Stones)
– Summer Time – (Gershwin/Billy Holiday)
– Yellow Bird – (Harry Belafonte)

– To Sir With Love, Theme Song (Lulu)

[petelanger]

Can’t please everybody I guess. Blues is such a huge part of music, it seems perfectly natural that we are learning blues riffs. I’m sorry that you don’t like it. I’m 65 and I’ve been drawn to blues music for over 50 years. Of course I love rock and classical as well. We are musical creatures and all these genres, methods and styles of musical expression, evolved from the soul we have been endowed with by the Creator.

[petelanger]

You still have to load them up to YouTube first and then post the link here in the forum. Actually start a new thread and don’t just put them in this one. Each video should stand on it’s own. At the top here is a button that says “Benchmark Progress”. Press there and then post your link!

[petelanger]

They would go right here in this thread. If you click on that menu item it will take you here.

[petelanger]

I totally get it Zebras, I too wanted to get a little bit better before posting. Somehow we don’t want to look like the absolute beginners that we are! Lol!
But is that the point? We would be simply “perfecting” an exercise that represents a work in progress that will unfold over the next couple of years. For some the process will go quickly, for others in may take longer. Let’s embrace the warts and faults in our practice sessions and down the road we can celebrate as we eliminate more and more of our flaws!

[petelanger]

❤

[petelanger]

I should give credit to the teacher I got it from: Lauren Bateman

[petelanger]

I wish I could remember more titles, she had quite a repertoire but those were definitely a few of our favorites. Yellow Bird always made us laugh!

I just looked up the lyrics and was a bit shocked, we definitely didn’t have entirely the same ones back then.
Here is a version by Roger Whittaker that are closer to the words we sang:

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me
Did your lady friend leave your nest again?
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad
You can fly away, in the sky away
You’re more lucky than me

I also had a pretty girl
She’s not with me today
They’re all the same, the pretty girls
Take tenderness, then they fly away
(Our version: “Build ’em de nest, then they fly away”)

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me
Let her fly away, in the sky away
Pick a town and, soon, pick from night to noon
Black and yellow, you like banana too
They might pick you someday

Wish that I were a yellow bird
I’d fly away with you
But I am not a yellow bird
So here I sit, nothin’ else to do

Yellow bird
Yellow bird
Yellow bird
Yellow bird

Peter

Roger Whittaker – Yellow bird (1975) (youtube.com)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  petelanger. Reason: Added YouTube video