Fantastic Alexis, the rhythm work is sublime 
Thanks for watching Dave!
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Hey Alexis, that was really good. Just got back from a trip away and yours was the first AVOYP I watched 
I’ve listened to this song say many times over the years, I was a huge Nirvana head in my teens. You played it really well. Bends sounded good. Kurt wasn’t David Gilmour in his bends and yours sounded good. I don’t think Kurt went for perfection. I think he was a better guitar player & songwriter than most give him credit for.
BTW, I listened on my PC with Studio monitors. Levels sounded fine, tones sounded decent (although I think your clean could do with more dirty chorus).
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Haha, I’m honored and welcome back.
Yeah, I agree. I feel like Kurt’s stuff, while not difficult to play technically, is all about the attitude. It’s brilliant in its own way.
It’s funny because just yesterday was the first day of practicing bends where I think I could finally hear when I got to pitch clearly the whole practice. When I was practicing for this, I could never quite tell. I would feel like I hit it but then the sounds would get scrambled in my brain.
I listened to the original after I posted this and felt the same way. I just slapped a chorus effect over clean when mixing it and went on my way. Should have messed around with the effect a little bit more.
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Brilliant, Alexis! Grunge right there and that solo was super tasty. It sounded spot on. I think you were channelling Kurt on this one. Bravo!
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Song 12: Song 2 by Blur
Song 2 by blur is such an interesting song. At first glance it’s very easy, simple power chords, and to be fair that’s true. But there is so much more going on in the song that makes it sound as awesome as it is. I found that most of the difficult parts about this song is getting the sound right. More below.
What I’ve learned/techniques:
- Power Chords. the song uses simple power chords but starts to get really interesting when the distortion kicks in. To give it an extra heavy sound you use inverted power chords where you play the 5th/root instead of the root/5th. It gives it a really heavy and awesome sound. I think in the original they play all distorted parts with inverted power chords, but justin instead uses some inverted and some an octave up to give it the heavier sound. I can only assume this is because getting all 4 notes to ring that far up the neck is super hard (I tried). In the end I went with justin’s way.
- Tone. This was the most difficult part to get. The inverted power chords are just part of the equation. Justin mentioned Fuzz in the book so I tried all the fuzz sounds my amp can do and nothing sounded right. It wasn’t until I posted my frustrations in my learning log that @nzmetal came in with the assist. He commented with this Paul Davids video: Why this riff is actually BRILLIANT! (BLUR) - YouTube Which was extremely helpful to getting the sound right. I ended up using tonelib gfx to mix in DS-1 style distortion AND Fuzz to get the sound. I think it turned out pretty good.
- Ab power chord - This song is all about the sound man. You won’t see this in the video but I added a second guitar part where all I’m doing is hitting an Ab power chord with 8th notes during the distortion parts. This really gives it a more authentic sound. I’m pretty sure there is another added thing in the last distortion part but I didn’t do it for my video.
Sound:
I already spoke about the sound but I guess I’ll mention that I used the clean preset in tonelib gfx for the clean parts though I turned the gain down a smidge.
grabbed the backing track from: Download your instrumental songs in MP3 format - Custom Backing Tracks - Karaoke Version (karaoke-version.com)
Here we go, song 2 by blur! (Advice and feedback always appreciated and welcome!)
NOTE: I moved my office/guitar room around and got a new desk which changed my camera position from what I usually do. It turns out my phone could pick up the sound as good as it usually does. This made me have to sync the video and the track manually in adobe premiere since the auto sync wasn’t picking it up right. I THINK it’s synced right but not 100% sure.
Also going to experiment listing table of contents in all my post so the thread is easier to navigate.
Here for table of contents
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Woohoo!!! 
Great job again Alexis! You’ve got that rhythm nailed my friend! Sounds awesome! 
Sweet write up as well, loving all the technical deets you throw in, gives a great feel for how it all came together.
Glad Paul’s vid helped too! Really love the way he breaks it down, so cool! 
On to the next one eh?! 
Can’t wait to hear it!
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Wow Alexis, when I wrote, I‘m looking forward to Song 2, I really haven‘t expected it so quickly 
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Great job on it. I haven’t started with power chords (but will soon ), and this songs looks like a real power chord-workout 
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Congratulations on this amazing performance 
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Sounds good Alexis! I didn’t realize the riff had inverted power chords but I agree it sounds better this way. Great tone too.
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Sounding great, Alexis. Only three more songs to go on your rock study table 
what’s the plan for after you’ve completed those songs? Move onto the intermediate songs in the book or one of the other books?
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@nzmetal @NicoleKKB @Jeff @Socio Thanks for watching!
That video really helped me bring it together, thanks again! Off to Teenage Kicks!
Thanks Nicole, I usually spend at least 3 weeks with a song before posting but this was simple enough that when I got the tone together, I felt ready. Such a fun song, you should try it when you hit power chords, definitely a workout.
I’m definitely going to start the intermediate songs, I just don’t know if I’m going to take a slight break or not. The first song has A Shaped barre chords, which I haven’t tried yet. I might do a song or 2 that aren’t in the book while I work that out but then I’ll start doing the intermediate songs in earnest. There are some really good ones on the list like Hells Bells, Don’t look back in Anger, Better Man, Creep, and more. So I’m really excited to dig in to those.
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Another massive tick on that one Alexis, such a great song and signalled the arrival of post Britpop Blur in the crunchiest way possible! I remember going to buy the CD on release day, I possibly should have been in a university lecture hall at the time tho!!
The tone you dialled in there was spot on, pretty neat pedal dancing to switch between clean and dirty sections. I’ve checked that Paul Davids video before and it’s interesting to dive into the complexity of the song. I only messed with this a little in the Power Chord module but must revisit it at some point. Thanks for sharing
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Thanks so much for watching Mark!
I cheated by recording clean and doing the switch from Garageband! 
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If it works, it works! And it definitely worked
But I’ll remember you cheated
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Great job again Alexis and TUNE! You were fairly shifting up and down your fretboard, impressive.
Now looking forward to your next one.
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Song 2 sounded great Alexis. Looked easy for you.
Good one adding the extra detail of the second guitar part. Makes it so much more authentic. I thought your tone was right for the song. So you nailed that part.
I do think the audio was just slightly out of sync for the video (like you suspected).
Looking forward to the next one.
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I watched this as you uploaded the video Alexis but forgot to comment duh!!
That was superb Alexis, your attention to detail is amazing and I am always gobsmacked about how you do your covers. Tones were awesome, almost like listening to a studio album! Great job!
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Whoa, that blew the windows out. Great job Alexis.
Thought the tone was spot on, so worth the extra research in getting it nailed. Enjoying this journey but I need to jump in and comment more often !!
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Thanks JK! I knew if felt off. I usual don’t have to add a count in for the sync to work properly, but I suspect I’ll have to add a count in from now on with the new set up.
Thanks Adi! I spend a lot of time with the mix trying to get it right. I’m not always successful but I’m glad the effort shows at least.
Thanks Toby! Glad whenever you stop by and take a gander.
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Great job Alexis! I love Song 2 and you certainly did it justice. I was singing along 
I love a good power chord workout song
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