Attempting to play Blackbird - The Beatles (63 days guitar progress)

[JasmineJ]

That was amazing! Very impressive for 63 days in! (or otherwise too!)

@Tbushell

Very good playing for someone only 2 months in! But I’m not the least bit envious…no no no…not me!

Nope, no, not me either…

[adi_mrok]

That was really good Oliver well done! You just have to play it over and over again to smooth out any rough edges and get to the original speed. Took me probably 3-4 months based on my checks from the past to fully learn it up to speed and cover it with singing, but I had some previous history with a guitar as well which helped greatly all the best and see you around!

[matonmad]

Really really nice guitar playing. You will have that in no time and do take advice on looking after your spine and body.

[Paul_Anthony]

I’m quite incredulous- for me this is extraordinary progress - it’s an intermediate (?) level piece with some really tricky fretwork and an upbeat tempo. You are smashing it Oliver. No doubt soon you will be mastering the legendarily tricky Never going Back Again. Happy playing dude…

[DavidP]

You are doing ever so well, Oliver. Already sounding clean and fluent. Just keep practicing.

Lots of sensible advice already given.

All I can offer is the point of dedicating more practice time to the bits that are more difficult, where you still need some polish. Don’t practice the song start to finish all the time. Apologies if somebody mentioned that and I missed it.

[GDPiper169]

First of all, GREAT job! As for your picking fingers, as long as your thumb or finger don’t get in the way of the others, do what’s comfortable for you. Playing the way “you’re supposed to” can be very uncomfortable for some, including me. Regarding your posture, it will be fairly easy to correct when playing something you know well. I’d guess I’m more than 50 years your senior. If I played sitting like that for more than about 10 minutes, I’d have to call for my wife to help me up!

[Tbushell]

@oliverl , if you want to dig deeper into the whole issue of posture and sitting position, this is a really good thread.

Sitting position, slight difference that makes a difference?

Just a quick thought that I had today. I have been having a hard time with feeling like both of my hands and arms are not in quite the correct positioning, especially on my big acoustic, and I haven’t been able to figure out why. I’d reposition the guitar over my thigh, further to my right in order to make my wrist more comfortable. Firstly, the guitar would work its way back to the front of me (which is annoying), or secondly, it would try to rotate downward over the outside of my thigh so that…

[sundog90]

This sounds like the record basically! really really well done!

[perfectlyGoodInk]

Oh, forgot to mention that this was a song I was trying to learn ages ago when I was trying to learn classical guitar. When I gave up on classical guitar because of the difficulty of barre chords (for like 20 years!), I’d put this song away as well, but I found that I was able to pick through a lot of the chords the other day, inspired by you, so I think I’ll try to learn the whole thing soon! I’ve only ever learned like the 1st half, but I don’t think there’s much more new after that.

[SgtColon]

Great job there Oliver, it is coming along nicely. Very impressive after such a short time playing guitar.

[sairfingers]

Unbelievable progress for 63 days over. Looking forward to more from you.