Iāve been working on songs with the F chord on my acoustic guitar since I got it this past March - itās quite a bit more difficult than playing them on my electricā¦
I originally posted this without backing vocals, but decided to do another take. Of course, this time I missed an entire bar of the F chord and the 2 beats of G in the third verse. So once again, warts and all, this time with vocals, hereās a cover of Carly Simonās āYouāre so vainā. Any comments or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Well done, Tom. Nice work keeping that right hand in motion; I can see the attention to timing and maintaining the beat. Keep that up! The main thing Iād work on is polishing some of the chord transitions. You could probably also elevate this piece by sinking into the āfeelā of the song, adding some dynamics or accents to vary the sound of the strumming (not necessarily the pattern itself ā more like the āenergyā of the guitar) when moving from verses to choruses. Youāve got the ābonesā of the song down; at this point youāre at the polishing and making it as āmusicalā as possible stage. Good job!
I agree with J.W.C. The timing and strumming are really good.
I love the idea of getting and giving feedback.
Hoping to be ready to post a video of my own soon.
Thanks Don - and welcome to the community! This one was not really ready for posting, but I felt that I could certainly use some feedback on ways to improve playing those F chordsā¦
I understand completely, and thatās normal. Youāve got to get the timing/beat and changes down and kind of āautomaticā before you can focus on other elements. But youāre right there. Keep at it!
JWC picks up some key points for finessing here.
To add to them, I would suggest simplifying the strumming at certain transition points.
You have a strum pattern - old faithful unless Iām mistaken - but you donāt need to keep it running through the whole song.
Over the lyric, āyou had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotteā for example, play one down strum per chord only. Emphasise these with a strong dynamic strum. Not whacking the heck out of the strings, but donāt be shy.
Then go more gentle on the, āand all the girls dreamed ā¦ā part before building the dynamic up to enter the chorus with some gusto.
Tom, congrats on doing the recording and putting it up here. As you have seen the feedback is positive and on point.
The more you play the song the easier and more comfortable it will get. Keep up the good work!
Well done Tom. Youāve got a good steady strum action there. You just need introduce a bit of feeling and fluidity into it and be less mechanical. I know itās difficult to concentrate on a chord like F at the same time as introducing dynamics, but stick at it. Youāll get there.
Well done, Tom, I see great progress on the basics. Keep doing what you are doing and youāll become more relaxed and comfortable, and then able to play with more feel, dynamics etc. It is not easy to be able to keep steady rhythm, make all the changes, keep track of where you are in the song ā¦ those that make it look easy have achieved that through a great deal of practice and playing.
Thanks David! Adding in the F chord changes has been rather challengingā¦ Iāve been working on it in my daily practice routines for quite a while. Iāve just recently started playing songs with the F chord. I appreciate your comments and everyone elseās. Thanks.
Thanks Nick!
After the feedback I received on this, I started working in the suggestions that @J.W.C , @Richard_close2u and @sairfingers offered, and the changes have made such a huge difference in the overall ālistenabilityā of the song. Iām going to continue the āplay, practice, rinse and repeatā routine with these improvements and eventually post a revised version.
Youāve got a great start, Tom, and lots of positives, as noted above. It just takes practice, practice, practice. I can see you are putting it in, and the payoffs will keep coming. Nice job on this one.
you did really well, good job!