Wow has it really been 2 and a half months since my last HotRS recording? That’s what it says on the calendar so it must be true.
I haven’t had this song on my practice roster, but I thought it might be interesting to give it a play through tonight and record. It’s not quite a one-take, I played through once before I set up the camera, and then scratched the recording a couple of times before I got a full run that I liked.
Compared with the previous recording, I’m no longer stressing out about switching chord grips quickly enough, and that freed me up to think about other stuff, like being more expressive and dynamic with my strums. On the downside, because I wasn’t worrying about the timing so much, I got ahead of the beat in a few places.
I got a little too dynamic, and ended up with a few way-too-loud clangy strums. It’s a fine line between “picking up the intensity” and “oh yikes that strum was dreadful” isn’t it.
You can also see the beginnings of me pulling a little bit of Stupid Guitar Face here. I actually didn’t even know I was doing that until I watched it back Oh well, what can you do.
I can definitely notice the change in my comfort level with the F chord here, don’t know if it comes through in the recording, but F is not my nemesis anymore (that title now belongs to the B chord). I’m not quite ready to think about F as “just another chord” but it’s moving in that direction.
Time to spice this one up and challenge yourself I reckon . Try “mini F” a different voicing, which makes the chord progression go up in at F rather than down. It’s how the animals played it - although this song is a folk song, so really, play it however you want.
Some other things to try: 6:8 strumming, pick raking (like the animals) and fingerstyle!
Thanks JK. I have wanted to try some fingerstyle with it, and it does feel like I could make the attempt now. On the other hand, it’s not currently one of my active project songs so I should probably make like my man Gold Five and “stay on target”
Sounding very good Brendan. For most of the changes you’re not even looking at your left hand, so you’ve got the skills “in your RAM” as Justin says.
I know what you mean about the B chord - I often end up just playing the triad on the D, G, B strings (not that I’m suggesting that you should not do it properly!).
Progressing really nicely Brendan, well done!! You’re right with that fine line with the dynamics, but it’s a terrific area to begin to explore
And stupid guitar face is another crucial step that means things are becoming more and more natural and automatic.
And finally, perhaps most importantly, well done with your F!! Keep on top of that little beggar, it can have a habit of coming back and reminding you why you hated it in the first place
I’m already using all 4 fingers! But I guess you mean the 4 string F (“mini F”) like @jkahn was suggesting.
I bounced off the mini F when I first tried it in Justin’s “F chord cheats” lesson. It didn’t feel much less awkward than the full F under my fingers, so as a “cheat”, it didn’t have any appeal and I quickly dropped it.
But I can hear what you guys are saying about the mini F in this song, it does slot in quite nicely. I will take it for a spin.
And also Jk,…and I have read from many people that that mine F Barre bottom strings is a crime … also for me, the regular F was no problem (only index to high ,so some changes after where difficult), miracle of miracles???, but that small F wherever on the neck took months for it went well…have fun trying it all …
Greetings,…
Cheers Gordon, that progress owes a lot to your and @SandyMusic’s excellent advice to work on getting the index finger down first. So thank you for that! It really made a big difference on F, and it’s now helping with my other barre chords too.
Sounding pretty solid on this one Brendan but I’d have to agree with the use of the “smaller” F as it sits better in this song.
I really get confused by Justin introducing the non barre chord shapes as the F Chord Cheats. Its not how he labelled them in the original Beginner Course, as they were the first introduction to playing F and used in countless songs, as they don’t clash with the bass player. To me calling them cheats infers you really should be playing the barre chord instead. But not using the “mini” grips is just plain wrong or certainly not the case for many songs. Just MHO.
Sorry F Chord Cheat rant over !
I am absolutely thrilled to share my first recording of Sweet Child. I’ve been working up to this for a while.
Man, this song is crazy good fun to play. It’s an unreasonable amount of fun.
That B chord is still a bit of a pest, but I’m slowly getting it under control.
The stuff I’ve been posting up to now has been very much in the “dad rock” category. And I love that stuff, I really do. But GnR is venturing into the kind of music that feels like it belongs to me and my generation. This is the kind of music that made me want to go out and buy a guitar in the first place. It does not feature in my Dad’s record collection
Hang on a sec, I’m a dad, so does that mean GnR is now “dad rock”? Is the Eagles “granddad rock”?
Oh well, what can you do.
. Try “mini F” a different voicing, which makes the chord progression go up in at F rather than down. It’s how the animals played it - although this song is a folk song, so really, play it however you want.
…Yes! Sorry. I meant play strings 1, 2, 3 & 4.
