I’ve come across Sierra Ferrell a couple of years ago and have been following here ever since. To me she is the real deal. Her songs are unique, her voice is amazing, and the story telling in her performances is captivating. And I’ve been trying to cover her songs ever since. The songs themselves are not that difficult but pulling off a convincing performance is the big challenge. Lets just say there is still a lot to improve but it’s a journey, isn’t it? And we all have our dreams of how we would love to be able to play guitar. Performing like her is one of mine. Wip.
Both videos are one-takes - I find it hard to sing these songs start-to-end twice in a row. I tried of course but the second versions were just decidedly worse and were deleted on the spot. I never tried a third take.
Dollar Bill Bar is a song from her latest album. I wanted to learn to play it since I first heard it, but it was queued behind a few other songs and I only got round to transcribing the solo at the start of this year. The arrangement is not mine at all - Sierra published an alternate version on her youtube channel just her and her guitar and I’ve just copied that. For Made like that I had to make some choices about how exactly to play it. I love how the bridge channels Kate Bush - at least to my ear - and I wanted that in my version.
Hi Molly, I don’t know these songs but I’m much enjoying listening to your renditions…you play and sing beautifully! Being able to mix bass melody lines into the strumming is one of my goals and you just inspired me to put the work in and try.
There surely is, but that doesn’t prevent the final performance to be a very enjoyable listening, thanks for sharing your recordings
Deborah @GrumpyMac , Jacek @JackPK and John @Willsie thank you so much for watching the videos and leaving a comment! It makes me very happy to hear that you liked them!
In particular I am happy to hear that Eddie @Eddie_09 you mention the dynamics in the playing. It is something I have been working on for a while now but there’s always a difference between how things go in isolated practise and what then remains of the intentions during a performance. Sounds like I’m making progress
Silvia @Silvia80 love to hear that my videos can inspire other people! Absolutely give it a go and add short melody and bass lines to your playing. It felt odd at first and I for one have to closely watch my timing when going out and then back into the main strumming pattern but they are such a great tool to give structure to a song. And they don’t have to be fancy at all to sparkle up a song - I have found myself more than once transcribing something that sounded interesting to my ear and then it was all just an embellished chord arpeggiated out or similar.
Gordon @sairfingers yes, I always use two microphones or one microphone and one pickup. There is not really a deep-meaning reason for it other than I have been doing that from the start, it’s my default setup. I’m not a great smartphone user, which is what most people use when they start recording their playing. I only found out how to record a video with my phone when I started to play at open mics which was much later. The advantage of recording with two mics is that I can then listen back to just the guitar track on its own and listen to how that sounds when I am giving it less atttention (because I am also singing at the same time). It makes it usually obvious which parts need more practise focus.
Not heard of the artist or either song but looked to be some trick stuff going on, so lots to focus especially when singing as well. So looked a pretty good job on both covers to me, well done.
