Hi all, here’s a video of my playthrough of Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny.
If you don’t know the original artists but the tune kind of sounds familiar to you, then you probably recognise it from one of the movies it’s been in. I heard it in La Bamba for the very first time and always associate this song with the very last scene of that movie - no I’m not crying… you’re crying
This playthrough doesn’t really showcase chord or strumming techniques, just mainly hitting basic notes for the most part - so it’s simple enough for any beginner to play along to a backing track if they want to have a go.
I believe the original was done using a pedal steel guitar, and the song is probably more suited to some type of steel or Electric guitar for covers of it.
Nevertheless I thought I’d give it a try on my Classical guitar with a backing track to see if it came out ok, because I really like this old laid back tune.
Since I don’t have to worry about root notes (and such) whenever I pick single notes like in this song or in any solo section, I usually break away from the traditional fingerstyle placements of the thumb and fingers. In these cases, I tend to use my thumb on the thinnest strings quite often when it feels comfortable for me to do so.
Below are the links to the video that I did yesterday, as well as an old audio file which was done without a backing track. Cheers
@jkahn Thanks mate. I’ve known of this tune since I first watched the movie La Bamba when I was a kid, but never knew the title. So when I was trying to find easy things to play at the start of my guitar learning, I thought of this tune and googled something like “name of song in final scene”. It’s very laid back and beginner friendly.
@skinnyt Thanks Trevor. That’s also why enjoy listening to it… very chill, laid back, mellow, all of the above.
@sairfingers Cheers Gordon. It’s been in a few movies and it was a hit for the artists at the time, so I’m sure it’s been used in many other things over the years since the 60’s.
Yes, I recognise the tune but I don’t know where from. I have seen La Bamba but that was back in about 88, so I’d be amazed if my brain was still that good.
Yeah, funny how the brain works. If I rewatch something after a couple of decades (which I used to love as a kid), the amount of lines that I could probably repeat verbatim after such a long time is a pretty cool and scary thought.
@batwoman Thanks Maggie. That’s the way it feels to me when I here this song, so I’m pleased that it seems to have come across that way to most of you too.
That’s kind of you to say, Sandro. I thin the movement between chord shapes and the finger-picking patterns and the single note lines would be challenging for me. And the shifts on the right hand.
I am currently working on a beginner friendly song but finding the shift I want to make between finger-picking the verses, and then a mix of pumping 8s and old faithful strumming for the pre-chorus and chorus, specifically getting back into the finger-picking after the chorus mighty tricky. Needs lots of practice but I’ll get it eventually.
Mellow flow, man-.so that’s where all those doors open to…
For a Covid-axe-man, you’re flying! Keep on with whatever you’re doing.
I can’t get over how fat that fretboard looks.
phat sound though
@DavidP Rod mentioned an expression “Hike your own hike” on one of my other threads, which I liked (and I have officially stolen now). I think he has a point, as everyone has different pathways to reach a similar goal. So I might have been a tad naive to think that everyone might share the same strengths and weaknesses.
My path so far has not been too linear… I’ve zig zagged my way to this point and after skimming through some of the beginner grade course when I joined this site, it’s evident that I had bypassed a lot of basic essentials.
I’ve left a note to myself to check out the Blues module a bit more in depth. Because it would be cool to be able to do something in that style, so I’m planning to go through and see if I can fill in some gaps and mess around with it.
I think Richard previously suggested that a learning log might be a good idea, so I’ll see if I can finally start my own one sometime this week to help me keep better track of things for myself.
Let’s keep on truckin’ at our own pace
@brianlarsen Thanks man, much appreciated. I guess it was just the amount of spare hours that I had while passing the time (and boredom) when we were all stuck at home during lockdown.
Yeah, another member mentioned something similar about the fretboard previously. My hands are more built for a kiddy sized guitar So starting my learning on this old thing with a “fat” fretboard was probably not the smartest choice. But it was the only thing that I had to mess around with at the start, so I just persisted with it and it’s all I’ve ever played with so far.
So starting my learning on this old thing with a “fat” fretboard was probably not the smartest choice. But it was the only thing that I had to mess around with at the start, so I just persisted with it and it’s all I’ve ever played with so far.