Learn to play Father And Son by Cat Stevens on JustinGuitar!
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I’m learning Father and Son by Cat Steven. Other than the play along practice songs, this is the first bar chord song that I’m really learning with the intent to play and sing. I’m at the point now I can play the chord reliably, but it’s taking a while for me to consistently incorporate it into the song cleanly and in tempo. Making progress. I do practice it at a slower tempo than the song’s 136bpm which is obviously helpful. Here’s the question…the description of the song says it can be played half-time at 68bpm, what exactly is that? Is there any benefit of using it while learning songs? I’ve found a lot of info on it for drumming but not much for guitar.
I have no I deal where the 136 bpm comes from, if you check any sheet music the bpm are any where from 60 to 72 bpm. So the half time is closer to the tempo.
No there is no benefit you already said your playing it at a slower tempo. Until you can play the song with no mistakes you play it at what ever tempo you can.
Try practicing one minute changes with the chord that comes before the Bm7 then with the chord that comes after the Bm7. You don’t want to get in the habit of having a pause in the song also don’t worry about the bpm you’ll find the correct tempo when your ready.
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Thanks. 136 is at the top of my google search results, I see others are slower.
Justin’s official TAB from the publisher states 66bpm.
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I came across the tempo calculator tool just a few days ago. Using it on this song I do get mid 60s.
Tempo of this song wasn’t really my original question though, I just stumbled into getting good info about it. I was really wondering about half-time. Is it just two beats to a bar instead of four? DUDU instead of DUDUDUDU?
Have you had a look at Justin’s lesson?
I’ve seen some Yusuf ‘live’ videos where he substitutes the Bm7 with D.
You could also try the x20202 version of Bm7.
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I have, thank you. Most transcriptions seem to use D, but since I’m on the bar chord module, and I need the practice, I intentionally picked one that suggested Bm.
@wdperkins
Ok. If you want some barre chord practice then play the G as a barre chord then move down a fret to the Bm7 barre. That’s quite a nice transition.
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I’m not looking for extra frustration right now…maybe in a few modules. 
Half time doesn’t really change the tempo, it changes the resolution at which you’re counting the notes. That’s probably unhelpful. This is a decent explanation with some audio examples:
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Thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.