First AVOYP. hope the post works, let’s see. Spent 2 days so far trying to learn and play this one. Bit more tricky than I thought, completely messed up the 2nd verse but too late tonight to have another go. Any tips or advice always welcome. I am trying to get this to Open Mic performance level if I can.
Cheers
Eric
That was outstanding Eric. It would take me a lot longer than 2 days to learn that. I only play acoustic so can’t really offer you any advice. Your playing and vocals sounded really really good to me. Big thumbs up 
!
Bravo Eric !
Hi Eric that was really cracking attempt only after few attempts of trying, bravo! I have a few things to run through you:
you mentioned you want to bring it to Open Mic level of performance - my advice is to buckle down as it is going to be a long ride! I guess all depends on what will make you happy, as in how close to original you want to get. The closer you want the more time you will need to spend to study the song, to practice every lick on its own to make sure it’s in time and is phrased well etc etc. For this sort of song I definitely would say take your time and learn it well as it is not something to learn within a week.
I don’t know if this is recording or your play but when you sang along especially during 2nd verse you were off time wise, too late to the rhythm. Strike out the solo bits for now and focus on rhythm play and sing along to get timing right. That will make it a lot more enjoyable to the listener.
Just practice practice practice really, you have some nice bends and vibrato going, how did you get note ringing out for so long? If you practice licks on a one by one basis you will get bends more in tune more often and vibrato even more standing out.
Hopefully you are willing to spend some time on it Eric, although you are off to a very impressive start!
Hey Eric,
Congratulations on your first AVOYP.
You’ve progressed tremendously well for only 2 days - this is certainly not an easy song. Well done mate.
Its been on my song list for a few months on and off, and I’ve been breaking it into chunks, and trying to uplevel each section at a time. Like @adi_mrok said, likely to take a while, and its proving so for me.
Cheers Shane
Coming along nicely. Impressive that you can pick an arpeggio and sing at the same time.
Thanks JK, I see you have some experience of this technique, I would never have guessed it was so tricky. Thanks for the view
Hi Shane, yep I completely underestimated this one and there are parts where i will have to do my own thing as GMs playing is clearly out of my league and some licks and I will never be able to replicate but I will persevere. Thanks
Hi Adrian. Thanks for the in depth feedback much appreciated. Unfortunately I know you are correct about getting this to a level of performance which will satisfy me. It is going to require quite a bit of perseverance which I am not particularly good at. I hope your external critique in this respect will inspire me to do this and not to move on and have this song added to the large list of half learned songs I already have 
This recording was done live and quite hastily, that is not an excuse for my performance btw, if I had tried several takes they would all have had issues although probably different ones. You were kind to mention I was slightly off in the 2nd verse. I was completely off 
forgot chords and lyrics. Your point is a good one though, I did not appreciate the vocal phrasing nuances until I tried to play this, interesting you spotted it, are you familiar with this song ? I think you are referring to the opening note of the outro solo. I am playing through my Kemper and for that solo I switched in a classic rock Marshall setting , I found if i do a bit of heavy vibrato I can get a bit of sustain nothing cleverer than that. He does a live version which sustains for ages not going to try and replicate that one ! Thanks again for the feedback much appreciated and I am sure it will help to push me on with this one. Cheers Eric
I’ve given the singing & arpeggios thing a go but they both go to 
. You did pretty well!
That was very good Eric. Beyond me to offer useful critique, but I read through Adrian’s post and there is some good stuff in there.
A difficult song to sing and play as there are all those bends and arpeggios that need to be spot on and the original has a very unique tone and sound. The vocal phrasing and timing would be difficult enough if you were simply strumming.
Well done though on a really good job.
I know what you mean about having a load of half learned songs. Unless you are aiming to achieve a perfect ‘copy’ of an original, which is of course impossible as the original will have all sorts of post production things done to it, you have to decide when enough is enough and move on. So many songs, so little time. 
Well I wasn’t sure if this was a software issue or what, but if not software then yes I might have been kind 
Yes I would say so although plenty people here who are far better familair with it than myself
Yes sustain is bit of an issue on my Katana, did you play it very loud though to get note sustained?
@adi_mrok . No played at normal volume. Guitar straight into my Kemper then from Kemper straight into Reaper with no pugins added. I have to say the Kemper seems to be pretty good at modelling real amps from my limited experience. They are quite expensive and I think I am probably using about 5% of its features so it is a bit overkill for what I need but it works well for me when I need a decent sound.
@sairfingers Hi Gordon. Thanks for the feedback. I like GM bluesy stuff and I thought this was reasonably accessible compared with others but in the end they are all difficult to make sound like him because he was such an amazing player. Still Got the Blues is also in my half done pot 
Yeah mate,
Gary Moore’s playing is out of everyone’s league, even seasoned professionals, so you’re certainly not alone there.
No-one will ever replicate him.
Still, you can make the song your own in parts.
I’m a huge fan of Gary Moore. Been at his Still Got The Blues for over 6 months now. Apart from the fun of it, it’s a terrific learning experience. Realise though its very much a long term investment, with little payoffs aling the way.
All the best
Cheers, Shane
Really enjoyed this, Eric. Taking on GM out of the gate - impressive!
That’s great work Eric! Two days trying to learn a GM performance is insanely short and what you achieved is excellent. You should be proud of that. With these AVOYPs I always end up doing several takes and just keeping the one with the fewest mistakes.
For just a couple of days work, that’s not half bad at all. I spent weeks if not months and entitled my take Murder By The Seine for good reason, some years back, so I know how hard this is. And I never sung or played through the verses, so well done. Plenty of advice but just keep working at it and you’ll iron out all the creases. But definitely sounding good.
Murder By The Seine 
cheers man
That will be my cover sir, in no way yours.