Hi Guitar friends! I’ve started working on 16th notes strumming in January and I’m very happy I finally made a recording to share!
This was just one take! I guess probably for the first time! Gordon @sairfingers is going to be very proud of me! Another thing I’m very happy with: I’m playing confidently without musicsheet!
Please offer feedback on the strumming if you can, I’m doing my best to keep the hand moving and while I can add or remove strums from the pattern, I feel I still have a lot of work to do in this respect. Also dropping beat 3 makes my foot tapping unsure.
The song depicts scenes from the end of a 20th century war. What I love of this songwriter is that through the words he sings you see vivid pictures and feel the feeling they carry with them.
General, behind the hill
There’s the murderous, German night
And in the middle of the meadow there’s a peasant woman
Bent over the sunset, she looks like a child
Fifty years old and with five children
Born into the world like rabbits
Departed into the world like soldiers
And not yet returned
General, behind the station
Do you see the train that took you to the sun?
It doesn’t stop anymore, not even to pee
You go straight home without thinking anymore
That war is beautiful, even if it hurts
That we’ll come back to sing again
And make love
Love from the nurses
General, the war is over
The enemy has escaped, is defeated, beaten
Behind the hill there’s no one left
Only pine needles and silence and mushrooms
Good to eat, good to dry
To make sauce with when Christmas comes
When the children cry
And they don’t want to go to sleep
General, these five stars
These five tears on my skin
What sense do they have inside the noise of this train?
Which is half empty and half full
And it’s racing towards the return
In two minutes it’ll be almost day
It’s almost home, it’s almost love
Bravissima, Sylvia!
I love your Italian songs. They remind me of songs on the radio in my youth
You seemed very relaxed and the Scot will be proud!
It’s funny, I’d have difficulty discerning whether that was 60 bpm with 16th note-, or 120 bpm with 8th note strumming
Either way, a lovely listen.
Bring on Il Molleggiato!
Love this!! Your strumming, to me, seems pretty near flawless (as are your chord changes and I’m very jealous of you haha). You look confident and relaxed and it is a pleasure to watch you play. I have been practicing moving my hand on down-up strums etc and I know how much of an extra-thing-to-think-about it is, until it suddenly becomes subconscious (like checking your mirrors when driving or whatever). I love this!!
Well done Sylvia. Once you decide to go for a one take it’s very liberating. When it’s done it’s done. None of the I’ll try again and improve that bit and of course a different bit goes wrong.
It’s very enjoyable to listen to songs in another language and good that you included a translation in your post although often the sentiment can be clouded in a translation.
Confidently played and sung Sylvia. Your strumming was steady and even. I thought perhaps your angle of attack emphasised the thicker strings a bit much and a few hits on the thin strings could lift the tone a little and add some contrast.
I see what you mean about your tapping foot. I was watching your knee and at times your leg was doing its own thing timing wise.
Great stuff and I look forward to more strumming/classical/note picking songs from you. All performed with a smile!
I, too, enjoyed this a lot. I thought you did a great job with the dynamics (both vocal and guitar), it very much reminded me of the original and (especially) live versions, where the song takes on an almost anthemic quality. A fine rendition of an Italian classic, brava.
Hi Erion, thank you for your comment. What a nice surprise reading from someone in the UK
So I I read your bio and understood!
with all the hours I spent practicing with the metronome …but yes as I wrote I feel I still need to work a lot on the hand moving with the 16th notes feeling.
Thanks a lot for listening and commenting Brian…which song from Celentano would you like?
Thank you @GrytPipe for taking the time to listen and comment, it’s much appreciated!
Thank you @Viv_cee for your positive feedback its direct consequence when I read it was a 32 teeth smile!
That’s actually how it goes…a one-take is like you’re at a party, someone asks you to play because they want to sing along …now I know this song I’d be able to play!
This is also something I need to work on, in the lesson it was mentioned to divide the guitar strings into two parts and play like 2 different voices, on the thick and on the thinnest strings…it sounded really sweet, but still difficult for me.
Exactly
Thanks Gordon, I much appreciate your feedback!
Yep, definetely this is one of those songs that anyone does sing along with; we often go out to listen to live music and we have this local band, they always play this one and it’s just amazing when it happens…it seems to have like a cathartic effect to sing it all along all together!
This one is actually “more poetic” in english, as the verb used in italian “pisciare” is a bit vulgar @brianlarsen@sairfingers. For the rest the Google translation is quite faithful.
When I saw your post, I was so looking forward to a few calm minutes to give it a proper listen and can say: Yes, this was totally worth the wait!
Your performance of this Italian classic was most enjoyable, Silvia! Bravissima!
With your strumming you have been coming a long way. It’s obvious you put in the work and effort and it’s paying back. You strumming arm did a very good job there in keeping the time and from here, all it takes is a little more practice and routine to make these fine nuances in hitting higher or lower strings deliberately and making it feel even more relaxed. Even though I think, the latter already was the case. Your vocal performance was as lovely as always.
You mentioned things we have in common and there is another one:
The same happen with me every time I try to tap to 16th notes. So you are definitely not alone in this, Silvia. Our legs just have their own minds it seems.
All in all, that was an excellent way to start my evening and hope to hear you again soon!
@Silvia80 I don’t think I mentioned Italy in my bio, but maybe you have other sources .
My favourite song from De Gregori is “La donna cannone”. He uses circus imagery in many of his songs.
Maybe I’ll start learning how to play that at some point.
Great watching another song from you and it was nice to start this musical day … and end it at the same time … although I will hang around here for a while and do some ‘catching up’ reading instead of scrolling very rapido…
Sounds great Silvia. I confess I never managed to get the 16th note strumming, foot tapping and accenting thing down - probably (definitely) didn’t try hard enough. Admire your dedication and continue to love the fruits of your labours.
@Socio thank you James!
Also for reminding me my “Amp duties”. But my Amp has not the Middle, only Bass and Treble
@lisa_s Thanks for your encouringing comment Lisa, I’m really happy you enjoyed it!
what I really love about this Community is that we never feel alone with our troubles!
That will be a lot of practice, but that’s fine because it’ll be a lot of enjoyable practice - can’t be otherwise than feeling good if you want to sound good!
Hopefully the listening was good as well just kidding, I guess I know what you mean…I’m singing with feeling…
@DavidP thanks David for your kind words! I think “trying hard” means conciously decide to be consistent with something and just be able to be humble and go as much slow as your unique self requires, following the feeling of self-discovery. I’m so motivated toward the 16th notes strumming because so many songs that I love require it.
This is for @brianlarsen too - I found this recording on my Insta from years ago. At that time I didn’t even know the existence of 16th notes strumming and I approched this same song with 8th notes…I hope you can appreciate it feels much different!
@erionstrings ok…so you probably haven’t been working in ITaly for 20 years How does it come then you love De Gregori? La donna cannone is beautiful! One of my dreamers is Alice guarda i gatti.
Ah, that “IT” stands for Information Technology (as in “things that involve computers” ). People in the UK love acronyms.
I’ll explain about Italy in private.
One comment that you made - [quote=“Silvia80, post:1, topic:409597”]
dropping beat 3 makes my foot tapping unsure
[/quote] - raises a question.
Is your foot tap following the music, rather than the tempo of the music being governed by the foot tap? I know that sounds a bit odd but to establish confident, consistent rhythm, your foot tap (or metronome, or click track( must dictate the pace. It’s like the conductor counting in the orchestra. It might be worth practising with a metronome, having your foot tapping along and doing some muted strumming that is led by the metronome and / or the tap.
That’s a very lovely-sounding song. I can relate to the strumming and foot- tapping issues. It’s the same issues I still have trouble with. As you commented, it’s better to “go slow” during practice until you get it down properly.
with all the hours I spent practicing with the metronome 
its direct consequence when I read it was a 32 teeth smile!
… and end it at the same time … although I will hang around here for a while and do some ‘catching up’ reading instead of scrolling very rapido…
). People in the UK love acronyms.