It has been a while since I last posted a video, and I keep finding reasons not to, but I know it does me good to do it. I have been consolidating Grade 2 for a while. This is a song that I play at least once every guitar session. Sometimes it is great, sometimes awful. This was kind of in the middle to me. It was also recorded with my focusrite through OBS, I also had a backing track through the headphones, but didn’t want it in the recording, so that resulted in a few scrapped takes, and a rising level of frustration by the time I got to this one. I am off to read some of the setup tips on the forum and may be back with a specific question if I cannot find a solution. Playing with headphones is definitely different than hearing the guitar live. I will continue to evolve my setup. Comments and suggestions welcomed. Thanks for watching.
Well done Phil pretty solid there my friend despite the intro. The odd stutter but it takes time to get used to a new set up but I am sure you’ll get used to it. Yes sounds vary a great deal through headphones and also speakers compared to just playing acoustic on its own. I am still refining my own set up and I guess its something to always improve on. Plenty of assistance available if you can’t find the answer you want !
Great progress Phil! One of my favourite things about this community is watching people progress over time. And that’s definitely huge progress.
This is also a great song to continue to work on and develop as you progress for picking and strumming variations as you can develop it as you go.
I thought well played. Just a couple of tips from me. One is the acoustic looks lower than when in a sitting position, it might be easier to play slightly higher. The other is strumming variations, try to emphasise the bass note on the 1 beat for this song sounds good IMHO. However you got the groove down well.
Hey Phil, that was great! You really got this one well under your fingers, well done! As JK mentioned this is a great song to build on until you can get it pretty much as per original and how Justin teaches. I think your next step should be to introduce some accents and change in strumming, you push through in similar style, try to strum a bit more quiet at the start, go all in for chorus and again bit more quiet for 2nd verse and outro.
Hi Phil,
Good to see that a process has been made,. …this is quite a fast strumming pattern,…the good things has already been said,…one thing, JK is absolutely right about the height of your guitar, but if the guitar hangs a bit lower it is much cooler ,… my guitar is almost under my chin ,
Greetings ,Rogier
Sounding good, Phil. I think a steady rhythm, clean chords, and you did pretty well on the stuck 3 & 4 chords.
I was listening with ear-buds and heard the guitar only in my left ear. So you should check the setup of the Focusrite audio source in OBS to ensure it is stereo. That will be related to the setup or choice of driver.
Well done, Phil. Your consolidation is coming along nicely and you have made good solid progress. Nice steady rhythm with a fast strumming pattern. As @adi_mrok mentions now that you’ve got it under your fingers, you can develop it further accenting back beats, applying dynamics. Then take it a step further as @jkahn says playing the bass notes. As @DavidP says you played nice clean chords and good work on the stuck 3&4 chords. Overall an all round good performance that you can be proud of mate.
Great job Phil. This is a great song to learn and as your skills develop to revisit and enhance with accents, picking notes on the beat etc. Really cool and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Terrific work Phil, also a hugfe fan of this song. Can’t say for sure but it felt like you were actually at a slightly faster tempo than the original, perhaps a little slower can allow some time for other emphasis or tweaks as some others have said.
Sounding terrific and will also add another voice to saying your progress is terrific!!
Thanks for the watches, listens and thoughtful comments and useful comments. @TheMadman_tobyjenner the stutters were when I got a little ahead of the backing track and was deciding whether to continue as I knew nobody would hear it or slow down to let the band catch up. Need more practice with headphones and a backing track, going to try to cheap wired in ears, as I am not a fan of the large headphones. Regarding setup, obviously I have more work to do, especially to get it stereo as @DavidP noticed.
Thanks @jkahn I really like the song and I can see how far I have progressed with it and my playing in general, I doubt it would have happened had I not joined this community so thanks to everyone for being so supportive and encouraging. Good spot on the guitar height, it does look low, never noticed, I set it up with the strap while sitting, but obviously needs more. Looking at the video I can check in future. Also on the strumming as @adi_mrok mentioned, I could do with varying, I do practice trying to pick individual strings, but cannot do it consistently enough to go the whole song, so I erred on simplicity. This would have been my OM song, if I was able to perform, I will continue to try to upgrade the strumming.
It is also a song I try to sing to, but the strumming quickly goes bad as soon as I open my mouth. I definitely need to simplify if I sing. @roger_holland Thanks, hopefully next time you see me, I will have the guitar higher. @Bytron08, @Eddie_09, @Socio, Thanks for the comments, will definitely work on continuing to polish.
Off to practice some more, but thanks again.
@philsmith that sounded good and kudos for pushing ahead and recording it. Standing up and playing is not easy either. A couple of observations (more things to check/try than anything). Your guitar looks pulled quite far to the right of your body. It looks a bit awkward with your left arm then being pushed out front. That might (or might not) also tie in with a quite a lot of wrist action on your strumming and not so much arm action. I think as someone said it might be an idea to try adjusting the height of the guitar or moving it around to the front of the body more to see if that feels better. Not a critique as such just an observation.
I didn’t see any issues with finger placement for the chords and they seemed to move pretty well to me. Perhaps just focus on making that strumming a little more fluid, slow it down a little perhaps. I know you’re playing to a backing track which doesn’t make it easy to do that so maybe play without and then bring it back in and up to speed.
…this is quite a fast strumming pattern,…the good things has already been said,…one thing, JK is absolutely right about the height of your guitar, but if the guitar hangs a bit lower it is much cooler 
