Long time, no AVOYP from me. I’ve kept busy, but to be honest, the stuff I was practicing was rather complicated and never got it to a level felt comfortable recording (but it did unlock some new skills, so hey!)
This is what I’m practicing now, Greensleeves (and also Spanish Romance, but that one is till rough).
And just for kicks, because I thought it sounded nice with this obscene amount of effects, here’s a rendition on the electric:
Thank you all, it feels good to be participating here again after a long hiatus.
Many thanks for everyone who listened and chimed in
Indeed, I’ve used this tab, which is slightly different from what Justin plays on the lesson in Grade 3. I haven’t officially got to that point yet and don’t have “rolling chords” in my toolbox just yet.
I also messed up the ending on the acoustic: it was not my intention to slow down at the end, but I sometimes did when practicing and “accidentally” did it on this take. It ended-up being the better of a few attempts, so I just went with it.
And it does, right? I claim no merit for the sound, it’s a built-in preset from my effects processor slash audio interface (Boss GT1). I did peek at the patch chain though, it uses an overtone effect, chorus, delay and reverb as the main. The result is not for everyday use, but can be quite “atmospheric”.
Interesting, can’t say I quite hear it, but hey! Incidentally, it’s been ages I don’t listen to anything by them; you inspired me to put some on my rotation this week, thanks!
When I first started practicing it, I was using what I knew, and thought it was ok. When I showed it to my in-person teacher/mentor, he immediately pointed out that I was not letting the bass ring through, every time I moved my left hand to a new position I was stopping the bass note, so it sounded “weak” and “broken”. Took a while to learn to move to the next melody note while holding the bass, but that was a game changer for me, super interesting skill to unlock (even if I’m only scratching it right now)
great stuff mate, sounds really cool. I love it how slightly different your playing is on the electric, or at least I perceive it as such, like going smoother into changes. Inspiring, thanks!
I guess that’s somewhat due to my unsteady tempo: I did not have a backing track or a metronome to help me keep time, I was going entirely by feel, so there’s some variation . As for the changes, one thing is that the delay+sustain on the electric do help give it a bit more “fullness” which is not entirely attributed to my playing
That is going to take some time. That are quite some finger gymnastics on that one, including at least on full bar on the 7th fret that is proving quite the challenge to ring clean. But I got the first 8 bars of the piece sounding acceptable, and that’s something already.
I enjoy playing Greensleeves as well on the acoustic, never thought to put it through electric effects like that…it sounds like a merry-go-round! Cool idea!
I’m happy to report that I finally cracked the second part of this song. The first one (in a minor key) was not too bad, with lots of open strings, but the second part quickly convinced me that I needed an additional 2 or 3 centimeters in each finger on my left hand. And A couple additional fingers would help too.
After much toil I can finally play it all. The chord changes in the second part are still not fluid, so a recording will have to wait a bit longer. But hey, it’s recognizable already
I’m afraid this is much relatable! What I think is very useful with pieces that are above our level is that they push so that we gradually start developing new amazing skills!
I also finally got to the last bar of a difficult piece recently and feels really great!
Don’t bother about the recording and keep on enjoying it
It sounds great Claudio - particularly the electric, but then I’m biased
Do you find that the (presumably) closer string spacing on your electric makes the finger picking a bit harder?
I like both - but I felt the electric was a tad fast - but that might just be me!
I think a little practice with a metronome might help tighten the pulse, it’s sometimes wavering - it can sound more ‘natural’ and musical to have some movement in the pulse, but I think tightening it uo by like 50% will sound better!
Love that youre experimenting with different tones too.
Yes, it does make it harder to pick the strings correctly. But on the other hand (literally, pun intended!) it is easier to form the chords, owning to the closeness of the strings.
And one particular problem that I have with my classic is that the bridge is slightly high (need to take it to a luthier sometime soon), so action on the strings is a bit higher than it should be, making it harder to play. That’s not much of an issue with Greensleeves, but I’m currently practicing Spanish Romance, and it goes a lot further down (or up) the neck, including some bars on the 7th and a half-bar on the 9th. Those are currently very hard to get to sound clean in the classic, and a lot easier on the electric.
