Whilst I had my Rory Strat out, I thought I’d do a cover of one of his blues songs. Herewith Should’ve Learned My Lesson from the 1971 Deuce album that I bought the day it came out and still my favourite:
The backing track was a bit cobbled together and ran out at the end. Hey ho…
This one from one of my other favourite bands; Free:
Whilst I had the acoustic out I did another. Marc Almond’s finest:
You’re a brave man! Taking on a Rory Gallagher tune, awesome!
Think what you need to do is get a bit more comfortable singing and playing together, you’re actually pretty good at both but you’re not quite putting them together.it becomes very obvious when you play your solo, which sounds fantastic.
A bluesy vocal performance depends on timing and phrasing as much as the guitar part.
This is very close to being a real stand out performance though. Are you going to play it live somewhere?
Well done.
Peter
Played with tremendous feeling - the guitar lines are fantastic. Keep roarin’ for Rory!
Brian
Thanks for your kind comments. This song came to the fore yesterday because I discovered, in a JustinGuitar lesson, that the chord right at the end of the recorded version is called an E13. I knew the chord but not it’s official name!
And thanks for the vote in confidence in Rory Gallagher tunes; there’s a lot more where that came from. The problem is finding backing tracks which you have identified caused me a problem which I need to practice more playing with including the vocals. I could not find a suitable slow blues in E so this one was a C that I re-pitched and changed the timing. There was also some editing and I never really cracked the ending. I just got the E13 in after the track had stopped. I also really struggled at the beginning with the timing - having to start before the track and then matching the beat. I had a number of false starts before this take. When then camera starts to roll things start to fall apart.
Regarding playing live, I’m of an age where I really don’t fancy schlepping gear around, so my priority is noodling on the sofa whilst keeping the dog company is his golden years. But never say never…Peter
Roryon!
@beejay56 Many thanks. To be honest this is possibly his easiest tune. I’d long wanted to do a slow blues that I could do in one go without having to overdub the solo. There were quite a few flaws in that but if it were live nobody would have noticed. Somehow the videoing adds a new dimension of pressure. Cheers Peter
@Richard_close2u Hi Richard. I thought that I had applied the tag when I uploaded this but it didn’t appear to work. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to do it with an AVOYP. Maybe I’m doing something wrong or it’s my ancient browser…
karaokeversion.co.uk has 5 or 6 backing tracks for Rory on their site, it might be worth checking out? I think you can also request them on there as well.
Thanks @mikemycroft that’s very helpful for me such a Rory fanatic. I see they have “What’s Going On” for which I recently uploaded the opening riff. A great excuse to do the whole song now so I’ll get that.
I do have some backing tracks already but Rory’s repertoire was vast. Prime candidates would be:
Off The Handle
Used to Be
Messin’ With The Kid
Laundromat
Calling Card
The list goes on and on.
Back in the day I did upload my version of “Out On The Western Plain” on MySpace! Best not to look for that…
But to be honest the RoryStrat is semi-retired and I am now almost permanently attached to my Les Paul and the back catalogues of Peter Green and more appropriately, Paul Kossoff where I don’t have to sing!
Great performance.
Love your voice. I think it would be even better when you get fully comfortable with the guitar part and are able to play it effortlessly. This would allow you to focus on getting the most out of the vocal performance. It’s not a simple one to sing. Well done!
Thanks @nadim86 for the feedback. Yes I must work more on combining the vocal with the guitar parts. Singing into the mike might help too!
For the benefit of any beginners that may be wondering, I am playing mainly 9s (no not the strings they’re 10s, the chords) plus the odd 7 mainly on the V B7. And then the E13 at the end which I fluffed.
The sliding up and down a semitone onto the chord is something I can hear and have done for a while. But I always thought it was musically wrong. However following Justin’s excellent Jazz lessons, I’ve learnt that it is a common approach in Jazz so I feel vindicated.
That was really great Peter, I enjoyed it!
Soon I Will Be Gone by Free.
Just the one take in this. Didn’t think I could hit the high note again at the end.
I’d originally intended to do this song but then did the other. And then went back and did this anyway whilst I had the acoustic out: