Thanks Brian. I’ll explore some options around the bends. They fit better into the original with the phrasing (and in tuneness 
).
Pretty cool Martin 
I don’t listen much to classical music in my free time, but your Romanza performance pick my curiosity. Well done great to see it on electric too 
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Thank you!
I’m back to trying to learn a song a week (or fortnight, depending on how difficult), to go along with my more formal PianoMarvel studies.
Here’s my early attempts at Stephen Sanchez’s ‘Until I Found You’ on piano and guitar which I came across a handy piano tutorial for yesterday. I don’t know the song fully yet so I need to do a lot more listening and signing along - the melody’s rhythm is a bit unintuitive for me and I need to work out breathing.
Plenty to improve (and memorise) but I’m happy I’m off to a solid start. I didn’t put much thought into the video so it’s not ideal but it’s good enough for a progress journal. I’ll aim to post an end-of week video next Saturday 22 Feb before moving on to the next project.
Hope everyone in guitar-land is doing well!
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Quite a distracted week but the main thing is I’m back on track and posting my start and end of week video. This really is quite a good discipline. The main take-away from this week is to break pieces into smaller sections and really learn them and memorise them. For a song like this I should be ‘off-page’ (which always make a big difference to me).
Lots of space for improvement in this one but it’s time to move on.
Links to my two videos (piano and guitar) below, as well as a link to the piano version I mainly listened to.
For next week, I asked my wife if there’s anything she’d like me to learn. She picked Hozier’s ‘Eat Your Young’. I’ve no idea what (if anything) I’ll be able to do with that but it should be a good learning experience if nothing else. I’ll start by training to work out the chord progression by ear.
Here is Hozier’s Eat Your Young, having spent a reasonable amount of time on it during the week. Very rough still but it’s not one I’m going to try to keep in my repertoire so happy to move on.
A few notes from the week:
- I mostly worked this out by ear. That was a nice surprise!
- I transcribed a good bit of the melody and the little guitar piece in the middle. Also happy with that.
- I’m still finding it much easier to find notes (for transcribing purposes) on the piano.
- I think the combination of the two instruments is working quite well for me. I’m starting to pay more attention to my chord voicing on guitar and piano has given me a useful prompt to build in a few minutes daily practice trying to really get the note names on the fretboard down.
- This isn’t singable for me (certainly not the vocal riff, which I played on the instrument instead). The other parts are within my range but I need to do a lot of work (as always!) smoothing out the higher notes that are in my break/upper end of my chest register.
All in all, a successful week.
For next week, I’m going to do a mixture of learning Radiohead’s No Surprises and going back and filling in some lessons on Beginner Course 2 that I hadn’t fully completed. I’m forcing myself to try to learn all of the suggested songs by ear.
Hope everyone in guitar land is having fun!
Here is a quick recording of where I’m currently at with No Surprises. Hopefully the end of week version is noticeably better. I’m happy with my voicing on the guitar; need to work that out and practice on the piano. Vocal also needs to be transcribed and practised.
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Just popping in a couple of videos; mostly just for future reference. I’ve been exploring a little jazz again. Here’s a very rough attempt at Autumn Leaves over a backing track (melody - solo x 2 - chords - melody) on guitar and piano. A few interesting moments but this type of music is still plenty above my capacity. I’ve started learning Blackbird (Beatles) so that should be next post (unless I get distracted again!).
(Note to self: don’t record audio through two devices at once. I did that for my guitar video and it has an unsynched weirdness to it that, unfortunately doesn’t sound like a chorus or a cool effect).
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Here’s Blackbird, which I forgot to record a video on and upload. Doing this as a quick one from memory - happy to see it’s still pretty much there in the fingers. Vocal part needs some thought and better choices (particularly attempt at improv at end).
All in all, this is absolutely fine though.
Currently I’m working on SummerTime (jazz) and some songs for a jam session next Tuesday (Use Me, Chameleon, Spanish Castle Magic, Bring on the Night). Not sure where I’ll get to with those but have made a decent effort at Use Me at least.
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Martin
Very good. The picking was mostly very accurate and the notes ringing out clearly: there were some subtle dynamic variations too. Your singing’s not bad. A couple of things you could try: write out and play the melody on the guitar; when you’re playing it well at the right speed, practice singing along with it; it may help you memorise the vocal line. Also try to inhale deeply, feeling your stomach expand, then, when singing, try to feel your stomach pulling in again and expelling the air from deeper in your body. It’s called abdominal breathing and helps improve the projection, control and range of the singing voice.
Brian
Thanks Brian
All great tips; I’ll try to work those in.
All the best!
Here’s a song (Apocalypse) that was rolling around in my head a few weeks ago. It really needs lots more reverb on the guitar and vocal but this is fine for an off-the-cuff recording.
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Martin
Very enjoyable. Wonderfully consistent guitar and a good vocal. Your belief in the song was reflected in the excellent performance.
Brian
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Martin, if this is your progress after 1 week then you must be practicing 24 hours each day 
Actually, I am jealous since this is the song that changed my musical life, specifically the SRV version heard over the radio, followed by a year of buying all of the SRV CDs I could find in 1999 and then the CDs of all of his blues influences. I thought that this would be beyond me as a grade 4 level, but I can see from your arrangement that it could be doable for me after about 6 months of practice at 30 min./day. Thanks for the recording. I also like your Autumn Leaves recording and the Eva Cassidy link. That is something I will try someday.
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Thanks Steve - best of luck with your explorations and enjoy 
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I’m enjoying playing classical guitar again and decided I’d revisit a piece (Barcarolle by Tisserand) that I had partially learned years ago. Here’s where I have got to so far. Over the course of this week, I’m going to try to memorise it and smooth it out, experimenting with some approaches I’ve been reading about recently. I’m also working on my no-nail technique (inspired by Rob McKillop’s materials). Other than the ‘m’ finger, it’s mostly working. I think the ‘m’ finger is just too rough so I’ll see if a file and some kind of moisturiser helps.
A few points on the piece: it’s in 6/8; G major; and I’m thinking about the structure as:
‘A’ section (x2); ‘B’ section; ‘C’ section. I can’t really work out the harmony but it’s mostly in key.
I’ll try to remember to post an end-of-week video to see whether we have any improvements. I’d like to make it smoother and get the tone of that ‘m’ finger more where I’d like it.
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Barcarolle end of week (25 Aug).
Some improvements and I’m close to having it memorised and smoothed out. The ‘m’ finger tone is going to be a work in progress for a while. I found the approach of trying to ensure I can sing the piece quite helpful. I’m good at that for the first half but not yet for the second half. Anyhow, I’m going to leave this one here (more or less) and focus on something new (tbc what that is).
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My Funny Valentine
This is something I’ve studied before but wanted to revisit. It’s a guitar arrangement of the Chet Baker version. I’m trying to get a usable version under the fingers (and memorised). The vocals are always going to be a challenge (it’s Chet Baker after all) but the basics are there already. Might need to pick up the pace a little. Will revisit again in a few weeks.
Links below to the Chet Baker version and my recording just now:https://share.google/SrhEDKS2vcJQNY8Dp
https://youtu.be/mfObFAmWs0w
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Here’s a fairly basic version of Ol’ 55, having watched Justin’s lesson. There’s lots more to be developed but this is fine as a base-line and it’s probably all I have time for now. Hope everyone in guitar land is having fun!
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Martin
A fine rendition of a terrific song: the accompaniment worked well and your singing reflected some of Waits’ strange melancholy. Loved it!
Brian
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