Here’s this week’s song: Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You (Tom Waits). For a Tom Waits song it’s actually kind of humorous!
Anyhow, I’ve done a so-so job but it’s time to move on to my current obsession (jazz shell chords) and continue work on transcribing by ear (hard - Yesterday is currently torturing me! - but I think really important if I’m going to progress).
The basics of this song are there even if I fluffed some things and haven’t developed much variety in the guitar playing/vocal melody. The only thing I’ll do with this is finish writing out the chord chart so I have it for a sing-song.
For reference links to my recording and the Tom Waits album version are below. Not sure what the next song is going to be. Maybe “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” (Nat King Cole or Diana Krall versions) or Vienna (Billy Joel).
Super version of a song by one of the greats of American songwriting. Your accompaniment is good and the performance seemed genuinely Americana. Loved it!
Wow Martin , absolutely great playing …
Nice start of my day
I spent the 4th day working on this song yesterday and the song (without vocals) is finally in my head…the riff is in the fingers along with everything else…now Just blend everything together… and hopefully it will sound a bit like you play it… but I’ll have to move it from electric to acoustic… Oooo
Thanks Roger - it’s a really lovely song; hope you enjoy developing it! If you post a video let me know as I’d be curious to see other takes on this. I did try to play this on classical guitar as well but I find the transitions with the F a bit tricky as I can’t get my thumb over the neck.
Enjoyed that, Martin, playing and singing both sounded good. I suggest you post videos of this performance quality in Audio-Video Of You Playing as you’ll probably receive more views and feedback. I’d suggest post interim, very much still working on it here, though to be fair they can also be posted in AVOYP
I’ve been MIA from my own journal for a couple of weeks. I’ve been playing quite a bit (but often piano rather than guitar) and have been exploring. I feel like it’s time to get a bit of focus back again and so my project for this week (when I’m mostly off work) is two songs:
(i) My Funny Valentine (Chet Baker) as arranged Rob Swift. I came across Rob’s arrangement on guitar today and I really like it. I had played a mediocre version of this on piano about a year ago but never really got it down. The vocals are challenging so the two focus points are going to be (1) vocal (learn to play on guitar and sing on pitch); (2) chord changes memorised and smooth. It’s a song I know well already (video of where I got to with it today below) so should be manageable within the week.
(ii) Mamma Mia (Justin’s recent arrangement). I love this and coincidentally it happens to be my niece’s favourite song so I’m trying to learn in time for a family gathering next weekend. I’ve been practising it a bit already so focus will be (1) get chord changes and melody parts clean; (2) decide what key I’m playing in (for singing); (3) learn how to sing it (and learn the words).
I’m not sure I’ll have the time to transcribe any of the above but I’ll put together chord/lyric charts at least.
Loads of other guitar things shouting for my attention ( Take the A Train Jens Larsen lessons; Bye Bye Blackbird Ron Drotos lessons; finish working out ‘Yesterday’ by ear and transcribing it; finish chord chart for Vampire by Olivio Rodrigo and figure out if it’s somehow singable; put together a songbook to bring to family gathering; classical guitar Thierry Tisserand pieces). If I have any time (which I almost certainly won’t) that’s plenty of extra material to work with.
Glad to be back doing this journal and that my little 2+ week hiatus didn’t go on for too much longer!
A really good version of a great song. You played well throughout: your quick recovery from the few mistakes shows how well you’ve learned it. Confident guitar playing and a good voice - Mama Mia some might say!
Autumn Leaves
I continue to be jazz-curious and so I’m going to take a bit of a deep dive into Autumn Leaves for the next 4 weeks or so (while I wait for Justin’s Blues course to launch).
Having done a little study of different resources the following seems like a sensible sequential approach (albeit one that will require some discipline and patience!). My plan is to upload a video after each step (or a week - whichever comes sooner). I’ll also try to upload a video later today/tomorrow showing where I’m at now.
Learn the melody and words: sing and play in at least one position on guitar.
Learn the bass/root movement. Try to play bass with melody.
Learn the chords (root position; only v obvious easy inversions) . Try to play with melody.
3a. Learn the arpeggios and sing them. Root up and then 7th down.
Revisit melody on guitar and phrase like a vocalist.
Play melody with rhythmic various. Then try to add neighbour tones and step wise motion. Then combine with vocal phrasing (i.e. mix approaches).
Improv: Use chord tones . Also keep quoting melody from time to time.
6a. Work out and practice arpeggios with smooth voice-leading (ie look for nearest note in next arpeggio).
General review and polish.
Honestly if I can manage to (i) sing and play chord accompaniment on guitar and (ii) learn to play the melody in time and do a little improv of some sort I’d be delighted.
I’m going to be playing in Cm (or Eb) as that seems to suit my vocal range. Unfortunately there don’t seem to be many (any?) published versions in that key. I’ll be listening to and drawing from the following three versions mainly:
Posting this video here as a reference point for myself. I’ve changed the key to match the Clapton version (D/Bm) so that I’ve something to play along to. It doesn’t really suit my voice (weird given it’s only a half-step down) but I’m mostly focused on the guitar right now and can’t really sing anyhow due to a cold.
I learned the melody and chords separately for Part A. They actually come together quite naturally so I’ve got a kind of a chord melody up and running which is great.
I’m going to have to break up the melody for Part B into smaller chunks to learn it properly as it’s a bit more involved. The chords are mostly repeats of Part A so are coming along ok.
Next step is to get the melody and chords for Part B down.
Instantly recognisable and very musical. Look forward to hearing the next part(s). You probably don’t want conflicting sources but there’s an Eva Cassidy performance on YouTube where you can see quite a lot of what she’s doing throughout the song.
I’ve decided to refresh this Progress Journal. Not quite sure what my approach is going to be but at a minimum it should get my recording myself again (always a great eye-opener) and give a bit of focus. I’m a little tired of blues soloing so I’m taking a break from that and re-orienting myself on songs. I’ve decided to pick up where I left on an old course (Jens Larsen) on how to solo over jazz standards (yikes!). Take the A Train is the model used. This video is my current status, having spent a few days refreshing what I had learned before. The aim for this one was to play the melody (which went ok) and then do some soloing, ideally embellishing the melody (that didn’t happen) or at least outlining the changes (that happened a bit) but I’m not too pushed for now on the soloing part.
Anyhow, here’s the video for now. I have some homework to do on chord tones and 'comping so that should be my next update.
Well played. You were synchronising really well with the backing track, particularly so a little later in the piece, and you’ve given your soloing a bad press - it was pretty good too.
Andy Timmons Makes Dan Cry (That Pedal Show) - 1 Oct Status.
I’ve tried to learn this on and off since hearing it on TPS. I spent a bit of time finding a tab (my transcription skills aren’t up to the task) and have learned the notes now more or less. Lots still to be done on the rhythm, tone, and accuracy but for the first time I feel like I’ve got the bones of this down. Now it’s time to take it apart section by section.
My current status/play-through is below. (Interestingly, I’m recording an amp via the inbuilt mic in my MacBook - I hadn’t realised I could clip that. It’s ugly when that happens - sorry!)
Very pretty and well played: you’ve done a lot of work on transcription too. The sound from the full chords that get bent at the end of a couple of passages seems slightly out of sorts with the rest of the piece: that may be deliberate (I don’t know the original piece); a gentler voicing of those chords might be an option.
