Math07 JG Rock Songbook Project (11 out of 15) - 1 NEW song

The Justin’s Rock Songbook project of @alexisduprey and @jkahn inspired me to buy the book and start my own journey. Just like them, my long-term goal is to play and record all of the 15 songs of the first section of the book.

Watching student performances from @alexisduprey and @jkahn was a useful learning tool for me. It gave me cool ideas and helped me having a better idea of the “final result”.

Hopefully, this thread will plant a seed for other JustinGuitar songbook projects in the community. Acoustic songbook anyone ?

I recorded the first 3 songs in November and December 2023. And I’ll update this table when new songs are coming.

Song # Song Band/Artist Status Link
1 Highway To Hell AC/DC Complete! 2023-10-18
2 Every Rose Has Its Thorn Poison Complete! 2023-12-17
3 If You Tolerate This Your Children WIll Be Next Manic Street Preachers Complete! 2023-12-20
4 La Grange ZZ Top Complete! 2024-03-06
5 In Bloom Nirvana Complete! 2024-01-12
6 Rock And Roll All Nite Kiss Complete! 2024-03-30
7 There She Goes The La’s Complete! 2024-03-11
8 Self Esteem The Offspring Complete! 2024-05-19
9 Sunshine Of Your Love Cream Complete! 2024-05-13
10 Should I Stay Or Should I Go The Clash Complete! 2024-04-28
11 Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana Complete! 2024-10-24
12 Song 2 Blur
13 Teenage Kicks The Undertones
14 The Ballad Of Jayne L.A. Guns
15 I Remember You Skid Row
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3 songs for the price of one :slight_smile: For backing tracks, I use the original track with guitar removed with AI software Moises.

Song #1: Highway To Hell - AC/DC

Song #2: Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison

Song #3: If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers

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Good on you mate. Plenty to learn from that book. I think Alexis was always much more diligent about it than me. I’ve skipped a few along the way.

Reminds me though, I need to record a few more I’ve done.

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Hi Mathieu,
I really enjoyed listening to it and watching it… keep it up keep it up :sunglasses: :clap: :clap: :clap:
Greetings

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Always amazes me the range/types of music people like to hear/play. I’ll be honest and say that I have never heard any of the 5 songs that you have listed, and in fact have only heard of two of them.

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Awesome Mathieu, I’ve had a lot of fun and learning just going through the songs.

and yet I’m still missing 2 in the beginner section :laughing:

This post reminds me that I have to get back into it. :slight_smile:

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Awesome job like all three songs. I need to start posting some songs I’ve been practicing myself.

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Thanks everyone for the support.

@jkahn @alexisduprey Let’s go guys. You can do it ! I can see the finish line :trophy: :trophy: :trophy:

@roger_holland Really nice of you. By the way, I enjoyed your cover of Yesterday on the Student Performance page.

@Stuartw You are right. It’s actually funny that you say that because I had never heard the third song, but it is actually the one that I had the most fun recording. Layering 2 guitar parts (acoustic + electric) was fun.

@Jwaters Awesome thanks, I’ll keep an eye on your posts :slight_smile:

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Three very enjoyable video’s there Mathieu and three great songs to cover.

A couple of things I’d noticed. Try and keep your string muting tight if you can, so there aren’t extra notes ringing out and when doing your F barre chord, make sure you’re placing your index finger down first. I used to play it how you do and had to relearn the process.

I could tell you where really enjoying playing all those. :+1:

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@SgtColon Thanks for your comments :slight_smile: Two interesting avenues of improvement. :slight_smile:

I’m glad I recorded myself because otherwise we would have never noticed the delay with placing my first finger for my barre chords (F and Bm in another song). When playing, it’s hard to spot it, I never noticed it in the moment. Indeed, sometimes I may even strum before reaching the 6th string.

What technique did you use to relearn ? One minute change ?

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Yes, it was. Very slow at first as I had been doing it for quite a while and found it hard to break the habit but I’ve eventually got there.

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Well done Mathieu, really enjoyed all 3. Reminds me I need to put that Moises subscription to work!

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Thanks @theoldman66.

Yes, Moise is a cool software for backing tracks. Isolating the differents instruments to remove guitar and also changing the key of the song to avoid changing tuning between pratice sessions.

The backing tracks for the first 2 songs were tuned 1 semitone down (Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb) and I use Moise to put them in standard tuning. I’m probably not the only one that doesn’t like changing tuning to pratice only one song for 10 minutes. :rofl:

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That’s pretty awesome! Great challenge to work on and have fun with it. I’m not gonna give you any piece of advice as I’m myself a beginner but I can tell by the look on your face that you really enjoy playing and that’s what made me watch the three videos. Keep it up!

I also like the way you record your videos with the backing tracks. I want to start recording myself but I still don’t know how. What do you use to record video/audio and play along the backing tracks?

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Thanks for reminding me about this capability, I’d not thought beyond the basic operation of splitting the tracks.

The hardware you’ll need… you can start with the video camera on your phone.

if you want to get a bit more professional you’ll need an AI ( Audio Interface ) so that you can record your music to a PC or Mac, a camera (most use a webcam), a microphone, and various leads and cables.

Software: Like many (possibly most) regulars here, I use OBS (Open Broadcast Software), which as the name suggests is free to download and use, for recording video. For the Community Open Mics I just use OBS and Zoom, for AVOYPs I record the audio through a DAW where I perform any tweaks and/or add FX and/or backing tracks, record the video in OBS, then merge the audio and video in a video editor (I use Shotcut, another open source program). Some DAWs including Reaper, the one I use, claim to have video editing capability, but I’ve tried it in Reaper and didn’t like it, hence my using a dedicated video editor.

Don’t worry if all this sounds too daunting, you’ll find a plethora of useful information and advice in this section of the community. Be warned, this can be as big a rabbit hole as actually learning to play the guitar.

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Thank you so much! I really appreciate all the information. I recently purchased the scarlet 2i2 bundle but I didn’t do any recording yet. I have been learning how to use ableton and there’s also a lot to investigate.

I didn’t know where to start with the software so I will take a look and get ready to do some recording soon.

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Thanks for the comment @CarlosAP :slight_smile:

For recording, you received a great answer from @theoldman66 :slight_smile:

I got the same audio interface as you :slight_smile: I used the mic and the headphone from the bundle. Also, if you don’t have a good webcam, you can turn your phone into a webcam in OBS with a simple app Droidcam OBS.

I like Davinici Resolve for video editing as it has an option to automatically synchronize the audio track from my DAW (Reaper) with the video from OBS.

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I am making progress in my rock songbook project. Here are 2 new songs. I am now at 5 songs out of 15 done. 1/3 done. :partying_face:

I actually recorded song #5 (In Bloom - Nirvana) 2 months ago. It turns out well because I’m getting confident with power chords songs.

However, I needed more time to work on song #4 (La Grange - ZZ Top). The riffs are quite fast and they involve some techniques like hybrid picking, muting and finger stretching.

Honestly, the first riff felt impossible at first. But, as we say never give up. La Grange became easier and easier after some pratice. So I’m glad I persevered :slight_smile:

Also, one day, I’ll probably revisit La Grange to play the 1 minute guitar solo at the end which add a lot to the song.

Song #4: La Grange - ZZ Top

Song #5: In Bloom - Nirvana

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Good job math! :clap:

My fingers hurt after watching you playing! That’s a really fast riff.

I think I would like to add this song on my list too since there’s some finger stretching and it’s also good training for your pinky.

Is it possible to play the riff only with the pick? You’re playing the down strums with your pick and ups with your fingers aren’t you?

Only 10 songs to go :metal:

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