I feel I’ve had a really productive week, getting up an playing before work most days. My 1/16th note strumming is improving and there’s now a bunch of songs that I can play (not always perfectly but getting there) with it. I’m actually able to go with the rhythm of the song a bit more rather than strictly adhering to a pattern (sometimes this falls apart but it’s better than it was). In recent weeks I’ve learned 5 Oasis songs and Lucky Man by The Verve. I didn’t think I’d ever get to that stage let alone in just a few weeks.
I’m going to tackle one from my backlog next. Needle and the Damage Done by Neil Young. I can largely play with simple strumming to it, so the next step, and the challenging part, will be to pick it a bit more like Neil does. I suppose what I’ve learned over time is that I can tackle this one chord at a time rather than trying to do it all at once which I tried before and was super frustrating!
I’m also learning some basic metal stuff. I’m using my SG for it but it’s probably a matter of time until I get myself something that’s mean looking with EMGs, not strictly necessary, but you folks all know how that goes
I’ve started working through the picking of the chord progression of Needle and the Damage Done… it’s going to take quite some time to get it to speed and to match the rhythm of the song! There’s 8 chords and I’m breaking it into 3 chunks. The first 4 chords are have a similar pattern to them, I see the next 2 as a pair and the final 2 as another pair. So I’m picking my guitar up when I have a few minutes and keeping coming back to them. On an evening when I have more time it’s back to song practice in case I forget all I’ve learned in the past few weeks!
More time playing The Needle and Damage done today. I can now play (single note picking) all of the bars continuously without looking at my fretting hand… but it’s slow, requires maximum concentration, and is only an approximation of the actual rhythm right now so there’s a long way to go - but it’s definite progress
My head is hurting from the concentration so I’m going to play some of the songs I already know for a while now and pick back up again tomorrow
Less time to practice today, had to do an office day so that’s 2 hours of wonderful commuting when I could be playing my guitar (and no I can’t play guitar while riding my motorcycle )
I’m trying to correct a problem at the moment. In The Needle and Damage Done there’s a note played on fret 1 of the B string and then it moves to an E sus chord (think open A chord all shuffled across 1 string but still at fret 2)… well that transition isn’t working at the moment. I’m trying to do it without looking but even though it’s a simple shape my fingers rarely seem to go the correct string, most commonly the finger that’s supposed to be on the A string wants to buddy up with it’s neighbour both on the D string. I know with persistence I’ll get there, it just feels like a beginner issue that I hoped was behind me. I’ll have more time at the weekend to really try to beat it
Have been continuing with the Needle and the Damage done (as well as practicing other songs). I’m getting closer to it although I’ve still got work to do with transition that I mentioned in my last post.
I loaded up the original recording into Moises to see if I was anywhere close and it was a real slap in the face from reality… I’m so much slower! On the face of it, it’s not a fast song but there’s quite a lot of notes to pick. Will keep on with it. I’ve got a few days off work around this weekend so I might share a recording of where I’m up to with it (don’t expect great things - it’s very much work in progress!)
Continuing with the Needle and Damage Done. Have included a short clip of where I am with it. The clip is a bit too slow with a hesitation or two but it’s getting there. I can play a bit faster but then there’s more mistakes (especially with my camera pointing at me ). Each day is a little better than the one before so I’m happy with how it’s going. I’ll start playing to a backing track soon but I think my brain is currently already at full stretch just picking the notes and trying to keep close to the rhythm of the song
I treated my guitar to new strings and a good clean at the weekend. I’m not sure how long the strings were on, maybe 3-4 months, but they’ve not radically changed the sound. String changing is a job that I do infrequently enough to not yet be good at, taking longer than it really should. I always make sure I have 2 sets of strings on hand just in case! I have an Epiphone 335 that has locking tuners and it’s so much easier to change strings with them. I think locking tuners will be a must on any future guitars I buy!
Day by day my playing of Needle and the Damage Done is getting a little more fluid. It’s probably about time that I started trying to play along with Mr Young but that’s looking really difficult on a track that has no drums to lock onto I can loop the intro in Moises, slow it down and see how (badly) that goes! Actually I think Moises can overlay a metronome over a song so that’s worth a bash too
Edit - just been trying with the metronome overlaid over the song… definitely the way to go
Hi @mattswain, I play this so I thought I’d offer some thoughts. It’s coming along nicely, but maybe these ideas will be useful.
You are picking each note individually, you can be more strummy with it, which is how Neil plays it. Maybe it makes sense to start picking out the single notes and as you progress to get more strummy. Something to keep in mind.
Lastly, the overall rhythm should be swung 8th notes, you are playing straight 8th notes. That makes a big difference in the feel of the song. I think if you try to play along with the recording, you will feel the difference.
I did learn the song via a different lesson although it did also mention the strummy playing that you mention. As you say I think that’s something to work towards. In some ways ironically it might be a little easier because of course picking all of the individual notes requires a lot of precision! I’ll watch Justin’s lesson to see what I get from it. When I learn songs I often mix and match from a few YouTube sources to get something that I like (and can play).
The C into F chord section did take a lot of playing about to get to the point that I could play it without looking at my fretting hand. My guess is that moving one finger around is easier to compute, than moving different fingers in sequence with each other. I do agree with you though that the method you describe is more efficient and I should revisit it.
Also a fair point about the rhythm. So far I’ve only really been trying to get comfortable with the sequence of notes and move from one chord to the next without big pauses and just keep close enough to a rhythm that it sounds kind of like the real thing. I’m now just starting to play along with the recording albeit needing to slow it down at the moment. As you say hopefully this will help improve my timing
It is a great song, it’s definitely a stretch for me at the moment but I’m see a little progress every day and the end goal will be worth it so will keep plugging away. Thanks again for your feedback
So as well as the Neil Young stuff, I’ve been learning Do You Know What I mean by Oasis. It’s quite a fun song to strum along to, largely the same chords as Wonderwall but a little easier. It’s a good exercise in keeping the strumming arm moving while switching chords. The recording has some verses and a couple of choruses, plus pre-chorus which changes the chords and strumming. If I’m being really critical then I can still smooth out the changes around the pre-chorus a bit more but I’m still pretty happy with it
Do You Know What I Mean practice
Continuing to make progress with the Needle and Damage done. Have been playing it on Moises with a metronome. I think Moises says the track is 106bpm but I’ve been practicing at around 90. I can manage faster but make more mistakes. Have got alternate picking going throughout it now which I think improves my rhythm. Will maybe do a fresh recording soon
Consistent strumming, keeping good time throughout. You seem to have the strum pattern and chord changes well memorised so you’ll become faster fairly easily now. Well played.
These are definitely the moments when I can look back at the hours of practice and see it all starting to pay off. I’ve no ambitions of taking to the stage or anything like that but being able to play along to an increasing number of songs that I love gives me great joy
This is somewhat of a tangent for my learning log but I had a very vivid dream last night. I was online and had decided to buy a bass guitar (not something I’ve been looking at ever) but everything I was typing into google was getting auto corrected into something else which was hugely frustrating and when I did finally get onto the Andertons website apparently it was closed until 6am (this was all in the dream remember). Definitely had a quick check on gmail this morning to make sure I hadn’t ordered anything Does this mean I’ve been playing the wrong instrument all along? Or is there a deeper meaning?
Back in real life I have been continuing playing along to the Needle and Damage Done. I can now play along with the recording, at 100% speed but there’s too many mistakes to be able to say I’ve nailed it yet. Will see how practice goes today and try another recording
In terms of things I’m actually buying I have been looking at whether to update my iPad Pro or not. The thing is, despite it being 4+ years old, it does everything perfectly so I’ve decided to wait another year. I have ordered a little USB hub that should make it easier to connect it to power and my audio interface at the same time and also to a big screen
It’s so weird how your brain actually physically hurts when you’re concentrating so hard. And we’re not learning a hard science here, just focussing on our fingers and remembering simple patterns!
Somehow the forum stopped showing your LL in my New and Unread section so I just forgot it existed until this morning. Hopefully this kicks it back into rotation.
Anyway, your chord changes are super clean in all your videos, and it all sounds great. Guess I gotta listen to Oasis now!
Hi Matthew, it is interesting to read about your progress on The Needle and The Damage Done. That is on my list for songs to work on in 2025. @jjw post above reminds me that I will need to review the lesson in Grade 3 Module 17 - How to Pick Individual Strings While Strumming. That is a difficult strumming technique to master and I never came close to mastering it Of course you can play the song any way you like. That is the beauty of music, there is always a lot of room for interpretation if you are not tying to exactly copy the original.
Very true. I think in my case it’s just that my thoughts are generally pretty scattered so the effort is about keeping the focus on point rather than the task being difficult. Some days the focus comes easier than others.
Thanks for watching the video and for your kind words.
Thanks for reading. I’ve played round and round that chord sequence so often lately! I can do it but not consistently enough to call it done. I’ve settled on something that is picking but almost strumming. It’s kind of a bit of a swing of my wrist, down, up, down, up throughout the sequence but only one note at a time. I will share another video this week… I promise!
I think in the past I believed that songs had to be the same as the original artist played but I’m now plenty happy if I can play along with the original song, playing something that fits with it, rather than worrying whether it’s the exact same notes or not. I think you’re right about the beauty being in finding our own way, we aren’t robots after all
(and no I can’t play guitar while riding my motorcycle 
I can loop the intro in Moises, slow it down and see how (badly) that goes! Actually I think Moises can overlay a metronome over a song so that’s worth a bash too
Of course you can play the song any way you like. That is the beauty of music, there is always a lot of room for interpretation if you are not tying to exactly copy the original.