My Cover of The First Cut is the Deepest

Community Recordings Audio-Video Of You Playing
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This is my cover of The First Cut is the Deepest by Cat Stevens as taught by Justin. I think it worked out well. Some day I will invest in better recording equipment, but it’s GoPro for now… Anyway, I’ve been using a 1.0 mm. pick lately for all of my strumming and flat picking, so that’s taking some getting used to. I am working on playing lightly when strumming and holding a tighter grip when picking individual notes. All part of the journey. Hope you enjoy!

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Hi Benji. You made a good job of the picked notes parts and the vocal of the song. However, I think you should revisit Justin’s lesson regarding the strum pattern of the song. The way you’re playing it is a bit staccato and lacks smoothness. Try to keep your strumming arm and wrist moving steadily up and down.
A bit more work and you’ll get it cracked.
Well done.

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Very good, Benji. It’s a bit different to the version in Justin’s lesson on the song, particularly the strummed part, but I’m thinking that is possibly your choice to do it that way? Btw your vocal is great.

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Thanks for posting. I enjoyed that. Great singing. The tone of your guitar is nice, especially picking individual notes. I love the Rod Stewart version of that song.

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Hi Benji

Great effort and nice singing.

I looked closely at your strumming action as others said it is a bit stoccato and varies a bit. I am not a great rhythm player myself and still find it hard. I struggled with ‘Wish You Were Here’ - Pink Floyd and still do to an extent, the reason is it moves from strumming to picking and back with riffs between chord strums, also the strum pattern shifts in different parts. This is not dissimilar in The First cut version you are playing. What is most noticeable to me and something I got feedback on with my playing is your strumming arm stops and then speeds up, it is not continuously moving. Fo examplecif you were playing 1/8 note pattern the movement should be a continuous D U D U D U D U for each bar(measure) and just not hitting the strings on the D or U to get the right strum pattern. By doing this you get a consistent rhythm and feel, it took me ages to get it and I had to practice with a metronome and count out loud and still do to learn new rhythms.

I hope this may be of some help.

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Good work Benji, its a great song and thought you did well. sure maybe just have a look at the strum pattern and not sure if your hand/arm looked a little bit too rigid when you were picking but the whole overall effect worked for me. Oh, and nicely sung to mate. :ok_hand:

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Thanks sairfingers, excellent tip. I’ll revisit it soon. Thanks a mil!

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Hi Willsie, I think I just forgot how Justin strummed it, so I’ll check it out again. Thanks for giving a listen!

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Yeah I grew up hearing Rod Stewart’s version, it was one of my mom’s favorites. Thanks for giving a listen Prof!

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Thanks AJ, I’m definitely going to give it another listen, I definitely need to get into good habits, so I don’t get into bad ones . :+1:

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Thanks for giving a listen CD! Yeah, I’m going to go back and look at that strum pattern. I think I got into a bad habit with this song and need to undo it… :+1:

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