My first video of me playing

Community Recordings Audio-Video Of You Playing
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Well, here I go.
I think I posted a song I did in my 1st post to this forum. It was a audio only and a mix of me and done over several tracks. This time it’s just me and my guitar on video so ya know it’s really me.

There’s at least one first for me here.
I don’t sing and play at the same time. This one I did that. We’ll see how that goes. It’s also my first video of me playing that I’ve posted on the www.

This is ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’. I’ve always liked this song so decided to give it a try. Actually, I’m kinda a CSNY freak. I love their music. The song I posted in my 1st post here ‘Our House’. Amazing I’d pick this one to do. Not.

I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now on and off. So it’s not so polished. In other words, a couple mistakes. Like one is I can’t seem to even read words off of a page. Go figure. + at least one chord change miss. Then there’s the individual notes that I missed picking them, specially on the into, darn. Oh well, this is just a 1st try. Maybe I’ll get better in the future. And honestly, if I took the time to make many takes, I likely would get it like I wanted, but not this time.
I wanted to get this posted today as I like to do my recording when the wife ain’t here, just me controlling the surrounding environment. ie, the wife ain’t got the tv on.

I also did watch Justin’s video of how to play this song. And I did get ideas from him. Whether or not I did what he said to do remains to be seen.

Anyways, this was this mornings take.
Any criticism is welcome. I’m wanting to get to be a better player and have no one to bounce any ideas off of at all.

Sorry, I don’t know how to get the youtube pic in there, but I do have the link, so that should get ya to my video.

Oh, this was recorded on my telephone. My guitar is a Epiphone Masterbuilt DR-500MCE/NA. I love this guitar. Got it used last year and I’ve been loving it ever since. I got lucky on this purchase. Just put round two of new strings on it a couple of weeks ago.

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Hi Jim,
I can’t give any substantial feedback since your skills are far ahead compared to mine, but to my ears it sounded f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c! Thanks for sharing!
Franz

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Dude that was awesome. Hadn’t heard the song before, loved the groove to it.

Nice groove, muted and open sections, and cool lead line fills.

Playing was so good, you looked super comfortable. I can tell you’ve been playing for a long time. Only disappointment was the video was a bit dark.

A couple of dead notes as you mentioned, but I find that being accurate on the transition from strumming to lead lines is one of the more challenging things on acoustic. I’ve been playing a lot shorter than you so really don’t have any advice there. Although it is a recording of a “live” performance - a couple of things like that would be expected. I saw a multi-platinum selling band last week and in some of the acoustic songs they did there were a couple of unintentionally muted notes…. The crowd didn’t seem to care.

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Hey Jim,

Well, you certainly undersold yourself there in your post mate. Very cheeky. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:.
Surprised me in the very first bar.

That was superb mate. You are obviously a fairly accomplished player. Sure, a couple of minor hiccups, but hardly noticeable in the overall performance.
Nailed those cool NY signature licks, and spot on groove all the way through. Singing was pretty good too. Im a NY fan, and I’d say he’d be pretty happy with how you played that. :+1:

Lookin forward to some more NY tunes…

Cheers, Shane

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Bravo, Jim, I doubt I’ll get that polished anytime soon (or ever) in my future :rofl: It is a blessing and curse that we always judge ourselves against a higher standard that keeps us striving to improve.

I am a big NY fan and that N would be Neil not Nash with a purposeful dropping of CS :rofl: This song is NY off Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, which I think was his first solo album recorded with Crazy Horse. Quite likely that CSNY incorporated into their setlist, along with songs recorded originally by Buffalo Soringfield. I mention all that if only as encouragement to @jkahn - maybe give the album a listen JK, one of his high points, though perhaps not fully representing why some call him the ‘Father of Grunge’.

But I digress. What a wonderful rendition, Jim. Guitar sounded fabulous, that muted percussive chord riffing sounded awesome and some fast chord change work on chords that look like my fingers would be in knots :laughing:

Will happily listen to that again when you have polished it up to a level that satisfies you. Meanwhile look forward to more.

PS I sorted out the link to the video in your post. You should be able to edit the post to see the format of the link I used for future reference.

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The only criticism I have is that my foot got numb from tapping along to the rhythm :smiley: That was awesome.

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Very nice, great strumming and sound. Only thing I could offer and it has nothing to do with your playing which was fantastic maybe a little more light. Great job!

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Hello Jim, thanks a lot for sharing this beautiful performance :hugs:. It was just awesome :star_struck::+1::clap:.

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Hello Jim :smiley:

That was great, I enjoyed it a lot :clap: :clap: :clap:
Catchy tune, great rhythm, strumming and singing :smiley:

I’m a complete beginner myself, so I don’t qualify for any deeper comments (sorry!) , but I know what I like - and I liked your performance a lot :+1:

Thanks for sharing.

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Hahahaha!!! Most undersold intro i have seen in here :rofl:

Sounded awsome Jim!! I hope i one day down the road can come close to that groove and Sound… loved all youre small licks and solos you spiced it up with!

Keep em coming!! :metal:

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Thanks to all for the feedback.
@franzek
@jkahn
@sclay
@DavidP
@GNS
@edwardc
@NicoleKKB
@Gunhild
@tRONd

I sure appreciate everyone listening to me play and everyone’s kind words of encouragement.
I really wasn’t trying to undersell myself. As I really don’t feel like how I play is anything to great. What I feel is that I have a lot to learn yet.
And as for my singing, I still feel, I don’t sing. I’ve never had one class or been in any chorus. No formal education at all as to how to sing. And it surely don’t come natural for me. So thanks for the kind words about my singing.

Sorry about the no light condition…:wink:
It’s how I like to play.
I recorded this at 6:15 am so the sun ain’t up yet. The blue light is the normal light that I have in my house when it’s dark out. I just don’t like a normal incandescent light bulb. That kinda light grates on me, so I go with them colored type lights from Hue. Probably the only reason ya can even see me was due to the desk lamp I had shining on the lyrics.
I’ll see if I can have more light next time…

Anyways, everyone’s kind word is most encouraging for me and I thank all of you for taking the time to listen to me and writing a comment.
Positive feedback is always a moral booster for sure. I really didn’t expect to have that kind of feedback. I’m kinda astonished actually.

Thank You!

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Hi Jim,

can only echo what the others were telling: That was just awesome, man! Really good stuff! Your Intro was the understatement of the year. :joy:

The small licks and lines in between, even while singing, chapeau! Great groove and vibe, singing was good, too. That was just a great performance. :clap:

Also great to hear some CSNY - love’em. :slight_smile:

Looking forward to the next piece - thanks for sharing! :slight_smile:

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That was very nice. Thanks!

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I have listened to a bit of Neil Young :smiley: Not heaps mind. Then he pulled his songs from Spotify while I was getting into it, aside from a couple on soundtracks & compilations. I tried Apple Music but it’s not great on Windows. So I live a life of minimal Neil Young.

I didn’t know what CSNY was tbh. Song was great though!

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Fantastic is an understatment , thanks for sharing. :slight_smile:
R.

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That was inredible Jim!

To my ears that was pro-level. How long have you been playing?

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Thanks for the listen and kind comments folks.
@Lisa_S
@TheOldGuy
@Libitina
@twistor59

Phil, started when I was about 10 or 11, I’m now 63. Stopped playing around 2000 and didn’t take a guitar out of it’s case for 20+ years. Started back up 3-4 years ago. When I started back up, Justinguitar is one of the first places I found to start all over again. After a 20 year sabbatical, I really needed some refresher.
When I quit playing I had gone stagnate anyways. My playing just was not improving. Hoping this time, with the help of justinguitar, to improve.
While l got a long way to go, I believe I have got past my stagnation and where I dropped off at. With reading, practice, communication with other via forums, I am back on a learning curve again. It’s really great this day and age where ya can share via the www with others. Getting others feedback is very helpful I think.

Thanks for everyone helping me out.
Everyone’s kind words are most motivational.

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Sounds great ! You and your Epi sound great ! Bravo ! Enjoyed a lot !

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Cool! I got a guitar for Christmas at age14-ish I think. I played for about 6 months, but my attention span wasn’t great back then (oh look…a squirrel!), and I set the guitar aside and started building a keyboard from a design in an electronics mag. There wasn’t a lot of learning material back then, though I did try to figure out some solos by slowing the record player down with my finger :rofl:

Anyway picked up the guitar again back in 2019 and have been playing manically ever since. I’m about 4.5 yrs into it - age 64 now so not too different from yourself. My main resources have been JustinGuitar and Jeff McErlain’s courses.

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What did you do wait 20 years of practicing before showing what you can do.