A very warm hello everyone, hoping you are all keeping very well. Some of you will have noticed less activity from me the last couple of months which I’ll broadly cover in a LL update soon.
The most important thing however is that my playing and learning continues and I am pleased to share this cover of The Black Crowes’ song She Talks to Angels from the album Shake Your Money Maker. I got into them heavily as a teen and I first saw them live in 1991 I think. This is an amazing song and one I’ve had as an ambition to learn from module 1 with Justin.
On the app (if it still is on the app) it’s transposed to use open chords so when I first saw it there I thought Yippee!! But the actual song uses open E tuning which, after transcribing to standard tuning, made the single string picking sections super difficult. The last couple of months I’ve finally attacked this in earnest. Single string picking is still a little hit and miss but at least there’s an area to practice on, other than that I’m really pleased with this, it’ll never leave my repertoire, the only hassle is having to tune to open E every time i want to play it!!
Hope you enjoy and of course appreciated for any tips
Awesome work Mark! well played, and your guitar sounds amazing. I’m sure I must have said this in a NGD post for that guitar, but it is really beautiful.
@JokuMuu Thanks so much Nicole, hope you enjoy checking them out!!
@alexisduprey Alexis it’s always great to hear your comments, thank you. This guitar is about a year old for me now, I know people always say acoustics sound better with time but I never appreciated how true it is, it feels like it’s really grown for me!
@Eddie_09 Hey Eddie, thank you, the work never stops tho eh?
@math07 thank so much for checking it out Mathieu, really appreciated for the feedback!
Super stuff, Mark. You’ve clearly been picking up that guitar over the past couple of months you have been AWOL but we forgive you as you’ve been making super progress. That songs has been on my list of songs to learn, not one that I recall hearing on the radio or that. I think it was Justin’s lesson I first heard it and thought that’s a really nice song. So when I saw the title it was a double whammy… notter & she talks to angels. So I enjoyed that very much and think you delivered that really well. Looking at the title of the post would I be making the correct assumption that we are in for another treat or two?
Thanks James, really glad you enjoyed it! Also relieved to be forgiven for my transgressions . I remember watching Justin’s 3 series video on this (they’re super old!!) just after starting and wondered how / when I could ever get to a point to be a able to play it. I guess it was my first dreamer song before knowing it as that, so about 2 years in the making! I can really recommend giving it a go, but your guitar will stay in open e for the duration, the acoustic hasn’t shifted from that in these 2 months!
Actually the thread name was how I remember we were being asked to post AVOYPs as opposed to deliberate, that being said I do have a couple of other things I want to post up
Nicely done, Mark… I enjoyed the listen AND I HAVE A SOLUTION for the open E tuning issue… you’ve GOT to buy another Guitar & keep it tuned with the open E configuration… no other way around it, man!!!
I don’t know if you’re a married man or not, but if so - just go to the wife, hat in hand, “Dear, I have a serious guitar related problem & the ONLY solution is to buy another one!”
Tears may help… little bit of cracking in the voice…
Game over!
Win/Win!!!
It’s really an elegant way to resolve the problem…
and just in case someone hasn’t said it yet “don’t be so lazy” …and oh yes, … a better advice that will help you much more … buy another guitar
Greetings…
Great job Mark and nicely recorded. Instrument and vocal all nicely balanced and clear. Nice intro and then confidently into the song with fluent playing and great vocal. Didn’t know the song but enjoyed the performance.
@roger_holland Thank you Rogier, you’re the first to say “don’t be so lazy” but I mean come on, it’s 3 whole strings you need to re-tune, it’s at least 2 minutes of valuable playing time!! Thank you for checking this out!
@Rossco01 - Appreciated Jason, just using a condenser mic to record the room sound, plugging in the acoustic I feel loses a lot of it’s warmth imo so I’m pleased you think that balance is good, means I’ve got my positioning right!
Great sound indeed and nice song albeit I didn’t know it.
I’m looking at peoples setups at the moment as some know via another thread.
I take it your mic goes into a AI then the PC? So what camera setup are you using? PC camera?
Hi Craig, thanks for taking a look at this and glad you liked it!
Yes I’ve seen your other thread on setups and mic types etc. Setup wise I’m using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 as the AI into the PC. I bought the the studio kit that includes their condenser mic and headphones. For this, and most acoustic recordings I’ve done, I’m just using the condenser to record the room sound so picking up the natural guitar sound and my vocals. The trick with that is finding the position for the mic to get the balance between guitar and vocals about right and adjusting gain accordingly to minimise any other background noise.
Electric recordings are running the guitar from my amp (Yamaha THR 10ii) to the AI and in parallel running a dynamic mic into the other input for vocals.
Fantastic job here @Notter !! It’s certainly a lot of dedication to get to the level of playing authentically like you are here!
I love this song as well. I was fortunate to see the Black Crowes and Tom Petty front row in 2001. It’s actually the only time that I have ever sat front row at a major rock concert!
This seems like a song that you will continue to refine and embellish throughout your journey so props for that. Keep on rocking man
Thanks Mark, yes, I have seen the Scarlett package advertised here and it’s good value just wasn’t sure about it’s quality as I had no benchmark to judge to, so thanks yours certainly sounds great at this level and to my ear.
We’re you just recording video through the Lappy camera??
Hey JK, thank you mate and great to hear your feedback. I’ve embarked on grade 3 now so the exercises are in place to get that single note picking worked on properly.
Pleased to also read your comments on the dynamics, it’s one thing I’ve been trying to work on these last couple of months, finding the right balance between different sections of songs is a whole new workstream so to speak!!
Thanks Travis, for someone with the chops you have for live playing that’s a huge compliment to me. That sounds like it would have been an awesome gig!
Yes I will never stop playing and developing this one, big song and milestone for me to get to here but I still know I can make it better.
. I remember watching Justin’s 3 series video on this (they’re super old!!) just after starting and wondered how / when I could ever get to a point to be a able to play it. I guess it was my first dreamer song before knowing it as that, so about 2 years in the making! I can really recommend giving it a go, but your guitar will stay in open e for the duration, the acoustic hasn’t shifted from that in these 2 months!
