Hello All,
As a measure of tracking my own progress I am going to post my Grade 1 songs starting with “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.
I got into singing and playing at the same time so I decided to memorize these songs as such. I found that many of the Grade 1 songs are so great to learn how to sing as well as play that it was worth my time to cycle back and get them down.
I hope you enjoy.
-Dan
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Sounds good to me, easy pass!
That sounded great, Dan, most enjoyable.
You may want to experiment with mic placement. I’d have liked your singing a little louder relative to the guitar. But that is just my subjective taste, how I like to hear solo performances like this.
Really good Dan. You did a great job as the phrasing isn’t easy in that song. Well done.
Hahahaha… just realized you threw out your whole grade 1 exam catalog 
I am really really impressed! Both guitar and vocal sounds awsome!! You passed grade 1 a long time ago in my opinion.
Nicely done!
Thanks so much for the advice. Yes I was wondering about this. I think you are right that it would be good if the mic was closer to my mouth. I think I can be a bit more dynamic with my vocals as well.
Maybe I am a bit obsessive. I just think you can get so much out of the Grade 1 material alone. There are so many great songs in there that I could easily subsist on it and nothing else.
I still feel like everything I am playing needs some work. I need to work with a metronome more. I need to deal with my vocal issues.
Nice job! I’ve made an effort to learn to sing (you won’t ever see me on The Voice), and have found that it helps me memorize the guitar parts and keep the song going.
I’ve also found learning singing similar to learning guitar: no one wanted to listen to me when I began, but eventually I got a lot better and can help hold a tune together with the vocals. Seems like something ties together the chords to the vocals, so you automatically play the right chord from the connection to the vocals, rather than memorizing the chord progression.
@Just_Dan Thank you! And welcome to the forum!
Your comments are very interesting. In some cases I also have found that singing helps me keep the song together. My wife gave me a really interesting piece of advice the other day (she is a professional musician): When you study a song, think about the story that the singer was trying to convey structurally. Was the song about him/her, and then about the environment? Was it about someone else? The story helps someone trying to reproduce the song internalize it, memorize it, and make it more personal.
Wow that was really great, in my eyes you are way beyond Grade 1 my friend. Steady rhythm and great vox as well! You mentioned you are more than happy to perform for your wife and pet, may I suggest widening up the inner circle to the whole Community and attending our Online Open Mic event happening in 3 weeks? More details below 
Btw saw more of your videos posted, just need to find a silent few mins to go through them all! However you seem like a fine player to me! All the best.
Thank you! I am going to be travelling for work the week before that and will have no time to prepare so I will bow out this time but I hope to join some other time. I will try to listen in though.
If that’s Grade 1 exam , you raised the bar quite a bit for me😉
Great performance.
I liked it a lot.
@ohmygato
Well done that was really great.
It is one of the songs I am working on for Grade 1, if I manage to do it half as well as you I will be absolutely delighted.
Very enjoyable Dan. You’re showing grade 1 who is the boss. You’ve had some great song choices.
Awesome!
This song has a lot of cool elements to it. It’s a great grade 1 song to learn.
As you a great song for Grade 1.
I have the chords and strumming ok, also singing so my next challenge is putting the two elements together.
Have you tried the intro riff? I don’t have a cutaway guitar so can’t do a exact version, again I have got the parts but not put them together.
I have tried the intro riff. Hard to pull off on a non-cutaway and not critical to the song. It might be nice in a band setting on an electric guitar.
Yes would be better with two guitars.
Without a cutaway guitar I just repeat the first bar, not perfect but sounds sort of ok. The problem for me going smoothly to bar 4 which I have not managed to do yet