Great to see you tackling this timeless masterpiece. It will teach you alot if you stick with it. This very song really taught me how to bend, with some finer control.
A couple of blunt points if I may, wholly in the spirit of trying to be helpful.
You are putting alot of time and effort into these pieces. I have followed them all.
But, getting the basic mechanics/ approaches right will give you much more progress. Playing more tunes with the wrong mechanics/ approach will stagnate progress.
You are still controlling your bending very much with your fingers/ hand. As such, all your bends are off-pitch.
You will never gain any real consistent precision or control this way. Never. You need to begin controlling your bends from the wrist.
I would suggest doing daily, dedicated bending exercises, as per Justins instruction, with particular attention on the wrist mechanics first.
Rhythm. Try to really listen to a backing track, to the pulse of a tune. This is not an optional step; its essential.
Listen to Peter Greens original in this instance, then hum it over the backing track, without any guitar. If its not in your mind itāll never be in your fingers.
This is similar to what I said earlier about improvising; humming/ tapping/ singing etc over a backing track is a crucial part of it all. Its gives you the feel, the pulse.
Justin has some great rhythm lessons. Moreover, his Strumming SOS course is a brilliant instruction in rhythm. Highly recomnend it.
(The course really is a full-on Rhythm course, so very much centred on lead playing too)
Are you critically listening to your playing? While sometimes jarring, this is pretty much an essential part of seeing and hearing where youāre at, from your perspective.
Iāve certainly had to face some unpleasant truths at times, as have many others, Iām sure.
I hope you accept that Iām writing this out of a simple desire to helpful. Thereās no criticism here; and Im no expert, just a fellow traveller.
I just feel bad seeing people waste valuable and time effort reinforcing unhelpful methods.
Youāve certainly got the will and determination, which is 90%. Concentrate on the other 10%, and I guarantee youāll see your progress skyrocket.
Intro Solo: Need Your Love So Bad - Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac)
Iāve done two short videoās of the intro of Need your Love so Bad, without a backing track, just working on the bends and vibrato technique. Not in time or rhythm, more about technique.
ā¦Going to be working a lot on my rhythm/timing and strumming this year, looking to get the Strumming SOS course.
ā¦Continue my blues improvisation, I might do one more A minor video or Iāll move into another key.
Carry on learning songs.
ā¦Starting with āStill got the bluesā - Gary Moore. Iāve got the intro solo done, just working on the rhythm section for the intro. Will post a video of progress.
To help with my rhythm - My jamming buddy is learning āChocolate Jesusā - Tom Waits (one of my favourite artists) so Iām going to learn it as well to help with strumming etc. Practised the song todayā¦Not to bad, strumming needs workā¦ - Will also post a video soon of progress.
Well done Rachel.
Most of your bends were spot on and your vibrato is coming along.
The only advice I can give you is to take a deep breath, slow it down a little so you can hold the bends longer and put more feeling and personality into it.
Donāt worry about playing it to slow youāll need extra time to really bring Yourself out in you playing.
This will help you with both timing and expressing yourself though your guitar.
Thank you for the compliment, good advice and saying itās all improving. You are right about the āputting my feeling into it, my personalityā, I watched it back again and I see what you mean. I need to show my emotions/feelings in my playing. It was slightly robotic .
Iāll have another go tomorrow, make the intro my own, breathe and slow it down and try and put some feeling into it.
It all takes time but I can already see a lot of improvement. The funny thing is the less you think and relax the easier playing lead/improvising will become.
Spend some time listening to either the original or Justin(he does a really great job) of the solo, close your eyes and imagine yourself playing along. Feel the bends then try and at first replicate that feeling then let yourself go.
Have fun. Once you get that feeling youāll be hooked and your playing will never be the same.
On a side note, I was listen to BB King tonight and his song āWorry Worryā also uses some of the opening intro of āNeed your Love so Badā. I do know the song was originally written by someone else.
Had another listen to Justin play it and I can see Iām playing some of the parts to fast.
Sorry Iāve not posted for a whileā¦I hurt my right arm, so had to stop playing to allow it to heal. Itās still sore but back playing again, slowly.
It also allowed me time to have a little think if I still wanted to play/learn guitar as I felt I was losing the the enthusiasmā¦It felt more like a chore and not fun.
I can say the enthusiasm is back, but Iāve realised from my time away, I was trying to be to perfect in my playing, getting all the chords note for note perfect, and it was causing stress.
So, Iām just going to have fun playing and learning and not let it stress me out if Iām not playing the piece or song perfectā¦Itās all about having fun.
I will be concentrating on getting my rhythm and strumming up to scratch this year and carry on learning songs and my improvisation.
So, onwards and upwardsā¦Fun all the way
Iāll load some videos in the next few days
Glad you posted, I was thinking of sending a PM to ask how you progress was coming.
Sometimes we forget weāre learning not performing. Perfection isnāt the end goal. Learning a new skill should be fun and sometime the mistake is the lesson.
Good to hear youāre back at it. Take care of your arm donāt over do it.
Relax and have fun.
Well, Iāve spend some time creating strumming exercises in Guitar Pro which include quarter note and eighth note patterns (4/4 and 6/8 time) and also did some transcribing of some songs to also help with strumming exercises e.g. House of the Rising Sun, New Light (John Mayer) and Chocolate Jesus (Tom Waits) - easy versions.
With Guitar Pro, I can play the patterns with the build-in Metronome so it works well and I included accents and down and up strums as you can see from some of the examples.
Also created them at different speeds e.g. 60/70/80/100 bpm to improve overall strummingā¦
Hopefully this will be a good start to help improve my strumming, timing and rhythm.
If anyone wants pdfās or Guitar Pro files of my strumming exercises or the songs I transcribed to maybe help you. Just DM me and Iāll send them over (Share and share alike )
Also done a video of āRiders on the Stormā - the short versionā¦I did notice watching it backā¦My strumming on the āEmā was a little off - not strumming all the stringsā¦Also, still working on the end super fast outroā¦my fingers battle to keep up with my picking hand https://youtube.com/shorts/GpWPnrxkETE?feature=share
Keeping up my daily strumming practise, wonāt bore you with videoās of that which is coming on nicely, just sometimes on the up stroke, just hitting the lower E and nothing elseā¦
Also practising 16th notes as part of my Rhythm and strumming practise as well.
Working on āStill got the Bluesā - Gary Moore, working on the rhythm section, as the solo part is sorted. Will upload my attempt hopefully this weekend.
Itās nice to see more of your performances. You seemed more relaxed in these two short videos and āNeed Your Love So Badā was excellent. Your bends and vibrato are improving. Well played!
Still Got The Blues - Gary Moore (due to not causing copyright issues on YouTube, Iāve had to cut the video under 60 secsā¦)
Iāve also now fully transcribed the song including all the rhythm sections so itās easier to learn together. I think it might be hard to upload the full video onto YouTube once Iāve learned the complete song due to copyright issuesā¦Weāll seeā¦
Learning āStand By Meā on acoustic, to help with strumming (practising it using Old Faithful) and also to get some easy to learn acoustic songs under my beltā¦
Honestly Rachel, it is not good. The bends are off the pitch, some far off. You play out of time most of the solo. Try to listen how long GM kept the bends at the top before playing it again. Can you hear this is not good?
I also used this song for my initial bending practice, but I think I did more basic practice before attempting it. The main practice should be playing the note, than trying to bend to that note.
Thank you for you honest opinion saying it was crap.
Iām all for critique and feedback.
I do admit on some of the bends, I slightly exaggerated them, maybe I was just having some fun and getting into it.
I didnāt know we were only allowed to upload the polished article, I thought the whole point of the learning log was to upload the process/learning stages of learning a song etcā¦Maybe Iām wrong.
Anyway, Iāll make sure I practise the timing and bends and once Iāve mastered the song to absolute perfection, then Iāll upload another video
But, on a side note, Iāll keep uploading videoās of my guitar journey, all the good, the bad and the ugly, thatās how we measure our progress over time.
Have an absolutely wonderful week and kudos to you for playing live with your bandā¦
My second attempt at the soloās of āStill Got the Bluesā by Gary Moore.
I think I got the timing and bends better but Iāll wait on confirmationā¦
Still some work to do on some parts but overall, I think an improvementā¦
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