Socio - 2023 - Blues Studies

Hopefully you will!..on second thoughts I’d better stay away from it as it’s one of my husband’s favourite genre and he’s such a perfectionist, he would never enjoy my mediocrity hahaha :woman_shrugging::joy:

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@SILVIA
:laughing: what better way to learn the blues than to have your very own personal critic driving you to perfection.

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James that sounded sooooo sweet. I loved the constant bass notes throughout. I’m really looking forward to following this thread.

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Nice James, keeping the rhythm I’m sure is more challenging than you’re making it look there, a fine start to the study, I’ll look forward to more!

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@SgtColon @Notter
Thanks for the listen and feedback guys. I’m glad you enjoyed that first fingerstyle blues piece. Yes, keeping the rhythm is quite a learning experience.

Fingerstyle Blues Piece No. 2

Following on from the first fingerstyle blues piece I’ve made some progress with the next piece which builds upon the first piece. This one was more challenging than the first piece but I feel I have made enough progress to move onto the next piece which is based on the blues scale.

Fingerstyle Blues Piece #2

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That soudned pretty cool, James.

I like the look of this course of studies you are following. It seems to build from a relatively simple (noting simple is NOT the same as easy, in my mind) study to get going and gradual increase in difficulty.

I also enjoy your B&W videos, though trhe Zoom was a nice idea but on my playback it appeared the camera could not maintain sharp focus?

Can’t wait for the next update. I caught this by chance but have upgraded the Topic to ‘Watch’ status so will be sure nothing slips by me!

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That was very nice James, I could hear the consistency of the bass notes “behind” the melody line which is quite impressive! It actually seems so difficult to think of it, but you made the bass and the melody go along with eachother very nicely. Bravo! The time you’re putting in is “paying dividends” …I learnt this one from you as well :wink::uk::blush:

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Very nice , James, just love the sound of these blues. Cool editing on the zooms/pans too. I’ve learned a couple songs from sixstringfingerpicking but haven’t looked at any of his blues studies, will have to check them out.

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Really great stuff James, your steady thumb is definitely living live of its own by now :grinning: glad to see you have been sucked into Blues fingerstyle, bring on the next ones!

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@DavidP
Thanks for the listen and feedback, David :smiley: Absolutely, the course of studies builds from the ground up giving an understanding along the way in how to develop your own arrangements. It’s also had the added bonus of re-consolidating and using the Em Pentatonic Scale taught in Beginners Grade 2 to make music. Yes, the zoom and pan was a nice idea but not quite well executed. I thought it would help getting constructive feedback on my left and right hand techniques. Yes, it’s going to be interesting seeing how the new changes to AVOYP develop as without upgrading a topic to watch it can be quite easy for a new recording posted on a topic to slip past you.

@SILVIA
Thanks for the listen and feedback, Silvia :smiley: I’m pleased to hear that the consistency of the bass notes outlining the 12BB came through well. I found this piece a bit more difficult rhythmically with more going on with the melody lines. Though I’m finding that the studies are developing my ear as I’m starting to notice more what notes fit best for the melody licks. I’m glad to hear that your picking up these little english phrases, I’d be interested to know your equivalent to the phrases? :wink:

@Mari63
Thanks for the listen and feedback, Mari :smiley: I’m pleased to hear that you are enjoying the sound of these beginner level fingerstyle blues. Hopefully, it will help develop my level of competence to be able to tackle one of Justin’s Solo Blues in the future. I really liked the one you played recently for the guitar challenge. It was your recording that gave me the inspiration to try editing the video that I had record adding a zoom and pan to focus on my left and right hand techniques. I’d definitely be interested in having a watch of those songs that you have learned. Do you have them on your learning log?

@adi_mrok
Thanks for the listen and feedback, Adrian :smiley: Yes, I’ve definitely been sucked into fingerstyle blues though I’ve also been developing my blues rhythm and soloing. Those will probably be added at some point on this study chain once I feel that I am ready to post something for feedback to help progress further. Right now for the time being the recordings posted will be mainly fingerstyle. The next one incorporates something that you suggested to me on my first improvisation recording, adding the blues notes.

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Really good James. You’ve encouraged me to revisit these studies.

As for your point David about putting things on ‘watching’ status, it would be good if you were only notified when the OP posted new stuff. At the moment ‘watching’ means you are notified of every
reply from everyone.

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That would be nice, and have no idea if it is something we can configure or not, Gordon. My sense is that these Community platforms work in a generic way that presumes that if your are interested in a Topic (essentially a discussion in the platform context) then you’d be interested in all replies.

I have now stopped watching AVOYP for all replies and am only notified when new topics are posted. The only thing I am likely to miss is one the OP posts up another recording, such as in this Topic. As such I decided to cope with being notified of all replies.

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Hi @socio, very nice. I’m working on similar stuff.

I noticed that the bass is not the most elementary “steady bass” of quarter notes, but you are playing swung eighth notes with the thumb, which is quite a bit harder. (At least, if you have started out with steady bass, as I have). Nice work.

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Hi James, the couple I’ve learned from sixstringfingerpicking aren’t blues, although I will be checking them out on his page now that I’ve heard yours. I recorded just 1 song I learned from him, (2 kind of mashed up actually), Wonderful World, which you’ve already seen.

I plan to ‘steal’ your idea of this topic since I like it so much, and create my own Blues Studies topic. Eventually I’ll have a few all in the same place but I figured I’d wait until I have at least a 2nd one to start my topic lol. I’m currently distracted by a couple of other things I’ve been learning but will get back to the blues soon. This working for a living business is really cutting into my guitar practice time! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Now that is what I am excited about and looking forward to from you :heart_eyes:

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@sairfingers
Thanks for the listen and feedback, Gordon :smiley: I’m pleased to hear that I’ve encouraged you to revisit fingerstyle blues studies.

@jjw
Thanks for the listen and feedback, John :smiley: I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone in finding it difficult playing swung eighth notes with the thumb after learning to play steady bass with the thumb at the start when learning fingerstyle.

@Mari63
I’m pleased to hear that you like the idea of a blues studies topic. It’s definately worth starting your own Blues Studies topic as it’s a good way to share the learning journey as your knowledge, techniques and skills develop each piece you learn. Eventually, I would like to be able to take what I have learned and post an original arrangement.

@adi_mrok
I’ll make sure I tag you then when I eventually post a blues rhythm and solo piece :wink:

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@Socio Things are progressing very nicely. Nice steady thumb, melody notes are clean. Nicely done

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Nicely done James and sounding good. Seems Mr Murrin takes a similar layered approach to Mr Hamburger adding complexity bit by bit. Looks like you’re making good progress.
Thanks for sharing.

:sunglasses:

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@stitch
Thanks for the watch and feedback, Rick :smiley: it’s reassuring to know that I am progressing on the right path and laying decent foundations to build upon as I move onto the next piece.

@TheMadman_tobyjenner
Thanks for the watch and feedback, Toby :smiley: yes, its a progressive approach adding brick by brick. I’m finding this sort of approach is broadening my understanding of how the pieces are put together. The proof will be in the pudding if I ever challenge myself to come up with my own arrangement in the future.

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