Been working on a couple different intros for awhile now.
Needle and the damage done -Neil Young
Aime- Pure Prairie League
Even after a hundred times I still can’t seem to nail em without
some misstep.
Maybe biting off more than I can chew being a relatively new player
coming up on two years.
So am I alone or have others here struggled with somewhat complex
song intros ?
Any tips or just keep doing it over and over till I’m blue in the face and the wife says can’t you play anything else besides that !
I can nail the Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd intro !
I haven’t done this one yet,…but if I sometimes do something else for a few days that is a bit similar in difficulty…and then try again, it often goes a lot better already… …sometimes it takes a few months for me to get back somewhere and then almost by itself it goes well…keep it nice for your wife…and yourself…,swap with some music
Good luck and a lots of fun,
Greeting,s rogier
There is quite an interesting discussion ongoing about your struggles, maybe not song specific bit more generic but I reckon some answers would apply to your question, worth checking out.
@woodroe
What resources are you using to learn these intros?
Needle and the damage done is chording with lead lines
and Amie is all A Major pentatonic connecting two patterns.
Both intros take different skills. In which areas are you having
trouble?
The Aime intro has some chords with finger stretches for me. Found this at swiftlessons.
My ring finger is slightly handicapped in that it is larger and misshaped on the tip
so muting the adjacent string can be a problem so I try using my pinky
finger alot but don’t have as much control over it as my ring finger.
That is big part of the problem in that intro, throw in some slides.
Needle and the damage done is from Justin’s lesson here and with that one
its just a lot of new moves , some hammer ons ,slides and I dunno, all different than the basic chord songs.
Maybe chalk it up to inexperience, probably should pick on easier stuff,lol.
I know Justin’s lesson and all you need to do is follow his
instructions and do it slowly and correctly and everything
will come together. Take your time, maybe even take a break
from it for a week then come ba k to it.
Rob is also a great teacher but after watching his lesson there
is one big red flag that sticks out.
I don’t know why he has you change fingers before sliding up to
the extention as he calls it.
I would recommend sliding with your ring finger. It’s already in
place and is more efficient to just slide it up to the next box.
Changing fingers is complicating a very easy and common slide.
This slide for one patern to another is one of the most common
moves when soloing so getting it under your fingers is a must.
I still can’t figure out why Rob changes fingers.
This I don’t understand Rob teaches the starting A chord with the
pinky on the 5th fret not the ring sl there shouldn’t be a problem.
Yeah I got the starting A chord with the pinky at the 5th fret Stitch, Its in the start of the sections on the 2nd note hammer on (4th fret) where I’m trying to use my pinky instead of ring finger, and other places as well.
I always find intros difficult to nail. They’re often the most difficult bit as they’re more intricate and designed to stand out and also the most memorable bit of song so if you make a mistake it’s easily spotted! I think it’s just a case of slowing it right down and practicising a bar at a time, then spend some time stitching the bars together.
That being said, needle and the damage done is a really tricky song to learn and I found the hardest part was to pick out the individual notes using my pick. I therefore took the decision to play it fingerstyle and it felt a lot easier and more precise being able to pluck the individual notes with my fingers rather than using a pick. If I did use a pick, I also stopped worrying too much about clipping other strings as they’re pretty much harmonic especially if you hold down the E on the second fret of the fourth string alongside the C on the fifth string as Jason teaches when you’ve got the descending bass at the beginning.
Ok so I’m not alone, thanks Tracey.
Seems I spend 10 times more time learning some of the intros than
the actual verses and chorus on some songs.
Haven’t been playing very long but have noticed this so was wondering about other players. Chalk it up to part of the journey !
You summed it up well: “They’re often the most difficult bit as they’re more intricate and designed to stand out and also the most memorable bit of song”
