I’m around 2 years into learning guitar now. This one has been a project for a while.
It started when my niece, jokingly, asked if I could play the intro to Sweet Child of Mine yet. Months and months ago. Maybe a year ago? Of course I couldn’t, I hadn’t even tried. So I decided to check it out and try. It was… challenging. String skipping, left and right hand syncing, tricky. It’s been in and out of my practice routine for a long time. Working on it to get up to speed, then dropping it for a while.
There are still things to improve. I listen back and hear where certain notes should have sustained a bit longer. Especially at the beginning. I’ve found the start is always the hardest with this, once the band kicks in it’s easier.
This is a one take. One take Today. I tried it a few times yesterday and couldn’t get it entirely clean. I’d say this is at the limit of my ability, it is clean in practice most of the time but still get dud notes and muck it up on off days.
Enjoy. There is a cameo from one of my kids and I probably shouldn’t have worn my short-shorts .
Click me:
Open to all feedback, positive and negative.
Edit: Forgot to say - I haven’t done any sound post-processing. The backing track is from karaoke-version.
Dude! That was sick!!
I was a bit worried at the start, it sounded a touch out of tune to me But once the band kicked in, it sat very nicely, so thinking that was just my ears Very impressed with that start actually, are you listening to a click or are you just keeping time yourself? Seemed like you nailed the timing which would appear super hard to me, nice job!
This isn’t one I have ever looked at mainly because it seemed like a great way to highlight to others how bad I can play! Being such an iconic riff, any flubs would stand out to even the biggest guitar noob, so waaaaay too scary from that perspective! (yes I am a ).
Things to continue to work on… hmm lack of top hat perhaps??! Both hands have definitely soaked in this riff and seemed pretty synced to me. Tick! String skipping. Another tick! Perhaps a couple of notes were off a touch, but overall hard to fault given it was a one-take wonder. Maybe tone could do with a bit more “jangle” and a touch of extra reverb (or is it delay )? Had a quick listen to the album version and those were the two things that struck me from a quick listen.
Otherwise, I am just tipping my hat to you good sir! Go show off to your niece! She should be well impressed
Sounding pretty good overall JK. Lots of hard work getting that down for sure. One I have steered clear of for pretty much the reasons Jeff gave. On the odd occasion I started to give it a go it immediately sucked big style, so was parked up to gather dust. So kudos for sticking with it, well done ! No critique as above my play grade.
Thanks David, really appreciate you checking it out and the feedback.
Yeah the start is the hardest to get right for me. I was playing the right notes, but definitely some were too rushed. I think that makes it sound different? Maybe guitar tone didn’t have enough delay/reverb as well. And the volume knob was wound down too far . And I was in E standard tuning playing it a fret down… hmm. Because the rest of it sounds good, I think it’s that I wasn’t letting the notes sustain long enough.
I played it with a click for sure! Pre-recorded bandmates are brutal, they don’t listen to my playing so if I slip slightly off time they don’t care . My timing is good but not that good.
And I am fully aware of how iconic this riff is, which is why it took so much practice and doing things like not sustaining notes long enough is SUPER noticeable.
I had to go look and see when I started learning it, and lo and behold, I left a comment on the lesson thread. I started it in June last year, so 16 months! Although I have had it in and out of my practice routine for months at a time.
Wow Toby, high praise indeed! I think I left a comment on your thread saying the same thing to you earlier today, about those Gilmour and Knopfler style solos! Perhaps play grade is really specific to whatever piece we’ve spent time practicing
Completely agree Rob. I wanted to put it down as a stake in the ground for where I’m at now. I’m going to drop it from my practice routine again, as I think those extra touches around timing, fluidity, sustaining certain notes etc will come quicker if I practice other material.
I have to ask: how did you time it so you’re exactly on point when the backing track comes in at about 0:16? You don’t have have a click track running so you’re just relying on your internal clock?
The audio in the video is only DAW recorded audio with the click track muted. Aside from the count in. The camera audio I muted once I’d made the video and synced up the two audio sources (camera and DAW).
No headphones because I had the amp up and backing track via studio monitors. But guitar audio was recorded via XLR out from the amp.
I’ve never used a DAW properly - only Audacity to play a backing track and overdub the guitar on top of it. It sounds like it’s worth investing some time in learning to use these things to their full extent!
Clearly a load of time has been spent on this project JK. That was great. You got the tone pretty much spot on to my ears. Despite what you say, I thought the timing (especially being on point when the band kicks in) was pretty good.
Are you going to learn the lead parts of the whole song? I look forward to hearing that eventually if you do.
Well done, I hope your niece is impressed and that the guitar learning seed is being picked up by your daughter.
Sounding great, JK. You’re making great progress in the development of your lead playing skills and I’m pretty sure when you were a kid you must have swallowed a metronome as your timing is so impeccable.
Nice one JK. Sounded pretty good to me.
Timing was pretty spot on. Its just a matter now of continually polishing it - the fun part . Tonewise, I suppose its how far you wanna go with it to match the original, but yeah have a play around with some reverb and slight delay.
As someone who’s tackled this one, it is a tricky little tune. Its the tune that taught me about pick depth - and about how I had way too much of it . The key for me was getting an alternate picking pattern down that suited. Then of course, you’ve gotta keep going for I dont know how many bars. Might have to revisit it now that I’ve seen it again.
You’ve come such along way man, in a pretty short amount of time. Bravo!
Hi JK, what an impressive way to celebrate your 2nd guitarversary !!
So well done .
Your perseverance has definitely paid off. You can be very proud of you .
Sounded awesome to me! It’s clearly visible that you put a lot of effort into practicing, constantly, during these two years to come this far. Thanks for sharing!
. I tried it a few times yesterday and couldn’t get it entirely clean. I’d say this is at the limit of my ability, it is clean in practice most of the time but still get dud notes and muck it up on off days.
But once the band kicked in, it sat very nicely, so thinking that was just my ears 
Very impressed with that start actually, are you listening to a click or are you just keeping time yourself? Seemed like you nailed the timing which would appear super hard to me, nice job!
Being such an iconic riff, any flubs would stand out to even the biggest guitar noob, so waaaaay too scary from that perspective! (yes I am a 
. And I was in E standard tuning playing it a fret down… hmm. Because the rest of it sounds good, I think it’s that I wasn’t letting the notes sustain long enough.
.
. Tonewise, I suppose its how far you wanna go with it to match the original, but yeah have a play around with some reverb and slight delay.
. The key for me was getting an alternate picking pattern down that suited. Then of course, you’ve gotta keep going for I dont know how many bars. Might have to revisit it now that I’ve seen it again.
This was great 
!!
.