Cool thanks for the offer James. 
That was a nice LL update Toby. Sounds like your fingerpicking practice is paying dividends.
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Thank you JK, not sure about dividends but getting there slowly. 
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OK here is my next Folk Fingerstyle “line in the sand” entry. A fairly simple picking pattern but a distraction from clean chord changes, especially from D7 to Bm (complete mare on this take and left in to keep me honest). Option to use barre or 4 string version but I guess it will be the first one I land consistently 
The song is called The Water Is Wide and Its an old traditional ballad from 16/17 th century, of which there are many version. The OT is played at 80 bpm and has 5 verses and the end game is to sing along (and its a long way from my usual java !) Current work out is at 60 bpm and normally ok but some RBS stutters appearing again. Still a lot of work to do on this one with regard to cleanliness and tempo but the one thing I have learnt is to be patient.
Gone for the audio version again but dropped some newly created AI art, based on the song title and my go to prompts. Feedback welcome.
Not a lot done mixing wise in Reaper, just percussion via EZ Drummer 2.
A fairly plain Preset in POD Go I created a few days back. Amp is a Fender Princetown Reverb with the standard 1 x 10 cab. Only other FX was the Line 6 Ganymede with a few tweaks and becoming my go 'verb 
Both POD line out tracks feed into a single GTR master track, with the only thing being added was Reaper own Limiter, set on Constant Gain (which I’ve not used before). Ceiling and Threshold set to -5 db, which resulted in healthy levels for YouTube. Drums may be a little too present but that’s the way I like it. 
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Only the madman can take a 16/17th century ballad and bring it into the 21st century. You’re making great progress with the fingerpicking and artwork. Looking forward to the singalong version. Keep up the good work.
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That were two very sweet picking pieces, Toby!
The first quite mellow one, the second also quite in the mood. Artwork fits nicely, as does the footage of your ride to the first post on that topic.
It’s good to have some nice pieces to get hands on Fingerstyle practice, I will take you as inspiration for my further sessions on this topic. By the way:
@Socio James I’d be interested, if you don’t mind. 
Back to topic again: Seems you’re on a good way with your picking, Toby! Looking forward to when you bring it together with the singing. Especially for the ancient ballad - love some good old ballads! 
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Certainly getting there. Playing sounded clean to me. However it didn’t quite sound fluid, it almost sounded like each finger was deliberate rather than a fluid picking pattern. Makes me wonder if you’re holding a lot of tension while playing it?
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@jkahn Thanks for the feed back, Think the cleanliness was down to keeping the FX simplified with just the reverb. But you are right on the fluidity. This was another multi take and the constant fluffs certainly led to additional anxiety and tension. So that led to me being more focused with each pick (bar the ones I missed : ) so it did not flow as I would have liked, so good call, It’s more flowing at the higher tempo but as yet that leads to to many bum chord landings. So WIP for sure.
@Lisa_S Most appreciated Lisa, taken a good few weeks of focus to get to this stage, having ignored fingerstyle for years. Still a long way to go but glad to inspire you ! Wish the playing was as easy as the art work, were I just choose the right descriptive concept and drop it in the AI engine. Only if playing was so simple !
@Socio James what can I say ? Went for a click track and thought nah, lets rock a little. The driving Dixie Railroad sample went a little too far, so stayed more trad rock beat wise. s
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Playing catch-up after a crazy couple of weeks, Toby.
The fruits of your practice are showing. Inspirational to follow along as you venture into unexplored territory.
I thought the mixes were both pretty good. Don’t have any concern on the drum levels in the second.
I enjoyed the video and slide-show as much as the music.
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Thanks for David and appreciative the comment on the mixes, which was kept pretty basic on the mastering front. The plan was to record where I am at with Dust In The Wind, which is a bit stop start and needs work on fluidity and tempo. With the PC dying and my wife’s old laptop brought in as backup, my recording resources are limited, as very little software was on the LT. Managed to install Reaper, OBS and Zoom yesterday. Found a wireless mouse and this morning located its USB plug (hate LT mice !!) So just this minute connected up the Xenyx. So may experiment a little later today. But limited on USB ports for POD Go and Webcam etc, so may be restricted. Means OM is up in the air but will have to wait and see how things go.
Hoping the PC is just the Power Supply Unit but could also have been the heat sink, as I have had some odd fan noises. If the latter, the motherboard could be fired, so spent yesterday pm sourcing possible replacements - no Gtr Day 
Looking forward to hearing your lick and the new posts. Good to see you getting going again, hope the hands are ok. LT speakers are carp, so with the AI plugged in I’ll get audio from the monitors and headphones. All good fun.
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Very much enjoying following you on this fingerstyle journey Toby.
Ok, I know I’m a bit “non techie” but I can’t help thinking that you seem to spend a lot of time messing with tech. Perhaps divert some of that time to actual guitar playing and practise?
Sorry, that didn’t sound right. Of course we all do what we enjoy most and your current regime is clearly paying dividends.
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Under stand what you are saying about the tech Gordon but since I started down the “focus” route, I’ve been spending around 90 minutes a day playing and practising, the folk and blues pieces. And don’t see that as a defensive response, just saying is all. And until the PC crashing, everything was set up, plug n play. And now having just done the same to the laptop, the SG is plugged in and I am blowing off steam. A more relaxed fingerstyle session will follow this afternoon. So don’t worry my friend I am putting the hours for sure. Messing with tech only happens when its broke.
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Just thought I’d draw another line in the sand and make a note of the date.
Its been about 7 weeks of more focused folk and Blues fingerstyle but this morning, I eventually I laid some vocals over the old folk song I referenced in the earlier post “The Water Is Wide”. Not expecting to record it any time soon, as it will take some more work to keep on playing and singing over the 5 verses but felt I needed to make a note of when I did this, for future reference.
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Interesting…I think that there is too much on the practice side of things…I would suggest selecting some basic ones and doing it for 1 minute a day…come back to some of the others after a month of that…brave man for trying “Ramble On” though …What grade is that?
It was working for me as I have plenty of time, as is the new focus on fingerstyle. 
Grade for Ramble On ? Haven’t a clue but its on my dreamer list. The grades came in after I had complete most of the core courses, so still not quite worked out where I fit in with them.
I will always be an Advanced Beginner as I am always learning something new.
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OK this is just a work in progress update on my PMT Live #1 & #2 Exercises, which I have continued to develop, despite the fact that the sessions have now seemed to have moved on.
You can blame Mr Coles for this post, as after suffering 2 hours of a Tommy Steele Earworm, I had to banish the beast.
Latest iteration now has an intro (unsure about it at the moment) and Verse 1 Bridge Verse 2 Pre Chorus and Chorus have now been duplicated to make it look like a full song and not half (a sixpence arghhhh Tommy’s still here 
)
Guitars are still Midi and fuelled by Waves GTR Tool Rack but I played through the original 48 bars and seem to be getting it under my fingers - but now have to learn the intro, hook that up and then repeat everything on a second roll. And for Sylvia I chugged out some dark heavy powered chords of the whole ensemble and they might just feature on the finished article
There are now 6 keyboard tracks panned at various widths. The original Guitar Pro Audio, the Spitfire Labs Midi Synth plus my ubiquitous Church Organ plug-in that has featured in many projects of old. Naturally I have now added percussion courtesy of EZ Drummer 2.
For anyone interested in the Project layout in Reaper, I’ve added a screenshot below.
Still undecided about lyrics but leaning towards the Albigensian Crusades and the Cathars as a topic, as I have some scribbles somewhere. Madman@Montsegur ! But I’ll get the guitars down first.
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With @Richard_close2u Richard’s Vintage Club pushing out melody exercises, I just had to get this nailed down before I get distracted and disappear down another 
So.
Another step forward in the JG PMT Live #1/2 Exercises
Drum intro changed and now 2 bars, more in keeping with the overall vibe.
Intro melodies rewritten.
Melody tracks now have a 4 voice “doubler”
Bass track added with the new Waves Bass Fingers plugin !! What a PITA - could not work out why all my Bass midi suddenly went off the rails, only to discover the new cool Waves tool is a 5 string Bass and I’d written for a 4, natch ! Thankfully GP8 provides a 5 line score so all good after a Tab rewrite.
Track remixed and rebalanced, as I wanted a more prominent Bass and the Drums to pop more. Still a holding pattern but happier now with overall mix, so time to start recording the guitars.
pmt-live-project-with-melody-reaper-v-iii-mix-update-1
The line in the sand is drawn.
Please ignore my ramblings, this is just a Roadcase reference which I am happy to share.
Cue muzik …
One day
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We always do …we always do
Greetings 
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Toby, you know, we love your “ramblings”. To be honest, I don’t have too much of a clue, what you are talking about but it certainly sounds very nice to my ears…could close my eyes and take some minutes in another sphere before heading into the day with lots of obligations…
BTW, nice hallucinations with all those red dressed elves 
!
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We never do …we never do
Sorry I stop now (to easy 
)… 
Greetings 
me
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