Lately I have become friends with a professional musician who plays a solo show at a local restaurant. He has been giving me lots of tips to improve my playing. I am not shy to ask anyone and everyone for advice. One of his comments was when performing you have to read the crowd and adjust your song choice to the crowd. So I am asking what everyone likes to hear here. Rock, country, ballads, new stuff? My latest songs I have been dabbling with are:
Move Along-all American Rejects-happened to hear it on the radio and thought I can totally play this
Crawling by Linkin Park-acoustic ballad version- getting the intro riff down that is usually piano part
Don’t Cry- G n R
Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles- fun song Justin did a recent lesson on-super easy
Intro to new Lady GAGA song for top gun movie- hold my hand, individual notes. Hard to do without looking down at guitar but cool ballad
People are strange-the doors-fun intro to get used to B-7 chord
What do you all like to hear and any suggestions or songs you are working on?
I would love to hear feedback. Still working on improving timing, more strumming patterns mixed in songs, and getting my wrist straight when fretting to avoid wrist pain.
This is a copy paste from my learning log but it’s kind of exactly what you’re asking about so here goes: What I’ve been Playing:
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Love this song! I’ve only really been practicing the main rhythm, not the other riffs, but I feel like I’m really close to getting it down. My only problem is when crossing between 6th and 5th string Pchords I sometimes fumble the change so still working on it. I’ll work on the other riffs after I get this down.
In Bloom- I think this is my favorite Nirvana song, so I’ve spent a lot of time working on this. I can play through the whole song (Rhythm only of course: Intro, verses, and chorus), but it’s still sloppy so working on cleaning it up. Want to do a AVoYP at some point. Good song for power chords I think since It moves around the neck a little.
Whips and Chains - I’ve only just begun this one. It’s an instrumental song from Troy Stetina’s excellent book on metal rhythm guitar. Seriously anyone who is interested in playing metal should take a look at these books. I found that the books do little in actually teaching how and what to practice but are very good at teaching you technique and gradually giving you harder techniques to master. I’m combining the book with Justin’s effective practice methods to good results.
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - I still play this during my rep revision. I’ve come to terms that it will probably take months (maybe even longer) to truly achieve smooth changes with the F chord, but I continue to have this in my practice to keep working on it.
Troy Stetina!!! I bought his original strat Guitar package with that book years ago. I saw his Oversouls band play years ago in Milwaukee area. Troy is very talented. He told me he is not much of a teacher for beginners but is great with advanced techniques. Did you know he taught the leader of Creed? I have the same books you do. Sounds like you are a big Nirvana fan. Justin’s lesson come as you are was one of the first songs I played-crowd pleaser. The F chord-yeah the mini F works in most cases as a filler. It is hard. Once you get it it opens up movable bar chords- like B to A or b-minor to C#minor, If you like Pink she has a few songs with that progression.
Thanks so much for sharing. Hope you get the songs down. Justin did a recent video about slowing it down. I think that is great advice. I am eager to post my next performance but don’t want to rush into a poor showing lol. Have a good day!
Did not know he taught the leader of Creed wow! Yeah I saw a video of his where he explains essentially that his whole metal method (rhythm and lead) is designed to take like 3-4 years+. Which I think is pretty cool in it’s own way.
Huge Nirvana fan! I’m also a fan in general of Dave Grohl as well so add Foo Fighters (all my life is on my list to one day learn )to that. I’d say if I had to choose a genre to play forever I’d be Rock and I lean a little into the heavier side but I also like more pop-rock stuff as well and don’t really touch the really heavy death metal stuff.
he F chord-yeah the mini F works in most cases as a filler. It is hard. Once you get it it opens up movable bar chords- like B to A or b-minor to C#minor, If you like Pink she has a few songs with that progression.
Thanks so much for sharing. Hope you get the songs down. Justin did a recent video about slowing it down. I think that is great advice. I am eager to post my next performance but don’t want to rush into a poor showing lol. Have a good day!
Yeah, I’m hovering at the end of Grade 2 right now and plan on consolidating for at least 3 months. I always want to keep the f chord in my practice because when I do eventually move on to Grade 3 then 4 I want have it down for when I actually get to the barre chord modules.
Saw the video on slowing down and it really spoke to me. It was perfect timing too because I’m hitting the end of grade 2 where things start to get less structured. The biggest motivator for me is being able to play the songs I love, and there are songs on both sides of the skill spectrum. Slowing down and really focusing on getting the easier ones down and gradually moving the difficulty as the years go by seems the way to go!
Hope you get yours down as well! Every time I hear “Crawling” it just takes me back to when I was a kid just getting into rock. Just watched Top Gun Maverick and looooved that Lady GAGA song I’ll have to check it out!
Before I started this journey of learning guitar with JG there was only one Nivarna song that I had heard. Couldn’t name another one if I tried. Still don’t know many to be fair but am using these as part of the power chords songs!
We are about at the same level as far as lessons. I really love the foo fighters. They just announced two shows as a tribute to Taylor. One in Los Angeles and one in London. I’m hoping to get tickets for LA, which is about 2 hours from me. Dave is really talented as was Kirk. Easy songs to try are times like these and learn to fly. Both are good songs from them. It’s always good to have a stretch goal song too. If you ever want to see a female guitarist who can shred guitar look up Sophie Lloyd from the UK. Most talented female guitarist I have ever heard. I hope to get to that level of talent one day.
I’m having a go at learning the guitar and bass for Pieces by Jinjer; bit of a challenge for me but it’s doable with time invested I think; I already have a backing track, Tatiana has very graciously allowed me to use her singing and the drum track - she a a lovely warm person to communicate with!
This is the track: JINJER - Pisces (Live at Wacken Open Air 2019) | Napalm Records - YouTube
Have 4 new songs I am learning at the moment but rewriting a song I wrote back in 2016. Playing and singing were not so good back then. Plus it could be my first bass recording as well. No spoilers as its WIP at the moments and just been rearranged in a different Key.
Haha, it takes me so long to learn even a basic song to the level where I can share, I’d be embarrassed to say
I usually have two or three on the go…
Oooh, has the muse descended? Looking forward to that
Isn’t it odd how you can hear a song 1,000 times on a CD or the radio, but can’t master the lyrics while singing and playing? I still have very few in my portfolio that I can do without a lyrics sheet in front of me. Lol
That was clarification for Stuart when asked if he was wiring anything ! But I am rejigging one of my originals, no muse required just a bucket and spoon.
Jeff
, more technical development)
But I am rejigging one of my originals, no muse required just a bucket and spoon.