This is not a great recording as I had to record it twice. First time to get the audio as a voice memo and the second to get the video on my laptop that has a broken sound system. I then attempted to sync them together in Reaper but it’s off here and there.
This is my simplified version of a song by a guy called Marty Willson-Piper that I never thought I’d post as an AVOYP. Given to me some months ago by @Richard_close2u, during a lesson, as a practice piece for improving my picking accuracy. That skill is still a WIP. It’s taking me a long time to take it to where it is and there’s still plenty of room for improvement. It’s a nice quirky song and sometimes, when I’m playing for myself and winding my wife up, I whistle the cuckoo call that is in the original.
That is some wonderful playing, John. Your picking ilooks so good, accurate, smooth, relaxed. Good work with the stuck chords. I’d love to hear this again recorded in the way you usually do, when you’ve sorted out the laptop.
And you had me fooled for a long while in the OM, the new BLIM honouring user name. That makes me think of that old fun song about my old man and the hat he wears
That was really great John. Excellent flat picking, I liked the way you got the descending bass line running through it. Good vocal too, your voice style suited the song. The change of tempo in the song must have been difficult to manage but you did it.
Well done.
Great stuff John- you come across very relaxed and comfortable performing.
Fancy fingerpicking!
One question- are you sure you need the capo? I thought, if anything, you were straining to hit some of the high notes
Keep it up!
Never heard the song before but it’s lovely. And your picking … wow! So even and the base notes shine out so clearly. Not much polishing left to do John!
The flatpicking is really good, sounds smooth, accurate but still relaxed. Vox on top was fitting in nicely, too. That was an overall enjoyable listen - and I’m curious how the cuckoo-call works out in that one.
John, I’m glad i wasn’t the only one to be thrown off by your user name!
Wow, that was superb and a real pleasure to listen to and watch. Your guitar has a great sound and the clean picking and walking lines really put the cherry on top of a super performance.
That was absolutely fabulous John. I don’t think I could ever create a sound that beautiful and I definitely couldn’t sing while picking that pattern. Simply gorgeous!
@DavidP Thanks for the kind words. My old man’s a dustman, the great Lonnie Donegan. Influenced a lot of guitar players here in the U.K.
I have actually changed my username back in my account but it isn’t showing for whatever reason. As the amount of work that I need to master in BLIM builds up I realise including it in my avatar was beyond inappropriate!
@judi Thank you. It’s taken an awful lot of practice…and still does!
@nzmetal Thanks, because the rhythm isn’t syncopated it’s not the worst song to sing along to.
@Richard_close2u Thank you, especially for introducing the song to me.
@DarrellW Thank you. The vocals are definitely different!
@sairfingers Thanks Gordon, The tempo changes are very difficult to manage. in the recording I’ve actually jumped the gun and moved to a place in the song too soon, which really annoyed me on listening back. Developing and feeling the way I wanted to manage the changes took a long time.
@roger_holland Thanks Rogier, I appreciate your comment.
@brianlarsen Thanks, a lot of the time I have my guitar tuned down a semitone. Sometimes a full tone. At the time of recording this the capo returned the guitar to standard tuning. For this song I’ve tried using the capo, or not, in a few positions to fit my narrow singing range. Standard tuning feels the best to me. I‘m probably visiting the Wirral for a weekend in November. Perhaps we could try a song together? If you’re around.
@MollyT Thanks Molly, I’d never heard of it or the artist until Richard shared it with me. You know those moments when you haven’t fretted the string quite right and it sounds a bit deadened? There were some of those, I still very much need to polish them out!
@oldhead49 Thank you Dave. I’ve tried changing that pesky user name back but it’s not happened. I must be missing something. I am pleased with the tone of the Faith, although it does need thumping sometimes as its projection is not great.
@Eddie_09 Thank you. The song seems to be perceived as one that would be difficult to sing. I don’t think it necessarily is, for the reasons I gave to Jeff above.
