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Stuff that's too difficult!


julietgreen
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I've got a couple coming up and I'm doing them as a favour... but they'll feature stuff I haven't listened since I was in my teens...
and that is SOME time ago. I'll call them a Blues type bar band and they'll do stuff from Rory G thru to Thin L and Golden Earing
so you can guess what is coming next. I'll find it hard as never played those songs but the one thing that you MUST have in these busking situations is a drummer who can play SOLID time... when you are flying around all over the place, you can't be having to worry about the time... as it can so easily end up a mess.
Haven't seen these guys before, so hopefully they'll have solid drummer. They are reasonably well regarded but we'll see if that counts for anything.

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[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1428068105' post='2737703']Part of the reason it's buried is that it's in drop c tuning. Can we really distinguish pitch all that well that low?[/quote]

Tried out a new cab in last night's practise - Barefaced Super Twin, rest of the kit as normal and rediscovered my love for powerful lows - all the way down to low-A. Re-worked a few covers to make more use of them just because it sounded that solid and clear so I think it can be defined depending on a number of factors.

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[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1428068105' post='2737703']
Replies have been useful and encouraging. Well i get more time to practise in the school holidays, so shall try to nail the actual line before I adapt it. Part of the reason it's buried is that it's in drop c tuning. Can we really distinguish pitch all that well that low? I take the point that it's good to be stretched. Still, it would be nice to have a few new ones that we could knock out without too many hours of learning.
:-)
[/quote]

Pushing yourself the way you are will make newer tracks easier to learn, it really will benefit you in the long run even if it seems frustrating to begin with.


When ever I see bands playing in that tuning in smaller venues like pubs, the guitars seem muddy and the bass just farts away without too much definition. Seems like it can be tricky to make it sound good.

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I always struggle in learning songs that i'm just not into.

I have like them to want to learn them which doesn't always happen in my band as it kinda ends up being majority rules (not happy about that!)

Trying to get my head round Get the Funk out by Extreme at the mo. Will get there just got to keep going at it.

Agree with comments above, when you finally get that song you have been struggling with for a while and it clicks there is no better feel.

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It is hard if you don't like the song, there were some things we did I found hard to listen to, let alone learn. The other thing that really hacked me off was, having done all the work to nail some difficult songs, they stayed in the set for a few months and then got pushed out and never returned. In the end that totally destroyed my motivation to learn anything new.

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I'm actually stuck too. We have added Peter Green's "Oh Well" to our 1st set. I have listened to many clips and I can't get that tricky little riff between the verse and chorus. And it's not hard, I just don't get it. :blink:

Blue

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[quote name='spinynorman' timestamp='1428100754' post='2738189']
It is hard if you don't like the song...
[/quote]

Absolutely. I had cause to learn a couple of Jamiroquai songs for an audition a while back, and though I nailed them in the end I hated every minute of it (not being entirely fanatical about Jamiroquai), so the process took about three times as long as it should have.

Edited by discreet
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[quote name='milesBguitar' timestamp='1428096855' post='2738150']
when you finally get that song you have been struggling with for a while and it clicks there is no better feel.
[/quote]

It really is, got a song down today that I'd become frustrated with and walked away from a couple of times. Must have played the whole song through twenty plus times before my other half threatened to brain me, was having so much fun playing it and I was just so damned happy to have got it down.

Like Blue said above, it's even worse when it's a line well within your technical capability but somehow it just won't click!

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Better to be honest with them. Tell them that you'll need to work a bit on those particular songs to get them right.
As mentioned before simplify the bass part to fit you. Most won't notice anyways and as long as you are still carrying the song its done.

Dave

Edited by dmccombe7
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on the odd occasion I've had to learn a song I don't like (normally I'd say Can't stand that song I don't want to do it) I've just done the bare minimum to get by, I'll only go the extra mile if I like the song, and therefore enjoy playing it, if you're learning it for an audition maybe you should ask yourself why you're bothering if they're doing stuff you don't like.

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[quote name='blue' timestamp='1428102132' post='2738194']
I'm actually stuck too. We have added Peter Green's "Oh Well" to our 1st set. I have listened to many clips and I can't get that tricky little riff between the verse and chorus. And it's not hard, I just don't get it. :blink:

Blue
[/quote]
Do green manilishi instead;)

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Play until you get it right, or find a way to make it sound right. You have to do the latter no matter how you play the bassline. Most of the time we don't know what we're capable of. We only need to insist long enough until most of it becomes second nature.

Edited by Andrej
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[quote name='Andrej' timestamp='1428149648' post='2738495']
Play until you get it right, or find a way to make it sound right. You have to do the latter no matter how you play the bassline. Most of the time we don't know what we're capable of. We only need to insist long enough until most of it becomes second nature.
[/quote]

Quite - I've been teaching myself Can't Stop by the Chilli Peppers. I'm not a good slapper so it's a challenge. I've a compromise that sounds just fine when there's the whole band behind it even though it's much simpler than the real line. The more I play it though the closer to correct it gets!

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[quote name='Iain' timestamp='1428150938' post='2738513']
Quite - I've been teaching myself Can't Stop by the Chilli Peppers. I'm not a good slapper so it's a challenge. I've a compromise that sounds just fine when there's the whole band behind it even though it's much simpler than the real line. The more I play it though the closer to correct it gets!
[/quote]

That's exactly what I was talking about. We can sometimes play the same thing over and over again -and just get tired of it- without never really getting the feel of the song. If what you do sounds just fine, it's surely because you've nailed that.

I'm just getting started with 'when the night comes down' by Judas Priest. It's not a difficult one, but there's only one guitarist in the band. I have to find a way to compensate for that lol.

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Somebody famous (can't remember who) once said - "Don't practice till you get it right, practice till you don't get it wrong". Which by the sounds of it you are trying very hard to do. You said that you can play it at slower speed so just keep working on it and you will be able to play it at full speed in no time. I find it much easier to learn the different sections of a song separately and then put it all together rather than trying to learn a song all the way through from the start.

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I did reach a point where I swore and put the bass back in the bag, messaging my band that they were going to have to get a 'better bass player'. Very girly of me, yes! Anyway, we still had a go at the last rehearsal and apparently it wasn't that bad - so it's just as well I spent some time plugging away.

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A lot of it is in your head too. Once you know you can do it, it becomes easier. Getting to that state is another matter though :) I find that often it's not the notes themselves but being on top of the song structure so you know what's coming up, and that requires concentration - especially when you know the song well

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