[wannalearn01]

So I was watching the Simpsons the other night and I heard lisa start playing it...thought it was a awesome song and I reconized it but didn't know how hard it is to play.

I looked over the tabs and other than being longer and faster than I am normal to, I get the basics of it. Is this something a learner(about 6 months exp.) could do with some practice? I can play dust in the wind pretty well finger picked, but wondering if this is somethuing that might be more than I can chew.

T^roy

[bulletgraffiti]

Any song you try to conquer in 5 minutes is too much. However, if you make being able to play this song a goal of yours, go for it. The only way you will learn and get better is if you push yourself. Neff

[bigbadballer5523]

Just keep playing it over and over and just listen to the way Eric(or Mason) plays the song to get the timing. I've been playing for 3 months and I have it down pat so you should have no problem.

[jshrel24]

I prefer claptons.

[wannalearn01]

Just keep playing it over and over and just listen to the way Eric(or Mason) plays the song to get the timing. I've been playing for 3 months and I have it down pat so you should have no problem.

Did you do it measure by measure...or verse by verse etc

I get his chord progressions, I can play all the parts separately, but I just need practice to get it down by memory. Hell it is about 8-11 pages long all tabbed out.

I am currently working on this, classical gas(clapton version) and also 3 doors down krytonite...mainly b.c people can reconize it and it uses a variation of a barre chord which i am also working on.

This is a hard song, but I think that if I stick with it and just try and learn one new measure a day or something that I should be able to learn in it in a couple weeks and what not. It has some super fast parts, and I haven't really practiced my finger picking, so I think that will hold me up for a little bit, but I'll let you guys know when I get it all down...hopefully

T^roy

[wannalearn01]

*Update: Learned the intro through and through. I figured out wat was holding me back was trying to remember where to put my fingers instead of just doing it.

I'm going to try to learn it one measure at a time, then add it to what I already know.

But I did have one question about the tabs...more or less how to play a part of it:

The three parts in question are:

0h1p0

0h1p0h1

& - To Coda (2nd time)

Ok, first off I can read tabs but reading and doing is different till I know what the difference in sounds are.

But,
The "0h1p0" in the first verse of the song(not intro but verse).

I get this is a "0" hammer-on "1" but does the "p" mean pluck(?) the open string?
-So it would be hit string, hammer-on the 1, pull-off/pluck the "0"
Is that right?

then the

"0h1p0h1" looks the same but with an extra hammer on after the pluck.
-So it would be hit string, hammer-on, pluck-off, hammer on.
Is that right?

and finally the

"& - To Coda (2nd time)" I have no clue what "To coda" would mean.

I figured since I already started the topic I should stick with it, instead of posting a new one...

T^roy



T^roy

[dadfad]

Yes, the 0h1p0 is pick 0, hammer 1 then pull off back to the 0. Back to coda means you go back to the coda-symbol (usually a 0 with a + over it) and repeat that segment.

[wannalearn01]

Yes, the 0h1p0 is pick 0, hammer 1 then pull off back to the 0. Back to coda means you go back to the coda-symbol (usually a 0 with a + over it) and repeat that segment.

When I pull off am I supposed to pluck the string with my left(fretting) hand? Or just a regualr pull-off? I tried plucking after the hammer on and it gave me some weird sound, wasn't sure if it was needed though.

T^roy

[dadfad]

Troy, just from how I generally play that sequence of notes (I don't do this tune because I don't especially care for it that much and there's an awful lot of more-less rote memorization to play it completely that I don't want to devote that much time to on a tune I only like marginally). I don't usually "pull-off" so much as I "push-off". I find it much easier to try to push upwards rather than pull downwards. It's probably just a matter of personal preference. When I first learned to do it, I'd used to pull-off, but when I got into traditonal country blues I often wanted a more solid-sounding note than the typically "delicate" sound of comtemporary acoustic pull-offs (which I'll still use occassionally). I saw Fred McDowell use a push-off when he showed me his tune "Diamond Ring Blues" which relies heavily on a pull-off (push-off) in its key-lick and noticed I could get a much more solid sound that way. You might want to try it that way too.

[pimp_vince]

this could take you upwards of a couple months to nail. i don't mean just play it through half-assed and say you can play it. but like absolutely nail it up to recording standards.

[wannalearn01]

Troy, just from how I generally play that sequence of notes (I don't do this tune because I don't especially care for it that much and there's an awful lot of more-less rote memorization to play it completely that I don't want to devote that much time to on a tune I only like marginally). I don't usually "pull-off" so much as I "push-off". I find it much easier to try to push upwards rather than pull downwards. It's probably just a matter of personal preference. When I first learned to do it, I'd used to pull-off, but when I got into traditonal country blues I often wanted a more solid-sounding note than the typically "delicate" sound of comtemporary acoustic pull-offs (which I'll still use occassionally). I saw Fred McDowell use a push-off when he showed me his tune "Diamond Ring Blues" which relies heavily on a pull-off (push-off) in its key-lick and noticed I could get a much more solid sound that way. You might want to try it that way too.

Yea,

I'm in college so memorizing and not really knowing is my specialty j/k But it is super long, I was thinking about not leanring it b.c of that but I need to get some finger picking skills built up anyways...so I was thinking this would be hard, but doable, and really help my finger picking...usually I look at my picking hand a lot, but b.c I have to look to see the chord changes, I am learning to pick patterns a little better.

I think I get bogged down with details when I try and learn a song, trying to play it exactly how the tab says. Would you suggest on issues like the above, that I just do it how I think it sounds good, or should I strive to make it right from the begining(so I don't "learn wrong")?

I'm still learning some techniques, and I don't want to learn things the wrong way, but I also tend to be more or less a perfectionist so I am carrying a double edger...

T^roy

[pimp_vince]

it's not the length that screws you. it's structured pretty well the same (even it terms of the theme) throughout all three sections (exluding the intro). you just have to understand the first section (or verse... whatever) and then it's all a matter of picking up on the differences.

[wannalearn01]

it's not the length that screws you. it's structured pretty well the same (even it terms of the theme) throughout all three sections (exluding the intro). you just have to understand the first section (or verse... whatever) and then it's all a matter of picking up on the differences.

I'm only through the intro, but even that is a little tough b.c the order of the slight variations sometimes slips my mind. Like one verse it is just plucked, then the next has hammer-ons, then the next is completely different...but using similar progressions...

So is it doable or did I bite off more than I can chew? <Either way I am still learning it, just need to know if I should dail 9-1- and wait>

T^roy

[dadfad]

I try to approach tunes by learning the style of the artist whenever possible. I might learn to play a tune note-for-note just to master it, but then never try to do it identically that way again. I don't consider a recording as something chiselled in stone and sent down by Moses or something. I figure the artist himself probably recorded the tune several times, each time a little different but in his style of playing, and that cut just happened to be the one that was put on the CD or record. So whether it's Skip James or Robert Johnson or Mason Williams (or Clapton covering Williams), I'd try to approach it that way.

In a similar note of looooooong-sooooongs, a few years ago I saw this guitarist named Guy Van Duser do a solo guitar-only arrangement of John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever". An amazing thing to watch, more as a novelty than anything else maybe, but it was tremendous how he did ridiculously complex ascending/descending lines, rapidly moving all over the neck high to low, etc, etc. He got it all.....(including the tuba parts!) (or maybe they were Sousaphone parts! ). Anyway, there was an un-godly amount of work I'm sure in learning and memorizing all the passages and themes and everything. Maybe it was his "Quest" or something, like climbing Everest, I don't know (although I once attempted Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" a lot of years ago, but gave up after a couple of weeks so I sort of understand I guess) (but I DID pick a couple of cool licks doing it that I still use to this day!). In any case, it was quite a thing to see!

[bigbadballer5523]

Play it over the recording if you can it will help you get the sometimes screwy timing down

[wannalearn01]

I try to approach tunes by learning the style of the artist whenever possible. I might learn to play a tune note-for-note just to master it, but then never try to do it identically that way again. I don't consider a recording as something chiselled in stone and sent down by Moses or something. I figure the artist himself probably recorded the tune several times, each time a little different but in his style of playing, and that cut just happened to be the one that was put on the CD or record. So whether it's Skip James or Robert Johnson or Mason Williams (or Clapton covering Williams), I'd try to approach it that way.

In a similar note of looooooong-sooooongs, a few years ago I saw this guitarist named Guy Van Duser do a solo guitar-only arrangement of John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever". An amazing thing to watch, more as a novelty than anything else maybe, but it was tremendous how he did ridiculously complex ascending/descending lines, rapidly moving all over the neck high to low, etc, etc. He got it all.....(including the tuba parts!) (or maybe they were Sousaphone parts! ). Anyway, there was an un-godly amount of work I'm sure in learning and memorizing all the passages and themes and everything. Maybe it was his "Quest" or something, like climbing Everest, I don't know (although I once attempted Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" a lot of years ago, but gave up after a couple of weeks so I sort of understand I guess) (but I DID pick a couple of cool licks doing it that I still use to this day!). In any case, it was quite a thing to see!

Yea, I think that I am going to try and learn it as best as I can off of the tabs, even if it takes me a long time to do. I usually never try and learn others music, I have trouble getting into something I didn't write, so this song is acting as a warm-up/practice riff anyways...but eventually it will catch on. I think it will take me about 3-4 weeks to learn it, if not longer. But here in about 2 weeks, I'll graduate college and other than work...guitar will be all I have to do other than watch tv, but usually I multitask and do both anyways

this could take you upwards of a couple months to nail. i don't mean just play it through half-assed and say you can play it. but like absolutely nail it up to recording standards.

Yea I am thinking that it will take a couple of months(maybe only one) to get really good at it, but if I could play that, people would know that I am a guitarist...and not just some punk kid Really I haven't learned any songs through and through, so I figured I would learn this one as my first...plus like I said above...I really want to learn better finger picking skills, the only finger picking song i can play is dust in the wind, and it needs another classic to accompany it

T^roy