My attempt at Classical Gas

[eagle670]

Okay! So I have been feeling pretty good about my guitar playing and have been rolling along through the lessons, when I decided to make an attempt at Classical Gas. Wow! Realality set in prettly quick as that tune dressed me up in clown suit. Usually I can watch the video a couple of times and then at least come away with a rough draft of the song and then work it out from there, but not with this one. I started watching the left hand video and about 3 minutes in I was like was heck is going on here. I hit pause and rewind so many time my pc locked up. For some reason this lesson is moving way to fast for my small brain to comprehend. I guess my will out weighs my talent at this point. Anyone else having issues with this one? I have wanted to learn this song since I was a teen, which was a long time ago, so I was real excited to see the lesson come up. Sorry to ramble on, but just feeling a little discouraged at this point.

Later!!

[Rbinding]

Hey Eagle,

Don't be discouraged. Classical Gas is a guitar masterpiece. Playing the real version is a huge task for any guitar player. On my 1-10 scale, of which there is only one 8 in the Song Library, it is at least a 9.3. Yes, the category of level 9 songs will be broken down to tenths.

Each section of the song is its own mini-masterpiece as well. I usually have students just work on 1 section at a time.

I also will be getting to a bunch of fingerpicking lessons that help provide a better foundation for tackling the level 9 songs- Windy & Warm is one of those.

Take it slow and think of this as a semester, or even year-long project.

Neil

[eagle670]

Thanks Neil! Don't get me wrong , I will learn this song, it's just that I am use to learning the tunes in a couple of days. Last night I broke this down to just the first 4 measures and learned that. Tonight I will try for another 4. You could probably do a webinar on just this song, I am sure you would get a ton of questions..

[eagle670]

Hey Neil - what do you mean when you say "Yes, the category of level 9 songs will be broken down to tenths" Does this mean that you are going to break down these types of songs even further? Should we be expecting more detail to be added to the song lesson?

Thanks!

[eagle670]

No, the breakdown to tenths just refers to level of difficulty-

9.0
9.1
9.2
9.3
etc... to 9.9, then maybe 9.91, 9.92...

Not sure if there is a 10!

[Rod]

Here's a ten for you Neil...ha ha

[eagle670]

Well that makes me feel like an idiot. Thanks for clarifing it for us slow people.

[eagle670]

Well it's been a week now that I first started learning the piece and after about 20 hours of practice time I have learned all of the parts of the song. Now I have to piece them all together and get my speed up, which will come the more I play and get some finger memorization established. I have come to grips with this song being a "project" tune, one that it will take a long time to perfect, if ever. One of the main problems that I have had is getting my ring finger to stay put. With this song the patterns shift so fast that it always finds its way off the strings. If there are any suggestions for exercises that may stop this I am all ears.

My advice to all the beginners out there is to just stick with it and eventually it will come to you. All of us get discouraged now and then and having a site like this where you have someone like Neil to bounce things off of is a great resource.

By the way the clown the suit has come off except for the feet. Which I wear most of the time anyway. (see previous post)

Thanks for the great lesson Neil.