"If You Could Read My Mind"..A continuting TwoCat effort.......

Feel free to get outside the box here.
lueders
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Sat Dec 31, 2011 5:43 pm

Sam, you should be proud of yourself for both: sticking to your goals, and how far you've got this song to this point. You have the hard part down... You have internalized and converted to muscle memory the basic feel and the pattern of the tune. So congrats on that! :)

You probably have so much advice at this point you wanna burn your guitar for firewood... Lol! (just kidding)
But I agree with Scott (Dsmarion) & Ken(Skaladar) said about your finger position on the individual frets.
Aim for right behind second fret bar of each fret. Once you get the feel of that...it will start becoming automatic. ( just like the pattern is becoming for you) this is the next hurdle for you I think. This should clean up your tone and give you better command overall dynamically speaking!

But, great job, seriously! Good on you. It ain't easy to play in front of a camera period! But the more you do it, the easier it will be. At least that is what I tell myself.


cosmicmechanic
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Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:51 pm

Sam, you have received so many helpful comments already ... I can only add the following advice:
That's a nice ring, could be a little loose ? I wouldn't want to lose it ! (that actually happened to me)

Happy New Year !

Pierre


dekotaj
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Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:17 am

Happy New Year Sam!!

Great tune.And as far as bending the string.No big deal,Do it all the time.You just cant bend them far enough to distort the note and you don't.So no big deal if they bend a little.Might try and keep the middle finger down when changing from chord shapes in the intro and front of the verses.Don't need to make those big jumps from chord to chord.The only trouble I seen you have with the song was the D chord,the shape was good but you were landing it to far on the fret.

BRAVO Sam
Love the tune
Kevin

P.S.To play with the album.You need to capo on two.Makes playing it a hell of a lot easier.Starches not as big then.


willem
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Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:53 pm

Geez, I can finally post!

Lots and lots of great info. I am practicing daily to incorporate the suggestions. I will respond to each and everyone of you as time permits.

Question: My webcam is truly lousy. I don't want to spend hundreds on a camcorder, so could anyone suggest a good webcam that will pick up sound?

Sam


Craig
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Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:28 am

Sam,
Nice job! You are well on your way to getting this one down. If I just listened to this without reading the title of the thread, I would have recognized the song right away and that is a great thing!
Keep up the good work!
Craig


AndyT
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Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:03 pm

Answered in the order of your reply. Or close..

If I left anyone out, please know it was just an oversight.

Chris..My sigh at the end was an expression of how bad I did compared to how well I’ve done when only the dogs were listening.

Tom N., Bud, Bill, willem, Ness, Daryl, Andy, Ken, lueders……….Yes, my hand position needs work. I am working on that and moving the hand less, Ness, and keeping the fingers just a whisker above the strings, Scott. Bill, I use Neil for a metronome a lot. I play along with him. I’ll use the real one soon.

As to raising the leg, willem, I have to accommodate my arthritis a bit and I find crossing the left over the right works for me. I will work on pointing the neck at a 45 degree angle.

Scott, I’m working on getting a better camera and will shoot from a better angle.

Ness, I watched your video again. I see what you mean. Will work to get close to that method of non-movement.

Daryl..amazing what that camera does to the nerves. I am starting to use it a lot so I can ignore it.

Jay..I’d love to have this song in my book. Well, any song for that matter!

Dan..I’m impressed with your video and how you never gave up. When I first saw your hand, I figured table saw accident.

Wiley…I am using Elixir light polyweb strings. I had my frets dressed recently and the action is set low as I have arthritis in my fingers.

Pierre..Thanks for the suggestion, but my ring won’t come off because of slightly enlarged knuckle. Did you notice the little chunk burned out of it? Got between the + battery cable and something. Fire flew and it got hot quickly. Jerked it off and threw it; like to have never found it. That burned spot reminds me to take it off around electricity.

Kevin..the D chord is one I learned to finger all wrong and I'm struggling to un-learn it. I work on it daily, just going from D to C and C to D, “rinse and repeat”.

Craig..thanks for the encouragement.

So, I’m working about two hours daily on this song. Will post again as soon as I get a camera.


schm040
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Thu Jan 12, 2012 12:48 pm

Greetings!

For now, this is the best I can do. I bought a new microphone so I hope you can hear better. Headphones work wonders.

I know my thumb is creeping above the neck still, but I am leaving room between the bottom of the neck and my hand. This may be the best I can do.

Yes, the camera makes me nervous, but that shirt in the background really makes me nervous!

All comments/criticism welcome!

Sam



willem
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Thu Jan 12, 2012 1:04 pm

Hi Sam,,wellthat was nice,,,and the fingers(lefthand fingers) well this time nice behind the fret,, oh and you guitar sound just fine ,,well it sound wonderful,,

Don't know a bout that shirt,,don't know what IT REALLY MEANS,,but you could have put in in the closet..


W..


wrench
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Thu Jan 12, 2012 1:58 pm

Sam, that was a *major* improvement. Your fretting is very good, and the song sounded really great. If you had any doubts that you could play, you can put 'em away now, because you're going to do just fine. And the new mic sounded great here.

About that shirt - I recommend finding out what your wife's favorite song is, and start working on it pronto.


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daryl
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Location: Massachusetts, USA
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Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:04 pm

Sam, VERY good job. Two suggestions.

First: Slow down some more. Sing or just hum the song in your head. Sing it with deep heartfelt emotion, that should help slow you down a bit. Playing the guitar is (usually) not a race.

Second: Video record yourself for like a half hour non stop. Just strum. Do scales. Practice a finger picking pattern. Whatever. You will eventually forget the camera is on. If you're still nervous after 30 minutes, rinse and repeat. The great thing about digital video cameras is that it SOOOO easy to delete unwanted recordings. So there should never be a worry.

Regarding your wife's t-shirt: I think it's great. It's her "Living Will". I just spent $500 to get my "Living Will" document drawn up. I bet the t-shirt cost way less than that!


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