American Pie - D_Dog

[Music Junkie]

Dog:

Have you come back to this one yet?

I have been toying with it off and on for some time now (one of my wife's favorites). I have a great Transcription for it, but I find the timing very difficult for some reason. If I try and count it out, it goes fairly good for a while and then it seems to change on me (probably just my poor skills). I did notice that the intro part has a note to "Ad Lib"..... I am guessing that it just means to play the chords at a comfortable rate without too much thought to timing. As the song gets into the faster parts, the timing seems to get more organized. Anyway, I am trying to put together a nice layout for the chords on this song and was just wondering if you had taken it any further and had it all figured out yet.....

If so, i would really enjoy seeing your version of the timing.

J

[d_dog]

Hey man, I have not played this one for quite some time. I certainly haven't added any embellishments. As for timing, I think you're right about the beginning being fairly relaxed and not too time dependent and that the versus and choruses getting a little tighter. I'd be happy to send you my chord chart for this if you'd like.
I'm sure if you put a metronome on my recording it would be atrocious.
I wish I could be more help, I still play it about the same way, good enough for camp fire!
Take care!

[Music Junkie]

Sounds like we are in the same boat....

I can play along with the recording pretty well, but on my own it seems to drift a bit...

Catch me through my FB e-mail, I would love to take a peek at your chord chart for comparison reasons. From what I see in your video, it is spot on with what I have.

Thanks D!

J

[sws626]

Hi Damian,

By 1973, I thought I'd heard this song enough for a lifetime, but I enjoyed listening to your version more than a couple of more times. I've never tried to play it, but I thought your strumming in the chorus was spot on and very convincing. The slow introduction might work better (in the sense of making it immediately identifiable) if you pick out some of the melody. If I'm not mistaken, that part was originally played on a piano. Your voice is great for this song.

-Stuart

[d_dog]

Thank you very much Stuart. I agree, I could certainly add some more pizzaz to this song. I am now inspired to work on it some more. I may just put up a new revised recording soon...