American Pie - D_Dog

[haoli25]

The Ultimate Campfire Song!!! Good job D_Dog. You have a very good voice....we have another singer on the site!!
A couple of suggestions for you. Neil recommends playing the G chord using your middle, ring, and pinkie fingers. It is difficult to re-learn, but it will make your chord transitions smoother. Try using a metronome to keep your tempo constant. It is not easy at first, but you will catch on in no time.

I would like to see an update to this video. Thank you for posting your video.


Bill

[neverfoundthetime]

Hey Dog, great stuff! Great to hear someone else singing, good job! I'm just missing the other 13 minutes of the song........ .

[wrench]

d_dog, I think that was pretty darn good, and maybe you are trying make it too good. When I think of Don McLean, I think of less is more; the simple basics executed very clean, without any overdrive. More feeling than electrical power; more software than hardware. If I had any talent, and I don't, so take this with a very large grain of salt, a more relaxed singing style, and a basic, well-timed strum will turn this into one of those covers that get remembered. You have a lot of voice and a ton of tech - don't use it all.

Wow, that sounds harsh. I don't mean it that way at all. It was great. I think you have the talent to make it memorable. Pizza points for you!

Dan

[Music Junkie]

Dog:

Great job! I think everyone loves this song. Such a classic. Your singing was great. It was mentioned about the fingering of the G chord being changed to Neils version. I am having a very hard time with correcting that bad habit. I try to play it Neil's way about 50% of the time now. It is getting better, and it really does make so many changes from G much easier. I love that you posted this and It would be a great lesson some day.

Keep up the good work! Also, it is great to see you around the forums more now. Lots of good people here and it seems to be getting better all the time.

MJ

[suziko]

Ooh, I'm going to play this today!! A great campfire song, and it looks super easy to play. Great job on this, wonderful singing, as always.

Suzi

[BobR]

Dog,

Great job. I've played that song in the past but without the singing(which you do extremely well ). I may need to break it out again.

Thanks for possting
Bob

[dennisg]

Damian,

I'm going to give you what I think is the ultimate compliment: I despise this song -- so much so that I named it the world's most over-rated song in another thread. That's not the compliment. The compliment is that, as much as I don't want to hear this song yet again, for maybe the 13,426th time, I listened to your version and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of your voice and your playing skills. Since I was around when this song was released, and heard it every 17 seconds on one of Los Angeles's 350 radio stations, I've had enough of it. But I have to say that you made it downright fun to listen to again. That's no small accomplishment.

Since I really don't like the song, I debated about whether or not I should even post in your thread. But you worked hard, you like the song, your performance was skilled, and, on that basis, you deserve a response -- regardless how I feel about American Pie.

- Dennis

[dennisg]

omg Dennis, I hadn't read down to the bottom of the thread when the thought occurred to me to start with "I despise this song, but...."

So Damian,

I'm going to give you the penultimate compliment. You did a great job on this most despised of all songs. Great voice, good playing.


A suggestion and a pointer

in the intro section try playing the chords as arpeggios. Just one string at a time, nothing fancy.

A pointer (I teach a bit of singing), try doing this song standing up, or with the microphone higher, so you are singing straight out. You are compressing the path of your voice so you on occasion slightly miss the pitch by a fraction.

Still, for a song that is the spawn of Satan, great job.

[suziko]

Dennis and Nick,


"Most despised of all songs?" Maybe by you two!!

[suziko]

:laugh:

Perhaps....