Norwegian Wood by TOVO

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Music Junkie
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:41 pm

Tony:

Good on ya mate! Everyone else has already said what needs to be said. I think that the relaxation just comes with time. The more you play it the more it becomes natural and smooth. For a tough song, you are heading the right way. Keep it up!

MJ


tovo
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:50 pm

Thanks MJ. Definitely my toughest song to date, not sure why I am struggling so much with it, but the advice is all very good and I'll try to put it into practice.


haoli25
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:01 pm

Tony, I can tell you how long I struggled with that song. I was sure that was easy...WRONG!! :laugh: My solution was the metronome and practice, practice, practice. I was sooooooo happy when I was finally able to kick that song's butt after being on the receiving end for so long.


Bill


MarkM
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:01 pm

Tony,

Great to see another video from you. I'm hardly an expert and have wayyyyyy to many faults of my own to critique. However I'll let you know some observations that may help a bit. I noticed that when you are playing the D chord during the verses you take all your fingers off the fret board when picking out the individual melody notes. I think that if you try to maintain the D fingering and then just move your middle and index fingers when then are needed it may smooth it out a bit. Also maybe shorten the strum a bit. I tend to strum a bit loud for some reason when I am filming. Don't know why but I do it but it's a habit that I'm trying to break. Someone earlier said that you should think of this song as smooth as butter. I totally agree. Maybe with that expression system of yours you can plug her in and lighten up the strumming but turn the volume up on the guitar. Again just some observations from a guy who is currently very frustated in his own playing.......

Hope this helps.

MarkM


jayswett
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:48 pm

It seems to me that you have the hard part figured out (melody notes), now it's just a matter of slowing down, developing the muscle memory, relaxing a bit, and learning the lyrics. Looking forward to the final version.


Lavallee
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:01 pm

Hi Tovo, it looks quite good, I think it is just a mather of slowing down. I noticed that your strumming speed increases after the picking section. So if you slow down the picking section the rest should follow. Also during the picking area, the strumming strings should only be the first 4 or the first 3 depending of where you are on the tab. You seem to hit all the strings however. If you concentrate on the first 4 strings for this area, it will sound smoother.

I cannot figure if you are landing on the first picking note after an upstroke (which is the noraml sequence since you you are picking downstroke). If you try to do the picking after a downstroke, you will need to speed up your picking to compensate as you have to go back up to reach the picking string. So if you do it slowly and follow the arrows of strumming in the tab, you will find that you will not rush to get to the picking note, thus slowing the whole thing down

Marc


tovo
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:28 pm

Thanks guys for the additional input and advice, particularly Mark and Marc. Don't worry, I'm not at all touchy about criticism. Actually in a perverse way I'm pleased. I KNOW this isn't right, and I would have been frustrated if you guys had all said it was fine. Instead, I am motivated to put all the advice into practice and get it right. So thank you all.


reiver
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:08 pm

Tony

I think that this is a tough song too, so much so that I've made no effort so far to try to learn it, so I can't offer much in the way of advice other that what's been said. All I can think to add (and I apologise if it's been said before) is to try it as a pure strumming song, without trying to pick out the melody notes with your RH, but still playing them with your LH. You can be a bit selective about which strings you strum on as you probably wouldn't want to strum the full chord on every beat. This may help you get used to the rhythm of the song while strumming as you gradually introduce more of the RH picking.

Congratulations for posting. I think that this is the essence of the site, looking for constructive feedback and possible solutions on playing a song that's posing some problems.

r

______________________________________________________________


ooh........I went purple!


haoli25
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:19 pm

Congratulations Reiver. You know what they say, "Once you go PURPLE, you'll never go back. :laugh:



Bill


AcousticAl
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:29 pm

Hey Tony,

Good on ya for posting a video in its early stages. I've done a few 'not ready for prime time' ones as well. It's how we all hope to improve.

Some things that help me with this song--
I don't lift my fingers from the D chord AT ALL until I need to. Specifically- I don't lift my ring finger from fretting D on the B-string EVER until I switch to the Dm. That anchors me better and gives me a 'home base' to come back to so to speak.

Still talking about the D-chord-- I also keep the F# on the high E-string fretted for quite a while as well. I don't move my middle finger until I need to hit the C note on the A-string in the 2nd bar. (When the verse goes "SHE once had me."

Lastly, just avoid the base strings a lot more (low E and A). You can't do full strums in this song unless you're playing the G chord or Em7 chord. The rest of the time, you're just supposed to play the top 4 strings.

Let me know if this makes any sense. I'm a visual learner myself and prefer to be shown than read how to do it. Maybe I should just post a short vid showing what I'm talking about..

**Edit- I actually haven't played this song in a while and tried it just now. You could keep your ring finger anchored on D of the B-string even longer if you wanted. It would mean that you keep it there for the Dm chord- BUT that you would also play Dm differently than Neil suggests (which is using your pinky finger to fret D on the B-string). Just an observation.


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