Melissa w/ attempted Melody -- by Goldleaf

goldleaf
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:11 am

"Melissa" - strumming and adding some Melody ?? I spent 2 weeks trying to play and sing Melissa & found I'm not ready to do both. I then tried for a couple more weeks to play & add melody, which I was not really happy with either but this is where it is at currently. Sorry for the poor lighting and chopping off my head. I just did the video sitting on the couch to get it done. Lots of room for input so please do. Gary




AndyT
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:50 am

Gary,

Sounds really good but it seems to me that your strumming hand is not keeping the steady pendulum motion. It looks like you are trying to play the rhythm with downstrums alone.

Other than that, it was really good! I think you've been hanging out with Al too much though. You've picked up the Hollyweird slang. "In the can". LOL :laugh:


MarkM
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 9:09 am

Gary,

Nice song. The tone coming out of your guitar is sounding really good. I agree with Andy that the strumming seems a bit off. I think your worried about hitting all the notes that you are waiting for your left hand to get there before you strum. (happens to me all the time). Maybe slow it down a bit and get that steady strum going.


MarkM


Lavallee
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:11 am

Hi Gary, nice work, I noticed that your bar chord (the A shape) is coming out very nicely. I agree with Andy about the strumming not being continuous. You are making some pause to wait for the melody where you should continue strumming in the air until the next up or downstroke is required. If you look at the Melissa's music tab sheet for rhythm in the target lesson the Rhythm (when to do upstroke and down stroke) is shown. If you look at Neil's play through, you will see what we mean. I am working on that aspect of playing myself and find it challenging.

You will find that just before you pick, it will always be an upstroke (even if you do not touch the strings), so if you hand is down after a downstroke and then a picking note is next your hand has to continue the strum pattern of the quarter note by coming up and then down on the picking note..

In the rhythm sheet just below the tabs you will find the rhythm indications. A single line means that you give a down stroke and comeback up without touching (a quarter note) when you see a group of 3 lines you do down and up (quicker) stroke followed by a down stroke (2 sixteenth notes (the 2 that are grouped thigher together) followed by an 8th note).

In all the many bars you will find a liaison (after the 5 th strumming you have those little curved lines in the tabs (liaisons). That means that you are not hitting the strings because the sound from the last strumm is continuing .

So if we look at the first bar (intro), it should be 1 st beat(down hit, up empty,) 2nd beat (down hit, up empty),3rd beat (down hit, up hit followed by a down hit), the "AND" and the fourth beat (upstroke empty, downstroke empty (ON FOUR) (this is the liaison) and upstroke hit)for a AND, then the "And" right after the fourth beat picking the empty E string as a downstroke.

It should be counted as "one , two, three, AND,AND, four (empty down stroke) AND (upstroke hit) And (downstroke E string or partial full strumm" . The empty string hit is to allow you to change chord during the empty upstroke, so the hand has to keep moving (however Neil plays a full strumming rather than just the empty string but he hits only the first few thin strings for the same reason). Play it very very slowly to practice the rhythm, then increase the speed.

Hope this make sense, and if I made a mistake, somebody correct me as I am still learning this.

Marc


suziko
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:50 pm

Gary,

I really liked hearing this with the melody notes. I still have a hard time picking out melody notes from a song, so I'm always impressed when someone adds that into a song. It always makes a solo guitar song more interesting to listen to.

Thanks for posting, Gary!

Suzi


dennisg
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:13 pm

Congratulations, Gary, on an excellent job. I'm not at all familiar with the song, but I thought it was beautiful.

Just out of curiosity, are you aware that your sound is only on one channel? I had the same issue with my first upload, but fixed it for the second one. What's your setup like?

- Dennis


goldleaf
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 2:51 pm

Thanks for the input Andy, Marc, Mark, Suzi & Dennis. Dennis I an using my Canon Camcorder and it has an aux. mic which i plug in a external mic. I download from the camcorder to Pixela, the software that came with the camcorder and also converts the extension from .MOD to a more convenient extension. Don't know where the mono comes in, could be the mic or camcorder or the software but thanks for letting me know. Everyone who commented on my strumming, I tried to sing along with the basic chords for a week or so and it just wasn't happening so I thought I'd see what I could do by adding some melody between the chords, that is what you are seeing. I wasn't real satisfied with the results and thats why I didn't post it until yesterday. I figured I put almost 3 weeks (on & off) practicing this song, I might as well put it out for review, since I didn't see it getting any better without help. Gary
I just went to listen to it and I am hearing "NO SOUND" at all. This has happened on the last video I submitted. After 4 o 5 days the sound goes away, on YouTube also. More work to do on my part. SORRY sometimes I forget to unplug my earbuds from my PC so I don't get any sound from the speakers - duh!!! Gary.


haoli25
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 4:02 pm

WOW Gary! Very nice indeed. You did a great job. I agree about the strumming, but I think you are well on your way to nailing this one 100%. Thank you for posting your video.



Bill Image


goldleaf
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 4:40 pm

Bill, thanks. There is a lot of info regarding my strumming on this one, but trying to add some melody notes in the song makes it so I'm not sure how I could strum continuously as I did when I was trying to sing along with the chords. I introduced several "unplanned" notes that I found it hard to play through without making a few of. I decided to post it so it wasn't haunting me on my PC forever. Maybe I'll come back and just strum it or sing along, that way I won't have strum issues. This is to all who were nice enough to take their time to help me with this song, not just you Bill. Thanks all. Gary PS I still have to figure out why no stereo just mono. If it's not one thing it's another. Gary


dennisg
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Fri Jan 08, 2010 5:05 pm

Gary,

Are you using an amp? If so, does it have Line Output jacks?


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