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My version of American Pie by Don McLean. Unfortunately the vocals overpower the guitar a bit. This is from a awhile back, before I joined TG. Looking forward to Neil adding this one to the site so I can get some pointers and learn some embellishments.
If any of you have some pointers on the proper strumming pattern and any tips on the little guitar embellishments that are in this song, I'd love to learn this one better.

Dog,

Really liked that. One can never go wrong with this song choice. I've tried this one on and off for 20 years. Never really putting much effort into learning it well. I may have to look at this again as you did a really good job. I don't think that the vocals overpowered the guitar that much if at all. I would say that the bass strings weren't coming out that strong though. Not sure if you were plugged in and the amp at the bass at a low setting. Other than that it was great. Can't help with any embelleshments. Not sure if the original had many either though. If I recall its pretty much a strait forward song. I'll have to check on that to be sure though. Thanks for posting. Your singing voice is really good. I'm jealous.


MarkM

D_Dog,Good job,I dig those old Don MClean songs,I heard him do Streets of London and just had to learn that one.Some day Ill have to do American Pie also.No doubt his biggest hit.Keep them coming!

Kevin

Thanks Mark and Kevin. I don't know if I was plugged in or not, can't remember. I've tried so many different recording set ups and sometimes I swear my iPhone does just as well, haha. I think I'll spend some time in the tech forum to see what people are doing to get good sound.

I haven't seen the music for this song but I agree with you, this would be a great choice for the site. Nice job, good singing!
Craig

Dog- nice effort man! You have a wonderful voice for folk music!

One thing I noticed is a tendency to go into a baseball grip. We all seem to have that bad habit but Neil is death on it. Also, make sure you hit the correct base note. I few times it seemed like you were getting a little casual, especially with the D chord.

I really enjoyed the song and your performance! Thaks for posting it!

Cheers! :cheer:

BigBear wrote:
few times it seemed like you were getting a little casual, especially with the D chord.

Careful Dog, Bear is all against casual familiarity with the chords... He is an engineer you know. LMBO :laugh:

Hi Dog

Another quality upload
Always a pleasure

RicksPick

That was a cool performance Dog. Gee I wish I had a voice like yours. If this is you before finding TG, what will you be like after Neil does his magic on you?

Nicely done. The only embellishment that I can think of is modifying your D chord so that the high string plays the notes F#, G, and E. I think that's correct. In any case, it's pretty standard D chord embellishment, and I didn't hear you play that during your performance. Perhaps someone more knowledge could elaborate for me if I'm incorrect with those notes.