Le Picbois with the Guitar Pro band by Marc

[Lavallee]

Hi All, One of my goal this year was to learn to play with somebody. Fortunately, I discover recently that one of my co-worker, who plays much better than I, was willing to bring his guitar at the office. So we have been practicing 5-6 times so far. One of the song is Le Picbois which mean the woodpecker (no Dennis, not the wood chipper!!)is a song from the 70's who talks about this guy from the city, who discover the forest, becomes friend with a the woodpecker and does not want to come back.

Please note that I kwew of the song 30 years ago (hmmm, 40 years now
) but could never played it. With what I learn from Neil about the finger positionning and I am much closer to the required speed

So one of my problem is to practice on my own. I thought of using Guitar Pro as a practice partner. Sound is not the same but the beat is there and it is less boring than the metronome.

Here is the Picbois from Beau Dommage, a very well known (in my area) french canadian group, from Montreal. I cannot do the picking so I have Guitar Pro doing the other instruments. It is work in progress but the idea was to have other instruments playing to work on the timing.

I understand that only the people from my area will be familiar with the song but I would like you opinion on how my playing fits in with the rest of the instruments. The voice is done by the clarinet. I tried again to sing but the self destruct alarm from my camera kicked in.

Thank you for listening

Marc




Here is the real thing

[cosmicmechanic]

Très impressionnant, Marc!

Great idea to use Guitar Pro this way. Your timing is consistent and playing is precise, I am experiencing symptoms of envy watching this.

I wonder if you had the technique down so well before using GP to practice, or is it a direct result of playing with GP?

à bientôt,

Pierre

[heatndude]

Marc I thought that was cool !! Dont know the song but it sounds like you have it pretty much down. I dont know if the other instruments are quite right, maybe the wrong key ? But Im used to american rock and roll. Keep up the experimenting it is fun to listen too !!!!!

Mark

[tovo]

Marc that was really nice. Very impressive as (I think) Pierre said. I thought your playing built beautifully in tempo and fitted in extremely well with the other instruments in the recording. When I watch you play, I notice how smoothly you seem to make quite complicated chord changes. I also watched the other recording and felt you played a pretty accurate cover. They were both almost precisely the same time which is a good sign I would say. I noticed only some minor fret buzzing but certainly nothing that detracted from your playing. Thanks very much for posting it. It's a beautiful piece, not surprisingly one I've not heard before. Cheers.

[jayswett]

Very interesting use of guitar pro. More and more, I'm beginning to think that I need to invest some time in learning guitar pro. Your guitar playing, as usual, was great. Your performance was true to the original. Nicely done.

[Lavallee]

Pierre: thanks for the comments. As I mentionned in the intro, I had an idea of the song way back could never played the fingerpicking anywhere closed until about a month ago when I rediscover it. I have been working on it as it was so popular at home, as you know. Praticing with my co-worker , I noticed that I was lagging in the timing sometimes. This is really where Guitar Pro help me as I have my own practicing partner who never mind starting over. But Guitar pro is also helping in some section where I have some problems as I can slow it down and put a section in a loop as Chas demonstrated. Bt the only way for me to learn it was to mofify my old fingering habits by using what I have learn from Neil.

Mark: I can understand that the tone migth seem to vary between my guitar and guitar pro as the sound from GP is never like a real one (even if I have the RSE installed) plus my guitar a certain tonality on its own. But I do not mind that as the idea is to get a grasp on the rhythm.

Tovo: Thanks Tovo, I agree with the fret buzzing and many mistakes in the fingering or chord changes. It is still work in process but much better than last week. I must say that playing in front of the camera add a bit of pressure, but playing with a band add a little more and forces you to improve as you know where to focus. I had to take many takes (3 of them were because of the telephone though), but it is not a contest

Jay: I find that GP is so useful. By far it is not like having a teacher like Neil who gives all the tricks and the techniques and what it should sound like. But having a live tool to practice with, is great. I use it as lot to remember the fingering

Marc

[MarkM]

Marc,

Very nice!!! I quite enjoyed that. I've never heard the song but to my ears you did a very good job with that. I know it's been said but very interesting use of guitar pro. I don't use it myself but after seeing this I'm having second thoughts. I envy your quick/smooth chord changes in a fairly complicated song. Well done. Thanks for sharing.



MarkM

[suziko]

Marc,

That was really cool and I'm so excited that you posted a French language song! I liked the song a lot and will have to try to track down a cd by Beau Dommage. I'm on the fence with buying GP, but seeing how you've used it here makes me think even more that it might be worth it to invest in the software.

I can't comment much on your technique. You are light years ahead of me and I'm always floored by how quickly and smoothly you move around the neck and change chords.

Tres bien fait! Suzi

[Lavallee]

Mark: thanks for the comments, the software is 50 bucks,definetely worth it,and you can get a commission to TG

Suzi:The album is also called Beau Dommage which means : "that's allright". It has all kind of good songs on it. Since you speak french (among other languages) you would like them as they are very rhythmic. You could also look into Harmonium who were even more popular. You actually inspired me in selecting this song since you made a comment about me posting a french song. But since I could not sing it, I thought that playing it with Guitar Pro would fill up the blanks. Merci

Marc

[Craig]

That was really cool Marc. Some of you are doing such incredible stuff. I feel like a technological dinosaur. I want to buy Guitar Pro, do I play it on my Beta or VCR?
Craig