tovo revisiting the Beatles Something - acoustic guitar

tovo
Posts: 0
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:35 pm
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:26 pm

Well more than any other video I have uploaded for review, the feedback I got on my 1st effort on something was superb and has helped me to improve this tune a lot. I very sincerely thank everyone who offered suggestions. What I do is work through them each and where I think it is appropriate I try to address them in the next effort. I think this one, whilst again being a long way short of brilliant, nevertheless shows the benefit I have gained from such good feedback. These are the things I addressed or sought to address in this 2nd take:

1. I moved from my comfortable couch to a straight-backed chair to get rid of the crouching, hunched up position I have had in the past.
2. I put a strap on so I could loosen my death-grip on the guitar.
3. I raised the neck to somewhere closer to my eye line without necessarily adopting a classical position. I think my wrist is in a much better position.
4. I invested in a decent microphone so that I wasn’t relying on the poor quality internal microphone on my camcorder. My Taylor is a beautiful guitar and it deserves decent sound reproduction.
5. I paid much more attention to my fingering on the various A chords to ensure I was only barring 4 strings.
6. I tried to be more accurate with my strumming of bass notes.
7. I tried to strum more from the wrist and be more relaxed with it.
8. I tried to relax a bit but I think the concentration is still evident so not many smiles I’m afraid!
9. Taking Bill’s advice I put on my hat.

I think my chord fingerings in the bridge still need work in terms of accuracy of the notes. I was attempting to mute the 4th string on the F#6 but not that successful I think. More work needed.

Finally, sorry about giving everyone the "bird". It's involuntary!

Again, really appreciate the help I received.






PLEASE NOTE: If video was recently uploaded it will not work yet. YouTube will need a little more time to get the video ready. Please check back again soon.


BobR
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:18 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:05 pm

Tony,

It sounds like you have it down really well. A couple minor things I notice are a bit of timing issue occasionally going to the base run and a couple muted notes but otherwise sounds real nice. I can see you are really focusing on this song. Nice setup on the mic etc.. Guitar sounds really good.

Good job,
Bob


MarkM
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:26 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:22 pm

Tony,

First off. My apologies for not getting to your first video on this song. I must have missed it while I was out last week. Secondly, that is one fine guitar there. You must be pumped. I went back and watched the first version and you made great progress. You do look more comfortable. The hat was key. :) I thought the strumming was pretty good. No wasted motion. A few times you may have missed a portion of the chord which is understandable. This is a very ambitious song you have chosen. One that I haven't spent much time on. I think you have gotten all the mechanics down on this at this point. Now its time for some fine tuning. I do this all the time so I know what I speak of in my next point. At a few points you seemed to have to catch up in certain places to the beat that was in your head. Not sure if that makes much sense. Although I have a hard time practicing what I preach I would try and slow it down just a hair and let some of the notes ring out. Your guitar produces some serious tone and at times in this song I wanted to hear some of it ring out. Well done Tony!! I really enjoyed this performance from you. You get better and better with every video!!!

MarkM


dennisg
Posts: 0
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:34 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:25 pm

The strumming wrist looks more supple, the fretting wrist looks straighter and more comfortable, and, all in all, this is a great improvement over the first version. Good on ya, mate. This is really taking shape, and I'm looking forward to the next version very much.

One thing I'd like to see you do is stop looking over at your strumming hand when you hit those two bass notes. It's throwing your timing off when you have to look over there, orient your eyes, play the notes, then look back at your other hand. Practice keeping your eyes on your fretting hand, trusting that you'll hit the right string with your pick. It'll feel awkward at first, but you'll get it in time.

I don't know if it's still an issue with the audio or something in your playing, but I had a hard time hearing the little run that leads up to each verse over the din of the other strings.


haoli25
Posts: 0
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:06 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:35 pm

A good quality mic, a GREAT guitar, all of your hard work, and that hat...you ARE unstoppable, Tony! Bravo I have watched your video now 4 times and its better each time I watch it. Your sister is going to be very impressed. I certainly am. Thanks for posting your video, Tony.



Bill Image Image


wammer
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 11:38 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:58 pm

Tony

To you I take my hat off sir.......im impressed with how you took all the advise and came out with great improvement.

Tammy


suziko
Posts: 0
Joined: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:37 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:45 pm

Tony- Great job. Your arm position is so much better! And although I'm sure your chair is not nearly as comfy as the couch, the switch really improved your posture.

I seem to remember Al mentioning that in some of your D chords you are sometimes hitting strings 6 and 5. I think you're still sometimes doing that, even in this version, so you might want to take a look at that, to verify that you are ONLY playing the top 4 strings.

Thanks for posting this, Tony. It's so fun to see how feedback from our fellow TG members can really help us to become better players.

Suzi


lueders
Posts: 0
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:53 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:56 pm

Nothing real profound here...I watched this a time or two. Man, the improvement from one to the next is superb!


Lavallee
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:48 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:03 pm

Hi Tony, Quite an improvement on the position and the strumming. The bar chord chords are muting some strings but in just a few days and they will sound clean. As you mentioned they look much easier to do.

I have notice that when you strum, I hear pretty much the 6 strings being hit all the time. This kind of level all the run down without emphasizing the note change. Per example, when you play the small run down with the mini bar at the second fret with the pinky on the 5th then 4th than third, we should hear one strum hitting 5 strings each time your pinky gets on its first not and while the bigger strings still ring, you do do a smooth fill on the small strings. So one strum on the the first beat then gentle filling for the rest of the measure.

Marc


AndyT
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:06 am
Status: Offline

Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:42 pm

ast time, I had a hard time hearing the song in your strumming. Major improvement! Now you just need to get relaxed with it and let it flow.


Post Reply Previous topicNext topic