MarkM learning to play Helplessly Hoping acoustic guitar

MarkM
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:50 pm

Well I put this up probably against my better judgement. I used this review forum instead of busking because I wanted everyone to see if I am doing this right or wrong. I had looked at various videos on youtube and TAB's and pretty much combined them up to what I attempted here. There were quite a few speeds I could have played this at but this one seemed most comfortable. Still a work in progress for sure. I capoed it up a half step to give as much advantage to my reluctant voice as possible. If I played and sang this septeratly I would have done a better job on the playing and well maybe a bit better on the singing. I love this song and had a great time learning it. Hopefully correctly. As always please let me know your commments and suggestions. Thanks for watching.



MarkM









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pbraun
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:56 pm

Mark, I always look forward to your videos and this one doesn't disappoint! Great finger picking, sounded to me like you nailed every note.
Pete


haoli25
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:00 pm

Very cool, Mark. One of my favorites of CSN. Thanks for posting your video.



Bill Image


BobR
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:13 pm

Hi Mark,

It sounds really good to me. I listened to CSN and then yours again and yours seems just a bit fast, so the only thing I would say is to slow it down just a bit.

Nice song and good job and The guitar sounds great.

Bob


lueders
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:18 pm

Mark, you've been one of my strumming hero's ever since I joined TG...now I'm gonna add you to the list of great finger-picking heroes. (Maybe I shouldn't say that because maybe you've been a great finger picker all along...just seems like most of your vids that I remember, were of cool down-home kinda strumming tunes. Which all make a lot of sense to a corn fed small- town, mid- west guy like me.)

TANGENT ALERT:
In my opinion, strumming is a TOTALLY underrated art unto itself...actually I think a lot of funky strumming songs can actually be a harder than your average fingerpicked tune in a lot of cases. But, That is a convo for another day. I suppose...

Great job, on this. I thought this tune was very flowing,fluid, and just a solid performance all the way around.
I might have to eat a marshmallow on this one. And put down the other two songs I been working on. You really made it look fun. (Even easy.) But, I'm sure that speaks more to the quality of your performance than anything else.

Great Job, Thanks Cori


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neverfoundthetime
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:21 pm

Great picking and such a good sound coming out of that Taylor Mark. And you did a great job on the singing, playing at the same time. Pizza!


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neverfoundthetime
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:20 pm

Mark, that was great! :cheer:

And yep, one of my favorite CSN-songs as well, great to see you perform it!

Your fingerpicking is réally going well, I didn't feel it was too fast or something, maybe here and there you were rushing it a líttle bit (but really, just a tíny bit), you kept going back to the same tempo all the time. However, the way you played this sounded to me like the one I hear in my head, if you hadn't said wich song this was and didn't sing, I'd definitely recognize the song, so this was just a great job to me!

As for your singing, you do have a good voice to do this song justice (or lots of other songs), the thing wich is hard is to be aware of wích voice you're going to use to sing this. Here and there you sang the first voice (Stills), and then you slipped into the higher one.. I think you would do very well when you capo it a little higher and keep singing the first one. There is a version of Stills singing this on Youtube, live on Jools Holland, if you want to hear how hé sings it without the others, but that's only if you're interested in the singing of course! ;)

However I enjoyed it very much and I'll watch your video again so that I can play it like that as well!

Ness


dennisg
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:50 pm

Mark,

With every new video, I'm more and more impressed with your finger picking, a technique I know you avoided for quite awhile. And now it's one of your great strengths. Who would have thought? Congratulations on sticking with it -- the hard work has paid off.

The song feels a little fast to me, which is something I also tend to do when I get in front of the camera. It's not that you're playing becomes sloppy at that speed -- far from it! -- it's just that this feels like a song story that ought to be told a bit slower.

Vocal-wise you're starting out as Stephen Still, morphing into David Crosby as the line progresses, finding Graham Nash's part too attractive to ignore, then returning back to Stephen Stills as the line comes to a close. Part of the problem is that you chose to do a C, S & N song, with tight harmonies that are difficult to separate in our brains. But as a solo singer, the song will greatly benefit from you singing Stephen Stills' part, and only his part.

That's easier said than done, even for very experienced singers. But one thing I'd recommend is to concentrate on singing without playing the guitar. Listen to the song through speakers (not ear buds), find Stills' part, then just sing along with it -- over and over -- without distracting yourself with the guitar. When you feel you've got it, record yourself singing along with Stephen Stills and see how well you've overlaid your voice onto his.

I like Vanessa's suggestion about finding a solo performance on YouTube because that will definitely feature the melody of the song without those pesky harmonies getting in the way.

Really, though, I love seeing and hearing your newly honed guitar skills.


Lavallee
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:12 pm

Really enjoy that Mark, your finger picking seems effortless and you could focus on the song.

very nice work
Marc


cosmicmechanic
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:07 pm

dennisg wrote:
... But as a solo singer, the song will greatly benefit from you singing Stephen Stills' part, and only his part ...
... I like Vanessa's suggestion about finding a solo performance on YouTube because that will definitely feature the melody of the song without those pesky harmonies getting in the way ...
Hi Mark,

I can only say congrats on this and also on being able to absorb new tunes at such a pace.

As to Dennis' remark (see above), are you aware of Stephen Still's album "Just Roll Tape" ?

As general TG info, it's worth mentioning that the album consists of a bunch of demos Stills recorded with solo acoustic guitar and vocals in one session in April 1968, and "Helplessly Hoping" is on it.

The whole album can be previewed playing as a stream on Still's site: http://www.stephenstills.com

The audio stream for "Just Roll Tape" can be accessed by picking the "Enter" hotspot on the Homepage, and then the "Recent Release" button on the page that comes up next.

Of course it can be purchased at said site.

Would be a great singalong tune ... hmmmmm (and hmmmmm again !).

Pierre


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