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Hey TG-friends!

It’s been a while and what can I say…been working on this River Man-song by Nick Drake, and Neil hasn’t exaggerated a bit when mentioning that it’s a challenge to play and sing this….gosh…! :S :dry:

To me singing and playing comes quite natural since I’ve done that ever since I was a little kid, so to be challenged like this was kinda new. And for that I actually just lóved working on it, not to mention that I absolutely love this song…..it’s just so emotional and intense in so many ways……

A huge thank you to you Neil, for challenging and inspiring me in different ways all the time, I just love it…..like others have often stated, TG has brought so much to my musical life, I can’t thank you enough for that….and yeah, I truly hope you’ll enjoy this upload…!

Cheers all, you’re all great! :cheer:

Ness

ps. The key of the song is obviously too low for me, so I capoed it up a whole step.....still too low actually :S .....but....well I didn't really care, I just wanted to be able to play and sing it!!

Great video Vanessa

You sound like the real thing (not coca cola) !!

It must be great pick stuff up and play like you do !

Keep up the good music.

Dermot

Two posts Vanessa.... :ohmy: :ohmy: :S :S

Popular eh !!!

:laugh: :laugh:

Nessa,

WOW! I LOVE this song and I LOVE this rendition. Once again sweet woman you've moved me in a major way with your smooth sensitive playing and your wonderfully heartfelt singing. This is indeed a sad, intense song and you've captured that beautifully.

I love the variations you bring to what is mostly a repetitive progression; the stresses on the pinky notes, the changes in plucking in places, the changes and stresses in the F (maj7?). While you consider this too low a key, you still sing it beautifully and the slight breathiness (I'm not sure that's the right term) just adds to the emotional delivery.

I'm blown away by how quickly you've managed to get the singing working while playing and been able to record it. WOW! That all by itself is just incredible. Even Neil had trouble singing and playing, so that's a real indication of just how good you are. My hero!

I'm at the point of playing it against Nick's original, and humming a little. (Ahhhh! It will be a while before I can sing it like you managed to do). But, I think I might play against your recording instead.

You're a TG treasure. You're an inspiration. You're amazing. My hero.

Blown away.

Shel

I can only say that it sounded nice in my ears... B)

Willem

I don't think I've ever heard this song, I was glad to sit and watch you do it and as usual you did such a professional job. If that was an example of a challenging key for you then I think you handled the challenge pretty well. I really enjoyed it. I always like to see your happy face but your more reflective mood on this tune seemed to fit perfectly and added to the drama of the story. I thought it was great.

Dermot!: Hey you again! Yes it is great to pick up stuff and just play! Still I really worked hard on this one....can't say that it's hard to play (although playing with my right pinky was totally new to me too), it's quite repetitive, untíl you start singing, haha! :laugh: This song absolutely shows that you need to hard wire the playing. You should be able to play it and have a conversation. So after working out what to play, play from the sheets, hum along. Then play by heart, then hum along. Then start singing one verse and so on. The process was actually quite fascinating, but it improved every day and now I'm like 'now whý was that so hard'???? Hahaha! :laugh: :laugh: Even when I saw Neil do the play through I couldn't really imagine that it would be so hard (I of course believed him), until I tried myself.......gosh :S ....anyway, like I said, I really loved the challenge, which was a new one to me. Thanks Dermot, very glad you've enjoyed it!

Michele: gosh.....you've absolutely blown me away too!!!!!! :woohoo: :silly: .....but how ÁWESOMEto read!!!! :cheer: And yeah, the song has quite a bit of subtleties, Pink Moon was the same for that matter, or Place to Be (I don't know any other Nick Drake songs, I was introduced to him right here at TG by Matt, Dean and now Neil), easy to miss. So I guess less than a week is quite quick, but like I explained to Dermot, I díd work hard on it. And no I didn't get up in the middle of the night, but I did play every chance I got. First thing when I got up. Last when I went to bed and mány times dúring the day, haha! :laugh: Can't wait for you rendition!!! Anyway, thanks so VERY MUCH sweetie, I can't do your comment justice in words, just thank you!

Willem: Well that's good to 'hear' Willem, thanks!!

Tony: Hey mate, so good to hear from you! And indeed, I hadn't heard of the song either until Neil released a lesson on it last week. I just thought it was beautiful! The challenge wasn't the key, but playing an unusual timesignature 5/4 and lyrics which aren't in sinc with the playing at all, very free form, so yeah, thát was a huge challenge, just loved it! Anyway, thanks so much, really very pleased to hear you've enjoyed it, that always means a lot!

Thanks so much guys and gal! :cheer: :cheer:

Ness

Hi Vanessa
Tell you what
Im coming to find you with a big knife
To slice a little bit of that talent off for me
Cos you got too much
RicksPick

RicksPick wrote:

Hi Vanessa
Tell you what
Im coming to find you with a big knife
To slice a little bit of that talent off for me
Cos you got too much
RicksPick

Ahhhh Rick it's SOOOOO true. (You crack me up) Get some for me too. I'm SURE she can spare it. Just be careful with that big knife buddy. We still want our SweetNess in one piece.

Haha :laugh: :laugh: ! I hear you Rick and of COURSE you may slice off a little, i like to think of myself as a generous person!! :laugh: Thank you so much Rick! :cheer:

RicksPick wrote:

Hi Vanessa
Tell you what
Im coming to find you with a big knife
To slice a little bit of that talent off for me
Cos you got too much
RicksPick

Funny woman!! :laugh: :laugh:

michelew wrote:

RicksPick wrote:

Hi Vanessa
Tell you what
Im coming to find you with a big knife
To slice a little bit of that talent off for me
Cos you got too much
RicksPick

Ahhhh Rick it's SOOOOO true. (You crack me up) Get some for me too. I'm SURE she can spare it. Just be careful with that big knife buddy. We still want our SweetNess in one piece.