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Hi everyone,

The Weekly Wrap Up is ready.

Have a great weekend!

http://www.totallyguitars.com/blog/guit ... 18th-2016/



http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tota ... d519276594

I hope everybody had a chance, or took the time to check out our Dan Hicks
listening challenge this week. If you haven’t, and still want to give it a go,
you might want to hold off on watching today’s News, as I started (and ended)
with a little improv on the progression. I really should practice that type of
thing without the camera running but, hey, we’re all family here anyway, right?

I am happy to see the comments on all the ear training stuff we have been
doing lately. The more you do it, the better you get. Then you become more
self-sufficient as far as learning new songs. As your experience and
confidence build you will be able to stop relying teachers and…, wait, forget
I ever said that.

This week we added the second guitar part to Toulouse Street by The Doobie
Brothers, brought out a ‘Work It Out’ lesson on Lobo’s You And Me And A Dog
Named Boo, and had an info-loaded Fly On The Wall lesson with Ed. That
lesson started with a simple question on using a capo for second guitar parts
and took off into all kinds of tangential, but essential nuggets.

In today’s wrap up I had a few thoughts on the motivation thread and the
pain inflicted by alternate chord fingerings before winding up going over the
chord progression in How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?

This week we may have set the record for the number of references to songs
with too many words in the title. Maybe next week it will only be one word
titles.

Till then, stay tuned & in touch,

Neil

Good stuff Neil! I would love to hear you play Joplin's entire "Bethena" concert waltz. I used to play it on the piano and found it pretty difficult. I can't imagine how difficult it is on the guitar. That would make a great TG lesson!

Bill

Hey Bill,

Bethena has haunted, and dogged me for at least 25 years. I would say it is one of the most beautiful compositions I have ever heard. When I first considered trying to do a guitar arrangement I thought, "this is ludicrous." Then I worked on it for a bit and thought 'ludicrous' completely under estimated it. Then I abandoned it for a decade or two. A year or two ago a Forum post by Michele re-inspired me to take on the obstacle. It is now within reach and I only have to drop all my other obligations to the real world for some time to master the monster. I might roll this out as an Acoustic Snapshot soon, at least before IGC if possible.

A small bit of the obstacle is that there are 5 parts in 5 different keys, only one of which is guitar friendly. But enough on this now as I should get back to practicing it, or doing more TG lessons, or working on DVDs for the non-TG world, or having a life away from work, or... blah blah woof woof...

Catch you later,

Neil

Hi Neil,
"Bethena" is truly beautiful and haunting. It caught my interest several years ago when I started to learn Joplin's works on the piano. I read somewhere that he wrote it as a tribute to his wife of ten weeks who died of pneumonia. It is one of two works of his (that I know of) that are different from his usual Rags (although it is called a Ragtime Waltz). The other one is "Solace".

Since becoming a Target member, I have not practiced the piano, so all of the Joplin songs I know, I would have to re-learn.

I totally appreciate how full your plate is :ohmy: . I don't know how you do it. Still, it must be a great joy to have such a gift as yours and be able to make a living at it. I always told my two girls that it doesn't matter what your job is, so long as you love going to work each day. You can either love what you do, or do what you love; there is no other way.

When I say you have a gift, I don't mean to imply that getting to where you are didn't require a huge amount of effort. I understand that true talent is mostly hard work and practice.

So...get back to work ...maybe you can play a little bit more of "Bethena" for me at IGC.

See you then!

Bill

I was enjoying the Eye in the Sky lesson and was wondering if there was any chance of getting together a tab for the chord solo version you alluded to, that is if an extra lesson is too much to ask with everything else you have going on?

dtaylor wrote:

I was enjoying the Eye in the Sky lesson and was wondering if there was any chance of getting together a tab for the chord solo version you alluded to, that is if an extra lesson is too much to ask with everything else you have going on?

Hi Dean,

That is something I keep on a side burner, or at least in a cupboard nearby most of the time. And when somebody mentions it, like you, it does get bumped up the list a bit. I'll see what I can do.

Neil

Thank you Neil, like so many of your instrumental arrangements, I think it's one we can take a lot from; I've seen a lot of personal progress from tackling them in the past.

BTW, the personal touch is such a great positive aspect to this site, thanks for your response