Busking The Rave-Ups: The Tallest Tree

[TGNesh]

Finally got around to sit down for it Mark...I apologize. :S

I think you did a great job on the vocals, which imo are improving all the time. I guess you've somewhat found your voice back. And now take care of it too, drink lots of water! (no smoking)

As for the guitar playing, what I notice is what I think Bill has expressed on page 1. You have some timing issues. And you know the thing with timing, 'it's everything'. I'm sure i'm not telling you anything new here, but I can't express it often enough that it is the most important aspect of music. You can play all the right notes/chords, but if it's not at the right time, then it ain't musical. Forgive me if you think I'm too hard on you (I know the song means a lot to you), but I would be a bad teacher if I wouldn't tell you this, so I hope you're with me regardless.

My first suggestion would be, leave out the 'bounce' and see if you can strum your way through the song, without losing the timing. Also, try to play without playing against the record (you need to hear yourself better). If you need to, then use a metronome or a drum beat instead and of course pay close attention to it too. Again, if you lose the beat.....

Practice the bounce separately. The thing which trips you up when doing so is that the beat which follows immediately, you play it as an upstroke, while it should be a downstroke. I actually go in much detail about it here, part 4: http://www.totallyguitars.com/target-so ... esson.html

Many thanks for sharing your efforts again Mark and your new guitar too!

Ness

[spinland]

Thanks for the wise feedback, Ness!

First off: fire when ready! I can't get better if I don't know what I do wrong and yeah: this song has a lot of emotional baggage for me but it's also one I want to learn to perform adequately enough to do it justice. :side:

I agree with you and Bill on the timing, and I think you've both already hit on part of the problem: my using backing tracks (and original recordings) as a crutch. They both mask my own sounds, and are a distraction. I'd like to think I have a decent inner beat and feel for rhythm but when I'm trying to accompany some other performance rather than create one of my own I lose focus and that rhythm sense. I can bop along in my head to the song without the original playing and keep good time, and that's the feel I need to retain.

You might like to hear that I'm close to posting another video, and this one is just the acoustic on a mic with only a metronome in the earbuds, nothing else. I'm still wandering a bit and getting lost a time or three but overall I think I'm hitting the beat much better "on my own" and every recording will be a bit better than the last.

So, that's called a bounce, eh? I didn't know that, I was just trying to get the feel of the original strumming. I just called it the fast part. :silly: Thanks for the link, I'll be examining that at great length and working on getting it right.

None of these songs I post are "fire and forget," these busking videos are just "work in progress" reports and every song is still on my list for revisiting, working on, improving, and so on. My next big goal is to get the playing so internalized I can start singing along without borking what my hands are doing, and for that I need songs I've been playing a few hundred (or thousand) times. Well, that would be the stuff I'm posting, non?

Thanks for the kind words about the vocals. I'm still pushing it too hard, which makes them forced and..."pitchy" is the word I think Bill used. I have high ambitions but also a long, long way to go and (apart from that one song, which you already know I'm still working on and which is busting my ass) I'll be sticking to songs that are closer to my vocal comfort range for a while so I'm not straining so much. Walk before you fly.

Mark