Busking The Eagles: Peaceful, Easy Feeling

[spinland]

The only time I've ever played and sang in front of people was at my wedding reception in August of 2000. My new brothers-in-law have been gigging musicians for decades and wanted to do a set for us. I got to join them for two songs: I serenaded my new bride with "Your Song" playing rhythm while Jim played lead, and they let me sit in for this rendition of Peaceful, Easy Feeling. I was on my acoustic so there were no worries about anyone hearing me flub, and my vocals worked fine. :side:



Whenever I saw Glenn Frey do this song he would play it at capo2 using chords in D. Given my recent resolve not to push my vocal practicing as hard as I have been, I decided to play this in straight D—which seems to be a good key for my vocal comfort zone. Obviously I took a lot of liberties with the original strumming style; I wanted this to be more than peaceful...almost dreamy. Hopefully I don't put you to sleep.

[video type=youtube]x5IrGGm9R7U[/video]

Still have some issues with the timing wandering about here and there, but methinks it's better than my past stuff. Eventually the muscles will stop letting the brain get in the way.

Mark

[daryl]

A definite improvement. Nice. Keep 'em coming.

[wrsomers]

Mark,
As Daryl said, definite improvement. Interesting that you are playing it in D instead of E as in Neil's lesson; I'm pretty sure why you switched and it had nothing to do with your vocal range. I suspect you are afraid of the barred B chord and possibly the F#m. You shouldn't be!!. Instead of the cursed barred B, play the much easier B7 in open position (string 5 @2, string 4 @ 1, string 3 @ 2 and string 1 @ 2) It will sound 100% better in that voicing because you can hit the alternating bass on strings 5 and 6, and add Esus4 on the E chord. The F#m can be played with a mini barre on strings 1-3 with your index finger at fret 2, and the Em shape on 4th and fifth strings at fret four with your 3rd and 4th fingers, and if you want a thumb wrap on string 6 at fret 2.

Your vocal range can handle it, and this voicing will make the song shine. See Neil's lesson, he makes it pretty clear and easy (peacefully easy! )

Keep up the good work and keep them coming.

Bill

[jayswett]

Loved it. I love this song, and your version was very enjoyable. Nicely done.

[sandysue]

Very nicely done Mark. That's one of my favorite Eagles songs.

[neverfoundthetime]

Well done Mark! Very nicely sung and your playing seems to flow much more in this video. Congrats on the progress!

[spinland]

Thanks guys! Very much appreciate the remarks and advice.

On the key, Bill, I get what you're saying and I appreciate it, but that's actually not the case. I learned the song in D many, many years ago, everyone I know who plays it plays it in D, and even every member of the Eagles whom I've seen perform it (both live and filmed) have played the rhythm part in D (though usually with capo2).

I'm not afraid of barre chords, in fact I consider the A form to be rather easy (it's the F form I'm still teaching my fingers to handle cleanly; I can do the barre just fine, it's getting the other three fingers to behave at tempo) and I used a barre Bb a couple of times (with debatable success but I had no fear of using it) in my Rave-Ups cover. The vocal range remark I made was tied to my decision to lose the capo to give myself an extra full step to work with, but the key itself is simply because to me that song has always been in D. I saw Neil's lessons and they sounded great (as always) but that's just not how I know (and hear) the tune. Everyone's got their own preferences and that's always cool.

It's all good, and the power of transposition to any place we feel like is part of the magic of music. So, not arguing with you, just helping add some insight to where I was coming from when I arranged my take on the tune. :side:

Now, gotta get back to practicing power chords and 12-bar turnarounds. Fun stuff ahead! B)

Mark

[spinland]

On a related note, maybe some of you chord wizards could help me out. In this performance, at 2:08 in the video, Frey slides down the neck for the chorus to play what should be some voicing for G but even after downloading and zooming into that frame I can't make wthe fingering I see work with any form of G I can suss out.

[video type=youtube]8iIBSmB8TCg[/video]

What do you folks think he's playing there?

Mark

[familyman4]

Mark,

Mr. Frey is still playing the song in the key of E, he just has the capo on the second fret and using the D chord shape. It appears to me that he is also utilizing "Dropped D" tuning so that would be a normal G chord in that case. (Saying the that the capo is now the nut)

Bart

[spinland]

Hi, Bart!

Thanks for that clarification and yes: I mis-spoke (typed?). I know that D in capo2 is actually E, I meant the chord shapes themselves and the associated voicing. I'm still rather new at trying to express all this in proper verbiage.

So, I mean to say: as I understand the song the rhythm is generally played in E but with D shapes at capo2, and in my case I dropped it a full step to actual D to open up the upper vocal range for comfort. Is that closer to the accurate way to express the transposition thing? Always ready, willing and eager to learn. :side:

I didn't think about nonstandard tunings; of course! That's why I was having so much trouble figuring that out. Thanks!

Mark