Hi all, will try not to ramble too much here but I do need some help...
After 2 years of practicing just various skills and small pieces of songs, it is time for me to play 'music'. I have enough skills that I can do strumming, arpeggios, many chord switches, etc., with no effort. I am trying to play Heart of Gold. The intro, as simple as it is, with the hammer-on sounds good to me and gets me excited for playing something real finally instead of that Bert Casey stuff with 3 sentence lyrics and mundane torturous sound, even though those things are part of the building blocks of playing and why I do them.
My main problem is applying the rythym, strumming, chords for the verses of HOG. I can duplicate Davids MP3 and practiced it for hours. It just doesn't sound right to me (not that the lesson is wrong!-it is DEFINITELY me) in the way that I cannot put the words to it. I just played the real CD of HOG 5 times with my ear against the speaker and I cannot hear what I am playing in the real song with everything else going on and trying to play along side the real song...as soon as I hear lyrics I am lost because it just doesn't fit with what I am doing. It feels like I am playing something entirely different in every way. This is very frustrating to me because I do not know what I am doing wrong and if I can't play this song for beginners right I won't be able to play anything alongside and from beginning to end, which is what we are all striving for.
I could move on to something else to work on but I have done that before and I feel it is time to overcome this final stumbling block in playing or keep repeating it every time I get frustrated.
Any and all advice is welcome here.
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
By saying your not hearing your playing of David's rendition as compared to the real song, are you talking about an actual Neal Young recording?
If so then you have to ask, is this recording in the same key as what you are playing?
Keep in mind that David's version is not the way it is played on a Neal Young CD and will sound different.
However, if it is played in the same key, it should somewhat fit.
I will clarify some as I have just been working on it some more.....
If I play what is on the tab and what I copied from the MP3 and play that, Neil sings 'I want to live...I want to give' and then is on the next verse as I reach my 3rd of 4 chords that are written to be played for that first verse. That is the part that is confusing me...I can't jam 4 chords with all the strumming in each verse as I learned them. Unless I am playing half the speed but I sure don't think so, I believe I am matching the MP3.
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
The only thing I can think of is that the Em on the GN lesson would screw you up because it's at the end of the first line instead of at the begining of the second..maybe??? it's in the same key so it should match the recording.
Maybe this is a little more straight forward the way the chords are placed with the lyrics??? If your still playing still doesnt match then I'm not sure what else it could be
Em//////////C//D///////////G
I want to live, I want to give
Em////////////C////////////D///////G
I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
good luck..Hope this helped a little,
Sally
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Chances are the song is not an EXACT trascription but a toned down version for beginners. I've played Davids version several times and it is a wonderful interpetation. I suggest playing his version till you get your ears wet. Eventually you'll figure out what you don't like and be able to change it. I know it's hard to believe now but you will be able to play a song all the wat through eventually.
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HOG is a surprisingly tricky song, despite it's simplicity. My instructor and I argued almost an entire session just over the intro. Only after slowing it down on a computer did we come to an agreement. But I think Sally got it right with the placement of the Em.
Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down.
Thanks Slydog. Well I don't give up easily and I bought the book with the tab in it and yes...it agrees with Sally's post on the placement of the chords and the strumming pattern in the book gives me the time to jam the lyrics into what I am playing.
But from this song and other songs I have seen Bert Casey play on my teaching DVD....I cannot hear the guitar with all the other instruments playing and this I find frustrating. It seems it doesn't matter what he is playing and can be strumming just about anything to the song or even put the guitar down for the versus and it wouldn't matter because I cannot hear what he is doing anyway. I also played HOG on CD dozens of times and just cannot hear it.
I think what I need to do at this point is to find the perfect song for me to learn from beginning to end. Something not complex and something I can hear the guitar throughout the entire song. I need to use my ears so I can hear and feel what I am playing or it just seems to mechanical to me.
Maybe I will go back to 'She talks to Angels' by Black Crowes. I am not crazy about the lyrics or the sound of the vocals but I love the sound of that acoustic guitar and can hear it throughout clearly. I ran into a problem with that one too in the past, I was learning by online tab and the picking was not right, so I bought that book too and the real tab is waaaay different. Funny thing is the online strumming tabs sound more right to me than what is written in the book! This one I would have to piece together partially by online tab and the book tab. A project I think worth working on if something else does not pop up in the meatime. The speedy picking parts of songs, like this one can be very time consuming. Will see what developes....I know I am so close to playing something and once I figure out the first one and can play along, others down the road will come much easier and faster.
Thanks for the input and letting me ramble on here. :D
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
Here is a suggestion for you. I chose it to learn to sing after watching music videos one night.
Knocking on Heavens door by Avril Lavigne.
The guitar is the only instrument and is easy to duplicate. It is easy to play along with her.
Chords are C G D
Cheers,
Max
