(Going to) Kansas City

Hi!

Same as I did with the "Tricks of the trade" lesson on Bob Dylan's "Knocking on heaven's door", in order to practice the series of fills in this song I wrote it in powertab and then let a drum machine play the beat in the background.

I can play neither of them at speed, but at least I can play them slow now ;-)
I guess speed comes with practice. I can play  "Knocking..." almost at speed and "Kansas" sounds OK but I need to gain speed.

By the way... what metronome speed would be adviseable for "Kansas City"? I have listened to a cover by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles but it is too fast for me.

I usually use David mp3's by converting them into wav files which I then trim (using a sound editing program) to the section I want to practice, which I generally slow down.

I assure you the files I wrote from David's transcriptions are fun to play and unlike David's mp3's you don't just hear what it sounds more or less: you can actually play along (sorry David).
Nothing is left to interpretation: notation here sounds EXACTLY as it should which lessens a real beginner's insecurities (at least mine). Well, it's MIDI, but rhythmwise it is as accurate as you get.

If anybody is interested, contact me and I'll send you the powertab files or mp3s or both.

Hope to have helped

I am starting to get frustrated trying to play songs that require you to reach four frets (e.g., 2nd fret on one string, 6th on the next). I just can't seem to reach. I have been working on this fro some time. The really frustrating this is that many great rock and roll songs use this pattern. Does this mean I will never be able to ply so many great songs?

Zeph

How long have you been playing? Keep working at it -- you'll be able to make the stretch. Try holding your thumb at the middle of the back of the neck. That might let you stretch further.

You can also play these chords further up the neck. the stretch is smaller, but you'll be using three fingers instead of two.

Play the B shuffle on the 5th and 6th strings:

----9---11
----7----7

the A on the same strings:

----7---9
----5---5

And the E on the 4th and 5th strings:

----9---11
----7----7

The stretch is shorter higher on the neck.
See if that helps.

What Tim says is pretty much how a lot of people go about it. I started way up the neck, like around the tenth fret or so and then every month or so (sometimes it took longer!) I'd come down a fret. Your fingers do get used to it and it does help to gradually get them ready for these stretches. As long as you're not in a real hurry, you'll get there with time and patience.

Peace

hi!

I don't know how come I posted this on the "Tricks of the trade" thread.

Anyway, this is one for David, but I guess others should have something to say.

At what speed should we play this song ?

As I said in another post, the version I have (Tony Sheridan and the Silver Beatles) is (I think) too fast for me...

Thanks

Try playing along with the version on Beatles for Sale. That's about the right tempo.

Thanks Tim.

Yeah, that is a proper timing, but I´d need a still slower version.

Or just a hint on acceptable metronome speed. I guess I'll decide myself what's acceptable

This guy who also played Blueberry Hill (what's his name) had an older cover, which is a lot slower.

I'll try that too

Or maybe David could drop a line and say what speed he thought for the lesson (I know how busy he is)

Thanks everybody

There's a broken link on this page. In the tab for the full tune, the second line doesn't show up.

It would be really nice if there were some audio tracks in this article.

David, thanks a bunch for what you do. I've learned more guitar from this site in the past couple of years than I did in the 40 years of "whangin' and sangin'" preceding.

Andy,

Welcome to the musical madhouse and thanks for pointing out the broken link.

I merged your post with the pre-existing thread on the song. In the lessons forum, we keep all posts on a song in one thread.

Thank you, I'm just glad to be here. You guys do great work.

Hi,
is there an mp3 for this lesson (Going to Kansas City)? Most of David's lessons have mp3's but not this one.

I'd really appreciate if someone could point me to an mp3 for this lesson, as I've been trying to learn this song for a long time without success - without the mp3 I just cant figure out if Im playing right, and just give up in frustration.
:(

David: in case you read this: Love your lessons, and some of your other lessons (the ones with mp3 ;) ) have helped me tremendously. In fact, the first full song I ever learnt (Scarboro fair) was from your lesson and it was a huge breakthrough of a mental barrier - so I'll be grateful to you a lifetime.

I know this is a terribly old lesson, but I would really appreciate if you could still add an mp3 to it. There are still people (like me) reading it - it seems to be one of the best blues lessons on the internet .
Thanks a ton!!

Hi

There currently isn't an MP3 for this but I'll try and put one together for it in the near future. This week is a little busy (to put things mildly) so it may have to wait until next weekend, if that's okay.

And thanks for your kind words concerning the lessons here at Guitar Noise. It's always good to hear that they are being of help to people, regardless of how old the lesson is. Please feel free to post any questions you might have either here on the forum or email me (or PM) personally.

Thanks for your patience.

Peace

Thanks a ton for responding, David!
One week would be great! I don't mind waiting a bit longer as well - I've been trying to grapple with this song on and off almost a year, so a few weeks shouldn't matter ;)

And to put things off further...

I started in on making MP3s for this lesson this weekend, only to find that "line 2" in the final example isn't there! And this lesson is so old that I don't have the originals. I'm hoping that Paul still has it somewhere and it's merely a broken link. That being the case, things can get done rather quickly. That not being the case, I'm going to have to re-write the last bit and that may take more time. Sorry.

If it's not one thing... :wink:

Peace

David,
Thanks for all those great lessons! The internet wayback machine has your original post of Kansas City. Here is the link
http://web.archive.org/web/20030801183714/www.guitarnoise.com/beginner/20010424.php

The second line (I think) is in this version.

Hope that helps. Again thanks for your great lessons.