MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!!!

I feel like dancin' singin' and generally celebrating!

When I first joined GN, I'd been mucking around with the same old chords ever since I'd first picked up a guitar. I didn't have a very good ear for music....didn't know how to tab a song out to save my life. I tried a few of the beginner's lessons, but to be honest, there wasn't much on there that appealed to me, musically speaking. So I had a look in the Easy Songs section.

Hmm - a few songs there I knew, with the help of the tabs I started working on a couple and found I could do them. There wasn't much in there at the time...only a couple of pages. Then Wes Inman started tabbing out some songs - amongst them were Brown Sugar and All Right Now, which I'd tried to work out myself and failed miserably at. Two of my all-time favourite songs....suddenly I was able to make an effort at them, and gradually got them to passable, then pretty decent, then I could play them along with the CD's pretty much note for note.

A lot's happened since back then - I started listening to music differently, concentrating on guitar parts mostly. I found that if I really concentrated, I could work songs out for myself!

I joined an informal jam session in a local pub - learned a lot from that, the most important being the ability to read chords by watching someone's hands. I learned another two of my all-time favourites there....Band On The Run (worked most of it out myself, there were just a couple of places I needed help) and Stuck In The Middle With You - which I was shown by a friend, in open D. I also worked out most of Pinball Wizard myself - the intro was tricky, but I had help. I managed to work out ALL of More Than A Feeling by myself - fingerpicking, power chords, solos, the lot!

There was one song, however, that had always eluded me. If anyone had asked "What's the song you'd most love to be able to play?" the answer would have been, without a second's hesitation, "Nantucket Sleighride - by Mountain." Over the last couple of years, I've asked a couple of times if anyone had a good tab for it - I tried a few, but never found one that sounded quite right.

Then something else happened - I took up the bass. My favourite method of practising has been to put the Windows Media Playlist on shuffle, and play along with whatever came on. Found I could do the bass lines pretty easily.....so I started working on the guitar parts again. Some parts resolutely refused to fall into place, but I kept picking away at it - then I managed to find a tab that gave me the tricky little bits I'd never managed to work out. One part was the rhythm chords behind the guitar solo, another was a tricky little change from C to Cmaj7 to Cm7 back to C....

Anyway, I managed to put it all together, been working on it solidly for a couple of weeks. And tonight.....

Fanfare......drum roll.....

I managed to play it all the way through without a single mistake. YES! And then I did it again, without a single mistake! YES, YES, YES! And again....and again....and again. I had to take a couple of breaks here and there - I tried it again a couple of minutes before this post, and nailed it again.

Finally, the one song I've been longing to play above all others - I've nailed it! well actually that's not strictly true - the solo isn't exactly note-for-note, but it's recognisable. And now I've got to learn the keyboard part.....

That song - that one song - has made all those years of practise and frustration worthwhile. It's took me a long time - but tonight has been such a MAJOR breakthrough for me I felt I just had to share it! I'm going to have one last go at it now - on the electric, with headphones - then I think I'm going to have to get some ice on my hand, because boy oh boy have I given it one hell of a workout tonight!

Moral of the story? There were times I thought I'd never be able to play that song - but nothing's impossible if you're willing to put the hard work in. I did, and it's finally paying off! I'm due to jam with my mate Stuart tomorrow (Friday) night - I can't wait to show this one off!

And a special thanks to Wes Inman - I've probably learned more from his tabs than anywhere else, it was Wes who pointed me in the right direction. THANK YOU WES!!!!!

Sorry if I rambled a bit there - just had to get that out!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Vic