What are you working on now?

Give it to Me - J Geils Band

You don't hear that one too often anymore. Lots of harps and keys in that tune. Bet it sounds good done with your band's lineup too. 8)

What am I working on? A new kitchen. Haven't played guitar in over a week. :shock:

What I'm working on usually depends on what I've been watching on youtube - this week I've rediscovered Dave Edmunds. Been working on an oldie of his from the 70's, "I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll.)" So I decided to see what else I could find, and I've been playing along with "Girls Talk" and "Queen Of Hearts" as well. Also - "I Knew The Bride" led me into Elton John's "Kiss The Bride" which I'd never been able to work out before, though it's a while since I've tried. Seems easy enough now, though - maybe my ear or my guitar playing's improved. Hopefully both....

I've just finished working on a couple of songs for the Easy Song Database. See Me Feel Me & You Better You Bet, both by the Who, and Centerfold by J Geils Band. (They seem in vogue all of a sudden - I actually thought about Centerfold while I was working out YBYB, I bought both those singles on the same day, as well as my first Rubik's Cube!) Just a question now of tidying them up a little and getting all my notes typed up.

Also working on a couple of songs of my own that I've never put music to - hopefully I'll have something recorded this week.

:D :D :D

Vic

I play acoustic, mostly solo. Here's what I've been working on:

Uncle Tupelo: Still Be Around -- it has a neat new (to me) bass run/chord change on the chorus that I'm finally tackling
Bob Seger: Night Moves -- would like to improve the muted strums, but I've got the timing down (to my satisfaction anyway)
Allman Bros.: Melissa
Beatles: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away -- I'd like to see David do a lesson on this one. I'm not sure my way is working for me. It seems like it should be an easy song, but I've found so many differences of opinion on chords. Not sure I totally like any of them.
Kings of Leon: Use Somebody -- I'm going to see them tonight with my 19 year-old son! I'm not sure if I can do justice to the vocals.

GN Lessons: Folsom Prison/Cheatin' Heart, As Tears Go By, Wish You Were Here, Old Man

Ones that I keep trying but may never get down:

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Life By the Drop, Pride and Joy -- I can do the basic chords, but not the fancy stuff.
Led Zep: Over the Hills and Far Away -- Sort of my holy grail guitar song right now

and Centerfold by J Geils Band. (They seem in vogue all of a sudden - I actually thought about Centerfold while I was working out YBYB,

That's one group that I'd love to see get back together. They did it for one day when Boston laid some honor upon them.

I'm an acoustic player, mostly solo. Here's what I'm working on:

Uncle Tupelo: Still Be Around -- it's got a new (to me) chord/bass run that I've finally figured out
Bob Seger: Night Moves -- I've got the timing down pretty well, but I'd like to improve on my muted strums. They don't seem to thump the way they should.
Beatles: You've Got to Hide Your Love Away -- seems like it should be an easy song, but nothing I've found on the net seems to sound right the way i'm doing it. How about a lesson on this, David?
Kings of Leon: Use Somebody -- I'm going to see them tonight with my 19-yr.-old son. The chords seem easy enough. Not sure if I can do it justice vocally, though.

Speaking of David, here are the GN lessons I keep working on:

Folsom Prison/Cheatin' Heart
As Tears Go By

Others I keep trying but may never get down:

Stevie Ray V.: Life By the Drop, Pride & Joy -- I can do the chords but not the fancy stuff
Led Zep: Over the Hills & Far Away -- right now it's my holy grail of guitar playing

Main covers that I'm working on now to add into rotation with the band are "Drive My Car" and "Rock and Roll Love Letter".

I'm finding "Drive My Car" to be great practice for the driving riffs (no pun intended). I'm working on them slowly now. The arrangement is pretty simple but it has such a great groove.

Our drummer wants to sing "Rock and Roll Love Letter", so we're adding that one in soon :)

Oh, and "She Loves You" and "I want to hold your hand" just for my own fun.

Actually my son and I have been hashing out Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion. That song has a cool riff.

I'm not practicing/playing so much these weeks. We are finishing a project and I don't have too much time...

I try to practice the exercises in a couple of instruction books that I'm using with my bass. I maintain the same time playing guitar (once or twice a week), no new songs, just play chords and the already learned solos.

Alrighty, over 6 weeks have passed. Did you follow everything up? What new has been added? What's been shelfed? What's going on with everyone?

New to the thread? Jump on in. We'll chat in a month or two and see where you are. All good fun.

What was I working on?
OK, so in a nutshell, I was working on U2's "One", Buffett's A.H. Song, Contributing vocals to a collaboration, 'Floyd's Learning To Fly in a more true to original format. I was also working on broader terms on noodling so I can continue to grow with a minor pent scale pattern, trying to sell an Epi SG and buy an Epi LP, learning my guitar processor a lot more and play some power chords that sound OK. Cnev told me it'd take 10 minutes to learn.

How'd I do?
I did U2's "One" and it's shelved for thre moment. I'm quite satisified with the arrangement. I reduced the fills and applied my best Johnny Cash impersination to it. I didn't take the A.H. song any further, but now feel I can on one part. It'll be a while for other parts. I've got the verse down for the 'Floyd number. I honestly do not remember if I got the chorus down or not. I'll have to look. I did do a great SG sell and LP purchase. Only cost me $25 and I ended up with a Standard Plus Top, a case and stand on top of it all. Took a lot of set-up, but I got it rolling and have been complimented on it's tone several times. I've got a few reallt great patches built for my guitar processor. Quite a few, actually. I'm set for a while. I also did my song with a section that did have power chords. It was very thick and rich and didn't break up easily. Felt good doing it. Noodled with a few other things. I think an AC/DC tune will be in my future soon. :twisted:

What's Next?
Well, the super-top-secret colab sat on the shelf finished for a couple weeks. It got revisited with fresh ears and he decided to change his part and I decided to try to do some better vocals. I think I'll be belting them out today.

I've been messing with a song that's WAY over my head for a couple of days and will let it sit for another few days before attacking again.

It's modelled after the live version on Winwood (Traffic) doing the long "Low Spark Of High Heel Boys". No question about it. I am way over my head on this one, and on many, many levels. Far too many to remember all at once and list. Although it sounds like poop, I am learning so much and having so much fun that I'm keeping at it.

I'm learning another scale pattern. I forgot what it's called. I'll have to find it. I saved the picture somewhere and can't find it. I only have it embedded in a word doc and can't figure out how to see existing image properties. Darned medication. At any rate, this is the scale that I think was used in the Allman Brother's "In Memory of Elizibeth Reed". Yeah, that song should take me a year to do.

Finger picking and arpeggios. Land Slide still the only finger picking on, but considering Sweet Georgia Brown as another. Gotta find some tab to get me jump started. Arpeggio songs include "Brain Damage", "House Of The Rising Son", R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" and Garth Brooks "Wolves". I eventually want to be able to do the Door's "The End", so I'll need to bridge simple argeggios and learned lead skills into a skill that points me in that direction. That's also one of the inspirations I had to pick up the guitar in the first place. I think much more knowledge of the fret board will end up being key for this.

And of course, where would I be without my single guitar arrangements of 3 to 6 chord symphonies? I practice them when I don't want to have to concentrate on anything or otherwise just want to relax. Some new editions include Clapton's "Promises", "Summer Breeze", "White Rabbit", Billy Joel's "Captain Jack" and "Just The Way You Are" and the Crash Test Dummies' "God Shuffled His Feet". "Just The Way You Are" isn't a simple 4 chord song and probably doesn't belong on the list, but you don't learn by not doing.

Throughout my years of practicing guitar, i am now working on some challenging songs

Neon- John Mayer
The Guillotine-Escape The Fate

I take my time and practice and learn one song at a time until i perfect, in my opinion that's i feel that learning one song at a time is the best way to perfect a song.

I WAS in a band but i let it go, but while in the band we were working on such songs like
Master of puppets- Metallica
Not Good Enough For Truth In Cliche- Escape The Fate
A Boy Brushed Red Living In Black And White- Underoath

Mr. Crowley - Ozzy ( For some reason I like playing this song)

My son's band has a show in a few weeks and he is wanting them to do this one. Right now, he's outvoted. Not sure what they are replacing it with.

I am working on....

Alice in Chains - Would? and Man in the Box. I'm recording the bass and drums for a collaboration w/ 2 people from another forum.

Everything else is original...

Reworking "Wake the Dead", a demo I did when Spookhand was first formed. I love the riff and the lyrics, but we've never liked the verse chord progression. I'm trying to make it more "rockin'" (that's our singers main adjective when describing what needs to be added to a song).

Writing guitar and bass for 2 songs I wrote/am writing: "Jekyll and Hyde" and "Untitled" (about a killer behind the wheel of a bad-a$$ car).

Hmm let's see since I posted this one what new songs have I learned.

Day Tripper Beatles
Jailbreak Thin Lizzy
Bye Bye Love Cars
Just what I needed Cars
Let the good times roll Cars
Boys of Summer - Atari's
Born to be Wild Steppenwolf ( I already knew this one just hadn't played it)

Now I'm going back and learning some of the solo's I never tried because the other guitar player plays them. The first one was solo for Sunshine of your Love that I have done pretty much just need to work a bit on the ending.

The next one will probably be the solo from Bye Bye Love