Beginner's videos

What about asking Ignar if he would work with some amateurs and help put it together...?

I'll gladly volunteer to help with the mixing of it. The audio part will be no problem and I can try making a video with each of you in your own corner of the screen, divided in four parts. I can add drums and bass, or whatever else you'd like, too. If you all want that I could lay down a drumtrack with the most basic of basslines to serve as a backing track to get it all synced up when you play it. Let me know!

And in either case, if anyone has any problems recording or setting things up, drop me a PM anytime.

Hey Isabelle - that's superb - so cool, calm and collective.... :mrgreen:

I'm at the...'just bash away and hope no one hears the crap barre' stage still - I'll post something possibly Friday to give you all a hoot. I'm also thinking of dyeing my hair red. Tell me - are you colour co-ordinated - looks like you're wearing purple lippy?

Anyways, I had a bit of a laugh to myself 'cos I haven't heard the exact mix of Hotel California I think you are talking about. Holy Moses! :shock: I found a 6+ minute acoustic version of Hotel California. Okay, it's a masterpiece but I think we can do better... :roll:

We need to let the electric crowd get in their and blast away, so I recon we need a mix of the acoustic set and one of the original recordings or live sets. We seem to have the services of a professional record producer to help us put this together so we're getting pretty much to the point of no return....

Jenny - I like the go-go dancer idea - pretty funky. I'm thinking 60s/70s with a James Bond type background of gloopy lamps and naff 70s disco traffic lights. Hmmm, didn't they all dance naked? :shock:

I can start to practice the intro riff, but i think it's a bit beyond me at the moment - give me a couple of weeks - what about you Simon? At the end of the day if we all want to have a strum then we could leave it out..but that would be a cop-out, wouldn't it...

Oh dear...

Rrrrrock on...!

D 8)

We need to let the electric crowd get in their and blast away, so I recon we need a mix of the acoustic set and one of the original recordings or live sets.

From what little experience I have with these things I suspect that by the end of the accoustic set our version will sound substantially different then the original. I think it might work better if we use the accoustic version as reference, cover it and at the end of up just slowly build it up. I'm sure The Dog wouldn't mind bringing some slide to the table, maybe Vic can make his triumphant return with a rhythm part and, as we all know, this place is crowding with friendly fiends dying to unleash their pentatonic prowess upon our unsuspecting chord progression.

That'd probably be much easier then trying to warp our version into the electric original, or some such. And besides, who'll care about the original once they can listen to the GN version?

Just a little thing: if it's going to mix well some concensus on tempo would be handy. If we all agree on a tempo I'll upload a long loop of this drum, to be used as metronome only. I created a small sample at 75BPM, does this suit everyone, too slow or fast? If need be we can gradually speed things up, with those preferring slower at the start and those who want it faster after them.

http://www.box.net/shared/pi9xgycggg
(guitar and vocals very shoddily recorded, but hey, YOU people have to learn it, I just have to fiddle some knobs. :D )

I'm also thinking of dyeing my hair red. Tell me - are you colour co-ordinated - looks like you're wearing purple lippy?

Purple lippy??? Dylan, you're obviously a man; there is no such thing.

This is "plumberry" :roll:

Yeah, you get your hair red. I swear it helps with the barres!

Jenny - yes, it sort of started with random strings after watching a few youtube videos that were all different from one another, but I'm finding that I tend to repeat the same pattern of notes pretty much every time, unless I try and be totally random (which, actually, sounds quite cool too!).

Ignar - wow that is great, I've just had a strum while listening to your sample. I don't know why I'm tempted to play it a lot faster, which is probably not quite right, so your tempo suits me!

After seeing a GuitarPro version of the song, the solos do not seem as complex as in the video. Arjen, what do you think? Could we play them? Perhaps, Claudine could try the other one and, if we were able to do it, several guitars could play the final part simultaneously.

Jenny, I think you also could contribute. Dance if you want, but you are able to play as well.

If you think you can take it on, be my guest. And if you want to play a different solo, that's cool too. If you guys play to the metronome I can always loop a section if we need space for it, or if we run into some other idea. The big part is getting the rhythm done. After that we can add whatever we need to.

Isa: you can strum faster within this beat if you want, were you thinking of something like this?
http://www.box.net/shared/0yr34peokg

Purple lippy??? Dylan, you're obviously a man; there is no such thing.

This is "plumberry" :roll:

Hey, give a guy a brownie point for noticing... :roll:

The slightly faster tempo sounds about right - how's that compared to the original?

Rock on!

D

Both my snippets and Isa's recording are at 75BPM.

The slightly faster tempo sounds about right - how's that compared to the original?
The Eagles original in the Hotel California album is also 75 bpm.

Guys and gals, i've looked at various tabs for the intro and to be honest they're probably well beyond my fingerpicking/flatpicking abilities. I can manage a simple intro (The one I played in my youtube video) which sounds ok when I play it on my nylon strung classical and I can cheerfully strum verse/chorus till the cows come home. If some kind soul can tell me what chords the capo'd version requires I'll give that a go on the 12 string if you'd like.

EDIT. A bit of work with a pencil and paper. I think the chords should be

Em B D A C G Am B
Heck, the B is impossible at that end of the neck, B7 sounds okay instead :?

Count me in

Umm I have a set of bongos that I can throw into the mix but my singing has been outlawed by the Geneva convention :shock:

Simon

Aaah, got to have a laugh... :roll: [This is quite painful, actually, I apologise.]
http://media.putfile.com/introHC1

Simon, does this help?

http://www.music-lyrics-chord.com/Eagles/Chords/54139-Hotel_California_Chords.html

Aaah, got to have a laugh... :roll: [This is quite painful, actually, I apologise.]
http://media.putfile.com/introHC1

Hey, you managed to play it twice as fast as I can :mrgreen:

Simon, does this help?

http://www.music-lyrics-chord.com/Eagles/Chords/54139-Hotel_California_Chords.html

Ye Gods that looks complicated! But yes, thanks. It looks like I managed to more or less transpose the chords correctly

I can sort of strum the chords capo'ed at the seventh but the A is an awful tight squeeze for my fingertips even on the wider neck of a 12 string AND the capo seems to get in the way of my fretting hand for the B7 :roll:

Cheers,
Simon

ps. Ignar the second clip you posted sounds about right, it seems to be about the tempo that I usually play this song at. many thanks for offering to help us out with this project. It really is appreciated :D

Both my snippets and Isa's recording are at 75BPM.

Of course they are are...I knew that... :oops:

Hey, give me a chance to have a go at the acoustic intro - won't happen overnight, but you never know...with a recording contract hanging over my head, I may just pull it off... :roll:

I'm with you on the B7 capo'd at the 7th - whoever thought of using those chords there.... DH? :D

I think it would be nice to start with the acoustic intro (me?) then Issy with her ultra cool plumberry flat picking section ( :shock: ), then somehow Simon taking over playing backing acoustic (whilst playing the bongo's with his feet) (unless Ken is back in time to help out). I'll audition for the vocals. Then all hell can break loose with the electric mob for the bridge, then slow it all down for Issy or Guest Artist to play an acoustic outro...

Ignar can hopefully supply a backing track and some bass - maybe?

Anyways, all open to suggestions, of course... :wink:

Rock on!

D 8)

If everyone agrees on the tempo, which seems to be the case I'll pump out a drum/bass backing. The thing with the bass is that I will need to know how often each person will play each part in the song. I'll add a drum part first for those who can play to that without guidance of a bassline. Personally I don't mind little changes, so just play and I'll add a bass that follows you. If someone has problems recording all the way without bass PM me and tell me what you plan to play and I'll fit you a bass.

Some thoughts: the intro could easily be without bass/drum so it need not be 75BPM exactly. Feel free to play it a bit slower if that makes it more convenient. Isa's sample is a good example: with some well-placed delays, a droning bass and such goodies we could have a very psychedelic section in the song. Different for sure but could be very cool. 8) (and then they say drugs don't give people any ideas, ha, I'm laughing the universe right in it's face!)

In any case: I'll upload the drums later today, those impatient can use their own metronome at 75 BPM. Remember to send me a file with just your guitar part and as little other sounds as possible. Sometimes turning the monitor off can greatly reduce hum, espescially those playing with SC or related pickups.

Have fun everyone!