Songs by women, good for beginners?

Whoa... crazy. Perfect, thanks!

How about Dolly Parton. I just seen "The Kennedy Center Honors" and it reminded me of how really talented she is as a writer!

Carole King, Roseanne Cash, Alanis Morrisette, of course Joni Mitchell, and by the way, the reason she uses such strange tunings is because of a bout with polio when she was younger, the alternate tunings are actually easier to play. ("Both Sides Now","The Circle Game","For The Roses")

On a harder note, Joan Jett, Chryssie Hindes and The Pretenders, Lita Ford. (Joan and Lita were members of The Runaways!) Heart and Pat Benetar!

The women are out there, you just gotta look!
Good suggestions! I don't listen to country, so I haven't heard Dolly in years, but we used to watch her show on TV when I was a kid and I have always loved her voice. I will have to get reaquainted with her. And I'd love to know how she plays guitar with those nails! The Heart suggestion also brings back memories, because my first serious boyfriend took me to a Heart concert when I was a teen. I did try Joan Jett on 911tabs a while back and they had only 1 song. Can you believe that? Hadn't thought of Pat, Carole, Roseanne, and Alanis. I'll give them a look, too.

inara23 - Margaret is right about the winamp how-tos, but be sure you have version 10 because the earlier versions don't have that feature.

Whoa... crazy. Perfect, thanks!
Isn't that the coolest?? :D

I can't imagine why they've buried that feature so deeply :roll: Why not just have it as the main view of the player and let folks close it if they don't want to see it?! I'd never have found that on my own -- my guitar teacher showed it to me.

As a kid I took dance lessons and our teacher had a turntable which could speed up or slow down the music without it changing pitch. Even 40 years ago at age 6, I was impressed with that technology. It seemed magical.

Anyhoo, I find that feature on WMP valuable, so I tell as many people as I can about it.

Margaret

...our teacher had a turntable which could speed up or slow down the music without it changing pitch.
If a software player slows something down by just stretching out the wave form, the pitch changes as it slows. Software 'slow-downers' get around this by repeating very small slices of the wave form for as long as is needed to pad out the sound. (To change pitch they do the opposite - they take the small loops and stretch or squash them as required to change pitch, then piece them together so that they are at the original speed by omitting or repeating bits of the loops)

The slices are small enough that we don't generally notice the effect it has on the playback, just the changed pitch or speed (if you slow something down as much as it'll go, you'll notice it then - it sounds stuttery).

Why am I explaining this? 'Cause I can't for the life of me think how a turntable could do the same thing mechanically - are you sure it didn't change pitch when it slowed the music? It's going to bug me all day now trying to figure it out! Thanks a bundle :wink: :mrgreen:

...our teacher had a turntable which could speed up or slow down the music without it changing pitch.
If a software player slows something down by just stretching out the wave form, the pitch changes as it slows. Software 'slow-downers' get around this by repeating very small slices of the wave form for as long as is needed to pad out the sound. (To change pitch they do the opposite - they take the small loops and stretch or squash them as required to change pitch, then piece them together so that they are at the original speed by omitting or repeating bits of the loops)

The slices are small enough that we don't generally notice the effect it has on the playback, just the changed pitch or speed (if you slow something down as much as it'll go, you'll notice it then - it sounds stuttery).

Why am I explaining this? 'Cause I can't for the life of me think how a turntable could do the same thing mechanically - are you sure it didn't change pitch when it slowed the music? It's going to bug me all day now trying to figure it out! Thanks a bundle :wink: :mrgreen:

I've never been able to fathom it, either, but I was sure it did this. It was a very expensive professional setup. I took lessons there for years. We had little record players we played with ALOT at home, experimented with, and I knew how slowing down the record changed the pitch, but it seemed hers kept the music the same, just slower. Now you have me doubting myself, but it always amazed me.

Maybe someone else around here knows if such a thing existed in professional dance studios back in the days of vinyl??

Margaret

Rob Thomas' (fairly current) song Ever the Same i
Maybe you could try:

X X X 4 3 2
or
X X 4 4 3 2

Either one gives a better sounding Bm chord, or at least one truer to the song.

Margaret

You were right, XX4432 sounds much better for that song. It might take me a while to be able to play it at speed, but it is still a lot easier than the barre chord. Thanks!

mmdm, I saw your post on Easy Songs asking about the intro for the Rob Thomas song--gotta wait until I get home to try it and see. Not sure what I do, if anything, but then I'm only playing it to myself or along with the CD, again to myself.

Are you familiar with the song Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts ('blowin' through the jasmine in my miiiiind")? Not sure if it's in the Easy Songs database, but I have it at home and could post it if you want it. It has a couple slightly more challenging chords, but it's not that hard and a beautiful song.

Also, what about Drift Away ("give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock 'n roll, and drift away" also see quote in my signature below), originally by Dobie Gray, more recently made popular again by Uncle Kracker. I have that one too if you want it, and it's easy chords.

It's possible these are both in the Easy Songs db, but I didn't see them at first glance.

Margaret

[edit: lovely coincidences...as soon as I posted this message, what song came on the radio...none other than Summer Breeze :D ]

mmdm,
Are you familiar with the song Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts ('blowin' through the jasmine in my miiiiind")?
Also, what about Drift Away ("give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock 'n roll, and drift away" I have that one too if you want it, and it's easy chords.
It's possible these are both in the Easy Songs db, but I didn't see them at first glance.

Margaret

[edit: lovely coincidences...as soon as I posted this message, what song came on the radio...none other than Summer Breeze :D ]

I do like both of those. I checked the index and Summer Breeze is there but there is some stuff in the tab I don't understand. Drift Away isn't there. I'd love to have them! Please Pm them to me whenever you get a chance, or PM me if you need my email. Thanks!

i love the song "flying high" by jem... link to unplugged performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-wMZjGbjE

i was a little disappointed to see she wasn't playing the guitar, but the song is still gorgeous and it seems like it should be straightforward fingerstyle (not like i'd know, i'm still waiting on my neighborhood store to get in my b.b. taylor!)

mmdm, the Summer Breeze I have is the same as on the Easy Songs db. Guess that's where I got it from.

Margaret

i love the song "flying high" by jem... link to unplugged performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-wMZjGbjE

i was a little disappointed to see she wasn't playing the guitar, but the song is still gorgeous and it seems like it should be straightforward fingerstyle (not like i'd know, i'm still waiting on my neighborhood store to get in my b.b. taylor!)

Very nice. I can't do much fingerstyle yet, but it's one of the things I'd like to learn. That's one reason I wanted a guitar, because I couldn't fingerpick the mandolin. You're going to love your Taylor BB. I love mine!

Margaret - I guess I'll need to learn a little more about reading tab to tackle that one. I always used regular sheet music for my mandolin so this tab stuff is very new to me. Some of it is obvious, but some of it seems very cryptic. :)

The tab at the top of Summer Breeze is only an intro/interlude phrase with the guitar (or two guitars) playing the part of the horn in the recording. (Same situation with the Drift Away music)

You can just skip it and do the chords if you want.

Margaret

The tab at the top of Summer Breeze is only an intro/interlude phrase with the guitar (or two guitars) playing the part of the horn in the recording. (Same situation with the Drift Away music)

You can just skip it and do the chords if you want.

Margaret
What about this ?

Em ' ' C*
_________

I'm guessing the line underneath means no words here? What is the ' ' for?

you should definately go with a KT Tunstell song as they are quite up beat and also the lyrics are nothing to do with gender so give it a go and see how it goes......... :idea:

The tab at the top of Summer Breeze is only an intro/interlude phrase with the guitar (or two guitars) playing the part of the horn in the recording. (Same situation with the Drift Away music)

You can just skip it and do the chords if you want.

Margaret
What about this ?

Em ' ' C*

_________

I'm guessing the line underneath means no words here? What is the ' ' for?

The line indicates that the word ("niiiiight") is drawn out under the Em and C chords.

Each apostrophe mark indicates one strum (meaning the Em chord is actually strummed 3 times total, counting the chord name itself-- at least that's how it sounds to me), and the asterisk after the C means to play the C chord only once. (BTW, I don't think these are necessarily "standard" notation marks--may vary with the transcriber)

Here is the song on YouTube. The sound quality ain't great, unfortunately. Beautiful tune, IMO. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBbkoCM4waw&mode=related&search=

Margaret