The Musical Instrument Thread

One of the first 'electric' tunes I want to pick up is 'Beat It' from MJ. (I don't know about the EVH solo though


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Sure can. Ya see people do it now and again. I finally got one last year. I was using it to work on a tune that we were playing in a different key than recorded.
 
Something I've noticed lately is that I'm beginning to figure out songs in my head that I hear on the radio. For example, I heard "Takin' Care of Business" by BTO on the radio the other day, which starts with that great riff before the drums kick in. I said to myself, that's just a blues progression, but they're playing it 4-1-5 instead of 1-4-5, which is what it is. And I've done the same thing with the simple riffs at the start of "Jesse's Girl" and that Raspberries song that Aaron posted in his favorite songs thread a while back.

So, that's cool.
 
And that my friend, is what it's all about.

I don't remember what song it was at the moment, but the Mrs came into the "Beats Lab" a few months ago, and asked me about some old song. So I noodled around for 8 or 10 seconds and started playing it for her. I had never played it before, and it was really simple, but it sounded good.

It comes from habit and getting your ear trained.
 
So, this is fun to play:



I use barre chords even though the song is played with open chords (except for the intro). It's a little more challenging. And I'm all about challenging. My teachers used to say I was challenged.
 
Great tune!

I hadn't played much since we did that party in late July. I'd been busy with some photography stuff and have been catching up with chores around the house.

Started playing again over the last 2 weeks. Started working on The Cult's Fire Woman and Brooklyn is Burning by Head Automatica. LOTS going on with Fire Woman, and BiB is just a fun groove. I really missed playing over those few weeks.
 
The thing for me is to always be learning something new. It's a great thing when I hear a song that I want to learn and it's right on the edge of my comfort zone, so I have to work a little to get it down.
 
Casual Fan said:
The thing for me is to always be learning something new. It's a great thing when I hear a song that I want to learn and it's right on the edge of my comfort zone, so I have to work a little to get it down.
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I'm thinking of tackling'American idiot' when I get the electric. From hearing the song it doesn't sound incredibly difficult and Green Day's stuff is usually not complicated.
 
It's a lot of moving power chords around quickly.

I think my favorite Green Day song is "She." I think it's one of their most pure punk songs without sounding like just another punk song.

Ignore the bizarre first 45 seconds of this. Stay off the drugs, kids.

 
GD gets pretty quick. It's usually easy stuff, but getting the speed and timing down will take some practice. We started playing Brain Stew, but swapped out the lyrics for nursery rhyme lyrics. They fit very well. "Mary had a little lamb......it's fleece was white as snow".and just about any other nursery rhyme will work too. I never got around to figuring out the fast part from Jadad.
Casual Fan said:
The thing for me is to always be learning something new. It's a great thing when I hear a song that I want to learn and it's right on the edge of my comfort zone, so I have to work a little to get it down.
Click to expand...
That's where most of the fun is. Gotta keep pushing. A good challange makes for a satisfying victory when you finally get it right.
 
Nursery rhymes are way too intellectual for Green Day.

I've never had an urge to play Green Day. I'm usually into stuff with a good hook and a guitar part that is very emotive. It has to get me in the right spot, like when you scratch a dog's stomach and he kicks his leg, or when you bite into something delicious and it makes your taste buds go crazy for a second or two. Stuff that gives you the Stevie Ray face:

stevie-ray-vaughan-1.webp

For instance, I have a friend in the Air Force who's a huge metal guy and his favorite song in the world is "One." I think "One" is a cool song and all, in the same way that Superman is cool, or Porsches are cool. If you're a guy, you probably find that song likable on some level. But to me, the best part of the song--and the part I'll replay over and over again when running on the trails with my iPod--is Kirk Hammett's solo where he's bending the notes and playing two strings at a time in a very un-Metallica fashion, very bluesy. It just gets me in that spot. Makes my leg twitch.
 
The GD song took us seriously under a minute to pick up. It's a fun little thing for a 2 1/2 minute time filler. It makes people laugh too.

I love tunes with a big time groove. We picked up How Ya Like Me Now by The Heavy. It's 100% attitude. We do it without the horns and split the parts up between the guitars so it has this kind of call and response/ping pong/freight train thing going on. It's anothe easy tune, but there are some really fun breaks and layers that make it interesting.
 
Here's a fun one. Pretty simple once you slow it down a little. Chords are are A, E, D, C#m, F#m. EDIT: I haven't looked up or figured out the chords for the bridge yet! I can see that one of them is a G... :)

 
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Have you guys noticed how many songs are based on Pachelbel's Canon in D Minor? Like Basket Case by Green Day. They didn't even try to mix it up.

Also, I've been playing my bass the past two nights--stuff from The Joshua Tree. Simple parts, but so elegant and understated. Beautiful music. It's great to be able to be part of creating it, and not just listening to it.
 
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