What New Songs Are You Learning How To Play Now?

[mezzio]

Ghost of Tom Joad.
I got a ukulele for Christmas so I've been playing that a lot. Playing Something, Here Comes the Sun, Let it Be, etc.

My daughter wants me to learn "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz since she got the Ukulele part down and wants to play with me, keep telling her I'll do it, but I absolutely hate playing with a capo on, I think they get in the way, lol.

 

[CVS]

My daughter wants me to learn "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz since she got the Ukulele part down and wants to play with me, keep telling her I'll do it, but I absolutely hate playing with a capo on, I think they get in the way, lol.

I feel the same way about playing with a capo - for 2 reasons
1. At least to me, it seems like you really shorten the life of your strings when you use a capo coupled with tuning issues
2. My mind associates finger positions with sounds and once you put a capo on, the sound that you hear when you finger a open C chord with a capo on is not the same as the sound that you hear when you finger a open C chord without a capo. For some reason I get all tangled up and it takes me 3X as long to learn a song when I use a capo

On the other hand, a chance to make music with your daughter - don't pass it up. A great bonding experience. My now an adult son plays brass instruments and I am still waiting to play something with him.

 

[jimistephen]

I feel the same way about playing with a capo - for 2 reasons
1. At least to me, it seems like you really shorten the life of your strings when you use a capo coupled with tuning issues
2. My mind associates finger positions with sounds and once you put a capo on, the sound that you hear when you finger a open C chord with a capo on is not the same as the sound that you hear when you finger a open C chord without a capo. For some reason I get all tangled up and it takes me 3X as long to learn a song when I use a capo

On the other hand, a chance to make music with your daughter - don't pass it up. A great bonding experience. My now an adult son plays brass instruments and I am still waiting to play something with him.

It's to me that people have so much trouble with a capo because like the second or third song I learned was with a capo. On the other hand I have a hard time wrapping my mind around alternate tunings because the "right notes" aren't where they're supposed to be and when I think of alternate tunings I have to think of them like they would be in standard.

Also, Have you tried to play any Chicago with your son?

 

[rugerpc]

capo what you have to capo.....

 

[alantig]

My now an adult son plays brass instruments and I am still waiting to play something with him.

5:15!!!!

And if a regular capo throws you off, imagine what using a couple Spider capos can do. I saw Dave Weiner using two on an acoustic piece. I thought that was cool but figured I'd never pull something like that off. Until I wrote a piece using a Spider and realized it would be much easier if I just had one more. So now I have two - and haven't used them since!

What bugs me with capos is when they tab and transcribe stuff out relative to the capo. I understand why, but it throws me until I get used to the adjustment. Like you said, if I see an E on a staff, I expect to hear an E.

 

[Moose6]

I posted this on another thread but it works here too.

I've been playing ELP "From the Beginning" a lot lately. I like the intro to it, but last week I was playing the intro to "Diary of a Mad Mad", which flows perfectly into "From the Beginning". Try it!!!

I've also been working on "Dreams in the Dark" by Badlands.

I've also figured out how to play "The Rain Song" in normal tuning. It's not exact but good enough for most folks... I hope.

Lastly, I'm working on Triumph's "Magic Power".

 

[veinbuster]

I'm not really learning anything new now, but I am trying to play something different each time I sit down with a guitar - prompted in part by the challenge.

My wife asked me to record her some classical stuff, so that will come before learning something new. Then I feel like I should try some Paganini and I found a few Bach duets that I think might be playable on one guitar. My theory is that if you only play stuff nobody knows, it is hard for them to tell how many mistakes you make.

 

[CVS]

My theory is that if you only play stuff nobody knows, it is hard for them to tell how many mistakes you make.

I will have to remember this approach!

 

[CVS]

Also, Have you tried to play any Chicago with your son?

He has told me that he wants to do This Guy's In Love With You - The Dave Koz version. The good news is that it is a slow song. The not so good news is that there are a lot of very interesting chords in the song that I will have to play. He has to play the melody.