Constructing a Tune....

[BluesKing777]

After reading the Songwriting thread, thanks, I was thinking about the opposite - playing covers of other people's tunes to try and break it down to the elements...my theory involves learning as many as you can in different ways and hoping something may stick!

Now, below I recorded one way (of zillions) of playing a song and dissecting the parts a bit to get more of an idea of what is going on. So this tune is in a standard type printed fake book with the simple chords on top of the melody line in music notation, and the lyrics underneath.

 

Obviously I didn't learn the track live, but here is a way I generally try things. Capo on 2... Run through the basic chords once to get an idea of it, then I play the vocal melody on guitar, looking for tricky bits, and then I got that vocal line I played in my head better and had a run through plying the chords and singing....

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

 

[j45nick]

What you are doing sounds like a method lots of us use unconsciously. I first try to get the chords and rhythm down, then gradually add a little melody line over the top. I just don't have your skill at doing it.

One thing I do when learning a song is start out strumming and flat-picking the chords with a little melody,  then do the same thing fingerpicking to see which method is going to be better, since I'm not particularly good at either one. 

[BluesKing777]

Yeah, thanks Nick.

As mentioned in the songwriting thread, a lot of people get the chords then add a basic melody to fit. But thinking about my track above, I bet gold dollars Willie wrote the song melody on guitar and then sang it...possibly after recording and listening to his lead guitar part....there are some craggy jumps in the melody. And that is what I mean by learning as many tunes  as I can and hope something sticks...not sure if a ‘singer’ would sing like those bits on their own volition?

Speaking  of learning the tune, because I played the chords, melody, vocal ‘off the pages’, and while I have played that one a bit, I haven’t learned the song per se. If someone asked me to play that one off the top of my head, nope, not much of the original would come out! Playing off the book is using a few other parts of the mind and to get the song ‘gig ready’, I would sit down and memorise the parts or one part if in a band or trio. And a better ‘arrangement’ for the song, not just follow the book. But in a band I was in, the piano player would just hand me some charts he wrote out and often I had never heard the original. The advantage of written music...you can play it without knowing the song! Sort of!

BluesKing777.

 

[j45nick]

Writing a song and learning someone else's are generally reverse processes for me. Maybe it's because I started out as a keyboard player, but in trying to write a song it's easier to pick out a melody line and then figure out what the chords should be, unless you have found a chord progression you really like and are trying to figure out a song to go with it.

But as in most things, the process is not always consistent.

YouTube has spoiled us when I comes to learning other people's songs. You don't have to listen again and again to try to figure out what is being played. A 30 second search, and up pop 20 different variations on how to play it.

[BluesKing777]

10 hours ago, j45nick said:

Writing a song and learning someone else's are generally reverse processes for me. Maybe it's because I started out as a keyboard player, but in trying to write a song it's easier to pick out a melody line and then figure out what the chords should be, unless you have found a chord progression you really like and are trying to figure out a song to go with it.

But as in most things, the process is not always consistent.

YouTube has spoiled us when I comes to learning other people's songs. You don't have to listen again and again to try to figure out what is being played. A 30 second search, and up pop 20 different variations on how to play it.

 

Yes, that is a very 'keyboard' way of writing - adding the extra notes is far more linear than on a guitar. Who invented this stupid thing? (I have a book of Jazz standards for guitar - it has the lead sheet first, a comping sheet, a chord/melody and then a solo....and you think: "What? How did they get any of this there in that position? On guitar...but on keys, all laid out around it. Mainly.

Oh Youtube, they try to ruin you now with ads. I was watching an engine production by robotics and as the video was a bit longer than usual - they stopped for 2 ad breaks. That is me gone!

And the replies on this new forum layout take an hour to show up!

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by BluesKing777

[jedzep]

Do you capo up 2 for more vocal range access or for easy fretting?

I'm lucky, in that I love to play songs that move me, and enjoy nuancing them while not wandering far from a 'copy'.  Considering I'm not a guitar player but a player of songs on guitar, this is the best path for my satisfaction.  That and fine guitars I'm lucky to own.  I'm nuancing my f'in a'hole off, frankly.

[BluesKing777]

1 hour ago, jedzep said:

Do you capo up 2 for more vocal range access or for easy fretting?

I'm lucky, in that I love to play songs that move me, and enjoy nuancing them while not wandering far from a 'copy'.  Considering I'm not a guitar player but a player of songs on guitar, this is the best path for my satisfaction.  That and fine guitars I'm lucky to own.  I'm nuancing my f'in a'hole off, frankly.

 

 

And some fine guitars you are nuancing, there!

I capo up to 4th actually but didn't want to confuse the copy players - I tuned down 2 tones/frets on the old girl (37 L-0)....this guitar just sounds good there and I did get to keep the nice 'layout' of the chords that some nice arranger person put in the fake book. I would prefer to sing the tune in F, but I was figuring that out with a whole new game with the chords but mainly the lead notes - and my head hurt, so...capo up, play what the put down for me, until I can comfortably do the 'surprise' notes at the start of the middle part! ('Worry...')

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by BluesKing777