Quote:
Originally posted by unsuspecting
Can I ask the same question about the seemingly live instrumental take of "Try for the Sun"? Is there someone out there who can break down how he does that one? I love that version so much. It never fails to impress me... and rarely fails to impress anyone else I make listen to it. Should we be impressed, or is it just another elaborate-sounding trick? (If any of you were wondering, I'm a guitar moron.)
Bill
|
What do you mean by "break down"...? I can play it and if you want I can tab it out for you but you say you don't play guitar so....?
It's basically some really good Travis picking. You keep a steady bass going with your hand moving up and down with your thumb in a pretty much fixed position, and change the string you're playing with it by moving the position of your hand, not your thumb. Then the index and middle finger move in a sort of "cycle" manner (I'm not sure how else to describe it) playing the middle (rhythm) notes, and then my 3rd and 4th fingers usually play the melody (usually on the B and e string)...This is not a fixed rule though, sometimes I (have to) use my index/middle finger to play the melody.
Quote:
|
It never fails to impress me... and rarely fails to impress anyone else I make listen to it. Should we be impressed, or is it just another elaborate-sounding trick?
|
Yep! Be impressed! Be especially impressed at a man who can not only play like that, but also SING that amazingly well at the same time! Travis picking (DOING IT *WELL*) is one of the hardest guitar-playing methods around, and it took me a gazillion years to get where I am, and I still think I'm crap compared to LB and some of these artists I've seen.
No "elaborate-sounding trick"! Hehe, don't get me wrong about Gypsy, the playing is good, and it does take a lot of skill. If you use "delay" and play well, it makes you sound even better, but if you make one mistake, that mistake is recorded and replayed, possibly many times if you have a high repeat setting, so it can work to your disadvantage just as much as it does to your advantage. It's just not AS
impressive for me as I guess it must be for a non-guitarist.
The "live" Try For The Sun is not exactly "raw" i.e. it's still obviously gone through various studio gadgets and EQ etc and there may be some light delay or various other effects going on (I'm pretty sure I can hear some sort of synthezier backing or else he's done something to the guitar tone after recording), but for all intents and purposes, what you're hearing IS what was played, and if he was to play it in front of you right now on an unplugged acoustic it would sound pretty much the same. Yep, one man, one guitar. Awesome stuff!
(If anyone wants to know the details of how it's played please feel free to drop me an email / PM
).
