Couch Media: Learning: songs

6.2.07

Learning: songs

So after trawling the web and iTunes and looking at my current skills realistically, I've settled on the follow songs to learn first up.

Neil Young - Heart of Gold
Tom Petty (as covered by Johnny Cash) - I won't back down
The Cruel Sea - Down Below
The Dandy Warhols - Godless
Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
Chris Isaak - Blue Spanish Sky

(Where possible, I've put videoclips for these songs - uh - down below)(Ironically except for the actual song, Down Below.)(Oh, and the reason there is a woman practicing pole dancing to the Chris Isaak song is that it was a choice between this video and footage taken with a mobile phone video camera with bad sound. )

Anyway, the main reason I've chosen these particular songs is that they are all fairly straight forward to play - no overly complicated chords or wildly varying chord combinations, simple enough rhythms and several of them will also force me along in learning the F chord. (As well as the F#m).

For those who don't know much about guitar, the F (and F family) are barre chords - chords where you use your index finger to press down on all six strings in one fret, effectively shortening the neck of the guitar. This has the effect of moving the chord down a tone (I think). (Update - Ok, thanks Len, it's actually raising them a semitone or tone)

So if you are playing a standard E chord, you move each note towards you one fret and hold your finger down on the first fret. This is something that I've found far too difficult for the better part of 20 years - more a matter of not persisting than anything - but I've bitten the bullet now and slowly, step by step, seem to be making some progress.

Getting to the point where you fingers just automatically form the position is what I'm aiming for I'd say.

So I had a nice play last night, Godless in particular is great to jam along to (and if you turn the music up loud enough, you actually sound like you're rocking :)

There are also some simple riffs in Heart of Gold and I won't back down that I'm getting the hang of as well.

(I also chose these songs because they suit my voice and I'd like to be able to sing them - but combining singing and playing is a few steps away yet)

Neil Young - Heart of Gold