Temp differences can have have an impact as well.

I wouldn't mess with Merle.

My dad lost his shit when I used to play You're a Pink Toothbrush.

Nice one Ram, progress always happens, I've had loads of times where I've thought 'well this is it, this is my plateau' only to then find gains later. Such a great hobby / instrument. Probably a good idea to add those strings back tho.


Thanks to Cupa's sharing yesterday I figured I'd share some too before I leave my guitar on its lonesome for a week or so when I travel, only to be played in the night by an ethereal Merle. These are pretty sloppy and I swear I can play better but you know how it is as soon as you hit record on the camera. Anyway once again youse have got a bit of warm-up / practice and omd a song with singing in it too. Listen at your own risk.

First is a twofer of Oval Room by Blaze Foley which I like to use to practice alternate bass as it's just two chords all the way and it's a really great song, you should listen to it. After that there's the first two parts of Windy & Warm, written by a bloke called Loudermilk who I know nothing about but popularised by Chet Atkins. I'm struggling with the next part atm, moves to barre chords up the frets, finding it hard to transition and actually get it sounding nice. I'll get there.



Then it's Cruel World from RDR2, I saw an old bloke playing this in C and I thought I'll have a bit of that, Willie plays it out of an Am capo'd on the 5th fret or something, but I love my cowboy chords and will play anything I can out of a C shape. This is kinda my own arrangement of the song (aside from realising I can play it out of C from the old bloke). The picking pattern is all my own. I need to find a way to incorporate the melody at the end into the main body of the song as that's the actual melody used in the original, but whatevs, I like playing this one.

Haha, m8 I love that dust in a baggie vid, I must watch it at least a couple of times a month. Love the "heeelllll yeeeahhh" guy at the end. Absolutely top stuff. I always mean to start working on flat picking but damn it's tricky and I'm an old dog set in my ways. I think it may be a 2022 goal though, I'm shite with a pick outside of general strumming. Again, you're right Billy's a fucking monster.

Also, thanks for the love my man, I really appreciate it. Like I said, I never play for anyone so I love sharing.

I started learning the Chet tune because it seemed like a good entry point to his sound, and it is, just the basic part over the Am is very doable and sounds cool imo (when he does it). I'd say give it a go, having a couple of tunes on the go probably good to avoid getting a rut eh.

I just fucking love that chuka chuk alternating bass thumb style, absolutely love it.

5th post, sorry, but meant to say that Don't Think Twice was one of the first songs I learnt, was in a guitar book a friend got me at uni and it's a great song to learn as it's not too difficult to strum and teaches a bunch of chords that are found in every song. I found out it's a bit of a classic for Jerry Reed earlier this year and it's worth me linking it here I think, plus he's got Chet on backup.

Great song and great covers by both Billy and Jerry. Skip to 2mins for the start of the song.

nick_md wrote:

Here's Chet Windy & Warm btw, apparently it's the track that made Tommy Emmanuel want to start playing, such a cool sounding song:

Ha love it! I am gonna drive the other half nuts learning this stuff. I bet that feels so cool to play.

I've got next week off and I'm planning to try my hands at this:

Haha, nice. I honestly think Moot may have clued me onto Colter a few years back so fair props to him.

I went on a bit of a cowboy spree during lockdown last year, bought a hat, trucker cap, one of those shirts with the patterning on the shoulders, various other bits. Only ever worn the trucker cap out and about, because it's ace, never gonna wear the rest out but they make for fun video calls at work. I also own a bolo tie and a pair of boots. I wore the boots to co-op once, they're ace.

I need to find a girlfriend.

Anyway, that funky chorus end bit (if it's the bit I think) I'm not even sure I'm doing it right tbh but it sounds ok to me when I do it so it'll do afaic. Loving your enthusiasm mate, keep it up and yeah it's a great song to play.

This bit.......



I don't care if it sounds bad. It all sounds bad at first right? Just amazing how your fingers adapt so quickly to something that feels unnatural or awkward when you first try it.

Ahhh, that bit, I thought you meant the turnaround kinda bit before that.

For that funky bit I didn't bother using two strings at the bottom for ages, I just did an Em and one string changing at the bottom. Doesn't sound as full for sure but it's a hell of a lot easier. I folded in the other string only a few months ago I think once I'd got a working version of the rest of the song.

That's kinda what I do often - get something working that kinda sounds right, then move on to the next part. It's undoubtedly v.bad as it gets you in bad muscle memory, but I'm lazy and like shortcuts. I do try to come back and do things proper eventually.

Oh yeah that turn around felt new too. The timing was what I was struggling with most until I sort of split them into threes. Every time I played it it sounded wrong but it was the rythem causing me the problem. I've got that sussed now but Its gonna take some repetitions to play it in the song without fucking it up. I currently nail it on about the sixth attempt ha.

At the other end of the guitar learning scale, I've been working through this playlist....each vid is a 10 minute lesson that you do one per day

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-RYb_OMw7GfqsbipaR65GDDzA1rP5deq

Finding it really helpful and nicely broken down. Each vid ends with you playing a song or a riff rather than 'just learning technique' so it feels like I'm learning and making progress not just hitting my own limits...which is usually how it feels when i try to learn something myself

Update on my progress below.....


Still enjoying learning this one. Think I could put it all together now and sing along abit but I won't subject you to that ha!

I'm realy keen on learning a version of that preacher and the bear from the billy strings video above with a few nice walking baselines and turn arounds in but can't find a single tutorial anywhere. Best I could do was chordify but I don't have the ability to realy add stuff in. If anyone else fancies a crack at it I'd love to see someone do a version.

Back in London on the 27th m8, I'll make it happen.