What were you just playing on the guitar?

Cafe Society
1

Assuming that you were at all, of course. Feel free to start if you weren’t already.

I’m playing “Someday, Some Way,” by Marshall Crenshaw, because I suck. Marshall Crenshaw is very suck-friendly. He has a way of putting pretty standard chords together in novel ways that make you sound a lot better than you actually are. The A to E change in the verse deceptively simple, like a Buddy Holly song. Easy to play and hard to play right. And the walk up in the chorus is a pretty easy change but it sounds impressive as all hell. So tell me what’s cool about the song you’re playing. Or just stopped playing. Or are about to play. Assuming, of course, that you are.

2

“Blackberry Blossom,” a fiddle tune I’m trying to learn.

3

Do You Remember, by Jack Johnson, because my best friend from college is getting married soon and he wants to play this at his wedding. Short and easy song.

4

Most of the time, I pick it up for only a few minutes. Lately, I have just bee strummin through the intro to Lifehouse’s You and Me. Before that, it was Night Moves by Bob Seger.

5

An interesting arrangement of Old Joe Clark out of Richard Lieberson’s Old Time Fiddle Tunes For Guitar.

That and some runs I transcribed from a couple of old Bela Fleck tunes.

6

The main melody of Stars and Stripes Forever, because…

I was watching Jeopardy! and it was the answer [question] to the final Jeopardy question [answer].

I’m not a great guitar player; I can either strum a few basic chords, or – what I do for the most part – I can finger-pick melody lines of whatever song I happen to be thinking of, even if it’s completely unsuited to the guitar (ala Stars and Stripes Forever).

7

“Bertha” by the Grateful Dead. I’ve only been playing for a couple of months, so any other “suck-friendly” recommendations would be appreciated. I’ll definitely look into some Marshall Crenshaw stuff.

8

Norwegian Wood (I can play the sitar part too, just not at the same time) and Fulsom Prison Blues because I like to sing those to my two year old. I also have a reasonably jazzy version of Rubber Ducky that she likes. Problem is now she wants to do the strumming, which doesn’t really work.

She’s gonna grow up strange.

9

If air guitar counts, I’m jammin’ to Steely Dan’s Bodhisattva. But I can’t really play guitar.

10

“Lion’s Mane” by Iron and Wine.

11

Hey, me too. I actually learned it because someone on here recommended it in a thread where somebody was looking for songs to play on the guitar.

I don’t know what level you’re at, but my rather inexperienced self was able to learn the sitar part. It probably helps that my roommate knows the song pretty well and was here to teach it to me, though. You might be able to get it if you check out some tabs just to see which notes you need to hit, and work on it from there. Unfortunately, rhythm doesn’t translate well in tabs, so you’ll have to figure that out alone. It’s pretty much just picking the melody over a D chord.

Definitely a fun little song to play.

12

I was just playing this.

I am trying to figure out what to do with it next. This is a rough take. Once I figure out all the solo parts I’ll go back and rerecord the whole thing. I’ve been playing a lot recently and my speed is getting back to where it should be so I’ve added some longer, faster runs which will hopefully be in harmony. A couple of them are kinda hard so I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull them off.

It ought to turn out ok when I get it done. I’ve got another two pieces that I worked on tonight but they are not quite ready for listening. I’ll post them as soon as they are listenable*.

Slee

*Is that a word?

13

“Love Shack” on the bass guitar. Because I’m crap, and it’s easy.

(And fun.)

14

I’ve been working on a song in my head for the past couple of days and I just started actually trying to play it. I can’t really explain how it goes, but these two lines are what I keep coming back to:

I’ve got a love with a pitiful feel
I think my brain needs a chemical peel
…who knows, it may go to the boneyard yet…

15

Not a guitar song at all Tom Lehrer’s Elements*, because I’m trying to memorise it. It’s not at all hard to play, singing it on the other hand.

The last thing I played electrically/loudly was the Live at Leeds version of Young Man Blues.

Tonight I shall mostly be playing along with Dogs by Pink Floyd.

  • The tune (for those who don’t know) is the Major General’s Song from the Pirates of Penzance
16

Loser’s Samba and My Wife by Martin Mull. I’m having a hard time finding tabs for any other of Martin’s songs. He tends to use (I’ve noticed) a lot of Jazz chords that are hard for me to get my fingers around. I just got a new guitar for Xmas, and hadn’t played for a couple of decades :eek:

17

Patty Griffin. In this thread, stpauler pointed out that many of her songs are quite simple and easy to play. Low and behold, it is true.

18

The last thing I was fooling around with last night was “Got A Line On You”, by Spirit. I play in a band with much younger people. We had a rehearsal last night, and when there’s a lull I often start playing something I played in the 60s or 70s, just to see if the others will start playing along. They did, and I botched (couldn’t quite remember) the solo. I refigured it out before I went to bed.

19

I’ve been playing all the Damien Rice stuff a lot recently but I’m now turning to Ben Harper. I’ve been working on “The Woman in You” and hope to be able to play it …eventually.

20

The last thing I played was on bass - Steely Dan’s “Black Cow” along with the CD. On guitar, the last thing I was playing was a 25-bar blues I wrote about 10 years ago.