• Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Topic: Got an unexpected complement

I was playing a little guitar with my sister's boyfriend over the Thanksgiving weekend.  We hadn't played together before, so we were just swapping the guitar back and forth and playing riffs and songs we knew.  I told him through long habit I still rely on my song book.  I've never been good at memorizing songs.  For some reason, if that song book is open to the right page I really don't need to look at it much, but if it's not there I just can't recall how things go.  Anyway, he's a pro piano player.  Been pro for thirty years or so.  Cruise ships, bars, opening acts.  Wasn't a headliner so far as I know but he's a talented man nonetheless.  Well, he looked through my songbook and asked "Can you play this one?"  "Oh no, that's in there to practice on barre chords."   "How about this one?"  "Oh sure.  But you've got to understand I don't play like a cover.  I just play like I want so you'll have to listen and blend in."  "No problem."   

Well, we played through a couple songs.  Then he said, "Keep up the good work.  You're doing real well."   

"Thanks.  I'm teaching myself so I don't have any tricks, just basic strumming and fingerpicking."

"Well, don't worry about that.  You've got the voice for it, just strum along and let people hear you sing."

I've never had my voice complemented and only ever considered it a means to keep track of the song.  I enjoy singing, but never thought I was any good at it.  I still don't, but it sure was nice to hear an unexpected complement.

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • upyerkilt
  • upyerkilt
  • Unofficial king of Scotland
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  • From: Balloch, Scotland, UK, Earth
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
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Re: Got an unexpected complement

Zurf,
I rely mostly on my singing to pull off songs as I am a strummer and dont fingpick or bend or do lead parts etc,
Igot told the same as you got told. Strumming is ok if you can sing with it.
Also a good guitar player ( as in lead and finger pick and strum) if playing the guitar good can get away with good playing and bad singing.

Now, when you get bad playing and bad singing, as long as you are having fun, forget what everyone say if they critisise.


Ken

ye get some that are cut out for the job and others just get by from pretending
  • From: Cincinnati, OH
  • Registered: 2007-07-16
  • Posts: 282

Re: Got an unexpected complement

Well done Zurf!
The bass player in our worship band is a professional gigging musician, and whenever he says "good job" after a set it always makes me feel warm & fuzzy...and then I figure his monitor was unplugged or something.

And for what it's worth, I can't remember a song if my life depended on it--when I go to the guitar store I wind up playing about 8 bars of a dozen different songs because I'm....well, not very bright I guess.  I was playing a les paul at guitar center the other day, played the same three songs for an hour because that's all I can remember; Crawling (linkin park), Cumbersome (seven mary three), and Keep on Rokin' in a Free World.  I think they were going to kick me out if I started my "set" one more time.

  • Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
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Re: Got an unexpected complement

I've heard folks doing the same thing at Guitar Center.  I heard one guy playing the exact same lick over and over again for what was probably 45 minutes or more.  From one of my offices, there's a Guitar Center on the way home.  Sometime when the traffic is really bad, I pull off to play some guitars and basses I can't afford (I know, it breaks my own rule) in the acoustic room and to spend a little time looking over the DVD's and books.   Sometimes I go in, and there's some guys really shredding.  Other times you'll hear a guy popping and slapping and putting together a serious groove on a bass.  But this time, it was a guy playing the same four measure lick over and over and over and over.  The guys who worked there didn't seem to notice.  I'm sure three different licks wouldn't have bothered them a bit.

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: Got an unexpected complement

Well I think it's a good idea to have a songbook.  One that is printed up or sketched on or whatever, but on paper right in front of you.   I've got mine in a three ring binder, divided up into songs I know, songs I'm learning, and songs I want to know.

It's a good tool for learning.

First time I ever sang into a microphone, I had to stop.  There was this weird voice echoing everything I said into my ear.

"Do I sound like that?"

"Yeah, man, get your face up on it!"

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

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  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,865

Re: Got an unexpected complement

having a song book is good because you have something to fall back on and its kind of like a recipie book you dont know what your hungry for till you flip through the pages acapo

"Growing old is not for sissies"

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