I was reading one of the guitar mags the other day. I forget who it was, but this guy was going to be playing on stage with Les Paul. One of the numbers had a really difficult, fast, high-notes sequence in it, so our hero took great pains and a long time to learn to play it.
He pulled it off perfectly on stage, and then looked across at Les Paul - who was pissing himself laughing!
"I recorded that an octave down at half the speed!", said Les 😄
That's how I learned to play too, just repeating and copying one bit at a time (it was a pain to keep lifting and replacing the needle on the record in fact I wrecked many an LP doing just that) and I've found that's still the best way to do it - tabs and even official music books are often wrong. My BBD tab project was for my own research initially, as the songs can be complicated. I learned so much about playing the guitar just from the Be Bop canon alone, and there were no BBD music books available in the early eighties.
For the original poster Bring Back The Spark, I would suggest downloading 'Amazing Slow Downer' or 'Transcribe!' from the internet, there are free demo versions too. These will enable you to select, slow down and repeat the phrase that you are trying to copy so that you can learn by ear - my tab will help you find the right place on the neck . I understand your frustration, I'm fairly confident with any classic rock guitar parts but if it's a Jazz tune I struggle, so yes I would resort to tab or sheet music if I had to.
When I was a youngster, starting out on guitar, there were no tab charts available, no video lessons, no internet forums to help me. I wanted to play the tunes and riffs of my guitar heroes but had only their records to listen to. So I sat down and listened, a phrase at a time, and figured out the notes on my guitar, working entirely by ear with no other help. I didn't always get it exactly right, but it was a great training and taught me far more than videos and tabs could ever do. It taught me how to truly listen and engage with the music, ear to mind to hand.😉
I ask these questions about a video as the one known video of BBTS on YouTube shows you playing with a folk (thumb over the top) and a natural foundational clasp of an F shape chord, My first guitar teacher made me Barre from day one, now I'm not claiming one is better than the other but the nuances of sliding and hammer-pull offs into the next box of fret notes is different. So that was the nature of my request just to help work out the slide-rocks-bends of my left hand over the frets, some styles are more efficient than others, some have to be learnt and some have to be forgotten.
Just to make you laugh.... I was in a pub rock trio 1979, I was the bassist, I have just started earning and got an effects chain set up for our last gig.... Bass->Big Muff->Bass booster->Electric mistress->HH 100w head->1x15 cab... a small pub in Stalybridge (the Commercial )... we planned a big exit....so our last song was a half decent cover of "Maid in Heaven", nice edge of breakup guitar and my bass super thick with the bass booster, we all turned up, I could not wait for the outro... it came... ON went the Muff PI to add a lot of HF distortion, The Bass booster was already on, ON went the flanger on its deepest setting..... The sound of the D chord I fretted was so big, we gave the audience veritgo and were bouncing beer glasses across tables, the size of the room, the reflective surfaces, the standing waves all seemed to conspire... we got to play it one last time... such fun and the start of my journey into the vibrational energies and components of sound.
@Bill Nelson@Twilightcapers , I embraced both of your wisdoms, listening to the notes and phrasing repeatedly and slowed down to .75 in StudioOne so the notes are on pitch but the time is stretched. I can now play the intro after 40 year of listening to it, I instinctively flow through the scale throwing in the slides and pull-offs . Thanks.
If you mean editing, it's not hard to do on your own. Of course, I'm not a pro at it either. I had to try a lot of programs, not all were suitable, but https://www.fastreel.com/turned out to be great. I`ve been using precisely thit one for a long time and haven`t found any better replacement yet. This video editor has most of the tools I need to work with. Not that I use a lot of tools, but the functionality is enough for me. Most importantly - it's easy to use. I quickly got used to the program's functionality, the interface is clear and convenient, it's simple to understand on your own.
@Bring Back The Spark I hope that was of some help? I've updated the tab on Dreamsville to include all the guitar solos in the song. If you are still struggling then pm me and I may try to video something for you. TC
Hi BBTS. Do you mean the rhythm or the lead part of the intro? You're right about that tab, I did it as long time ago and it could be better. My later tabs do include basic timing info. I don't want to do a video (although I have thought about it) but I will re-do the intro for you in a better format and send it to you.
The solo is major pentatonic scale in the key of B, tricky to play right because of the subtleties of timing and expressive string bends. In due course I'll update the whole thing on the website anyway.
Exactly...we would have to slow the record down, by placing a finger on the edge of the record while spinning, in order to hear the more difficult parts!
I was reading one of the guitar mags the other day. I forget who it was, but this guy was going to be playing on stage with Les Paul. One of the numbers had a really difficult, fast, high-notes sequence in it, so our hero took great pains and a long time to learn to play it.
He pulled it off perfectly on stage, and then looked across at Les Paul - who was pissing himself laughing!
"I recorded that an octave down at half the speed!", said Les 😄
That's how I learned to play too, just repeating and copying one bit at a time (it was a pain to keep lifting and replacing the needle on the record in fact I wrecked many an LP doing just that) and I've found that's still the best way to do it - tabs and even official music books are often wrong. My BBD tab project was for my own research initially, as the songs can be complicated. I learned so much about playing the guitar just from the Be Bop canon alone, and there were no BBD music books available in the early eighties.
For the original poster Bring Back The Spark, I would suggest downloading 'Amazing Slow Downer' or 'Transcribe!' from the internet, there are free demo versions too. These will enable you to select, slow down and repeat the phrase that you are trying to copy so that you can learn by ear - my tab will help you find the right place on the neck . I understand your frustration, I'm fairly confident with any classic rock guitar parts but if it's a Jazz tune I struggle, so yes I would resort to tab or sheet music if I had to.
TC
When I was a youngster, starting out on guitar, there were no tab charts available, no video lessons, no internet forums to help me. I wanted to play the tunes and riffs of my guitar heroes but had only their records to listen to. So I sat down and listened, a phrase at a time, and figured out the notes on my guitar, working entirely by ear with no other help. I didn't always get it exactly right, but it was a great training and taught me far more than videos and tabs could ever do. It taught me how to truly listen and engage with the music, ear to mind to hand.😉
If you mean editing, it's not hard to do on your own. Of course, I'm not a pro at it either. I had to try a lot of programs, not all were suitable, but https://www.fastreel.com/ turned out to be great. I`ve been using precisely thit one for a long time and haven`t found any better replacement yet. This video editor has most of the tools I need to work with. Not that I use a lot of tools, but the functionality is enough for me. Most importantly - it's easy to use. I quickly got used to the program's functionality, the interface is clear and convenient, it's simple to understand on your own.
Hope this helps. I could try to do something in standard music notation with my limited skills if you read music? TC
Just the opening riff will do....
help....
There's tab at https://www.billnelson.com/tab-bring-back-the-spark , including the intro.
Would take me a while to master it, so I can't say whether it's accurate or not.