Song #4 of 100: Blues Saraceno – Remember When

Performance Notes:

I used to know how to play this song way back when. I decided to re-learn it because my friend asked me to! (That’s you Ricky!)  I sat down at 8pm and finished recording at 11pm, basically re-learning the whole song, practicing it many many times, and then recording takes until I got something that wasn’t too bad. I think it took more than 20 takes to get this one. LOL!

Production Notes:

I was trying to get the tone close to Blues Saraceno’s tone, but I didn’t want to spend too much time tweaking the sound and not actually playing the song. I know the intro parts should have some chorus and delay, but I didn’t want to mess around with switching presets while playing, especially since I haven’t mastered the song.

Equipment Used:

• Guitar: Ibanez Prestige RG3550MZ
• Amp/Effects: Fractal Audio AX8
• Recording Software: Mixcraft Studio 7
• Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 6i6
• Video Editing Software: Pinnacle Studio 20
• Camera: Logitech C910 webcam

Link:

https://iohanr.wordpress.com/2016/12/24/im-going-to-learnre-learn-100-songs-in-2017/

Song List:

1. Foo Fighters – My Hero
2. Audioslave – Like a Stone
3. The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun
4. Blues Saraceno – Remember When

Song #3 of 100: The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun

Performance Notes:

Well, this song is actually more difficult than I thought. It has a lot of fiddly parts while strumming that are supposed to be the guitar mimicking the melody of the vocals. I must have practiced this 50 times and still couldn’t get it perfect. This recording was probably the 20th take before I just gave up and decided that it was good enough even with some of the mistakes. 😀

Production Notes:

I just put a GLS Audio ES-58 (Shure SM-58 clone) microphone about 18 inches away from the sound hole. The mic goes into a Mackie 1202-VLZ mixer and then into the Focusrite Scarlett interface and recorded using Mixcraft 7.

Equipment Used:

• Guitar: CF Martin DX1AE
• Mixer (used for the mic preamp): Mackie 1202-VLZ
• Microphone: GLS Audio ES-58
• Recording Software: Mixcraft Studio 7
• Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 6i6
• Video Editing Software: Pinnacle Studio 20
• Camera: Logitech C910 webcam

Link:

https://iohanr.wordpress.com/2016/12/24/im-going-to-learnre-learn-100-songs-in-2017/

Song List:

1. Foo Fighters – My Hero
2. Audioslave – Like a Stone
3. The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun

Song #2 of 100: Audioslave – Like a Stone

Performance Notes:

I love this song. It is actually very easy to play, but difficult to get the tone and the effects set up properly. I tried to get as close as I can to get the tremolo sound as well as the delay + whammy solo. I think I got pretty close and am happy with the sounds I got. After learning it and then practicing it for about an hour, I was able to get an “acceptable” result on the third take. I had a little bit of trouble with timing my footswitch changes for the different sounds of the song, but I eventually got it. Also, the bridge section I thought I was on time but it turns out the backing vocal falls behind a little bit and makes me sound ahead! Ugh.

Production Notes:

This one was simple. One track for the backing track, and one track for the guitar. Recorded direct via the Fractal Audio AX8 into the Focusrite Scarlett interface using Mixcraft Studio 7. I adjusted the levels to match afterwards.

Equipment Used:

• Guitar: G&L Tribute ASAT Classic
• Amp/Effects: Fractal Audio AX8
• Recording Software: Mixcraft Studio 7
• Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 6i6
• Video Editing Software: Pinnacle Studio 20
• Camera: GoPro HERO 4

Link:

https://iohanr.wordpress.com/2016/12/24/im-going-to-learnre-learn-100-songs-in-2017/

Song List:

1. Foo Fighters – My Hero
2. Audioslave – Like a Stone

Song #1 of 100: Foo Fighters – My Hero

OK, song number 1 of 100 has been uploaded to YouTube:

Performance Notes:

I chose this as my first song to learn because it seemed easy enough and it didn’t really have a guitar solo for me to fumble around with. Plus it’s a kick-ass song. I flubbed the middle section a little bit, oh well. I didn’t want to do 20 takes to get it right. Like I said, I’ll come 85-95% close enough most of the time… 😀

 

Production Notes:

I recorded 2 tracks on top of the backing track because there were two distinct guitar parts for the verse. I then panned one guitar to the left and the other to the right. The video and audio seems a little out of sync at first, just a by-product of video editing and utilizing the audio from Mixcraft and mixing in the 2 video files that were just from my webcam.

Equipment Used:

• Left Channel Guitar: Dean Zelinsky La Voce
• Right Channel Guitar: Agile AL-3100
• Amp/Effects: Fractal Audio AX8
• Recording Software: Mixcraft Studio 7
• Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 6i6
• Video Editing Software: Pinnacle Studio 20
• Camera: Logitech Webcam C910

 

Link: 

https://iohanr.wordpress.com/2016/12/24/im-going-to-learnre-learn-100-songs-in-2017/

 

 

 

I’m going to learn/re-learn 100 songs in 2017

OK… well I’ll try to learn 100 songs in a year. This of course necessitates padding the count with a bunch of “easy” songs.  It doesn’t matter, the point of this “New Year’s Resolution” is to enjoy playing guitar and playing/listening to the songs. A few of them I might nail down, most of them I’ll probably get 85-95% close enough, and some of them I’ll fudge the more difficult parts. The goal is excellence, but I’ll settle for satisfactory! 🙂

So here’s “The Plan“:

1. Learn/Re-learn 2 new songs a week
2. Post them on YouTube
3. Write a blog entry pointing to the video and a short synopsis on what I learned
4. Maybe add some extra details on tone settings and guitar gear

I am hoping that I will find backing tracks for most of the songs I choose, but if not, I’ll just “fake it” with an acoustic guitar backing.

Having said all of this, my hope is that I will start the year learning mostly easy songs, and as I progress and my guitar chops get better, I will gradually start learning more difficult songs. Of course, “easy” and “difficult” is completely relative. I am referring to my own skill level. What is difficult for me, may be easy for you…and vice versa.

Also, if I “fail” on this resolution, I hope it’s a failure of quantity, not quality. I would rather end up the year with 50 songs that are 95% good vs. meeting the 100 songs goal with most of them played like crap.

Wish me luck!

IOHAN

Shockwave Supernova

So… I was listening to the latest Joe Satriani album – Shockwave Supernova and was enjoying it as I am a big fan. Then this track comes along… “Crazy Joey” – it starts out with a slow blues type of rhythm and what seems like single/double-note riffs from Joe.  But then, out of the blue… BAM!  The most wicked tapping-riff I have heard in a long time! Mind you, I’ve heard countless shred-tastic two-handed tapping runs in my life, but for some reason, this one really floored me not because of it sounding difficult to play (I think it might actually be not that hard) but because of the awesome melodicism of it even when played super-fast.  This is why Joe is the master.