over the rainbow - Page 2

Kirk Lorange · #16 August 1st, 2006

Thanks Eddiez, for the thumbs up and the generous donation!

BobGamacho · #17 November 22nd, 2006

Hello, and sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I have a few questions about this song.

1) Where does this song rank on a skill level?

2) About how long did (should) it take someone to learn this so that it can be played fluidly? I'm not talking at a fast pace.

Background: I've been playing about a year and a half starting off with electric (Hard Rock) then picked up an acoustic (Fingerstyle)6 months into my self-teaching. On acoustic, it takes me about 3 days to memorize a short song (1.5-3 minutes long on average) such as a chrsitmas carol. I put in about an hour a day on the acoustic, which has been played almost solely for the past 4 months because I'm taking an intermediate guitar class at the local JC. I do not know any theory.

I found this song to be particlarly difficult for me to learn, and I'm thinking I should have focused on the melody line first and then gone back and added the frills. It took me 3 days to memorize part 1, and 2 days to memorize part 2. But, putting each little section together to make a song is killing me. I'm also having trouble with the ending, but I know the notes now and will watch the video a few more times to focs on the ending and moving back into part 1.

But, I think the arrangement is excellent, and it sounds incredible when the parts are pieced together. Thanks for the hard work on this, Kirk.

By the way, this is the first piece I've tackled on this forum, and I will post a my version of the song after I record it this weekend, for better or worse.

Rob

Kirk Lorange · #18 November 22nd, 2006

Hi, Rob.

1. I'd call this intermediate, myself. It's got some fairly intricate little bits but overall it's not that tricky.

2. How long is a piece of string? ... as they say. 18 months is not a long to time to have been playing any instrument. It literally takes most of us years to get a real feel for the instrument, to really feel at home on it. There are so many factors that come into it, physical and mental, and we're all different ... and the older we get, the harder it is to learn new things. Not only that, once you do feel at home on your instrument, you need to play daily to maintain that familiarity.

I think one area to concentrate on is to always try and associate the 'chord(s) of the moment', as I call it, with whatever passage you're tackling. Just remembering the positions of individual notes on the fretboard as they come and go makes things very complicated. The fact is, all are part of a context, and that context is the chord. Once you get that happening, it will become easier to work these tunes out. That aspect of music is a constant -- there isn't a piece of music out there that can't be approached from that angle -- and that's why it's a good thing to make a habit of.

Enjoy the journey, though.

You'll never be as good as you want to be ... there is no final destination.

BobGamacho · #19 November 23rd, 2006

Thanks for the extremely quick reply, Kirk. As I started reading your reply, I realised that I had done something different with this song that I hadn't with any others I've learned. I didn't memorize the chords and their order prior to jumping into this song. I was kind of tunnel-visioned about learning how to play this instead of learning how the piece worked.

I watched the video on this again and noticed that I've made some parts harder for myself than they need to be.

My procedure at this point is to continue with my tweaking of this song, but to also go back and learn the different chords and the associated fingerings. And, in the meantime, I found my next song to learn: La Malagueña. Should be able to start it next weekend.

Thanks again for the reply, and I'll post this song to the appropriate forum once I have it on the computer, probably by Sunday.

Rob

tg · #20 November 23rd, 2006

OK,
I think if you have only been playing 18 months and almost got over the rainbow you have do very well. Keep it up.
Tony.

BobGamacho · #21 December 5th, 2006

Hello again!

Sorry for not following up on this thread earlier; life happened a couple of weeks ago and I didn't have a chance to record this song. And, right now, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Austin, TX after attending my brother's wedding yesterday.

I wanted to make a comment about this song now having a couple of weeks to practice it. It took me 5 days to memorize Over the Rainbow, and then 2 more days to run through it, piecing each part together to form a song. On day 8, everything magically came together where the melody line stood out and the little filler bits started sounding like transitions instead of just notes, which is a good thing.

The song not only sounds great, but it's quite impressive to play (and hopefully to listen to, too). We head back to Monterey tomorrow morning, and I should have the time on Saturday morning to record this to post to this site. I brought my little travel guitar with me on this trip, so I've been working on a this a lot. I have one little section to compare with the tab (I'm not good at learning music from a computer screen, so this will be done when I get home to the printed version of the song), and once that's done, it'll be time for me to move onto whatever my next project will be.

This was a tough song for me to memorize, but the work has paid off, and I plan to visit my Grandma, who is 93 and in a nursing home, this weekend, and this will definitely be played for her.

Thanks again, Kirk, and I'll post my version this weekend.

Rob