Songs longer than 5-10 minutes?

BobGamacho · #1 January 24th, 2007

Greetings,

I'm looking for some recommendations on intermediate fingerstyle songs that last longer than 5-10 minutes. I'm not that concerned about the style of music, but if I had my choices, I'd say Spanish-sytle music, traditional songs, bar songs, classical. I'd prefer to stay away from current popular pop/rock songs.

It seems that every song I've learned over the past two years of playing lasts anywhere from 1 minute to 3 minutes, and I've gotten to the point where I piece songs together just to get more length out of them. I don't improvise (yet), and I only read tab, not standard notation.

As a measurestick of my ability, I've learned 2 songs from this website: The original posted version of Over the Rainbow and La Malenguela (sp?).

Lastly, I'd prefer recommendations for pieces that have been personally done by the poster instead of "I saw this book that looked pretty good...", although I welcome those kinds of suggestions, too.

Thanks!

Rob

doug russell · #2 January 25th, 2007

Hi Bob and welcome. I know it's not really hard fingerstyle. But Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" is a good song to get your teeth into. You can also put your own take to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ_aTjXObs

Stratrat · #3 January 27th, 2007

I don't know if you consider it a "current popular song", but Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven is just over 8 minutes. Kirk has posted a couple of lessons for it too! It's really not *that* difficult of a song to play.

cshude · #4 January 27th, 2007

Innagadadavida- It's something like 20 years long.

BobGamacho · #5 January 27th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by doug russell

Hi Bob and welcome. I know it's not really hard fingerstyle. But Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" is a good song to get your teeth into. You can also put your own take to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ_aTjXObs

Doug and Stratrat: Thanks for the suggestions. Stairway is one of the songs I was going to learn. I had to learn the intro in a guitar class I took last semester, but I want to learn the whole thing as a 1 person song. I heard someone play the whole song on an acoustic, and if I want this song as something I will play regularly, I want to be able to play the whole thing by myself. I just need to find tab that spells out every step of the way.

As for the 5-10 minute songs, I was thinking more along the lines of a piece that has different sections. Classical comes to mind first, but on the rock side, something like Rush's "2112" where there many sections to a 22 minute song., although I use that as an example not as something I necessarily can do.

But, I know I'm limited by the point that I'm at right now, which is why I need something in tab.

Rob

doug russell · #6 January 28th, 2007

I'm sure I can sort you something out. I have "GP5" so I'll have a look through what might be of use for you.

BobGamacho · #7 January 28th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by doug russell

I'm sure I can sort you something out. I have "GP5" so I'll have a look through what might be of use for you.

After doing a bit of websearching this past evening, I have two follow-ups to this thread as to the format of music that I'm looking for. The first is that I'm looking for tab written for a "solo guitar". This seems to be the term used most often to describe the kind of guitar playing I do.

The second bit of info is that I downloaded Guitar Pro 5 (15 day demo version) today to see if I like it. It took me 6 months to realize that Kirk's arrangements were written for this program, so it was time fopr me to give it a try. Will report back later as to how I like it and how much I use it. I can't stand sitting at my computer with guitar in hand, but as long as I can print the music out, I'm good to go.

Rob

Rayzcane · #8 May 16th, 2007

"Key to the Highway" by Derek and the Dominos. It is 9 minutes and 41 seconds long. It is by far my favorite 8 Bar Blues tune. Eric Clapton plays electric guitar. Duane Allman plays electric slide. Hal Leonard has a book with standard notation and tab for this and several other songs including "Layla", "Little Wing", and "Bell Bottom Blues". The name of the book is "Derek and the Dominos, Layla and other Assorted Love Songs".

Rayzcane

I would gladly pay for a master lesson on this one!

NUI · #9 May 17th, 2007

There is always Alice's Restaurant.. Thirty seconds of music repeated a thousand times for a 15 min. song. Even if you don't sing the whole song it's a fun bit to learn. It's good to start playing it in the background if you know someone who tends to talk to much and they start on a long-winded monologue.

John

starsailor · #10 May 17th, 2007

Hi BobGamacho, not too sure if I'm on the same wavelength here but you could check out Johann Sebastian Bach, if you google Bach guitar tabs there are lots there of different levels of difficulty, I can't help on original compositions but I think Bach might meet some of your criteria.

fly135 · #11 May 17th, 2007

BobG, GP is very useful if you need more than a tab to get the feel of the rhythm and melody. Also it's useful if you need to slow down and loop a few measures to learn.