The Rochester Guitar Club

I've got a hand full of tunes that I've never performed for the club, but like to challenge myself to learn a new song for every time I perform. This month I'm working on "Breaking of the Shells" by Billy McLaughlin. It's a straight forward fingerstyle ballad, as opposed to some of his up tempo two-hand tapping pieces I've played in the past. Anyone else working on something? Anyone have anything to question or comment on what I'm doing?

P.S. The more we converse, the more ground we cover, ultimately leads to the more likely we are to come up in a google search (or something like it) and be discovered by potential new forum members!

Yes, I've been working on two tunes - "Where Or When" and "Bluesette", and want to start on "The Boy Next Door". The first two I've picked up from recordings, the last from a book of solo pieces I've had for a long time. Unfortunately, I can't make the next open session, so they'll have to wait. I'll need the extra practice time, anyway.

fenderbender171 wrote: I'll need the extra practice time, anyway.

I'll need more practice than even an extra month or two can provide! What kind of pieces are they? Blues? Jazz? Folk...?

"Where Or When" and "The Boy Next Door" are probably considered "Standards". I have a vinyl album by Roy Lanham, who does "Where Or When" as a short, moderate tempo jazz piece. "The Boy Next Door" is a straight ahead non-improvising version from a Laurindo Almeida book of Standards I bought a long time ago.
"Bluesette" is more in the jazz vein, I suppose, and it's my approximation of Chet Atkins' treatment of the Toots Thielmans tune.

fenderbender171 wrote:...it's my approximation of Chet Atkins' treatment of the Toots Thielmans tune.

Does that mean it's your own arrangement? I personally love to hear people put their own twist on familiar songs. As to the "Chet Atkins treatment", one of my favorite players, Andy McKee, wrote a song called "Common Ground" that combined Chet's traditional alternating bass style and his more contemporary techniques. Sort of an homage, if you will (you can hear it and see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUcM1gMB ... re=related ). Mixing styles can often produce surprising results. I'd love to hear your "treatment" sometime.

New players meeting, and a new tune! As a personal goal, I have been working hard on a technically difficult piece called "Ebon Coast" by Andy McKee. He plays it on a baritone guitar tuned to B standard. I tried just tuning my guitar down to it, but the extra slack in the strings bent it out of tune when I got to the tapping part of the song. I have settled on just tuning my whole guitar down a whole step to D standard. It's not yet up to what I would consider to be "performance standards", but nothing I have ever played in front of the club has been (I'm my own worst critic)! Anyone else working on something new?

Also working on "Li'l Darlin'". I take the tempo real easy, like Count Basie did it. It fits my slower than "slowhand" comfort level, for sure!

Apparently John, you and I are the ony ones that work on new songs..... ever! Are you going to make it to this month's meeting?

I plan to be there.

I'm going to cheat a little and quote from another thread just to get some new people in on this one. This was posted on the following thread; http://rochesterguitarclub.freeforums.org/hello-from-paul-schickling-t85.html

schickling wrote:I have played at previous meetings but I wasn't ready at the last meeting with what I had planned. I had a halloween theme piece. The Old Castle from Moussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition. So I intend to play it at our next meeting. I recall Kinloch asking for something seasonal for the December meeting. He didn't mention which season.

I know the feeling. This time around I am torn between performing the only winter/holiday themed piece I know (that I have not performed or practiced it in many years), and the piece I have been working on for the last month or so (it would be less but I can only find a couple of hours per week to practice). The old piece is "South By Winterwest" by Billy McLaughlin, and the new piece is "Akaskero" by Thomas Leeb. I figure "Akaskero", if you see it spelled out on paper, at a glance could be mistaken for the state Alaska; A place that is synonymous with snow and cold. That counts, right Kinloch? (I know I'm grasping at straws here, but I've been working pretty hard on that song!)