Now that I have found tab that will point me in the right direction in learning Tommy Emmanuel’s Borsalino, it’s time to get practicing. What I usually is listen the hell out of a song and watch any videos I have to observe technique. I had a great version of Tommy performing Borsalino from the Sierra Nevada Center Stage show that aired on PBS. It was on my DVR for quite a while and knew it would always be there. At least I thought it would be. Turns out my Tommy show got recorded over because I failed to protect it so needless to say, I was crushed and pissed. Technology taketh away and technology giveth back! Did a quick search on YouTube and found the performance that I once had. Not to big of a find since YouTube has tons of videos available at anytime but I didn’t want to visit YouTube everytime I need to look at the video. I want to be able to watch it on my iTouch any time I felt like it. Thankfully, many have addressed this need with programs and services that assist me in getting YouTube videos on my iTouch. It’s called …
latest update
If You have read some of my previous Tommy posts, you will know I’m on a quest for an accurate Borsalino transcription. I think I found one that when combined with the other transcription that I found, I get a pretty good idea on how to play it. The thing that makes this so hard is that Tommy plays the song differently depending on when he played it. So there cold possibly be many versions of tab out there. Anyway, this site has many different transcriptions for you to try out. (I lost count after 20) They are in PDF format so you don’t have to worry about having Guitar Pro or Power Tab. I have sampled two two transcriptions; Borsalino and Bye Bye Blackbird(Up Close DVD). Borsalino is fairly accurate but it’s hard to say because in the performance notes for the transcription, it says, “As seen in concert…” What concert would that be? Who knows but it fills some holes the other left. Bye Bye Blackbird is OK as far as the notes and fingering but the rhythm was not as accurate as I had hoped. In the “Up Close” DVD, Tommy did a lot of syncopation which wasn’t represented in …
Have you had one of those days where no matter what you do, the guitar will not cooperate? Of course you have! Well, I’m pretty sure today is my turn. Here’s the deal; my guitar won’t stay in tune, my 9 volt went dead and my left and right hands have decided not to cooperate with each other. I know these things happen and I shouldn’t get frustrated but I am. I’ve been advised by many that when this happens, it’s time to put the guitar down and walk away and play another day. So, as I write this, the guitar is sitting on it’s stand, put to bed, mocking me. Must resist the urge to pick it up…..
I’ve been practicing my guitar a ton lately and sometimes it feels like I’m never going to “master” the pieces that I’m trying to learn. Sometimes I think that I have gotten it down and then a complete mind fart happens and I can’t remember how to play it and have to re-learn. After thinking about this a bit, I realized that I go through, what I call the four stages in learning a song. Stage 1: Learning This is the initial site reading of the song, either by tab, regular notation or just jamming along with it on CD or iPod. I the progress to a point where I can play the piece fairly well with the music in front of me. Depending how many times I’ve heard this song, I can progress pretty quickly in this stage. Stage 2: Fixing and Polishing This is where I need to sit down and work on certain parts that might have given me trouble during site reading. I still don’t have it memorized and maybe not playing it at a slower tempo. By the time I’m finished with this stage, I’m playing it at tempo and it’s pretty much memorized. Stage …
In a previous post, I did a review of Bruce Cockburn’s performance at the Swallow Hill Folk and Roots Festival last March. I also posted my report to CockburnProject.net and found an interesting addition to my review by someone called Audrey. Audrey had some really good “inside” information regarding the circumstances surrounding Bruce’s performance. Apparently, Bruce’s normal stage crew wasn’t there to set his rig and so there was a bunch of “fiddling” around trying to figure out what was wrong and Bruce’s in ear monitor was also on the fritz. Plus, with the long delay Bruce had to keep focused because there was a curfew and if they went over that curfew, there would be fines. Therefore the reason why Bruce wasn’t engaging the audience like I mentions. Anyway, thanks to Audrey for shedding some light on the situation and knowing what I know now, I’m even more grateful for Bruce’s performance. He could have thrown in the towel and just showed up but he still played a great show. THANKS Bruce!
