What song do you sweat?

[Eric***]

I realize not everyone here enjoys playing music written by other people, but I imagine at least a good chunk of people here don't mind a good cover or three. Music is what motivates us, right?

What song(s) are you working on or would you like to learn? I have tons, but recently I've been working on the solos to I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. Way over the top, but everyone in my mini-band seems to like the song, so we've been playing it recently.

Someday, I'd like to learn the solo to Sweet Child O Mine too. Probably cliched by this point, but I don't care -- I'd still like to know it.

[Jimi75]

Hey Eric,
I love The Darkness. Have seen them live once and it was a great concert. Nice solo in that song! I for myself compose a lot of songs, but I enjoy playing covers. Currently, I am working on a lot of Hendrix stuff (you might guess from my recent posts ;-)), because we will play a tribute concert. The songs I am working with now are "Hear My Train A Comin'" and "Stonefree" and "Spanish Castel Magic". As I have to work through huge parts of Jimi's back catalogue I will be busy with his tunes for a while, but that's great, because I found out that there are still undiscovered parts and altohugh I have played his material a thousand times, I am currently in a learning process again.
The "Sweet Child O Mine" solo is a great great solo! It's really worth checking Slash's playing and learning the best of his solos. It's huge fun to play along with GNR's music and rock out a little bit in the living room ;-)

[R_of_G]

One of the things I'm currently working on is learning the solo for "Cold Water" by Tom Waits. It's one of my favorite of Ribot's solos with Waits.

I'm also trying to work out an arrangement of my own for the traditional "Wildwood Flower."

Also added "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures to the catalog recently. Can never know too many surf songs.

[Commodore 64***]

I love Wildwood Flower, R_of_G, I'd love to see your arrangement of it (and try to play it).

As far as learning solos. I can't. I must suck really bad, but I have real trouble learning any type of solo. I'll stick with chord progressions, and working lead work into those chord tones. Hell I can't even do that.

[R_of_G]

Listening a lot to the Frisell version (surprise!) and the Duane Eddy version for influence. Hoping to land somewhere in the middle.

[Commodore 64***]

I saw Suzy Bogguss at a small concert in Kent last year. She had a sample CD with 10 traditional folk songs on it. Wildwood Flower was one of them, great version although it's closer to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band rendition..

[player***]

been working on Aerosmith stuff.currently tackling '' Dream On'' never knew it was made up of so many tri tones on guitar.compensating for the keyboard parts are a challenge too.add in some Pink Floyd and David Gilmour riffs among blues and guess I'll be busy for awhile.

[marnold***]

The solo to "In My Dreams." I've got everything down except the hyperspeed lick at the end. One of these days I'll have a breakthrough but I've been working on that a LONG time.

My problem is that most of my heroes are speed merchants and I just don't have the time or the Sitzfleisch to get that kind of speed.

[Eric***]

The solo to "In My Dreams." I've got everything down except the hyperspeed lick at the end. One of these days I'll have a breakthrough but I've been working on that a LONG time.

My problem is that most of my heroes are speed merchants and I just don't have the time or the Sitzfleisch to get that kind of speed.

Speed is one of the things I've recently begun addressing in lessons. I never knew how "wrong" my grip on the pick was until we went over it last time. I feel like I'm re-learning the guitar.

But...you've got everything else down in that solo?!? Dude. I stopped trying to figure out if there's any chance I could ever play it after the first pinch harmonic.

[NWBasser]

The new band is covering "I want you back" by the Jackson 5 (don't laugh). The bass line is one of James Jamerson's finest and is going to be very challenging for me.

Another one that we're doing is Stray Cat Strut. I just have to do some more woodshedding to get the lines stuck in my mind.

[groverj3]

Not to be the stereotypical shred fanatic I am... but I would love to learn Altitudes by Jason Becker. He's more known for Perpetual Burn and Serrana, but Altitudes has always been my favorite. I used to know part of the middle sweeping section and the first few runs of the song.

[R_of_G]

The new band is covering "I want you back" by the Jackson 5 (don't laugh). The bass line is one of James Jamerson's finest and is going to be very challenging for me.

Nothing to laugh at there. It's a great song from an era when a lot of popular music was still good music. I've heard that song remixed dozens of times and the one thing nobody ever seems to touch is Jamerson's bass line, I suppose because it's already perfect as it is. have fun learning it!

[NWBasser]

have fun learning it!

Yeah, if I can get all parts down including the phrasing, it'll be a blast to play!

Definitely one of the top bass lines ever!

[NWBasser]

Someday, I'd like to learn the solo to Sweet Child O Mine too. Probably cliched by this point, but I don't care -- I'd still like to know it.

I think I'd actually like to learn that solo too. I rather like Slash's melodies and that's a very good one!

[wingsdad]

The new band is covering "I want you back" by the Jackson 5 (don't laugh). The bass line is one of James Jamerson's finest and is going to be very challenging for me.

You probably already know of it, but in case you don't, here's a link to the penultimate resource to studying and learning Jamerson's stuff & technique Standing In The Shadows Of Motown at Amazon.com. Having gone thru High School in the 60's as a white kid playing in a Motown cover band, my guitar style roots have always been firmest in the Funk Brothers' 'trifecta' guitar section. And so to me, when it comes to bassists, there's Jamerson, and then there's everybody else he spawned.

I got this book/cd several years ago, after seeing the TV movie of the same title, and later I got the wonderful DVD of that. It comes with 2 cds to play along with about 50 transcriptions (not Tab) of parts , played by great bassists, mixed so the bass part is alone hard left and the rest of the band is hard right. You can peek at the table of contents & some other pages to see who plays what

But 'I Want You Back' isn't one of them. There's considerable debate as to whether Jamerson played on that tune and 'ABC', the J5's first 2 hits, because by then, he wasn't Motown's lone bassist, as they'd hired other bassists to cover their expansion and for Jamerson's erratic behavior. Bob Babbitt was the first and claims to have played for those 2 tracks. But no matter: the guns they hired were disciples and emulated his style, since they had to reproduce the Motown Sound he bedrocked.

[NWBasser]

You probably already know of it, but in case you don't, here's a link to the penultimate resource to studying and learning Jamerson's stuff & technique Standing In The Shadows Of Motown at Amazon.com. Having gone thru High School in the 60's as a white kid playing in a Motown cover band, my guitar style roots have always been firmest in the Funk Brothers' 'trifecta' guitar section. And so to me, when it comes to bassists, there's Jamerson, and then there's everybody else he spawned.

I got this book/cd several years ago, after seeing the TV movie of the same title, and later I got the wonderful DVD of that. It comes with 2 cds to play along with about 50 transcriptions (not Tab) of parts , played by great bassists, mixed so the bass part is alone hard left and the rest of the band is hard right. You can peek at the table of contents & some other pages to see who plays what

But 'I Want You Back' isn't one of them. There's considerable debate as to whether Jamerson played on that tune and 'ABC', the J5's first 2 hits, because by then, he wasn't Motown's lone bassist, as they'd hired other bassists to cover their expansion and for Jamerson's erratic behavior. Bob Babbitt was the first and claims to have played for those 2 tracks. But no matter: the guns they hired were disciples and emulated his style, since they had to reproduce the Motown Sound he bedrocked.

WD, I'm glad you reminded me of SSOM. I was aware of it and interested, but forgot about it when I started thinking of new cabs lately. I'll certainly be picking that up. I had always heard that I Want You Back was one of Jamerson's, but now that you mention it, he was kind of on the downswing by that time. Maybe it was Babbit after all.

I've always been a rock player and only recently began delving into other playing styles. Playing funk, jazz, etc., it's like learning the instrument all over again!

Yes, it's fresh and interesting, but very challenging as well as I change my playing style.