Songs you find tricky...but sound easy

vasselmeyer · June 2023

The Knack's "My Sharona" is really not as easy as it ssounds. There's some pretty tricky timing going on there. Also, sounds easy, but again there's some awkward timing going on in the intro to Motley Crue's "Kickstart my Heart".

Danny1969 · June 2023

guitartango said:

A Design by life by the Manics, how the hell does he play it and sing at the same time ?

There's an easier way to play it then he does using the same chord voicing. After the C - D - G chord voicing play

...3......
...3......
...3......
...1.....
x
x

Then

.1.....
.1....
.1....
.0.....
x
x

lovestrat74 · June 2023

Back in Black. That pentatonic blues run after the A chord. I can never get that to sound right.

Gassage · June 2023

Subdivisions by Rush.

It seems as if it should be a piece of piss compared to some- but the time sig changes are so so hard to nail.

It really is a song you have to count every measure of.

Gassage · June 2023

stratman3142 said:

Boys Of Summer for me.

We play it a tone lower than the Don Henley original; like the Eagles in the clip below, which I use as my benchmark.

The excellent Steuart Smith absolutely nails it. I have to occasionally remind myself of the section at 2:14, which I find a bit of a tongue twister. But his picking, groove, time and feel throughout is immaculate. I can play it, but it doesn't sound as good as that. I guess that's why he's with the Eagles and I'm playing in a pub band. He's an incredible player.

He is a giant. Absolute genius of a guitarist.

axisus · June 2023

I hate to say it but I struggle with everything. So many things sound easy but I just can't play them. Not sure I was really cut out to be a musician. The one song that comes to mind that I can pay is Focus - Sylvia (pretty darned easy!).

sev112 · June 2023

I’ve lost track of the amount of artists that don’t even play their own songs “properly” (translation - exactly as it sounds on the LP)

I used to hate going to see E.g. Blackmore / Thin Lizzy / Blockheads and their ilk etc and they didn’t play the solos as I expected so I couldn’t see how they played them (clearly this was early 80s and didn’t have YouTube etc)

if you are a facsimile tribute band then perhaps it might be reasonable to do it all exactky the same, but if one is a generic covers pub band then it just needs to be about there. In fact if you’ve got the rhythm right then the notes don’t even matter as much.

(In fact we used to play Brightside in C, in root position, just playing C9 middle 4 strings, Bm7 middle 4 strings, etc. Always seemed to get the right groove)

DannyP · June 2023

In my Beatles tribute, Octopus's Garden is often the trickiest tune in the set.

Sounds like a nursery rhyme, but requires a fair bit of technique to nail it properly.

CaseOfAce · June 2023

sev112 said:

I’ve lost track of the amount of artists that don’t even play their own songs “properly” (translation - exactly as it sounds on the LP)

I used to hate going to see E.g. Blackmore / Thin Lizzy / Blockheads and their ilk etc and they didn’t play the solos as I expected so I couldn’t see how they played them (clearly this was early 80s and didn’t have YouTube etc)

if you are a facsimile tribute band then perhaps it might be reasonable to do it all exactky the same, but if one is a generic covers pub band then it just needs to be about there. In fact if you’ve got the rhythm right then the notes don’t even matter as much.

I agree with this.
We are just about to tackle Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart - the last part of the opening solo is an ascending and descending part in 6ths that don't always go sequentially. I can play it - takes a bit of memorising - but since I've only got bass and drums behind me I'm going to just thrash out the barre chords underlying the changes instead. Jane Punter doesn't care either way and no one will really notice out there.

Some songs do need sig parts learning - as in the lead stuff from Sweet Child (which I do other pretty much note for note other than the very last solo at the end.

sev112 · June 2023

CaseOfAce said:

sev112 said:

I’ve lost track of the amount of artists that don’t even play their own songs “properly” (translation - exactly as it sounds on the LP)

I used to hate going to see E.g. Blackmore / Thin Lizzy / Blockheads and their ilk etc and they didn’t play the solos as I expected so I couldn’t see how they played them (clearly this was early 80s and didn’t have YouTube etc)

if you are a facsimile tribute band then perhaps it might be reasonable to do it all exactky the same, but if one is a generic covers pub band then it just needs to be about there. In fact if you’ve got the rhythm right then the notes don’t even matter as much.

I agree with this.
We are just about to tackle Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart - the last part of the opening solo is an ascending and descending part in 6ths that don't always go sequentially. I can play it - takes a bit of memorising - but since I've only got bass and drums behind me I'm going to just thrash out the barre chords underlying the changes instead. Jane Punter doesn't care either way and no one will really notice out there.

Some songs do need sig parts learning - as in the lead stuff from Sweet Child (which I do other pretty much note for note other than the very last solo at the end.

Yeah that’s a good example. If you get the rhythm of that one right you are 90% there but it’s not a simple one is it

Evo · June 2023

Just in case anyone with teen spirit issues reads this, one important part which often gets missed is the open string hit between the Bb5 and the Ab5 (the 2nd and 3rd chords in the riff)

Make sure as you transition between those two chords, you hit a messy X000XX (or a X0000X, whatever you end up bashing is fine).

Hope this helps!

oktorockto · June 2023

Loads of songs by The Who. Pinball Wizard for starters, Substitute, The Seeker, and Goin' Mobile. The solos in I Can't Explain are particularly hard to get to sound like the record, On Live at Leeds, Fortune Teller is very hard to get the feel of, Odorono, Tattoo, Who Are You, Won't Get Fooled Again, Behind Blue Eyes. Lots of these sound fairly easy but either have some very unusual inversions and chords or are tricky to get the feel of right.

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Songs you find tricky...but sound easy

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