UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Learning Satch Boogie - and it's kicking my behind...
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I know this all sounds a bit "news just in... water is wet..." but ... Joe Satriani - not exactly beginner level stuff is it?
I've been working on the Satch Boogie intro - and wow.
For a start it 's got that awkward "where do I come in" thing a bit like Zeppelin's Rock and Roll...with the timing and drums. Awkward - forget counting it in - I just do it by feel and hope to get it right.
And then there's the sheer bpm speed of it. Just about got it down picked clean to the lizard gurgle bit (how he does that - 14th fret AH with a load of whammy abuse?!) and then it's once more unto the breach for the rest of it...
I'm having to interpret the (slightly inaccurate) tab a bit - there's bits (
after the intro part) such as 5th fret g string and then open g string - when I assume it's a ghost note g cos he's just lifting his finger off for the next part etc...For the most part though it's fairly precise.
Absolute riot of a piece to learn.
Just like a headless horse without a horse.
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I love playing Satch Boogie
So the first beat of bar 3 is the D note (5th fret A string) pull off, and the landing on A (5th fret 6th string) is not where your ear wants it to be :-) But providing you come in at exactly the right spot and keep time with that hihat like its your metronome, you'll be OK, even during the crazier parts of the intro where phrases start on the off beat, or sound like they're speeding up but aren't. But yeah, hardly beginner stuff.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nXk4gxcjVr8
hats off to the guy for playing Satch’s material to the man himself. I’d crap myself if I had to play it in front of him.
A couple of things always bugged me about that transcription so I started watching live clips and put this together...
So it's slightly different to the recorded version but should be pretty faithful to where Joe has evolved it to over the years.
Main changes:
- The 5-6-5-0 phrase, e.g. bar two, beat one
- The dissonant open B string (bar six, beat two)
- The low E string getting involved with the descending triplets in bar nine
- Rephrasing of bars thirteen and fourteen
- Extra voice on top of the chords in bar fifteen
Hope that's useful in some way!(PDF downloadable from the link in my sig)
By the way, on the counting in, it's really REALLY simple.
The first open high-hat isn't the start of the bar. That first tssss is BEFORE the first beat of the first bar.
Then the first beat of the first bar starts on the "t", and so the rhythm of each bar is like "tantaraa, tantaraa". If you count them, you see there are exactly 8 of them; the last of which being the guitar part.
(1)
(1)
One useful thing in that vid is Satriani talking about laying back on the beat slightly to give it a swing. I always liked the way JS did that in his music, gives it a lot of movement.
That vid is interesting - and adds a whole new level of skill to playing it - laying back on the beat / making it swing.
I'm there with the timing to coming in - ensure the D note gets played on bar 3 first beat with triplet hammer on / pull off thing before...
I'm learning stuff from all the comments here - thanks guys.