First time jamming

Fretsmith: It seems your list has a few I need to listen to before I decide whether or not to learn them. Hopefully, it'll give me some more bands to start listening to.

I'm not quite sure why you'd say that "Hold The Line" is a Surprise-Pick, though. It's a classic Rock song just like the majority of the list, if not all of it. And I like to think that at least a couple of the songs on the list are recognizable enough.

As for the part with "throw in a few 12 bar blues jams, a little bullsh*ttin' and a couple of smoke breaks", are you referring to while jamming in a rehearsal space, or while performing on-stage (when that time comes, and there seems to be a natural break or shift in mood in the set)? Just want to be 100% sure :)

Generally, though, it's still going pretty well for me. I'm not going to hurry with finding a band or anything. If I can learn a bunch of covers, write a few of my own songs and find some folks to play those songs with on-stage and become even a bit successful, I won't mind if it takes months or years.

Originally Posted by: fretsmith Some songs, like Burnin' For You/Life In The Fast Lane, are absolutely great songs ... IF you can play them. Songs with a lot of "parts" and "dubs" and signature accents loose their essence when you strip them down too far.

yeah, that's a good point. For Life in the Fast Lane, you'd need 2 lead guitarists to play a faithful rendition, or at least a good rythm guitarist and you'd have to come up with a substitution for the slide guitar parts.

Burnin' for you - always wanted to learn that song! If I remember correctly, they have that in the lessons here. Should check that out!

Oh, and speaking of "Give me all your lovin'", what about "Sharp Dressed Man". Pretty much anything off ZZ Top's Eliminator is great.

Can you tell I was in high school in the early 80's? :-).

Originally Posted by: maggioryeah, that's a good point. For Life in the Fast Lane, you'd need 2 lead guitarists to play a faithful rendition, or at least a good rythm guitarist and you'd have to come up with a substitution for the slide guitar parts.

Burnin' for you - always wanted to learn that song! If I remember correctly, they have that in the lessons here. Should check that out![/QUOTE]
They do. I know that since I've checked it out myself (and Christopher Schlegel posted a link to it in another of my threads last year). It's a great song, too. I think I'm going to enjoy learning it.

[QUOTE=maggior]Oh, and speaking of "Give me all your lovin'", what about "Sharp Dressed Man". Pretty much anything off ZZ Top's Eliminator is great.

Can you tell I was in high school in the early 80's? :-).

Indeed. Actually, I think a lot of ZZ Top is great. Most people I know just criticize them because of their huge beards, without paying attention to Billy Gibbons' great guitar-style.

I'm starting to have a pretty huge list of songs I want to learn to play. More than I'll ever need for one show, when I start playing live.

But as I said earlier. I won't rush it. Rushing it will just get me exhausted before I get anywhere. And having recently started reading a book about the beginning of GNR and the events that led to the end of the original lineup has only helped me realize that. GNR didn't rush anything in their pursuit for fortune and fame. They even enjoyed a major set-back (their gear-van broke down on the way to the first gig on their first support-tour, which made the head-lining band remove them from the bill and told them to go back home to Hollywood). They even wrote one of their arguably most famous songs, Paradise City, after that happened. I haven't suffered any set-backs of that scale yet, though, but still.

I'll just take it with ease, take my time to learn a bunch of songs and write my own stuff, and maybe, one day, I'll find the right guys to start the next big Rock-Band.

And to think that months ago, I just wanted to get out there as fast as possible and become a famous rock-star with no patience... Wow... I've changed a lot since then... I've also recently had more luck with coming up with my own riffs, rhythms and leads, since I've decided no longer to rush it.

Originally Posted by: fretsmithSome songs, like Burnin' For You/Life In The Fast Lane, are absolutely great songs ... IF you can play them. Songs with a lot of "parts" and "dubs" and signature accents loose their essence when you strip them down too far.

This is great advice... take heed young Jedi! ;)

Hello Again Kasperow; I wasn't really expecting you to know (or learn ) the specific songs on my personal fav jam list. That's why I pre-qualified myself as an "old guy" with a heart firmly planted in 70's root rock. The point was more that the songs are all pretty easy riff-rooted songs, I can play start-to-finish, that everyone ( in my demographic anyway ) knows, loves, and relate to. Your songs will, of course, reflect your "crowd". I'd say anyone who graduated in 78' or earlier, and was a music fan, would recognize most/all of my jam songs.
Hold The Line only surprised me because I haven't heard it, or any mention of the band Toto, in at least 25 years. The signature riff in that song is classic but, if I remember correctly (?))...the verses are bass driven with guitar accents.
By smoke breaks etc. I was referring to a few guys in a basement or garage knockin down some tuneage for fun. More of a "gang" than a "band". The older you get the harder it becomes to find like-minded people to do that. I really,really miss it. I can tell you are passionate about this quest, I hope it serves you well.

Originally Posted by: fretsmithHello Again Kasperow; I wasn't really expecting you to know (or learn ) the specific songs on my personal fav jam list. That's why I pre-qualified myself as an "old guy" with a heart firmly planted in 70's root rock. The point was more that the songs are all pretty easy riff-rooted songs, I can play start-to-finish, that everyone ( in my demographic anyway ) knows, loves, and relate to. Your songs will, of course, reflect your "crowd". I'd say anyone who graduated in 78' or earlier, and was a music fan, would recognize most/all of my jam songs.
Hold The Line only surprised me because I haven't heard it, or any mention of the band Toto, in at least 25 years. The signature riff in that song is classic but, if I remember correctly (?))...the verses are bass driven with guitar accents.
By smoke breaks etc. I was referring to a few guys in a basement or garage knockin down some tuneage for fun. More of a "gang" than a "band". The older you get the harder it becomes to find like-minded people to do that. I really,really miss it. I can tell you are passionate about this quest, I hope it serves you well.

Okay. Still, it's worth checking out the songs you listed, see if any of them catch on. And even if I don't learn them, it'll help open up my doors to new (classic) bands I don't listen to that much :)

As for Hold The Line, I suppose that all comes down to demographics. In my local area, they love to play it, but only 50km north of where I live, it never gets played anymore, and people often don't even know the song. Same with Gimme All Your Lovin', for that matter. Likewise, if I go those 50km north, the radio almost only plays modern pop and rap, with the occasional GNR, AC/DC and Metallica. So I'm really not surprised that you haven't heard Toto or Hold The Line mentioned in 25 years. It all comes down to what people in the area like. If they don't like a certain style of music, the radio won't play it. I'm just lucky I live in a mature community with a taste for old-school rock music :)

I'm glad that you can tell I'm passionate about this. Not only does it provide hours of entertainment for myself and others who happen to hear me practice. It has also helped me discover a lot of great bands I never thought I'd listen to or even love. This time last year, I knew very close to 0 rock or blues songs, because I hated the genres. Now, my favorite genre is Rock, and my favorite Rhythm-Guitar jammin' genre is blues (because, let's admit it, the basic 12 bar blues has so many exciting variations, just within one key). It's even come to the point where, if I don't know what to play when people ask me to play, my first reaction is to crack out some 12 bar blues, just because it's fun.

I've still got a lot to learn, though, before I reach my goals. I need to improve my improvisation, and learn a bunch of scales off the top of my head. I need to improve my speed and phrasing. I need to be become better at keeping a steady pace. I need to learn and write a bunch of songs and the list goes on. I don't mind, though. I chose to walk down this path in life, and I intend to stay on it, whether it takes two months from now or five years! It all started out with a dream of becoming a famous guitarist, and I feel that somehow, I'm several steps closer to making that dream come true, just by having changed my attitude about it.

I honestly look forward to seeing where I'll be in a couple of months... Hopefully, I'll be better off than I am right now :)

Just remembered a few more I'd forgotten that are on my list:

The Turning (Robin Trower)
Too Rolling Stoned (Robin Trower)
Eagle Of The Day (Robin Trower)
Money For Nothing (Dire Straits)
Dangerous (Roxette)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath)

Probably going to find a few more Dire Straits and Roxette songs too. And maybe some Electric Light Orchestra too. There are a lot of great bands that I've never fully appreciated, especially older ones. I'm trying to find some songs that represent different styles, so the list of songs I can play becomes a more sincere representation of the music I enjoy listening to. This way it'll also be easier to play something an audience would appreciate, without going too cliché. There's a bit of heavy metal, there's some hair metal, there's hard rock, rock ballads, acoustic classics and a bit of blues as well. And it's all songs I enjoy listening to! This complete list of song I want to learn should make it easy enough to find something to play that whoever I'm playing for will like.

War Pigs - now there's a classic!!! I haven't played that one in a while. Never learned the solos properly, but the power chord riffage through then entire song is classic!!!

You could jam until the cows come home on the instrumental part.

Kasperow,

Hold the Line

Verse
6th fret
Am7 to Cm7 to Fm7
Build to the chorus
Am7, Cm7, C#, D#, walk back down

Chorus
8th fret
Fm7, C, C#, C#, D#, repeat

Walk back down
D#, C#M7, BM7, A#M7

Back to the verse. With that you should be able to figure out the song.

Just had the dubious pleasure of being kinda pushed to play something for a small audience (less than 10 people, all family to some degree) this weekend, and, having no real experience with playing for others, I was very reluctant and anxious about it. So I chose to start off with a nice little wrist-warm-up/Fretting-hand-warm-up, called "I Used To Love Her" (GNR). Left the Solos out, since I can't play them yet, and it went pretty good (then again, having played for a year and a half, I'd be ashamed if a song using only Amaj, Dmaj and Gmaj would be a hindrance. It's also a nice, happy song with some less nice and happy lyrics :) ). After that, I went straight into the first half of "Sweet Child O' Mine" (GNR) (up until right after the third chorus). Then, I went straight into "Whole Lotta Rosie" (AC/DC), only tuned down a half-step compared to the original version, followed by "Without You" (Mötley Crüe), "Smoke On The Water" (Deep Purple), and almost finally "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan/GNR). After "Knockin'", I decided to try out something completely different against my "audience". They seemed to like the covers I had selected, so no worries there, once I got started on them.

After that, I tried playing one of my own, but the covers went better. Even though the song I tried playing only had 6 chords (Cmaj, Emin, Gmaj and their respective Power Chords for the Chorus), it was still a challenge, since nobody else had ever heard it. I'll have to work a bit more on that, and a few others before next time I get a chance.

Originally Posted by: haghj500Kasperow,

Hold the Line

Verse
6th fret
Am7 to Cm7 to Fm7
Build to the chorus
Am7, Cm7, C#, D#, walk back down

Chorus
8th fret
Fm7, C, C#, C#, D#, repeat

Walk back down
D#, C#M7, BM7, A#M7

Back to the verse. With that you should be able to figure out the song.

Hm... Should be possible to figure out how to play it based on that. If not, I'll just see if I can find any accurate tabs for it somewhere.

Wow, the Am7's should all be A#m7. Sorry.....