How should I handle un-serious band-mates?

Originally Posted by: haghj500I don’t have time to reply to this properly so I will say this.

There are Very Few things we can Control and others Can’t Take from us.

1 is our values
2 is our emotions.

Why are you giving this person the power to control your emotions? Is holding on to what was said severing you or are you severing those word?

Take care.

Hm... Good point. I know that when I start playing gigs, someone is going to think or say something similar, but it has a much more destructive effect when it comes from someone close to me, especially someone who's supported me since day 1. Now I just hope I can re-find my inspiration so I can go pick up my guitar again, the sooner the better. I really loved the '57 Deluxe amp-model's responsitivity and sound, even more than the Marshall-style and Vox-style models I'm used to. I'm going to try messing a bit more around with it when the motivation and inspiration returns, and if I find that it's really that awesome, I might even consider finding the real thing in a store and check it out.

Of course, one good thing may have come of this: I have something to write a song about... I really don't care if whatever song(s) come from this become the next big Rock-song, as long as something comes out of this. Of course, that's still assuming I can pull myself together and pick up the guitar and put some Chords together and throw a Riff into the mix :)

Hey Mr Kasperow, sometimes the people who support us are the very people who can tell us honestly how we're doing - and it doesn't do any harm to get a reality check once in a while. My friends tell me when my playing sucks - but I don't give up playing! The answer is to accept the challenge and redouble your practice efforts. And forget about writing the next big rock song for a while.....Good luck, Steve

Hey Kasperow.
Why don't you take a break from the whole guitar thing for a few days.. Go for a hike, the beach, read a book. OR, go shopping with your woman. That may snap you out of your doldrums...
Check your health.. mental and physical.. Anxiety and depression can sneak up on you..
Just a few things to think about..
Wish you well..

I was going to say at first that it didn't sound much like you were in a band. Then, I had a flashback to the days I was in a band back in '88. I recalled the same dynamics for the most part and realized yes you were in a 'band'. As you might guess I'm an oldhead and don't have much in the way of a musician in a band advice. When we were good we were good. When we weren't, was the last time I was in a band. Musicians grouping together in a like minded endeavor is just like anything else we HUMANS experience together in our orbits around Sol. Dynamics, egos, personalities et al have such a huge pendulum swing. Thank the Cosmos we aren't all from the same dough or cutter eh? Stick with what makes you feel good and find peeps that it does the same for. Life is way too short to sweat the small stuff. Have Fun.

Originally Posted by: compart1Hey Kasperow.
Why don't you take a break from the whole guitar thing for a few days.. Go for a hike, the beach, read a book. OR, go shopping with your woman. That may snap you out of your doldrums...
Check your health.. mental and physical.. Anxiety and depression can sneak up on you..
Just a few things to think about..
Wish you well..

Thanks, compart1. Luckily, it turns out this little "lack of motivation" thing could actually be easily cured :) All it took was plenty of spare time, boredom and 30 minutes of rewatching a recording of a clinic held by my two favorite Danish guitarists last year at a national guitar-expo. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, Søren Andersen has surpassed Slash as being my primary source of motivation. It's not that Søren is a better guitarist. I think it's more that he was born and grew up in the same town as I've lived in my whole life, and his background is similar to my own (never been particularly popular, had trouble making friends in school, etc.), and he just got into playing guitar at a similar age as myself, so it's absurdly easy for me to relate to him. Hell, he even practiced for over 15 YEARS before playing his first public gig 3 years ago. Today, he's a world-touring guitarist, who plays with Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple. By that time-frame, I'm rushing it, and I've come to realize it. This whole weekend-long "down-time" did some good after all.

I think I'll try and go a bit back to basics and from now on just take it slowly and make sure to do things right this time. That means no proceeding beyond Barre Chords before I can perfectly fluently switch between the different shapes and Open Chords. No more noodling around for hours on end, until I reach my goals. I'll also focus more on my Rhythm Playing, which sucks big time. I'll also consider buying that Fretboard Workbook (I can't remember the exact title and Author), and see if it can help me improve a bit. Basically, I'll go back to basics, kill some of my bad habits, and hopefully, by the start of February next year, I'll have become a much better guitarist than I am now. Finding a band? That'll wait... For now ;)

Good news to here... Keep guitar playing fun

Wow musically you've grown a lot in this thread! My guitar teacher was my brother in-law. He had already been out on the band circuit and left from burn out. I had to be able to make open chords as he said them before he started giving me songs. He said your not ready to learn songs if you still have to stare at your hands to make chords and can't make them fast enough to stay in time with the music. It couldn't argue with that, so I leaned them.

If you stay with what you said and learn them before moving on it will help you more than you understand at this time. You will have a real chance to work on your rhythm because you can form the chords fast enough that you don't have to stop your right hand and wait for your left hand to do it's thing.

That is so cool you have someone from your home town to inspire you. Like you I have lived in the same town my whole life. I got to meet a guy one time who had just spent 12 years of his life learning, eating, drinking and sleeping guitar. He came over and jammed with us 3 different times, to get use to playing with others. To this day I think that guy had more skill sets to offer then anyone else I have see live.

Learning to play music can be a beautiful thing for those who need to learn to wait. You cant rush music, you have to practice and wait to reach the level you want to achieve.

Originally Posted by: haghj500Wow musically you've grown a lot in this thread! My guitar teacher was my brother in-law. He had already been out on the band circuit and left from burn out. I had to be able to make open chords as he said them before he started giving me songs. He said your not ready to learn songs if you still have to stare at your hands to make chords and can't make them fast enough to stay in time with the music. It couldn't argue with that, so I leaned them.

If you stay with what you said and learn them before moving on it will help you more than you understand at this time. You will have a real chance to work on your rhythm because you can form the chords fast enough that you don't have to stop your right hand and wait for your left hand to do it's thing.

I'll second the importance of learning good rhythm guitar and chording technique. I spent a couple of years playing acoustic guitar in a church group just strumming chords. My playing in general was greatly improved by the experience...even my lead playing. It *really* surprised me! Not saying you need to join an acoustic group, just don't dismiss the importance of playing chords and rhythm guitar in general.

If you walk into a group of people to play with and say "I only play lead" it's a major turn-off for the other players. A guy with the bunch I'm playing with currently is like this. You don't want to be "that guy" :-).

Glad to hear you got over your funk. There will be ups and downs, and you are learning how to deal with them.

Originally Posted by: haghj500Wow musically you've grown a lot in this thread! My guitar teacher was my brother in-law. He had already been out on the band circuit and left from burn out. I had to be able to make open chords as he said them before he started giving me songs. He said your not ready to learn songs if you still have to stare at your hands to make chords and can't make them fast enough to stay in time with the music. It couldn't argue with that, so I leaned them.

If you stay with what you said and learn them before moving on it will help you more than you understand at this time. You will have a real chance to work on your rhythm because you can form the chords fast enough that you don't have to stop your right hand and wait for your left hand to do it's thing.[/QUOTE]
That's what I hope. I think I made a big mistake by just jumping ahead when I started to get bored with not progressing. As a result, I can't play anything requiring both Barre and Open Chords, since switching between the two is an enormous challenge for me. I'll have to go back to Christopher's tutorials on how to practice Barre Chords and scales and "simple" stuff like that before I proceed. I need to get rid of my bad habits, preferably ASAP. That is, the sooner I get rid of my bad habits, the sooner I can start to do things right and not have my left hand cramp up after a minute of playing Barre and Power Chords :)

[QUOTE=maggior]I'll second the importance of learning good rhythm guitar and chording technique. I spent a couple of years playing acoustic guitar in a church group just strumming chords. My playing in general was greatly improved by the experience...even my lead playing. It *really* surprised me! Not saying you need to join an acoustic group, just don't dismiss the importance of playing chords and rhythm guitar in general.

If you walk into a group of people to play with and say "I only play lead" it's a major turn-off for the other players. A guy with the bunch I'm playing with currently is like this. You don't want to be "that guy" :-).

Glad to hear you got over your funk. There will be ups and downs, and you are learning how to deal with them.

Yeah, I tried playing in a small acoustic group last winter, when someone was hosting a guitar-workshop. I think there were somewhere between 15 and 20 of us, all strumming the chords to a few songs. It sounded pretty terrible, since less than half of the guitars were playing in time... But it was fun to try, which is just as important. I'm not going to do it again for a while, though.

I think you may have pointed out the main reason why I seem to have all kinds of trouble with finding good people to play with... Everytime I post an ad, I have a tendency of writing "Lead Guitarist looking for band members for band-start" or something like that in the headline, and never get around to mentioning that I do, actually, also play Rhythm. I should take that into consideration, once I get better... After all, Rhythm can be fun to play too, getting to play all the cool solos is just so much more awesome, and thus, more attractive :)

I too am glad I'm past my little down-time. Annoying as it was, it's helped me realize a lot of things. In the lights of this weekend's events (or lack of such), I've decided to try and come up with some kind of Practice Routine to help me get to where I want to be. It'll probably end up being me just spending every minute of my spare-time practicing, but if that's what it takes to reach my goals, I don't mind :)

I'm surprised your hand still gets tired that fast. First three things that come to mind that do that so fast.

As I read other people saying on the site.
1. How hard are you pressing/grabbing the strings/neck?
Try using less for both.

2. The angle of your hand in relation to the neck.

3. The height/angle of the guitar when you play.

Ok
4. Lack of practices.

I don't know if you have heard of an old song called "Lay Lady Lay"
The verse uses the bar chords A, C#m, G, BM.

Make a bared A on the 5th fret. For C#m move all your fingers down 1 fret and drop fingers 2, 3 and 4 down one string. For G move all your fingers down 1 fret and raise fingers 2, 3 and 4 up one string. For Bm move all your fingers down 1 fret and drop fingers 2, 3 and 4 down one string. Go back up to A and start over.

The chorus is open E then open A, repeat till you go back to the verse.

Words are close to:
Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed, till the break of day stay with your man a while.

The bar chords will help build your hands and switching to the open chords will give them a rest and help get you use to switching.

If you don't know the song.... well... I guess it don't matter.

Originally Posted by: haghj500I'm surprised your hand still gets tired that fast. First three things that come to mind that do that so fast.

As I read other people saying on the site.
1. How hard are you pressing/grabbing the strings/neck?
Try using less for both.

2. The angle of your hand in relation to the neck.

3. The height/angle of the guitar when you play.

Ok
4. Lack of practices.

1. I'm probably using excessive force for the Barre. Only the necessary amount of force for the fretted notes, though.

2. My wrist usually bends somewhere between 0 and 15 degrees from the arm. Not sure if that tells you anything. I generally try to get that curving shape around the wrist, as shown in Christopher's videos.

3. I usually have the guitar fairly low, angled at roughly 30-45 degrees. That is, the pickups are a bit below belt-height (which I find handy, as I have long arms and the strumming hand automatically defaults to that position anyway), while the neck goes up so I can more easily fret the Barre Chords. When I need to reach the notes beyond the 12th fret, the neck goes closer to vertical (usually only during solos or the intro to Sweet Child O' Mine...), but it comes back to the before-mentioned 30-45 degree angle after solos.

4. Lack of practice is the explanation I'm most willing to go with. I've tried playing with the guitar hanging higher, but it just quickly became uncomfortable to strum that way, so I figured hanging it low and raising the neck would be better. Lack of practicing also helps explain why I find them hard to play confidently and switch between fast. I just need to put in hours (or more likely, weeks) of intense Barre Chord workout :)

And you are absolutely correct. I don't know the song. Never heard it before, but the Chord Progression looks like a pretty common one, so learning to play this will definitely be worth the time. And it's a good little exercise for switching Barre Chords. At least, in this case, the chords are all E Major and A Minor shaped Barre Chords. Same finger-positions, just on different strings and moved a bit around (you know what I mean).

I've been playing for over 30 years and if I haven't been playing barre chords for a while (a month), my endurance with them goes down.

To build a lot of strength with barre chords, play them a lot; find a song like haghj500 suggests and play it regularly. Once your endurance is up, make sure you play something with barre chords once a day I'd say to keep that strength there.

When I did the music store band thing the last time, every song we did invoved barre chords! My endurance was usually 30 - 45 minutes. Half way through I found I could go the full 1.5 hours and feel like I could still keep going.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to check if any of my favorite artists have written any songs with some Barre Chords. Might as well learn a song I like at the same time :) Makes the process just a bit more enjoyable.

Originally Posted by: maggiorTo build a lot of strength with barre chords, play them a lot; find a song like haghj500 suggests and play it regularly. Once your endurance is up, make sure you play something with barre chords once a day I'd say to keep that strength there.

Well, I just looked up Toto's "Hold The Line", and it turns out that it's Chorus is just 4 Power Chords, and while it's not quite Barre Chords, it's close enough. The biggest problems I have with Barre Chords are, after all, the position of the Thumb on the back of the neck. When I play Barre and Power Chords, the Thumb tends to cramp up (which is not the intended purpose of placing it there), so if I can rid myself of this issue, it's one less worry for when I find something with full Barre Chords :)

Also, on an unrelated note, related to the original post: The Bass player just responded today. He said he's been having some problems with his Internet connection, but he's still interested in meeting up again. I'm hoping we can figure something out for next weekend, so we can figure out a few songs to learn, preferably some that are within our grasp, and if possible, some that aren't done to death already :) and hopefully some songs that we both like. I was pretty large about the first one. Not the most fun to play, but it's a good song nonetheless. The next song we choose, however, has to be a little more fun to play too... :)

So, I've almost gotten the basic Power Chord shape down without getting cramps in my left-hand thumb (I really hate it when that happens), so I'd say the next step would be to find a song I already like, which has full Barre Chords in it, so I can get those under my finger-tips (luckily I already know one such song, which also has a simple solo and it's by two of my favorite guitarists, no less! I need to learn that song, even if I'll never get to play it with a band).

As for finding the next song to learn along with the Bassist, that's not going too well. I've made a few suggestions for songs I think would be cool to learn and play, most of which feature some cool riffs, but they get shot down, while he keeps suggesting songs that follow a chord progression (nothing outright wrong with that) and a boring 8th note strumming pattern, which isn't my definition of "fun to play". Of course, most of his choices are songs with cool bass lines, while I'm more into songs with awesome guitar-riffs, so there might be a slight conflict of interests. I'm hoping we can work something out. Otherwise, I'll just have to find someone else.

Any song you know in open chords can be played using bar chords. Knocking on Heavens Door: using open chords I normally play using G, D, Am. No reason you can't make a G 3rd fret bar, then make a D 5th fret using the 2nd major bar chord shape, then stay at the 5th fret and play Am. Which is the same as the A chord, except you lift your 2nd finger.

If you use 3 different chords ... so what .... just change them to where they are on the neck.

My bass player thoughts - when both of you listen to a song, you both listen to different parts. You both think how did he do that, but you're thinking about two different people. You both play different guitars how could you listen to the same song in the same way. Before you let go try another approach. I would like to learn "some song" and I would like to hear what you can do with the bass lines. Is there something you would like me to work on so you can jam on your bass and try some new runs?

Both get give and take and something new to learn and responsibility to each other giving a reason to get together and jam again.

Here is a simple jam progression you can use to learn the two bar chord shapes. A, C, G, D. In a rock tone strum a full A bar chord, now use the 2nd shape to make a C at the 3rd fret strum it. Make a G 1st bar chord shape 3rd fret, now 2nd shape 5th fret D.

Strum it like Aaaa C c checka G, Dddd d checka, back to A. After a while move it up to B, D, A, E. See what kind of rhythms you will come up with, it can be fun. No reason you can't strum an A, play a quick lead fill in A, then strum the C and play lead in C, strum G fill in G and then D playing lead in D, back to A and do it again.

If you have not found the fret board trainer on this sites home page yet, you should check it out. Low right side of the screen.

Originally Posted by: haghj500Any song you know in open chords can be played using bar chords. Knocking on Heavens Door: using open chords I normally play using G, D, Am. No reason you can't make a G 3rd fret bar, then make a D 5th fret using the 2nd major bar chord shape, then stay at the 5th fret and play Am. Which is the same as the A chord, except you lift your 2nd finger.

If you use 3 different chords ... so what .... just change them to where they are on the neck.

My bass player thoughts - when both of you listen to a song, you both listen to different parts. You both think how did he do that, but you're thinking about two different people. You both play different guitars how could you listen to the same song in the same way. Before you let go try another approach. I would like to learn "some song" and I would like to hear what you can do with the bass lines. Is there something you would like me to work on so you can jam on your bass and try some new runs?

Both get give and take and something new to learn and responsibility to each other giving a reason to get together and jam again.

Here is a simple jam progression you can use to learn the two bar chord shapes. A, C, G, D. In a rock tone strum a full A bar chord, now use the 2nd shape to make a C at the 3rd fret strum it. Make a G 1st bar chord shape 3rd fret, now 2nd shape 5th fret D.

Strum it like Aaaa C c checka G, Dddd d checka, back to A. After a while move it up to B, D, A, E. See what kind of rhythms you will come up with, it can be fun. No reason you can't strum an A, play a quick lead fill in A, then strum the C and play lead in C, strum G fill in G and then D playing lead in D, back to A and do it again.

If you have not found the fret board trainer on this sites home page yet, you should check it out. Low right side of the screen.

Yeah, I've tried the fretboard trainer, using the new app. I haven't tried it online yet, but I seriously doubt it's any different on a laptop than on a phone :)

I actually never considered replacing Open Chords with their Barre Chord counterparts. Thanks for making that suggestion. The version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" that I know (the version by Guns N' Roses) uses a G D C progression with Open Chords for verses and their Power Chord-counterparts for the chorus. Couldn't be much easier, really. The arpeggiated verse seems to become a little harder when using Barre Chords, though (probably since I'm used to the Open Chords).

I'm still having some problems with finding out what songs to learn with the band (or rather, the bassist). But as you point out, we listen for different parts of the song. He listens for the Bass-parts while I listen to the Guitar and Keys/Piano (and sometimes drums too). We'll have to find some songs that will make both of us happy, or we'll never get anywhere (and I intend to go as far as possible with my music career). I've tried suggesting pretty much every cool rock-song I know and love, but most of them are shot down immediately, and the rest are clearly outside our grasp for now. There's a clear conflict of interest here. The only song I've suggested that he hasn't shot down yet is "Smoke On The Water" (which I'm actually getting pretty good at improvising a solo for), and there's not much for me to learn if we go with that song, since I can already play it from start to finish... Well, we'll see how it goes...

Originally Posted by: KasperowI've tried suggesting pretty much every cool rock-song I know and love, but most of them are shot down immediately, and the rest are clearly outside our grasp for now.

Is your bassist suggesting songs? Something you could try is having each of you write down a list of 3 songs you'd like to play together in a band. Take into consideration your skill levels so they are reasonable. Perhaps you could allow one veto, but once a song is chosen to replace the vetoed song, that's it!!

You may hate the songs the bass player chose or think they are boring as heck...or way beyond you abilities. Forget all that...try them out with a positive attitude. You may be surprised at what you can do with them and you may find yourself finding something about the song that you like.


I had a very similar situation and I was shooting suggestions down left and right...and having mine shot down too. I shot them down for a variety of reasons: they were too hard for me to play, I didn't think an audience would want to hear the song, I didn't like the song, etc.

However, I've changed my stance with this and it's worked out for the best. When Whole Lotta Love was suggested, my immediate reaction was to say "no way...too hard for me, probably too hard for our drummer, interlude too hard to replicate". However, I took a deep breathe and said "OK, I'll check it out". The drummer can decide if it's too hard or not...who am I to make that judgement.

So I found some youtube videos and thought "hmmm, OK, maybe...". After a couple of nights working on the solos, I could play them either exact or VERY close...close enough that an audience wouldn't even notice the difference I think. The main riff was easy enough. And our drummer has pretty much worked out the groove. With some more practice, we'll be able to get it down. I may even be able to get the solos down exact...but the pressure is off in the meantime that I have something in my pocket that is "good enough!".

So basically, it has to be some give and take. If the bass player can't even give you a list of 3 songs, well then you have another problem that I'm not sure you can fix...

Originally Posted by: maggiorIs your bassist suggesting songs? Something you could try is having each of you write down a list of 3 songs you'd like to play together in a band. Take into consideration your skill levels so they are reasonable. Perhaps you could allow one veto, but once a song is chosen to replace the vetoed song, that's it!!

You may hate the songs the bass player chose or think they are boring as heck...or way beyond you abilities. Forget all that...try them out with a positive attitude. You may be surprised at what you can do with them and you may find yourself finding something about the song that you like.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, the Bassist has suggested two songs, both of which have extremely simple Guitar-parts (as in, the Rhythm Guitar is just playing 8th notes all the way through, and the lead-guitar solo on one of the songs is amongst one of the least exciting solos I've heard in a long time... The other song doesn't even have a solo!). I'm not quite sure what you mean by allowing one veto, though. I've suggested practically every song I like that I believe is within our grasp, but apparently, there's a major genre-gap here... His suggestions border on modern Punk Rock, mine are a wide array of different styles. There's a lot of Classic Rock, a bit of newer Riff-based Rock, some "Heavy Rock", a little Hair Metal... Lots of stuff to choose from. But apparently my list of over 50 suggested songs doesn't match up with what he wants to play.

[QUOTE=maggior]I had a very similar situation and I was shooting suggestions down left and right...and having mine shot down too. I shot them down for a variety of reasons: they were too hard for me to play, I didn't think an audience would want to hear the song, I didn't like the song, etc.

However, I've changed my stance with this and it's worked out for the best. When Whole Lotta Love was suggested, my immediate reaction was to say "no way...too hard for me, probably too hard for our drummer, interlude too hard to replicate". However, I took a deep breathe and said "OK, I'll check it out". The drummer can decide if it's too hard or not...who am I to make that judgement.

So I found some youtube videos and thought "hmmm, OK, maybe...". After a couple of nights working on the solos, I could play them either exact or VERY close...close enough that an audience wouldn't even notice the difference I think. The main riff was easy enough. And our drummer has pretty much worked out the groove. With some more practice, we'll be able to get it down. I may even be able to get the solos down exact...but the pressure is off in the meantime that I have something in my pocket that is "good enough!".

So basically, it has to be some give and take. If the bass player can't even give you a list of 3 songs, well then you have another problem that I'm not sure you can fix...

Well, technically, the Bassist has given me a list of 3 songs, the first of which was before we met first time, and I accepted the first song he suggested because, let's face it, "Summer Of 69" is still a fairly popular song in Denmark, and it still gets more than enough airplay on some radio-stations, and some local bands occasionally tend to throw it into their shows when they need to play longer gigs than they have originals for. Then, he's suggested two other songs for next time, both of which I'm highly sceptical about (one of them involves Arpeggio-based verses and I usually take months of practice just to play simple arpeggios properly without screwing up), and the other is borderline Punk Rock, which I'm just not into (I did try playing that song, but it quickly lost my interest).

Right now, the plan seems to be that we'll be jamming again this weekend, but I haven't heard from him in a few days again now, so I'm not quite sure about anything anymore... If I don't hear from him soon, I'm going to find another, less unreliable bassist. I've already got a bunch of goals and I need a band to accomplish one of my short-term goals (it may sound like I'm rushing it again, I know, but it's not wrong to hope to be able to play a gig with a full band in a year or two, is it?). I'm starting to get past my primary hurdle of getting a cramped-up thumb after playing Barre Chords for a few minutes, so I'd say the future is looking slightly brighter :) There's still some problems with switching between the A Major shape and the others, but that's just a matter of practicing the chord-changes and optimizing how I fret the A Major shape... And then there's the issue of tonal clarity on the E Minor shape, since my index finger mutes the G string instead of fretting it properly...

By "veto" I meant you get to unconditionally throw out one of the choices. He gives you a list of 3 songs, you get to say "no" to one of them...no questions asked. He'll have to pick another song to replace it with. At that point, you are done.

I wouldn't be so quick to disreguard "boring" guitar parts...I say this from experience. In reality, there will be songs that you play that you just love to play, and other that just aren't very exciting. Just like life - every moment isn't full of excitement...there are peaks and valleys.

You can find things to do to make boring parts less boring. Sometimes the boring songs are fun, because you can step back and relax and really enjoy the groove playing with the band! When you're part is difficult to play, you can't afford that luxury. When you are playing in a band, remember that it's not just the sound you make, but the sound of the entire band! When a band has a good groove going, it can be fun just banging on a tambourine!

As an example, a song we are doing now is "Honky Tonk Women". The rhythm part of this song is not very exciting...G, A, C, and D. Open chords...ho hum. However, this song has a really cool groove to it. By using some different chord voicings and fitting my strumming and feel into the groove of the "lead" part, it's fun. Still not the world's most exciting song to play, but I managed to take a boring part, make it more interesting for me, and really integrate it into the groove. This is a way you can put your stamp of creativity on the song even though it's a cover.

Good to hear you're building up your endurance with barre chords. That will help your playing a lot!