A heads up for the acoustic players here into fingerstyle.
New from Andy -my favourite internet song tutor for guitar, for those of a certain age a most memorable song "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" by the late Jim Croce. I so remember both Jim and this pretty song being played frequently on the radio in late '72 early '73.
Quite the fingerpicking challenge for the right hand, -certainly for me at least. Have fun with it.
Thanks for the link manxcat.
There's been a lot of tutorials popping up on YouTube lately, though not as extensive as this one you linked, ever since Rick Beato featured it in one of his videos.
In it he was wondering if any younger generation could relate to a song like this with these lyrics. Written in a time period of phone booths, operators, and placing a call for just a dime. His guest was Mary Spender. A prolific songwriter, musician, and singer herself but at 32 years young he wanted to know how she interpreted the lyrics. Definitely worth checking out. I'll leave the link here.
https://youtu.be/Yan-qTEG4lI
So back to the lesson, as a graduate of the Lisa McCormick school of fingerpicking I gave it a go. Sadly I didn't make it past the third chord in the intro. The picking pattern doesn't scare me so much as all the minute subtleties and flavor fills within the rapid fire chord swings that will send any beginner or even most intermediate guitar players packing up their guitar cases. That's ok even Rick and Mary found it quite challenging so I don't feel so bad.
They certainly don't write them like this anymore. Thanks again, You can keep the dime. Lol.
Moe
Although aware of both Mary Spender and Rick Beato, I haven't followed Rick Beato for an aeon Moe, so wasn't conscious they'd done an collaborative introspective on "Operator". Andy who I do follow, only just released that tutorial yesterday, so it well may have been a timely reaction to their critique.
I watched that link you posted. The words 'overthinking it' came to mind. The endless quest for new material for another vid I suppose. I can almost relate to the generation relatable thing, except to my mind if not immediately resonating with them literally, anyone of reasonable intelligence could with little effort figure out the objects within the story in the lyrics just as I knew what a farthing was back in the day was even though they'd disappeared from common use by the time I was even a young child. Similarly I knew what a "gramophone" was and a "78" was though obsolecent by my time, and even what a "dime" was although the term wasn't a colloquial to my country. I grapple more with accepting contemporary slang modification of the language when perfectly suitable words are already available serving the purpose better. e.g. "based", "cap". o.O However even though their slang doesn't feature in my social circle, it doesn't inhibit my comprehension of it.
Andy's Shutup&Play Channel and his website is a go to when I want to play something accurately if he has a tutorial available. One of my favourite three. Mike Pachelli for everything The Beatles, and Steven Stein are the two others. I like their attention to detail, clear detailed explanations and manner, and take inspiration particularly from Andy and Steve as they both have smallish hands for guitarists illustrating the possible with application. Andy's particularly good with illustrative fingering often accompanied by explanatory tips in difficult songs like "Every Breath You Take" with its nightmarish five fret stretch.
This cover of "Operator" by Josh Turner who frequently collabs with Reina El Cid and Toni Lindgren was posted three years ago, and so before Rick Beato's potential incitement. I thought it an exceptionally good cover of the song. Also serves to illustrate the music is safe in the hands of this generation of contemporary artists. Concerts by contemporary artists generally don't interest or inspire me much, but such talent as Josh, Reina et al is the exception. I was actually booked to see Reina Del Cid live on her low key tour in Australia back in 2019. Unfortunately the date conflicted with the commencement of COVID madness and her tour here ended up being cancelled.
On playing "Operator". Agree it's definitely not one for beginners. As an intermediate, my perspective of approaching it was immediately that it's a song which requires methodical perseverence, determination and time for me to come to grips with the parts. I'm no natural, so plodding away piece by piece until I have the whole is always my modus operandi. I suspect you have a lead on me, as I'm much more into electric than acoustic focussed, with fingerstyle co-ordination being one of my poorest skills. The age brittle nails tending to split too easily don't stand up well to it these days either. Given that I love material by the likes of Jim Croce, James Taylor and America so much, you'd think I'd place more emphasis in to developing those fingerstyle acoustic skills?! Argh. Seems like there's never enough time.
The licks within those quick chord change fills in "Operator" are inarguably a learning challenge, but the with persistent repetition (something I am a natural at) will probably quickly prove less so for me than co-ordinating the right hand fingerstyle pattern. Re Rick's comment on 'requires two guitars'. Agreed. Jim Croce always used a second guitarist on his live TV appearances TMK.
What a great writer, singer and performer he was. Songs like that stay with one forever.
Thanks for the conversation.
