2020 Stocktake

Sometimes I have a lot of partial works sitting around that I forget about.  When the initial enthusiasm has worn off. Or distracted and forgotten.  Or perfectionism has prevented me from releasing.  It's lucky I mention songs here on this blog when I initially noodle with them, I can revise and take stock of what I need to finish!  Because finishing is important.  Half a page of written lines is not worth much.

Shout out if you would love to see one of these songs done and recorded!

Very close to tab done and learnt:

Chicago - If You Leave Me Now
The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Steven Universe - Drift Away
Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
Cream - White Room

Plenty of work done but not as much as above:

The Eagles - Hotel California
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Dragon - Rain
Bob Dylan - It's All Over Now Baby Blue

Some work done, but not as much as above:

Adele - Rolling in the Deep
CCR - Bad Moon Rising
The Beatles - Blackbird
Daddy Cool - Eagle Rock
Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven
Bach - Toccata (Sky Version)
Bob Dylan - Knocking on Heaven's Door

Last of my top 15 songs on YouTube that I need to get into Tabs:

The Wiggles - Rock-a-bye Your Bear /  Where's Jeff
Lipps Inc - Funky Town

Dermatitis

Dermatitis, eczema, well specifically Atopic Dermatitis is something that I have dealt with since I was young. The cause is unknown, but I distinctly remember when I was 19 working in a pizza shop, folding pizza boxes, I cut myself (paper cut style) on a box on one of my fingers. The cut took a long time to heal, and formed into this itchy blistery thing, which eventually spread over both my hands. 30 years later it is still an ongoing irritant.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it is red itchiness, blisters under the skin that flare up from time to time, so itchy that sometime in madness you with scratch it until it bleeds, just looking for a bit of relief. If you don't do something about it you will have red raw peeling skin for weeks or always.

Sounds nasty, but with hydrocortisone (a prescription cream) I can keep it under control. I've learnt to "detect" when it is about to start (it's a very minor itchiness on spots on my fingers/hands) so I will hit it with a small quantity of cream just before I go to sleep for 2-3 nights in a row, and that stops it from really erupting. I use moisturiser whenever I remember, that helps, I keep several tubes of moisturiser around the house and at work. I try not to stick my hands in chemicals (covid-19 and all that hand sanitiser has been a disaster for dermatitis sufferers) and I notice that stress can bring it on.

To all my brothers and sisters out there in the same boat - I empathise with you.

So a few weeks ago I had an "outbreak" of dermatitis on the tip of my left index finger. Which is super-inconvenient because that's an important guitar playing skin surface. What was worse about this outbreak is that it was also under my nail. It is pretty easy to shutdown an outbreak on your hands, slightly more difficult on your fingertip, but the hardest when it gets under your nail. I got onto it straight away, twice a day I was hitting it with cream.  But in the meantime - I was playing rhythm guitar with the school band's Christmas Carol night! And if you are going to strum chords with a concert band full of brass, you need to do it with a steel string!

It was the perfect storm.  My supple nylon string fingertip were getting a hard workout on my steel string guitar, the dermatitis was heading under my nail, and cuts were opening up. The actual event turned out great - the nice thing about Christmas carols is it's about community and participation, the music is secondary. So even though I thought my playing was sub par (I had worked out the chords for 13 songs, transposed the yucky Bb and Eb keys that brass and woodwind seem to love by putting a capo at 1, but I only had a few sessions with them to figure out what they were doing for intros, outros, number of verses/choruses...I could write a full post about it) suffice to say the event turned out nice.

I took some paracetamol before the event and grit my teeth. By song 3 my fingertip was bleeding. I was fretting slightly differently to direct the contact surface away, but there wasn't much I could do. Smile and take it. Funny thing about that sort of pain is the longer you push through the less you notice it.

Index finger next day...not so bad, but never what I have in mind for guitar playing

What's happening November 2020

 I played an open mic gig earlier this month at my mate Shaun's perthopenmic.com.au. It was great to catch up with him, to chat with some of the musicians there, and to play of course!  I hadn't played out in more than a year, I tensed up and after half an hour my left arm was like a rock!  Apparently I sounded great but I felt it was pretty rough.  I need to do more gigs so I don't instinctively tense up.

Some interesting chaps there, a guy Chris who was a real estate agent, once his kids had grown up chucked that in and is making a living out of music. Said he does a lot of singing with backing tracks for retirement homes and the like, does a lot of busking, weddings and birthdays.  Sounds like it's not super lucrative but he is doing what he loves and paying the bills.  He was playing guitar and singing, which I think is what you should do if you haven't been playing the guitar for 30+ years - learning to sing and playing the guitar will get you somewhere a lot faster than just trying to play fingerstyle.  It was great to chat to you Chris!

Oh, the accountant playing guitar and singing has a great voice, there was some top quality musicians there.  A dude with a bass and a laptop running loops, very groovy.

Meanwhile the WA Youth Strings Orchestra that I am the chairperson for has three engagements this month...that's keeping me busy.  But not so busy that I can't noodle on songs I'm still learning, and finding new ones that I just *have* to try out.

For instance Naudo recenty played Rolling in the Deep which I had a crack at, and it is real bang for your buck.  As in, you get a lot of big sound for very little effort - it is not difficult to play.

Another of my favourite fingerstyle guitarists Jake uploaded Thompson Twins Hold Me Now and it got stuck in my head.  Not quite as easy, and I never play anything the same as the arranger, but after noodling with it for an hour I thought I sound record it so I can listen back.  This is where I ended up, needs more work but this one will be a keeper.

Hold Me Now demo:

Music Studio

Last weekend I had a real treat - I got a tour of a music studio!

Backstory - my eldest is doing a theatre technical services certificate as part of her studies, my dad's workmate has a brother who runs a music studio, would she like a tour...yes...and so would my other kids, my nephew, my dad and so would I!

Fast forward, we meet up, it's at the back of a house in Perth. I wasn't sure what to expect but wow, it was amazing, beyond anything I may have expected. A local musician Nunzio Mondia has spent several years acquiring  the permits and getting the building done, he is still working his way through final permits to be able to hold concerts there.

As I walked in the first thing that hit me was the delicious smell of wood. Because there is a lot of wood in there. Artistic, much of it non-milled, just polished and beautiful. It was like walking into an art gallery.

Covering the walls are various passive acoustic devices. We had a good lesson on them. I was the most excited, I scarce could take it all in.  There were the usual dampers that I expected, but many acoustic diffusers.  Made to prime number equations apparently...my brain launched into engineering concepts of constructive and destructive interference...but how does it sound?  For the main room there was no pesky echo or resonances, but the room was not "flat" or "dead".  Nunz explained how careful selection and sound engineering means that the room will actually enhance the natural sound, make the room feel alive.  And you could tell!

Upstairs is a gallery type area; more acoustic devices, a wonderful balcony that overlooks the main studio.  We were treated to a sound example - Nunz himself playing superbly on an Italian Fazioli piano.  A quick google reveals these pianos start at more than $100k. The sound is warm yet bright, clean, fully dynamic from a roar to whisper quiet.  Never heard a piano like it.  My eldest daughter had a turn, I gave her a few minutes and then said "that's enough for you".

There is a control room, again a masterpiece of acoustic engineering.  All the fruit for audio control - he does everything from recording studio duties, live performances, audio/video recording, educational sessions and even live streaming.

I could go on, for quite some time.  Hank Marvin, the legend himself, who lives in Perth, records with him regularly.  If it's good enough for Hank...

Well my youngest daughter brought her cello and I brought my guitar, I convinced Nunz to record us playing a duet as a show and tell.  Which we did, had a bit of fun.  He played it back to us, did some minor tweaking as a demonstration, again, lots of learning.  My daughter and I weren't satisfied with our performances so I didn't ask for a copy ;-)

I look forward to when he is able to run concerts there, I'll be standing in line!  Thanks Nunzio Mondia you are a gentleman and a scholar!

Daughter plays a very fancy piano

Daughter and her grandad in the control room

Sad songs

Music evokes emotion, that is kinda the point. There are some really sad songs, like Eric Claptop's "Tears in Heaven" about loss of a loved one, or Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" about an awkward father/son relationship.  There are however only three songs I can think of that have ever brought me to tears.

Mike + the Mechanic's "The Living Years" is one of them, about death and regret. It did have a little bit of hope in the end.  Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" is about depression leading to attempted suicide.  Yikes, that one doesn't have any hope.

But the last one, which I reckon has taken my sad song top place, is from the most unlikely of places - Rebecca Sugar's Steven Universe's "Drift Away".  When the animated kid's movie came out last year I watched it with the kids, and when that song came on I couldn't believe it, I lost composure and teared up.  It is a song about rejection and loss of innocence that leads to the main protagonist's anger/revenge/insanity. The way the movie portrayed it certainly added to the sadness, but the music itself and the lyrics, whoa.

My eldest daughter learned to play it on the ukulele when it came out, I come across it again the other day, and still whoa, teared up. In order to understand why, I looked into it and noticed a few things:

• 6/8 time signature is a good choice for sad songs, not quite a dirge but you can't bop to it;
• An unusual verse chord progression G-G7-C-Cm which equates to establish-tension-release-sad really adds to the lament feel; 
• Melody off beat, has that slow falling-behind sad feel;
• Keeping the verse range down low, then having the chorus up high, for despair-frustration-despair;
• A nice bridge that leaves the established feel, offering some relief, but then takes you straight back to where you were but sadder;
• Well written poetic lyrics, good imagery, music alone could make you cry but effective lyrics certainly help;
• It has a slightly Pink Floyd/Roger Waters feel with a hint of psychedelic era The Beatles, I would say the author is a fan.

This song is masterfully crafted and achieves its goals, my hat is off to the writers. During my obsessive research into it I of course arranged it for solo guitar, watch this space.

I have listened to it enough now that the sadness impact has been dulled - but like "The Living Years" and "The Final Cut" - if I hear them infrequently, whoa. Emotionally manipulative song writers! Grr! :-)  Watch it here https://youtu.be/lRS2ciJ5rOk

JAW

What's happening August 2020

Quiet month on the guitar front, I've recently spent time purchasing a second hand car with manual transmission, fixing it up/servicing it and teaching my eldest daughter how to drive it...

I play "Sweet child of mine" through almost every day, it is locked in.  Most of my arrangements go from development stage to learning stage through a brief period of tweaking.  I add in extra notes, fiddle with the structure, play with it until it feels release-worthy. All done now, just practice and get ready for release!

Patreon has inspired me, I have another piece or two for release next month.  It is quiet there too, no new members for a while, but if you don't produce content madly that is expected!  Although I had begun drafting my "How to play Jawmunji's tabs" last month I have made no further progress. I need to get excited about it again, it is going to be just as important work as the tabs themselves!

JAW

What's happening July 2020

2024 UPDATE: My tabs have finally found a legitimate home at Jawmunji's Paidtabs


JAW
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About a month ago I launched my  https://patreon.com/Jawmunji Patreon page.  I didn't do it with any trumpet blasts or fanfare, because I don't think there is enough content on there juuust yet.  But seven people have pledged support which both surprised and pleased me! I've done a lot of work over the years putting together sheet music to go with my arrangements, and it's inspirational to know that people find them useful enough that they would support me with their hard earned cash. I'm going to publish at least one new or "refurbished" one per month for the foreseable future.

In August I will be releasing "Losing My Religion" which is a great introduction to fingerstyle chord flicking, and "Wish You Were Here" which is such a good song I'm calling it essential to your fingerstyle repertoire. I also plan on making a "How to play Jawmunji's tabs" video which will deal with a few concepts and ideas that can't be explained from just sheet music.  Watch this space! Other than being excited and motivated about getting more arrangements onto Patreon, I am still practicing "Sweet Child Of Mine". It is challenging, it's not one that I'll be able to play cleanly and easily, but it is a lot of fun.  And it's one of those songs that casual listeners won't expect and yet be delighted to hear in fingerstyle :-)

Good playing to you all!

JAW

Tabs for Patreon

2024 UPDATE: My tabs have finally found a legitimate home at Jawmunji's Paidtabs


JAW
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Yep, I have set up a Patreon account and I will be posting all my tabs there.  Why JAW, why?  I have lost inspiration for making tabs to give away for free for a while now.  Just felt like so much work and I put them out there and hear no more of it.  But, I like creating tabs, it is part of my arranging work flow... Could I sell them? Well yes, but I don't own the copyright so I'm not really entitled to.  But if I gave them away to people who support me on Patreon, that doesn't seem quite the same.  And Patreon, $3, download whatever you want and walk away, or stay and get new ones and updates, well, that's a bargain! Once upon a time people used to donate to me on paypal, but I haven't seen one in years.

Having people support me on Patreon is inspiring.  I like to share my work!  I have agonised over this for a long time, I first mentioned it back in 2017 and I'm still not sure it is the right thing to do, but I can tell you one thing - it certainly got me cracking on my back catalogue of tabs! I have been tidying up previous ones and releasing them for Patreon supporters.  They are coming out really nice, much nicer than the old ones. I need to write up a general "Playing Jawmunji Tabs" instruction sheet - reminder to self.

But to really make people think they are getting something worthwhile for their initial $3, I decided to make my top watched youtube video from the past year into beautiful new tabs.  Which are:

1 The Ecstasy of Gold (done) 

2 Pachelbel Canon in D

3 Wish You Were Here

4 Losing My Religion

5 Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

6 The Chain

7 California Dreaming

8 Goodbye Blue Sky/Anybody Out There?

9 Rock-a-bye Your Bear / Where's Jeff?

10 Without You

11 Here Comes the Sun

12 Funky Town

13 Reckless

14 Never Tear Us Apart

15 Telephone Line

16 1979

Yah! Getting there! Find my Patreon here: https://patreon.com/Jawmunji

What's happening June 2020

Three days, three videos.  Well, I recorded them all in one sitting, but processed them over three nights. "The Logical Song", a re-play after my original recording was taken down 12 years ago. "You're So Vain" which I've kept short and sweet, and then finally the epic "Band On The Run" which is based on Jake Reichbart's arrangement he posted in January. I mentioned to him at the time how great it was and that I was going to try it, he emailed me and said the tab will soon be available, but I'd already started making it my own arrangement/transcription. Ah, I've sent Jake a few bucks in the past from his live streams, I'm sure he won't mind!

I have been practicing a number of other songs to polish them for YouTube, I'm still targeting 100 videos. In the recording session I set up two cameras and two mics. Had a lot of dramas. My house wasn't particularly quiet, the kids and the missus were chatting, but you can only hear them in the really quiet sections. But I had two flat batteries during the session, one full memory card, and I forgot to turn one of the mics on for the whole session. Argh! But I managed to salvage the three videos.

Because I use my DSLRs for "high quality" videos, I don't get to see my framing while I'm playing. Maybe modern cameras you can? Dunno. I use a mirror on a stand to get it initially right, but because I like to frame tight sometimes I move and go a bit out of frame. The last video was not so good for framing.

First song and second song I botched the endings in my takes, but because they have distinct song parts, I played the endings again, and spliced them in.  Because I have two cameras, I can switch between cameras in the final video and you don't know the take is spliced. I played each song around three times, picked my favourite take, and then punched out a few missed notes from the other takes.  I do this to most of my videos, I'm a functional perfectionist which means that I have to fix errors but I'm not afraid to post even with a few errors still in there. Around 20 mins to record, around 2 hours to post edit and produce.

Time to work on the next songs on my punchlist!  Really enjoying a Naudo inspired version of "Sweet Child of Mine", I'm a bit sick of "If You Leave Me Now" but it's good so I should finish it. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is going well but I'm also a bit worn out with it.  That's the problem - if I can get a good arrangement down and learn it before I get bored of it, I will record it!  I've got all these songs at 80-90% not ready to record, and it feels like work! Ha ha!

JAW

More musings on Musescore - my Musescore tips

In my efforts to convert all my scores/tabs to MuseScore, I've got a few tricks that I better write down for you and for me so I don't forget. MuseScore makes my tabs look so pretty:

But they don't look like that out of the box, so here's a few things I do so that my tabs look this great!

Note: This was originally written for Musescore Version 3, I have updated for a few differences in Version 4.

Stave Properties

Right click in any bar and select Version 3 Stave Properties Version 4 Staff/Part Properties. I set up the instrument to be Acoustic Guitar (Tablature) and then tweak the defaults. If you need to go to Drop D or other tuning do that in Edit String Data, otherwise press Advanced Style Properties.

In Advanced Style Properties change the font to "MuseScore Tabs Sans" font size 10pt. Nobody ever complained for having a big clear font. However the spacing gets big so change the line distance to 1.75sp.

Now click on "Note Values".I set Font to "MuseScore Tab Modern" which gives you a plain "TAB" at the start. I then set the Stem style to Beside stave (which defaults to below) which is clearer than the tab numbers having stems. I set Minums "As short stem" as I find the double slash looks a bit cluttered. That's it for the Stave.

It's all XML!

A MuseScore file is of type .mscz which basically means "MuseScore Zipped", and inside the zip is a .mscx file which basically means "MuseScore XML", which is simply a text file that the program reads and edits...but being text, you can also read and edit it. Or hack it with tools and stuff. But generally XML implies good standards and techniques, one of them is the XML properties.

From File select Score Properties, I go for workTitle, arranger, composer, creationDate and copyright is my website. I also add a field called lastUpdate because I like to know when I created a tab, but also the last time I made some changes on it. File timestamps are not always meaningful.

What this gets you other than the files being index-able by "systems" is that you can have a page template that refers to these properties. So the header and footer of my tabs all have the following, repeated on each page.

Templates

XML naturally lends itself to templates. There are sooo many style options in MuseScore it is ridonculous. I had used MuseScore for a few years before I understood 10% of them, and I still only understand maybe 15% now. Go into Format->Style and edit away, once you are done you go Format->Save Style, and in the future you can apply your template to any other score with Format->Load Style. But this is only the styles - the previous discussions on Staves isn't part of a template, as with a few other things, I haven't quite got my head around how that works. Advanced Styles appear to have a template but there does not appear to be a built in editor, you may have to hack the XML. But don't, the easiest way to create a new score with the same normal/advances styles is to save-as, rename, delete all, and begin from there!

But back to template styles, here are some important ones, in the Format->Style dialog:

1. Page - Music top margin, Music bottom margin. Similar to above, tweak to squeeze more out of a page.
2. Page - Min. and Max. system distance. This the distance between the first row of bars and the next row, that is, "system". I try to keep my tabs single page so I will tighten it if I'm chasing just one more system without spilling onto a second page. Tweak both these numbers and watch the results!
3. Version 3: Bar - Spacing Version 4: Measures - Spacing ratio. Again this is a great number to tweak to get your score onto one page, or if it's just two big to space it out nicely for two pages. Minimum bar width and Minimum note distance are also a good number to play with.
4. Lyrics. Traditionally they go underneath, I have stuck with that. Lyrics are important because they help get the melody feel of the arrangement. Use Min. bottom margin and top margin to help with your spacing. Version 3: Use Text Style -> Lyrics Odd Lines/Even Lines Y spacing to get the tightness you want - also applies to Chords. Version 4: Format->Style->Lyrics and adjust Min margins and Min distance to cram the words up if you are aiming for one sheet.
5. Additionally, in Format->Page Settings you can set Scaling Staff space to a lower number to really squeeze more out of a page.

And here's how I get my header and footer:

Other Good Stuff

• Version 3: The best sound for play back is "Acoustic Bass", go to View->Mixer and in the Sound specify Acoustic Bass.
• Version 4: The best sound for play back is a soundfont. Download a Soundfont for Guitar, this super simple nylon guitar soundfont is okay. Copy the .sfz or .sf2 file into the Musescore Soundfont folder, (is set in Edit->Preferences->General->Folders) and then copy the Soundfonts folder into a file explorer window. Restart Musescore, then open your sheet, View->Mixer, find your instrument, click Sound->Soundfonts and your soundfont will be there.
• Version 3: Get a good Swing feel by dropping the text type "Swing". You can then adjust the sound with Properties->Swing Settings although the default of Quaver/60% is great. Version 4: has the same but in Format-Style-Score.
• Add a Capo: 
  Version 3: place any text on the first note (eg "Capo at x") then go to Properties -> Capo Settings
  Version 4 (early): place text as per version 3 right click -> staff text properties -> Capo Settings and set the capo you are chasing. 
  Version 4 (later): In Palettes search for Capo and then place Guitar->Capo
• Percussive notes, with an "x" head,
  Version 3: press shift-x,
  Version 4: click on the note, click on properties, change the notehead type to "x".
• Version 4: Set Edit->Preferences->I/O->Buffer size to 4096 to get smoother sound playback.
• Version 4: Turn of chord playback by clicking in the cog in the top right and untick "Play Chord Symbols". Note that this is an application setting, not a score setting.  To force the score to never play a chord you have to click on each chord symbol, properties, untick Play.
• Version 4: the beam height of the notes underneath the stem are sometimes a bit long.  There doesn't seem to be a way of setting this in the style, but if you ctrl-A to select everything, then click on Note, then click on Beam, then click on Show More, you can then decrease the height of the beam at the start and finish.

That's it for now. I will have to pop up some more tips about using MuseScore, I had a bit of a learning curve from PowerTab, and to be honest, I'm still not that fluent. MuseScore for me is reverse Polish notation - I think of the note pitch first then the note duration rather that the other way around so I find myself pressing escape and "n", "q" or "w" a lot...

To record...

I just did a quick check against my setlist and what I have recorded on Youtube. I noticed there is a number of songs that I can already play, I just haven't recorded, either new or I just never got around to it:

Band On The Run
Hotel California
House of the Rising Sun
If You Leave Me Now
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Logical Song
Rain
Why Can't This Be Love
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
White Room
You're So Vain

And there are some songs I have done work on but need more work to get to recording level:

Bad Moon Rising

Blackbird
Eagle Rock
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Fly Like An Eagle

Knocking on Heaven's Door
Pumped Up Kicks
Sweet Child of Mine

Tears in Heaven
Toccata (Sky Version)

What a slacker I am!   I've currently got 81 videos (65 actual songs) I should aim for 100! (This is a note/record to self to get crackin' :-))

What's happening April 2020

The Virus has hurt the local music industry - anyone who was playing gigs can't, music lessons, stopped - it's not good. Aside from the loss in income, musicians need to play to audiences, it's what they do! I noticed a Perth local musician, Courtney Murphy, set up a live stream. The first once had techical issues but the wife and I tuned in for the second attempt. Somehow they had grabbed the reveley room at Perth Arena, their setup was nice, just Courntey and his drummer mate Chris. Courntey is the proverbial "paino man", will play piano and sing pretty much whatever you ask him to play.

I'm doing okay during The Vrius, so I threw him a $20 into his paypal and requested "INXS Never Tear Us Apart" which I figured he's be able to play.  Which he did, very nicely. (By the way Chris - you gotta sign harmonies man! ;-)) Skip to time stamp 1:19:00 for my mention:


Meanwhile, I heard another one of my youtube mates play "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and that was enough to make me finally have a crack.  I've spent a few hours with it so far, and have written it out in musescore, it needs a few last things added.  It's based on a few other arrangements, what I hear in my head, and around my usual style.

While My Guitar Gentle Weeps demo:

What's happening Mar 2020

The Virus. Ah, The Virus. It was supposed to be a big month for my day job that would have me in the remote Northwest of Western Australia commissioning.  I was there for 4 days, and commissioning went well, but during our support coverage we were called back home, and I'm now working from home for the foreseeable future.

It does give me more opportunities for practicing my latest arrangements though!  I've finished arrangements for "You're So Vain" "If You Leave Me Now" and "Band On The Run".  They all still need practice though. I normally don't have 3 arrangements on the go at any one time, it's too much to try to push into my brain all at once...

I've noticed a lot of fingerstyle youtubers putting out "isolation" videos of their latest arrangements. I guess if you can't gig in public, it's a sensible thing to do!

Oh, I re-learnt how to solve a Rubik's 3x3x3 cube. Knew how to do it as a kid, had forgotten. It's like memorising a complicated fingerstyle piece, I'm sure it's good for our brains to mix it up a bit. One of my kids is keen to learn and we are halfway through the training. One is kinda ho-hum about it, trying but not very hard. The other one laughs at the very idea of learning how to solve a cube...

Stay safe everyone!

JAW

What's happening Feb 2020

I've got a few arrangements cooking at the moment, "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago, based on a video from Naudo, "Band on the Run" by Wings, based on a video from Jake Reichbart, and "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon, which I heard on the radio and it got stuck in my head. The ones where I see one of my mate's videos and then have a crack are often "more or less" what they did. These days I don't attempt to completely transcribe, but since they have done most of the heavy lifting I leverage off it!  I'm also continuing to re-arrange and re-learn "Never Tear Us Apart". It's getting a bit smoother now.

I find if I play through my learning pieces at least once every second day - not trying to nail it, just trying to push it into my brain - it works well. If it's just fingerpicking in chords, easy. I remember chord progressions pretty quick. If it is chords put you then pick around out-of-chord notes, not too bad. But when it is non a normal chord it is hard to push into my brain. For instance imagine F, thumbing the bottom F, but change the top F to a G. Or a C# maj 7th but with a G# bass. Or the worst one I have at the moment, it's a G7 but put an A on the third string.  I really struggle to get the brain to suddenly switch to those crazy shord, the 'ole CPU glitches for a bit before it throws the fingers out.

Maybe if you were a master of the fretboard, and every jazz chord out there made sense, you'd be fine. It's the bane of teaching yourself - you only focus on the fun stuff, leaving big glaring holes in your musicianship!  Oh well. One of these years I'll get around to it.

Oh, I've been playing my Esteve for 10 years now.  Time flies!  It's actually 18 years old now, being a 2002 model. Yep, it sat around for 8 years before I purchased it. It is still a great guitar and remains my main weapon of choice.

Did I inspire Sammy G?

I find Sammy G quite an engaging internet personality and quite often watch his videos when they pop up in my feed. I was watching this one and he mentioned he'd seen a cover of "Here Comes The Sun" when he was in grade 11 or 12, and then played a bit of it. It sounded _a lot_ like my cover, the timing is about right (I posted it in 2006), and that video has over a million views as it was featured back in the day.

The arrangement is basically a copy of an arrangement by John Keans, I changed very little. But he never played it on youtube as far as I know (I wish he had!) So... maybe I was there just at the right time for Sammy G and I didn't know it. There sure were a lot of other players who were there at the right time for me...the universal cookie jar continues to supply cookies! :-)

Check it out below, I've set the relevant start times for you.

JAW

Tabs into Musescore backlog

For years I have been tabbing out my arrangements and transcriptions. It's part of my music arrangement process. I don't need to do it so much anymore, especially on songs that aren't complex. So I have around 70 tabs from the last 15 years of effort. In the early days I used PowerTab version 1. It was fast and I knew it well. But it had known bugs, was no longer in development, and as Windows moved through versions it was increasingly less supported (I have a Windows XP virtual machine I use if I ever need to make PowerTab changes).

So I switched to Musescore a few years back. It is fully featured, I'm talking fully. So fully that I barely remember how to achieve all the different things I want. I'm constantly googling it, and saying "oh, that's right". Which says to me that it is a tool that you need to use regularly, and it is not completely intuitive. I still struggle with the hotkeys, I find myself pressing escape a lot and "starting again". Its concept is great (it is more "strict" than powertab) and the flexibility is outstanding and the scores are beautiful.  So I'm sticking with it.

But now I want to convert 50 of my old tabs from PowerTab to Musescore. Musescore does not support old PowerTab, but GuitarPro5 supports both. So I managed to PTB->GP5->MSCZ. Unfortunately I need to spend at least 10 minutes on each to standardise templates, fix errors, that sort of thing.

"JAW, why haven't you been using Guitar Pro all these years?" I have tried each version, but I always liked PowerTab more. Maybe I was being a bit anti-change and too used to PowerTab. I've scored out a few multi-instrument parts in the last few years and I have more planned, Guitar Pro is very guitar oriented, so it suits me even less these days.

So there you have it. I've got probably ten hours of effort to get all my tabs into Musescore up to a standard I will be happy with. It's only my OCD that will eventually drive me to do it - I don't need those tabs anymore, and I don't get paid for producing them, so I don't need to!

But it is really nice having them all up to date :-)
JAW