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I saw a broadcast of Tommy Shaw with a student orchestra a couple years ago that was equally amazing. Fun to see. Greg

The epidemiology, medical and health professional sciences, are our best guard rails for all of us coming through these difficult times safely. Your mayor is doing the right thing by moving forward with caution, and I concur that it would be awkward to conduct the conference with so many restrictions on travel and gathering as a group. I am looking forward to next summer and a joyful, rewarding regathering together safely and well. Greg

Very nice recording Neil. playing, tone and quality of the recording. Great stuff coming from Ontario! Loved it. Greg

Congrats Mike. Great decision, great guitar. Make some sweet music with it. Greg

Thanks Nutty and Wim. Yes, it is fun learning the parts and recording and yes it takes hours of time to get things in place and attempt a decent mix . In the absence of band practices lately, it is a great diversion for me. I had forgotten much of my recording tactics until recently. That said, my two groups are reuniting with distancing next week, so I am diving back into my set lists to refresh and prepare for them. My recording time may dwindle. i did this song especially for my kids, but I share all of my recordings with them and my bandmates. Music is meant to be heard, for better or worse. Greg

Power chords.....the heart of rock and roll. I thought this would be an easy assignment this month, but then found how challenging my "easy song choice" was going to be. First there is no drum to follow in the song, then the bass doesn't begin until the second verse, after the brief chorus, then syncing a second guitar part to a very distorted muted chunky rhythm was very hard to match the parts. I am a rhythm player but this one kicked me a bit to put down. I used a karaoke bass line again and copped the intro "noise" and outro dissonant cello piece from a karaoke track but the other keyboard violin and cello pieces I learned and performed in the song. Only 3 guitars (one is a clean solo ) but the distorted tracks are doubled to beef up the heaviness. I don't have the powerful baritone voice of Gavin but I gave it my best try. I was exposed to grunge music of the 90's through my teenaged children's musical tastes ( I live in the Pacific Northwest) and this was a British group that was labeled as mimicking the Seattle grunge movement. The song is Glycerine by Bush. Greg

I am actually working on another song Mandy. Struggling a bit recording what seemingly should be an easy song from a British 90’s grunge band. We will see if it works out. Greg

Woohoo, the Summer of 69! I graduated from high school in 1969, so this song has always had an extra special meaning for me. It is a song I also thought of for this months challenge. Fun stuff Mandy and I loved it. A rocker lives inside of Nutty! I was head banging😎 Greg Good advice from Fetless also

Very nice Neil! Great comping on this challenging song...those changes go by very fast and you were spot on. I am not familiar with the melody but it sounded great, nice tone as well. Your growth as a jazzman is remarkable. I need to get back to my jazz studies. Thanks for sharing. Greg

Wow, thanks Joao. What a real treat for us and I appreciate your hard work. Greg

Welcome back d2. Nice to hear from you. I had the pleasure of spending a few days in your beautiful city a year and a half ago and look forward to another visit in the future I hope soon. I remember the collection of mini-Marshalls you acquired and I thought you had a Relish guitar at one time, though I may be be in error on that. Also discussions on Tone Kings? Glad you are enjoying family and keeping busy. Greg

Rockin' Wim!! I am convinced there is no genre outside of your brilliance. Neil said it best..."Awesome" . Power chords...the heart of rock and roll. Well played. What electric guitar did you use? Is it a PRS S2? Sounds great. Greg Greg

Very nice rockinrickard! Beautifully rendered tribute to both of your parents. Thanks for sharing. Greg

Thanks Nutty and Matonanjin. I really wanted my 15 year old granddaughter to sing this (she has a beautiful voice when she has the chance to rehearse), but I gave it to her on short notice ( 2 1/2 days), tried recording it at her home in a room that turned out to yield a very boxy sound, and her familiarity of the the song was limited, her volume was subdued and she had some slight pitch flatness on a few notes that I couldn't correct in Logic. The multiple recordings just didn't work out. So yesterday I did my vocals and background vocals to get the song off the DAW and onto the forum. It was fun learning all the separate guitar and keyboard pieces, lots of listening, relistening, and practicing the parts before recording them...of course recording and rerecording and..... I may hold off the mass production aspect of recording songs for a bit. I wish I had the skills of other contributors here but making the recording process easier is appealing. Greg

A little late, but this song took me about 2 weeks to record and mix. Again another song by a lady but I love Sheryl Crow and again another song that is not good for me to sing in the lower range. I thought this was a nice song for the month's theme. The bass and drums are a karoake track but the rest is all me, including keyboard , background vocals , and several layers of guitar work. The mix sounds best with headphones or through a sound system, but also again, not my strength. Greg

Well, since I suggested this month's theme, it is time I finally added my recording. It took me a couple of weeks, and is probably the hardest recording I have ever done. Again, my mix could be better, and again this song is not good for my lower vocal range and again another song by a woman, but I love Sheryl Crow so I thought this was a good candidate for the theme. All tracks, including keyboard are mine except the bass and drums, which are kaoake tracks for the song. All guitar parts and background vocals as well, are mine. Got it in just in the nick of time. Greg

Wow, excellent playing Amy! Your patience and practice paid dividends in rewards. Thanks for letting us in on it. Greg

Awesome Neil!! What great clean tone, a very nice example of your jazz progress. I really enjoyed it...inspiring. Greg

Working on my pedalboard and Fractal Axe8 patches, getting ready for a July 4th block party if it works out this year. I have postponed my visit to the Gathering until next year, so no preparation for the Student Showcase. Greg

Very cool, Matt. You have a gift for musical creativity. Love to hear your stuff. Greg

Very nice!! This is clear proof that you can create quality productions in Garageband. You put together a fun project and I just had to have a copy.😀 Greg

I enjoy your recordings Mandy and admire your progress in recording and performance. I too deal with the scourge of arthritis so I can deeply empathise with the challenges. Playing and vocalizing is especially challenging and often I too use a simpler chord strategy, particularly when I am playing with bandmates-they can cover things with more complex play while I sing. When i am not the singer, I get the chance to expand my chops as well. Keep it up and keep giving us the pleasure of your contributions. Greg Also, in my opinion, "fancy" should never be the focus in this monthly challenge and I hope others take your lead and share their skills, regardless of level. I tend to like building layers in songs to develop my recording skills, but I personally enjoy going to public venues and listening to the solo artists as much as any band, and many of these artists use " simple" play in their performances.

I tried to think of actual exercises but found myself stumped. Playing only 2 or 3 strings is something I just do by rote anymore but a couple of thoughts. When playing strings 1-3., try to mute the D string with your G string fingering, that is let it slightly touch the D while fingering the G. Concentrate on strumming only the the treble strings. If you strike the D, it is muted. When playing the internal triads, you must also mute the adjacent unplayed strings with your fretting fingers and release the strum early to avoid the E . You can play triads on A, D and G also but that is not something a Steve taught in his series. Practice very slowly until you have a feel for fretting and strumming control to strike only the fretted and muting the unwanted. Maybe consider using only one triad form at a time up and down the fretboard without changing shapes, then try one change only until the strumming movement becomes more natural and the accuracy improves Good luck. Greg

Wow, very nice Skip and Ron! I can imagine the amount of time and practice that went into both of your contributions . Really just outstanding play and recordings. Very impressive so thanks to both of you for sharing. Greg

Welcome Jogarman. You have advance quite a ways in the LMG course so you have considerable skills under your belt by now, so to speak. Just as you started learning how to strum rhythmically to a metronome, whole notes, half notes, quarter and so on-one- step at a time-so might you consider learning to sing along with your playing. Select a simple 3 or 4 chord song that you know well lyrically (or have the lyrics and chord chart visually close at hand) and go back to square one with your rhythm playing. Keep your strum playing simple, slow down and focus on the melody, hum at first if you need to, use the metronome. As you become more comfortable and familiar with integrating a third task while both hands are working their own actions, you can begin to advance to a more accurate tempo and advanced strum pattern. There is no fast track, just as there is no quick way to "learn and master" guitar but dedicate a small part of your practice each day to the task, perhaps at the end of your dedicated practice schedule. That said, I know some very skilled musicians who simply can't sing while playing, and it does become more difficult as the chord progressions become more complex. It is a learned skill however, so don't be discouraged if the challenge appears too daunting at first. Practice and patience is a virtue. Best of luck on this. Greg