Wim VD1

@WATSON43 I enjoyed listening, Kevin. The song has a great riff and nice harmonies indeed. Wim.

Congratulations, Ron. Get ready to learn Black horse and the cherry tree 👍

@RGMachine, Session 19 is dedicated to soloing. It includes these guidelines: 1) Look at the key signature. 2) Let the chord tones guide you. 3) Adjust to the style of the song. 4) Use finger patterns as a simple starting point. 5) Creativity involves lots of trial and error. Creative soloing takes a lot of time to develop. You need to know your scales and also learn licks by heart. Licks are like words that you use to make phrases. There are plenty of resources on blues licks. it's also fun and rewarding to learn some entire solos from your favorite blues players. Wim.

Thanks for listening and for your kind words, @Simira, @gotto, @NeilES335, @Nutty 1, @pkotof, @Popeye, @WATSON43. While searching for the suitable bird sound, I now learned the difference between the sound of a red-winged and a regular blackbird 🎵. Learning all I can 😎. Wim.

On my steel string acoustic, I have been trying Martin Retro, Elixir Polyweb and Elixir Nanoweb. So far I like the Polywebs the most. Wim.

@NeilES335 Great playing, Neil. Good timing and a nice tone. I listened to it several times. Wim.

What a coincidence. Yesterday I recorded this Beatles song from the L&M Fingerstyle course that I had been working on for some weeks. I heard McCartney say in an interview that they wanted to sound like Bach in this one 😀. Wim.

@WATSON43, Your song has it all. This can be played on a radio station. Fantastic! @Simira Well played! That's a long song to memorize. Wim

Following @Steve Krenz advice, I have started to pay much more attention to moving my fingers off the fretboard and trying not to let them touch when schifting between chords. This gets me a long way already trying to avoid string squeaks. Today, I also bought an old fashioned pumice stone to reduce the callouses on my fingertips. I know this does not sound very rock and roll, but I noticed after the pumice stone treatment a further reduction of unwanted squeaks when playing. My problem is getting solved. Wim.

Back to my favourite place 🎼🏠🎼 Wim.

Thanks, Steve. I thought I could buy the solution (other strings, lubricant), but realize now that I will have to work it out in the practice room 😀 Wim.

Tony, About a year ago, Steve had a live lesson on this topic: In the dropdown section of the video, there is a link to download the charts: https://www.dropbox.com/s/au3mtfgebbaplhb/Capo and Transposing Chart.pdf Wim.

Thanks for your replies. @NeilES335, I consider trying Fingerease Guitar String Lubricant. @Steve Krenz and @Greg Voros, could you give some advice on how to avoid or reduce string squeaks? Wim

Someone mentionned to me that my recording of St. James Infirmary sounds a little squeaky. i have to agree that those squeaky strings bother me as well. Before recording that song, I changed strings from Elexir Polyweb to Elexir Nanoweb and I think it got worse. The callouses on my fingertips don't help either. So could anyone give me some advice on how to avoid or reduce string squeaks? Wim.

Thanks for your reply, Steve. It's great to get to know the story behind the song. Letting the chords ring out makes a big difference on the sound indeed. I need to work on that. I have a tendency to rush to the next chord. Letting the chord ring out means less time to form the next one. It's a goal worth pursuing. Wim.

Thanks, @matonanjin, @IanD, @Fretless and @Nutty 1. Mandy, I only deserve part of the credits for transposing. The ActiveMelody arrangement was a flatpicking version for guitar. I did change it to fingerstyle and added arpeggio's and some extra notes to mimic that rolling piano feel. To me, fingerstyle is a bit like playing piano on guitar. Wim.

"I was down to St. James infirmary,..." This one is from Cab Calloway, in an arrangement I found at ActiveMelody.com. I listened to Earl Hines' version many times before recording this and tried to get a bit closer to his piano style by playing this fingerstyle. Wim.

Nice tone, Neil. And well played. Wim. Thanks Wim; I's really good to find a "plugin" that sounds pretty decent for the tone I was looking for. It's been a learning experience all around. N

Session 3 is all about playing intervals and Teri's song (from the course) is a nice little tune using 10ths. I like it so much that I decided to record it. Wim.

@Freewill, Great job on your first recordings. Wim.

@Simira, I love this fingerstyle blues. Well played, great timing and tone. Welcome to the monthly challenge. Wim.

@Fretless, @pkotof, @gotto, @matonanjin, @Popeye, @IanD, Thanks for listening and commenting! Wim.

I play guitar because it makes me feel good. There is no other instrument that sounds as good as guitar, except the human voice. So I play whenever and wherever I can, and the better I get, the more fun it is.

@NeilES335 That's a nice rendition, Neil. I enjoyed it. Great recording as well. What guitar did you use? Wim.

I agree with @matonanjin . That is also my way of learning. Wim.