Solo guitar arrangements

Guidance

Hey guys, I recently got inspired to record my guitar arrangements of pop songs. I started with 2 Westlife Song; "Fool Again" and "My Love". Please check them out, I could use some suggestions, opinions and just about any general response. I'd also use some suggestions over which songs are in a sense more "popular". I'm trying to arrange songs more pop classics, it bugged one time when I had to do a solo thing and folks didn't know most of the pieces I played. Anyway thanks in advance. = and =

Guidance

Well this is a little embarrassing, I had absolutely no idea that I needed to enable comments on youtube. The entire time I thought no one was into giving feedback.

AlanRatcliffe

You'll probably not find too much love posting Westlife covers to GFSA - they're not really known for their mad guitar skillz. ?

All the notes are there in your arrangements, which are pretty good. What lets your videos/arrangements down is your timing and tuning - the two most important things in any performance. Unfortunately no-one is going to stay around long enough to listen to your arrangement if you don't tune your guitar properly. Timing is also very important in any arrangement of pop music - the pulse has to feel solid to capture the feel.

Shibbibilybob

Alan is correct.
Your guitar is out of tune.
Seems like a nice arrangement and good playing otherwise. n

Bob-Dubery

Timing is non-negotiable when playing solo. If you play a simple arrangement with good timing you'll get a better response than if you play something complex and more complete with poor timing. If your timing is good the listener can tap their foot and get in the groove. If your timing is off their foot will come down but the music doesn't happen at the same time and they'll switch off.

All the good solo performers I've seen (from really hot players like Martin Simpson to guys who do little more than strum) have solid timing. All manner of mistakes and crimes will be overlooked if your timing is steady and constant.

Try tapping your foot when playing, and when you practice slow down to a tempo at which you can manage the difficult bits - and keep that tempo. With time you will improve and the tempo will go up by itself, but you will have practiced playing at a steady tempo.

Get on YouTube and find clips of Martin Taylor or Tommy Emmanuel. And forget the fireworks - listen to the groove. They are rock solid.

Guidance

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: You'll probably not find too much love posting Westlife covers to GFSA - they're not really known for their mad guitar skillz. ?

Haha, I cracked at the jab at Westlife and their guitar skills. But then I guess their role ends with their recording, so it's my guitar skills that are up for discussion ?
I'd like to thank you for your detailed response. Goes to show that I still have a long way to go, which is not a bad thing at all. I knew when I started that it's not an easy instrument to master. I'm glad to know that there are no major problems with the arrangements themselves. I'll definitely keep on working with the metronome to cure my time issues, it's nothing practice won't solve. As for the other problem in the house, the tuning that is, I am aware of it and have been postponing a visit to a guitar tech. I have an intonation issue with my D string. If I tune it pitch-perfect for the open note, every note starts getting flat from the 5th fret onwards. The problem is easy to bear with for arrangements that revolve in the first position only, which is an issue cause I generally like to go up the neck to make it easy to maintain some voice leading with the voicings I use. What I've been currently doing was to just tune it a bit sharped, I thought maybe the law of averages ? would be on my side, I guess I was wrong cos it doesn't fool anyone. I'm glad for this forum guys, in all my 2 years of playing, I've never been lucky enough to be critic'ed by experienced musicians. It doesn't help that people just keep telling me that I'm good ? sends the wrong message... Haha, the irony ?

Guidance

X-rated Bob wrote: Timing is non-negotiable when playing solo. If you play a simple arrangement with good timing you'll get a better response than if you play something complex and more complete with poor timing. If you're timing is good the listener can tap their foot and get in the groove. If your timing is off their foot will come down but the music doesn't happen at the same time and they'll switch off.

All the good solo performers I've seen (from really hot players like Martin Simpson to guys who for little more than strum) have solid timing. All manner of mistakes and crimes will be overlooked if your timing is steady and constant.

Try tapping your foot when playing, and when you practice slow down to a tempo at which you can manage the difficult bits - and keep that tempo. With time you will improve and the tempo will go up by itself, but you will have practiced playing at a steady tempo.

Get on YouTube and find clips of Martin Taylor or Tommy Emmanuel. And forget the fireworks - listen to the groove. They are rock solid.

Thanks again for the feedback Bob, like Alan you said a lot here. You put it to perspective and elaborated further. I'd be sure to check those cats out. I've actually heard quite a lot about Tommy, I'm wondering why I still haven't checked out yet. I hear he even have a massive stage presence, another skill I'm working on improving.

Guidance

The best part about recordings like this is that they make it easy to measure progress. I'm sure I'll be looking a this from a different angle another 2 years down the line.

briang-telkomsa-net

Enthusiasm that is unmatched Guidance _ keep it up ?

Much as Alan and Bob have noted above about timing here is my two cents worth -
Music is breaking sound up into time segments so if you're not doing it in a way that makes sense it can't be music right?
So "horizontally" the timing must be right and "vertically" the harmony (tuning) must be right - hope that makes sense ?

warrenpridgeon

Guidance wrote: The best part about recordings like this is that they make it easy to measure progress. I'm sure I'll be looking a this from a different angle another 2 years down the line.

I recently listened to recordings of me playing like 6 years ago... I thought I had made decent progress by the time the recording was done... and now I'm like eish...lol. Keep playing and stuff that was impossible becomes hard, stuff that was hard becomes easy... hehe