Learning Tom Petty — Good Enough - GuitarTalk Community

Learning Tom Petty — Good Enough

NorioDS

Now that the "Pointy vs Paddle Headstock" guitar duel is over, I wanted to spend the next few weeks learning something a little slower and under a little less pressure.

I just want to enjoy myself this time. Nothing to prove. YAY!

I love this song and it's in Rocksmith, so here goes.

I'm planning on learning and (eventually) recording and uploading:

? The lead guitar.
? The rhythm guitar.
? The bass guitar.
🎙 The vocals 🤯

Yep even the vocals. I love singing and I've been threatening to do something about it for the longest time. So this will be my first time publically sharing my attempt at singing.

I'll probably record it all on my BR-600 although I realise I'm a bit of a dinosaur by doing it that way so maybe I'll fire up GarageBand or something else on my Mac instead. It seems that "home use" recording devices are a dying breed.

Day 1 — I'm starting with the lead coz, let's face it, that's more fun. I've just practised the opening slides so far. Nothing too hectic but, of course, the trick will come in with trying to do it all with feeling. Really excited for this one!

NorioDS

Day 2 — Getting a usable sound.

So here's my gear:

Micro Terror Amp + Cab (This thing is tiny. Has no clean channel. But it does have a preamp tube.)
Vox Satchurator: I normally wouldn't use a distortion pedal with this amp but I need to be able to switch between clean and driven sounds, so I'm using this for the dirt.
Boss DD-3: Using this to make the lead sound more lead-y ?
Ibanez JS100: I'm using the bridge pickup in split mode for (hopefully) a nice bluesy tone.

I'm not in love with this but it's working for learning the lead bits of this song.

Getting to know my gear

Something I learned from switching between SRV - Scuttle Buttin' and Megadeth - Peace Sells is that, if I play with my gear, I can get a wide array of sounds and that's FUN to do!

So that's actually part of my mission: To get to know my gear better.

Same applies for recording gear. I was going to do a "quick" video of my progress so far but it bombed and I think it's because I don't know this camera. Battery seemed fine, space on the card is there... not sure why it's just turning off.

What is this song teaching me so far?

Right off the bat, this song will let me practice (and improve) my:

Position changing.

The intro has you moving from the 5th fret up to the 15th. Thankfully at a slower pace than the last 2 songs I tried learning.
Bends. (Lots of full-tone and semitone bends in the intro.)

My bends are sometimes flat, sometimes sharp. I haven't quite nailed bending all over the neck. The intro alone should help me improve that.
Vibrato.

My vibrato tends to be a bit aggressive and it's definitely inconsistent. It's something I'd like to pay more attention to. I'd especially like to improve my vibrato at the top of a bend but I haven't seen anything like that yet in this song.
Tone-switching.

I normally just improvise over backing tracks. So there's seldom, if ever, been a need for me to switch tones midway through a song. Again, right in the intro, it's there.

So, ja, there's lots to work on here. And, by the end of this, if I can play this song convincingly, I'll be pleased. (That's to say, I'm not gonna try do an exact copy of the song but I also don't want to turn it into something only my mother would enjoy and only if she was tone-deaf ?)

NorioDS

Day 8 — Getting Back on the Horse ?

I think I managed 3 days of practice last week. With some days having 2 sessions, others just 1. Since the middle of last week, there was no practise until today.

A Few Days Of No Practice Can Set You Back Quite Far.

So I fired up Rocksmith and played through some of the "easier" parts of the song and hit a brick wall with the lead bits I was learning last week. Had to slow the speed down to 30% just to remind myself of the notes. Then pushed it up to 50%, 70% and then 100%. At 100% I was failing miserably so I brought it down to 85% and then etched up by 5% every time I played the licks "right" 2 or 3 times. Eventually got to 100%.

A few days of no practice can set you back quite far. Luckily the parts I've learned so far don't have too many notes and luckily they're not flying past at mad BPMs.

Practising Transitions Is As Important As Practising Solos

Next I added in a tiny "lead up" to the solo. I find when I'm learning songs in parts, it's easy for it to sound like separate parts. So I have to focus on the transitions into and out of the more difficult parts as well. That's something that learning whole songs is fixing in me: my transitions are better. (Because they have to be. It's not good enough —ha see what I did there?— to just learn a few licks in the song and leave it at that.)

Become The Teacher In The Room

The other thing I realised is that, when you're teaching yourself a song from tabs, Rocksmith (and maybe Yousician—I don't know), you need to be come the teacher in the room.

What I mean is that teachers pick up little nuances in your playing that can be tweaked for an easier play-through of a song.

In the first solo of "Good Enough", the licks start off being played in E pentatonic, over the B and (high) E strings. Halfway through, if you don't switch your "position" to the G and B strings, you can't finish the run without bumbling over your fingers.

So that's what I noticed today and had to adjust. And I can tell you something — it's damn hard being the teacher AND the student in the room. But I suppose the benefit is that you don't really need a teacher for everyday learning. Just the harder bits.

Get The Best Teacher You Can Afford

And that's something I appreciate about the lessons I got from @Satriani here on the forum. He always said his goal was to make it so I don't need him. And I think he achieved that in many respects. You'll always do better with a teacher than without but try get a teacher who helps you eventually progress by yourself.

Having said all that, I desparately wanna get back into lessons again. I just know I'm wasting time by doing it all by myself.

So, ja, those are my takeaways today:

A Few Days Of No Practice Can Set You Back Quite Far.
Practising Transitions is as Important as Practising Solos.
Become The Teacher In The Room.
Get The Best Teacher You Can Afford

V8

NorioDS Become The Teacher In The Room

Likely the most important lesson one can learn. Imo, It's a self critical reflection that isn't overly critical nor blindly enthusiastic.

Even if one goes for lessons regularly, you'll find this is such a useful tool in your box.

While we were learning Scuttle Buttin - after 3 days of playing, the inner teacher -> "study SRV's hands playing this lick live" - 4-5 videos just to see where and how his hands/fingers were moving. There was another post challenge crit - but you'll have to wait till voting closes tomorrow for that!