Pleasantly surprised!

[Cecil6243]

Ever listen to a song without really looking at it closely thinking it will be complex to play, but when you get around to learning it find out it's not?

This just happened to me with Blackbird by Paul McCartney. I'm already a finger picker so that helps, but the patterns are so repeated it's not too bad! Won't be too bad to memorize for that reason too!

I am taking lessons so my instructor just wrote it out in tab for me (I also read music) and I'm just blown away with the simplicity of it!

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I play Blackbird totally wrong! I need to unlearn it.

[rick-slo]

Practice reduces complexity.

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Practice reduces complexity.

Hey maybe I'm improving and don't realize it.

[Glennwillow]

Every once in a while I find a song that, at least for me, is a little hard to play. But most of the time when I go after a song, I realize that it's relatively simple. Effective learning allows a person to break a process down into simple steps and then you learn to string those simple steps together to make a song. And then you need to practice to get it all down.

Blackbird is one of those songs. But it does take a lot of practice to get it down well and particularly to sing the song well.

The digital world has always been a lesson to me in how to break things down into simple steps. That simple step is either a 0 or a 1. The complexity comes from stacking one simple step on top of another, but if you can figure out the simple steps and be patient as you build complexity, you can master a whole lot in this world.

So much about learning is about patience and tenacity.

- Glenn

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Every once in a while I find a song that, at least for me, is a little hard to play. But most of the time when I go after a song, I realize that it's relatively simple. Effective learning allows a person to break a process down into simple steps and then you learn to string those simple steps together to make a song. And then you need to practice to get it all down.

Blackbird is one of those songs. But it does take a lot of practice to get it down well and particularly to sing the song well.

The digital world has always been a lesson to me in how to break things down into simple steps. That simple step is either a 0 or a 1. The complexity comes from stacking one simple step on top of another, but if you can figure out the simple steps and be patient as you build complexity, you can master a whole lot in this world.

So much about learning is about patience and tenacity.

- Glenn

Absolutely! And I haven't tried to sing it at the same time yet so that will probably be different ball game.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Absolutely! And I haven't tried to sing it at the same time yet so that will probably be different ball game.

Yes, learning to play well and sing well at the same time is the universal challenge for most of us guitar players!

Blackbird is a great song for just that kind of exercise. Most of us are going to have trouble with those high notes that Paul McCartney could hit without even trying. If you can sing those parts falsetto and sound good at it, you'll have this song in your back pocket fairly quickly!

My own formula for how to play and sing well is to put about 75% of my effort into the playing and leave the rest of my brainpower for the singing. With practice, the percentages shift later to the other way around (75% singing, 25% effort toward playing) once I have the mechanics of playing the song down well.

- Glenn

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Yes, learning to play well and sing well at the same time is the universal challenge for most of us guitar players!

Blackbird is a great song for just that kind of exercise. Most of us are going to have trouble with those high notes that Paul McCartney could hit without even trying. If you can sing those parts falsetto and sound good at it, you'll have this song in your back pocket fairly quickly!

My own formula for how to play and sing well is to put about 75% of my effort into the playing and leave the rest of my brainpower for the singing. With practice, the percentages shift later to the other way around (75% singing, 25% effort toward playing) once I have the mechanics of playing the song down well.

- Glenn

Same here. Ironically I find once I get to singing AND playing, the singing cements my memorization of the guitar parts to know where I'm at with songs that repeat sections like most of them do.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Same here. Ironically I find once I get to singing AND playing, the singing cements my memorization of the guitar parts to know where I'm at with songs that repeat sections like most of them do.

Heh heh. Other way arouhd here. To remember the words, I have to sing a song hundreds of times. The music is always waiting for the words to catch up.

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Heh heh. Other way arouhd here. To remember the words, I have to sing a song hundreds of times. The music is always waiting for the words to catch up.

Different strokes for different folks or shall we say different strums for different Bums? It sure would be a boring world if we were all the same wouldn't it?

Years ago when I sang for a garage band I would write the words to a song on paper over and over again. Still do to memorize the words to songs. I'm glad I did to as I got little bit of stage fright at our first gig of about a 500 people dance (played warm up for the main band), but the words just came out of me without thinking. Thank God for that!

BTW singing and playing Blackbird at the same time turns out not to be too bad, but I'm short a little on the high notes. I hate it when my age stiffles me. Probably have to eventually tune down this one.

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by Bob from Brooklyn

I play Blackbird totally wrong! I need to unlearn it.

Bob, site says your message quota is full. So I hope this works for you. And for anyone else interested in the tab for Blackbird by Paul McCartney.

https://i.imgur.com/1qhQPDj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DL1DKcN.jpg

[raysachs]

Yeah, just playing a lot will make a lot of things easier. There are songs I couldn't even begin to get a feel for that I'd sleep on for a year or two and come back to it and suddenly, THERE IT WAS! The chords weren't generally all that tough, but if they were my facility had improved, but it was usually the timing and the feel that I just couldn't get and suddenly I could. But the biggest limitation I've always felt has been singing, and the same thing happens there. Some stuff I couldn't even THINK about singing, I'd come back to it a year or two after leaving it alone and I'd suddenly be able to pull it off. I'll never be a particularly good singer, but I've gotten better enough to really enjoy it and stretch the kind of material I'm comfortable trying to sing. I've never made a concerted effort to "practice' or get better at one thing or another, but just playing a lot has it rewards and I really enjoy when something suddenly works that never had before.

-Ray

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Bob, site says your message quota is full. So I hope this works for you. And for anyone else interested in the tab for Blackbird by Paul McCartney.

https://i.imgur.com/1qhQPDj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DL1DKcN.jpg

Thanks, I cleared up some room and responded to you.

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Yeah, just playing a lot will make a lot of things easier. There are songs I couldn't even begin to get a feel for that I'd sleep on for a year or two and come back to it and suddenly, THERE IT WAS! The chords weren't generally all that tough, but if they were my facility had improved, but it was usually the timing and the feel that I just couldn't get and suddenly I could. But the biggest limitation I've always felt has been singing, and the same thing happens there. Some stuff I couldn't even THINK about singing, I'd come back to it a year or two after leaving it alone and I'd suddenly be able to pull it off. I'll never be a particularly good singer, but I've gotten better enough to really enjoy it and stretch the kind of material I'm comfortable trying to sing. I've never made a concerted effort to "practice' or get better at one thing or another, but just playing a lot has it rewards and I really enjoy when something suddenly works that never had before.

-Ray

Absolutely!

[BillyH]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Yes, learning to play well and sing well at the same time is the universal challenge for most of us guitar players!

Blackbird is a great song for just that kind of exercise. Most of us are going to have trouble with those high notes that Paul McCartney could hit without even trying. If you can sing those parts falsetto and sound good at it, you'll have this song in your back pocket fairly quickly!

My own formula for how to play and sing well is to put about 75% of my effort into the playing and leave the rest of my brainpower for the singing. With practice, the percentages shift later to the other way around (75% singing, 25% effort toward playing) once I have the mechanics of playing the song down well.

- Glenn

Lot of wisdom in these words!!!