Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Woodshedding


So, on the musical front, I find myself trying to learn a whole bunch of stuff at once. No rhyme or reason to it, just how, as these things sometimes do, it happens. I'm noodling along, something strikes me, I hear a song, then I need to figure out how to play it.

For instance, I've been playing "Hotel California" for a while. Got the chords down on the guitar, and then transferred them to the uke. Never worked out the intro, Don Felder's little riffs on the classical guitar, but because there is so much material on YouTube and in various forums, was able to find that, so I need to add it.

Hereunder, the current works-in-progress in the world of Steve's ukery:

Wagon Wheel (Darius Rucker's cover of the Old Crow Medicine Show tune)
Cakewalk into Town
Dorothy
A Summer Song
Hotel California
Political Science
Yesterday
Let it Be
Hey, Jude
Blackbird
Woke Up Dead Blues
St. James Infirmary
House of the Risin' Sun
Hallelujah

Instrumentals:

Quigley Down Under
Dixie
Something in the Way She Moves
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Ashokan Farewell
Theme From Titanic
Theme from The Game of Thrones

Currently, I can play about half of these without looking at the lyrics or tabs, and can get through them all with the cheat sheet. "Wagon Wheel," isn't hard to play, but I don't know all the words yet; "Dixie" and "Theme From The Game of Thrones" are the latest instrumentals, and farthest from being memorized.

Got an album's worth, easy.

Back to the woodshed ...


3 comments:

Mike Byers said...

That's an impressive set list! And you should consider doing a CD. I know where you can get the graphics done--for free.

Steve Perry said...

Bad when the graphics are better than the recording, though …

Mike Byers said...

Pick a half dozen tunes you like, do an EP and sell it on-line. Who wouldn't want something like this from a well-known SF writer? Next thing you know, you'll be opening for Miley Cyrus. You still gotta learn "Ukelele Lady", though: it's the law, just like learning "Lady of Spain" if you play the squeeze box.