Which do you find most difficult to play?

[rogera]

Yes Mike - "Orange Blossom Special" by the Spotnicks was speeded up although I have seen it performed by guitarists.

[Moderne]

Many Shadows tunes are deceptively simple - there's usually something tricky in them somewhere. I've always found the solo in Sunday for Seven Days quite difficult - in fact, to be honest, it's too hard for me. It shows what an amazing guitarist Hank was by the end of the sixties although he would probably not admit it.

Clive

[Shadow Steve]

Hi, i am a newbie to all this, bought my first guitar in Feb this year and so far i can play Apache. I chose this as it looked the shortest and i knew the tune. I git hooked on the music as a teen and am now rebuying the albums that i lost (now as mp3).
Any ideas what would be a good one to try next? Atlantis, Wonderful land?
Like was posted before i cannot play in fromt of a camera as i too suffer from the record key bug, however i did play fine on facetime to my brother in law who is magic on a guitar and he was well impressed as last time we met the strat copy (£79) was just out of the box. Guess i felt safe.
BTW i got into playing after a visit to Surrey shadows last Nov, one tast and you are hooked, wished i did it at school now.
Steve J (52)

[bazmusicman]

Hi Steve and welcome,

You'll find that there are quite a lot people on these sites that have taken up guitar again (or for the first time)
in later life when they realize what they have been missing!!

Best regards,
Baz.

[Tone]

Hi, i am a newbie to all this, bought my first guitar in Feb this year and so far i can play Apache. I chose this as it looked the shortest and i knew the tune. I git hooked on the music as a teen and am now rebuying the albums that i lost (now as mp3).
Any ideas what would be a good one to try next? Atlantis, Wonderful land?
Like was posted before i cannot play in fromt of a camera as i too suffer from the record key bug, however i did play fine on facetime to my brother in law who is magic on a guitar and he was well impressed as last time we met the strat copy (£79) was just out of the box. Guess i felt safe.
BTW i got into playing after a visit to Surrey shadows last Nov, one tast and you are hooked, wished i did it at school now.
Steve J (52)

Atlantis and WL are fine and technically aren't too difficult to play although getting the "right" sound might be something else! You could also try Dance On! and Theme For Young Lovers which come into the same category.

Cheers.

Tony

[Shadow Steve]

Many thanks for your comments, i found the tabs for Dance On and remember the tune so that looks like it could be my next one. Getting the sound right will be a challenge with a cheapo guitar and 10w toy amp but we all start somewhere and i am enjoying it which is the important bit.
Cheers

[Rosemary]

Hi Steve
The best part about learning Shadows tunes is that you can gradually work on the difficult parts as you develop the particular technique needed for them and they're such great tunes they'll sound good in the meantime. I only started playing a couple of years ago and although I can't play any tunes perfectly I can now play well enough to keep up and play along to some tunes with others at our club. Along with learning new songs I revisit the ones I've been playing longest too and try to add the extra touches e.g. palm muting, string bending, double stops etc. as I've learnt these techniques. Some of the tunes I started with were 'Wonderful Land', 'Apache', 'Dance On', "Theme For Young Lovers', 'Blue Sky, Blue Sea, Blue Me', 'Cavatina', 'Geronimo', 'Peace Pipe' and 'Atlantis' but they are still works in progress. Most of all though it's a lot of fun and the main thing is to enjoy playing as you are
Best wishes
Rosemary

[donna plasky]

Hi, Steve. I am a newbie to guitar playing as well. There are no Shadows clubs where I live, but essentially the same thing happened to me as to you...as my enthusiasm for the Shadows skyrocketed, I "got the fever" and had to give it a try. I am not in any position to give advice yet, but I thought I would say that what Tone and Rosemary each said rings very true for me. The songs they named are the main ones I am trying to play. I started in December 2011. Back then I had the cheapo guitar and 10-watt amp, which I traded up in February 2012 for something a little better -- but this early on, I cannot utilise any equipment to its real potential any way.

For free tabs and free backing tracks, I learned from this Site that the best place to go is: http://goran.tangring.com/ I have only tried using backing tracks within the last few weeks. In the very beginning, I needed to play along with the real song. I was surprised to find that songs I'd listened to hundreds if not thousands of times actually contained notes and nuances that I never noticed...until I tried to play the song. It's a little like Karaoke. You might think you know the song until you're forced to articulate every single word in front of other people and then...oops!

The other good advice that people gave me was for me to select songs to learn which match my ability -- not necessarily my taste in music. At first, I didn't want to believe that. I love "Foot Tapper" so I thought what could be better and more enjoyable than trying to learn such a great tune? The answer is: learning to play something that I can actually play. I guess all beginners are different. Whatever you think you're good at (or bad at) will help you select which songs to practise. For me, double-stops are not my friends, so Foot Tapper and Flingel Bunt are not ideal choices. I am decent at playing slides, so "The Breeze and I" is a better choice for me, even though it is not my favourite tune.

Good luck. If there is anything I can do to help or if you need a fellow beginner to commiserate with, just drop me a line.

Kind regards,
Donna

[eugene]

Hi ! There.

I coudn't play very well at the very point of intro to melody of "Apache" with standing play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE4qtdbiQnI

Even Jeff Beck missed that part.

So sorry for my poor English.

Sincerely. yours.

eugene

[Shadow Steve]

I found the Jeff Back version of Apache very different from the pure sound of Hank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB91ayDl ... re=related
Which is the sound that I am hoping to obtain, only recently I managed to get the speed of the drumbeats/hoofbeats to match although I still prefet to play along to the original track rather than a backing track.
Goran's site was an inspiration and I have downloaded many tabs and backings for my Brother-in-law who plays guitar very well as he started at the an early age and is a bit older than me. I have the computer and the internet while he has the knowledge and the experience.
He tried to get Theme for young lovers, Peace pipe and Atlantis, both tabs and backings for many years, once I told him I had a guitar we started talking about music more and he said about the problem of getting the tabs and backings. I fired up the web and downloaded all the ones he was missing and burnt them onto a CD for him so he is now well pleased that I have a new interest.
I have managed to learn Dance on as it is very short and repeats itself, so as was said it is a good one to learn for someone of my ability. The only problem is the intoduction. My version sounds nothing like the original (not that I doubt Gorans tabs). I will have to watch a live version on You tube some more for the timings.
As I get bored easily I tend to swap around and play a few other rifts, wonderful land, guitar tango, going home - not the whole lot, just the bit that everyone remembers. its a good lesson and my way of warming up the mind and fingers and I have a crib sheet on a word document of a dozen or so of these rifts on the computer ready to play every time I fire up the guitar.
Many thanks to you all for talking with me and offering me your kind words of advice, I am very lucky to have the Surrey club nearby for a monthly dose of inspiration. I will prob be many years before I get good enough to play on stage as everyone there is so good however I have seen a couple miss a note or forget their place halfway through, they still get a good round of applause at the end from everyone as it is all for fun and our own entertainment.
Steve J