What song should I have my guitar teacher show me how to play this week?

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In my pursuit of actually learning something more about the guitar than the same simple chords and obvious songs I've been playing for the past 2 years, I've started taking lessons from a jazz musician with long hair who says "Right on" and "Excellent!" all the time. He also can pick up and show me how to play pretty much any song I play for him.

Previous weeks include: Tim Buckley - "Buzzin' Fly" / Radio 4 - "Eyes Wide Open"

I'm thinking of something along the lines of Gang of Four - "To Hell with Poverty," Killing Joke - "The Wait," or an Explosions in the Sky song, but all recommendations for a fun, slightly demented song to play are welcome.

Yes, this is a worthless thread, but thanks anyway.

― PB, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

you asked your guitar teacher to teach you a radio 4 song?

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

But it's a good song.....

― PB, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

Slovenly - As if it Always Happens

someone came here to say Metal Machine Music, I just know it...

― Draw Tipsy to see if you give a shit about art (Dave225), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

Metallica "One"
RHCP "Under the Bridge"
Bob Marley "Jammin"

Stick to the classics!

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

Pretenders - Kid

― Draw Tipsy to see if you give a shit about art (Dave225), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Those are too obvious.....you can find 'em anywhere online. Plus I already know how to play 'em. I'm talking something like "Big Eyed beans from Venus".....I like the look on the guy's face when I play the stuff for him, cuz he's used to showing high schoolers how to play Green Day stuff all day.

― PB, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

(oops, xpost to the metallica post)

― PB, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

Pavement - Two States

(I actually suggested this to mine once, naively. Poor guy nearly wet himself laughing :D )

― fandango (fandango), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

learn every zeppelin tune first, fuck all this corny indie, you'll never be a good guitar player that way.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Beefheart stuff is fun to learn. I tried to figure out When Big Joan Sets Up and Moonlight in Vermont years ago and it was pretty insane because they probably weren't using standard tuning plus there are 2 guitar lines weaving in and out of each other. Television songs are kind of fun to play. How about trying to learn a solo by someone like Sonny Sharrock or John McLaughlin? If I were going to take guitar lessons again I would probably start out by trying to play like Bola Sete.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

learn every zeppelin tune first

I have....."That's The Way" was difficult.

― PB, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

"Puff The Magic Dragon"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

"That's The Way"/"Moonlight On Vermont" are super easy!

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Play him some modern classical guitar stuff.

― Kid me no, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

Robbie Basho - The Falconer's Arm

― Boring Satanic Space Jazz (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

How about "Stop Playing Guitar" by the Promise Ring. Seriously, though, why does no one want to play drums anymore? Or piano?

― Travis Broome (truest@r), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

Eruption

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

Crazy Train

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

Smoke on the Water

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

Donna Lee

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

"Moonlight On Vermont" are super easy!

Yeah, come to think of it, that one is pretty slow. It was Big Joan that requires some pretty wide stretches that made me think it must have been done in an alternate tuning.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

learn every zeppelin tune first, fuck all this corny indie, you'll never be a good guitar player that way.

He should play what he LIKES. There is plenty of "corny indie fuxor music" with great guitar playing. Plus, what makes one a "good guitar player?" It's all relative anyway... all about technique.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

http://s18.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=28RDFFZGR0FPS0UH2KZESB3YAL

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Whoops. That was meant for the guy asking for the YSI of a Disco Inferno song. Unless you want to play The Last Dance you can delete that.

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

classical gas

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

Ask him how to play the squalling wall of feedback in the last three minutes of Kitchens of Distinction's "Hammer".

― Cheeseburger-style funbox to GO! Fries come in regular and crepuscular size (Eas, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Steve Howe--"Clap"

― Darryl S., Tuesday, 26 July 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

No Stairway?

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:40 (twenty years ago)

I searched out some sheet music for "Crashed the Wedding" in the local music shop, so's I could teach the kids. But on the first page, it showed ten different chords! That's nearly all of them!

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:19 (twenty years ago)

Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Phillip XIV - John Fahey

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

concerto de aranjuez ! it's a good one to impress chix...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:34 (twenty years ago)

http://www.ukuleledisco.com/jake

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 11:22 (twenty years ago)

Heh, get him to teach you Yes's Starship Trooper (or just the solo part, lol). That song is absolutely crazy. Try it if you want nightmares for a few months.

Classical Gas by Mason Williams is one of my favorite songs to play. It's mindblowing, and no one knows it! I have yet to meet an amateur guitar player other than myself that can play the song. Every motherfucker who picks up a guitar can struggle through Stairway to Heaven or Smoke on the Water, but none of them have ever even heard of Mason Williams... It's a beautiful song and is very fun to play.

And bravo to Darryl S., Steve Howe is the fucking man.

― Austin Parish, Monday, 8 August 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

FREEBIRD!

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Monday, 8 August 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

May I gently recommend more learning of improvisation and songwriting, rather than yet more learning how to replicate a recording that somebody else already made?

I mean, I guess different people want different things from learning how to play an instrument. But speaking for myself, I almost always find it kind of an absurd project--to spend hours and hours on trying to precisely nail every bend and hammer-on in something that Jimi or Stevie or whoever has already played.

"Stairway" [or whatever] is already on a record. It's widely available. People who want to hear "Stairway" played just like Page played it can bloody well go home and listen to the record. Grump grump grumpety grump grump.

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 8 August 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

It's a useful way to learn how to do things. I had a drawing class once where our homework every day was to duplicate an old-master drawing (with an eye to composition, not perfect technique) as much as possible in an hour. It really helped me to develop a sense of how to put a drawing together. You do this kind of thing to get your chops in order and to absorb a broad range of influences, not out of a desire to turn into Steve Morse version 2.01

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 8 August 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

I disagree that you won't learn stuff by replicating other players. You will learn plenty from accurate transcription but it's better to do it yourself.

If your teacher is happy to teach you songs you suggest, you need a new teacher. Part of the reason you are paying a teacher is because he should know what you need to learn to become a better instrumentalist and musician - he shouldn't be asking you.

― frankiemachine, Monday, 8 August 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

television songs, eh? what television songs have y'all learned? I can figure out isolated riffs and play many pretty satisfactorily, but I can't really render songs nicely on only one guitar...

― shudder redduhs (shudder), Monday, 8 August 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

I can play "Venus," "Days," and "Marquee Moon"

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 8 August 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

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