ShortScale.org

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For me this is one of the hardest songs i've ever attempted to play. I think learning a difficult song will help you develop new techniques and it keeps me interested in guitar even though at my age i know ill never have a career in it.

Let's hear/see the hardest songs you can play!

Still can't figure out how to post a youtube video

Sex machine, like all JB songs it's about making the simple riffs breath, hitting that e13 isn't just systematic

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Playing for 10 minutes & being in the flow with it is just heaven

What's that JB guitar book you were on about a while back Chris?

Probably the most technically "difficult" song I can play is Yes' "Long Distance Runaround." Not really the type of music I play though, instead I enjoy finding uncommon chords from music that's consider soulful, like the chords from Earth Wind & Fire's "September" and The Delfonic's "Didn't I" are pretty cool.

benecol wrote:What's that JB guitar book you were on about a while back Chris?

The great james brown rhythm section - by Allen "Dr Licks" Slutsky and Chuck Silverman



I have this and a bunch of other funk books if fancy a loan Tim?

I learned it in the correct A# detuning, but it sounds fine half step down. Dunno if it counts as 'hard' but it's a fun warmup for practising and stuff. No fancy effects - just a fuckton of muffy goodness.
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Not sure....

Eugene's Trick Bag? Is that a song?

Probably Rude Mood or Classical Gas. Classical Gas took me aaaages to learn and I had to stick at it.

It's an odd question because different people find different things tricky. For instance, I could play Eugene's Trick Bag and Rude Mood years ago but it's only recently that I l've been able to play Lover You Should Have Come Over, because the timing in that always completely threw me despite many other people finding it easy going (my hands always wanted to play it in four instead of three and my ears could never catch them until it was too late).

Concretebadger wrote:I learned it in the correct A# detuning, but it sounds fine half step down. Dunno if it counts as 'hard' but it's a fun warmup for practising and stuff. No fancy effects - just a fuckton of muffy goodness.
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Is this guy japanese? The beginning riff is pretty heavy!

Bacchus wrote:Not sure....

Eugene's Trick Bag? Is that a song?

Probably Rude Mood or Classical Gas. Classical Gas took me aaaages to learn and I had to stick at it.

It's an odd question because different people find different things tricky. For instance, I could play Eugene's Trick Bag and Rude Mood years ago but it's only recently that I l've been able to play Lover You Should Have Come Over, because the timing in that always completely threw me despite many other people finding it easy going (my hands always wanted to play it in four instead of three and my ears could never catch them until it was too late).

Eugenes trick bag is very technical! I thought it was so strange that in a movie about blues a neoclassic shred piece is considered "superior"

Zack wrote:Probably the most technically "difficult" song I can play is Yes' "Long Distance Runaround." Not really the type of music I play though, instead I enjoy finding uncommon chords from music that's consider soulful, like the chords from Earth Wind & Fire's "September" and The Delfonic's "Didn't I" are pretty cool.

Ahh, old school prog. The opening riff sounds so out of tune to me, compared to today's extremely polished pitch corrected tracks.

I don't even know what I just watched you play, but it was quite impressive. I've listened to a lot of Paul Gilbert and always wanted to play his songs, but lack the dedication to be able to really shred -- good thing I'm going to be a blues lawyer within a year!
How do you build up that kind of speed?

I've been working on some intricate bluegrass mandolin stuff of late (Whisky before breakfast and soldier's joy are the most recent), but certainly nothing to the extent that you're playing.

I feel like hardest is subjective. I think the most challenging I've learned well was Big Star's "Thirteen" some 5+ years ago, which I youtubed my cover of after Alex Chilton passed. I had absolutely no business singing this song but I was happy how the playing came out, especially towards the solo.

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I haven't really even tried shred stuff in years. I learned a few EVH, Paul Gilbert, and Yngwie licks when I was younger but at a certain point the song would conquer me. Then I just started writing my own songs and not really caring about learning others' as much.

That is some classy shredding tho JJ, well done.

Mo Rawka wrote:I don't even know what I just watched you play, but it was quite impressive. I've listened to a lot of Paul Gilbert and always wanted to play his songs, but lack the dedication to be able to really shred -- good thing I'm going to be a blues lawyer within a year!
How do you build up that kind of speed?

I've been working on some intricate bluegrass mandolin stuff of late (Whisky before breakfast and soldier's joy are the most recent), but certainly nothing to the extent that you're playing.

Are you becoming a lawyer? Congratulations! I would gladly trade my shred ability for your law career. ANY day.
I think the key to speed is relaxation in both hands, and also to play a guitar that you're comfortable with. Also, being an introvert with no social life helps.

Nick wrote:I feel like hardest is subjective. I think the most challenging I've learned well was Big Star's "Thirteen" some 5+ years ago, which I youtubed my cover of after Alex Chilton passed. I had absolutely no business singing this song but I was happy how the playing came out, especially towards the solo.


I haven't really even tried shred stuff in years. I learned a few EVH, Paul Gilbert, and Yngwie licks when I was younger but at a certain point the song would conquer me. Then I just started writing my own songs and not really caring about learning others' as much.

That is some classy shredding tho JJ, well done.

Very cool song man. I'm HORRIBLE at finger picking.
Did you know i'm originally from Rochester? I'm also probably the oldest member on this board with the lowest post count.

Not even sure anymore. I stopped practicing years ago, so now I can only play what I actually sit down and work and put thought into. My progression stopped probably five to eight years ago or something.

I can play Pink Floyd's Dogs all the way through. I'm fairly impressed with myself for that, some weird chords, and the solos are all different.

Other than that, not really sure without a guitar in front of me. Not a very impressive list.

JJLipton wrote:

Mo Rawka wrote:I don't even know what I just watched you play, but it was quite impressive. I've listened to a lot of Paul Gilbert and always wanted to play his songs, but lack the dedication to be able to really shred -- good thing I'm going to be a blues lawyer within a year!
How do you build up that kind of speed?

I've been working on some intricate bluegrass mandolin stuff of late (Whisky before breakfast and soldier's joy are the most recent), but certainly nothing to the extent that you're playing.

Are you becoming a lawyer? Congratulations! I would gladly trade my shred ability for your law career. ANY day.

Are you sure? Have you thought about the stress, the power struggles, the many hours you work, the pile of documents you have to read and study and the mental worries?
Not for me thank you.

But think about the Gibsons and Harley Davidsons you can buy when you're too fat, old and bald to look anywhere near as good as you'd like when using them.

JJLipton wrote:

Concretebadger wrote:I learned it in the correct A# detuning, but it sounds fine half step down. Dunno if it counts as 'hard' but it's a fun warmup for practising and stuff. No fancy effects - just a fuckton of muffy goodness.
[youtube][/youtube]

Is this guy japanese? The beginning riff is pretty heavy!

Yeah. The dude on that Nick Drake tribute album cover is the guitarist/bassist. The lady who plays lead guitar detunes a lot, but their stuff is pretty Black Sabbath- and Pink Floyd-inspired so they became one of my fave bands pretty quickly after I first heard them. They're playing a show alongside Mono and Envy next month in Tokyo if you feel like making the trip (I'm going to have to wait for the next UK tour or my next Japan holiday, whichever happens first).

I can sort of understand where Ekwatts is coming fom Re: practising though - I've not learned much *new* stuff in ages, so I dunno how to judge my proficiency any more. The 30 minute practice session before noodling around with my own songwriting, or on a rare occasion actually recording something, mostly consists of Pumpkins tunes that I learned when I was still at uni. I can do Mayonaise and Cherub Rock pretty much note-for-note by now, but that's about it.

Simpsons theme tune, but there's a few runs that I still can't do at speed.

ONE DAY

Yeah, Cherub Rock I can do almost note for note off the top of my head. It's my fave pumpkins song but I haven't actually listened to them for a very, very long time, so that's an odd one.

I used to be able to play some Radiohead solos, but I think a few years back I identified the fact that I'm basically totally autistic when it comes to this shit. If a solo is pretty freeform (or anything musical, actually; I like rigidity) then my brain really struggles with it. So Radiohead riffs I always found easy, but the solos tended to go off in what always felt like odd directions. Now, with Radiohead being my favourite band when I started playing, it meant that I really put the effort into learning them so I could play them, and I got good at them. Now, I probably couldn't even hum one, let alone play one. But then a Pink Floyd solo just feels easy as fuck.

Animal Nitrate is like that. I mean, Butler is a scary good guitarist, but to me that song is utterly all over the fucking place, chordally and with the solo. I just can't play it, at all.

So when I think of stuff that is "hard", I'm quite often thinking of things that are probably very easy to someone else.