lol OK, I'm done practicing for the day; I thought I'd share one more "readthrough" that I recorded. Yep, rhythmic issues here and there, and a bit of a crash and burn in a spot or two, but meh... it's a starting point. This one was done in one shot; the fast arpeggios are basically a doubletime version of a the arpeggio sequence I do throughout. This one really IS funny!

Sorry, Kansas fans... hahaha Enjoy!

I liked this version. Keep em coming. Hey I missed you at Stick Camp but I guess Ill have to save my airplan points and make it out to Vancouver In May and maybe hook up then.

Heck, I might almost be good enough to attend one of these Stick things by then! Thanks for checking it out, this was very quick; I put together a few of these quickly within a short timeframe. (Layla on Friday, Giant Steps Saturday, then Imperial March, Carry on Wayward Son and Satin Doll on Sunday)

So yeah, if I spent some time on them they'd be a lot better. But I'm going for exposure to as much music as possible; I work on nuance as I go...

Very nice Jay! Maybe add some distortion...?

So cool in so many ways..... here's my critique... the melody.... a natural singing melody ....has repeated notes as a necessity for incorporating lyric. You avoided some of these. Get them back, use Greg and a Emmett's hand movement get the right hand moving like Steve Walsh or like a tongue. Flow .... anyway that's my two pence. Hand movement...hand movements... we strive we grow (man you are growing) we learn. Don't forget the basic the simple and often the elusive....repeated notes

Great stuff keep it up

Brett

Thanks, fellas! Very good points, I will take any help I can get! Tons of work to do, and a lot of practice to get to where I want to be that's for sure! lol gotta keep doing my chores! Haha

Sorry to be late to the party. I think from this and previous exchanges, that you (Scott) and I hear music differently. Where this performance is rhythmically precise, it misses some of the things I love about this song (true Kansas fan, sorry). By example, the piano hits in the intro riff could be done as AGA unison as you do it and then C in the bass followed by the C keyboard. Same with AGA to the D. And similarly descending DG hit, DF# hit. With the vocal line, the legato, staccato is much more important to me than being perfectly in time in the middle. If this sounds like a criticism, it is not. It is pointing out how we hear differently. For you, it seems the perfect timing is what is important to your ears whereas my ears care more for the flow of the song and dynamic/touch emphasis. Correct me if I'm wrong. To me, it was just enlightening.

Again, a major frustration I initially had with the instrument was that I couldn't seem to learn tunes in a reasonable period of time. Even once the tune was learnt, it would be subject to all manner of error. Errors in random areas, and no amount of woodshedding seemed to help. Resolving this issue has been one of my major goals, as I did not buy these amazing instruments to "not" play them. Others might be happy spending a year on one tune, but I myself find that unacceptable. On one hand, I love practicing, but there has just got to be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. Honestly, I have made more progress in the last 6 months than I have in the entire time I owned the Stick. All about the approach, and yes I do have a method that is more conducive (for me) to learning this instrument in an efficient manner.

Two main things...(for me)

1) The Free Hands Book by Emmett Chapman
2) Sight Reading both hands simultaneously.

Hehe believe me, I would be the first to point out the discrepancies in my own playing, and the many, many ways that I could improve a work. It's something that I should do, and refinement and nuance are things I will be working on, but for now I am just super happy I can play. I'm ready to "begin" on the instrument if you catch my drift...

So yes, I could definitely probably spend days working and reworking this (and other) tunes, but that wasn't my interest or my goal with this release. Rather, it was me trying to do a new tune a day for a week as a kind of "self-test". At the end of each day's practice, I grabbed a chart and read it down. While I did this, I hit "record". I read through a lot of tunes every day, it's come a long ways. Sometimes the results are less than stellar, but it's always something to reflect on.
And an audio recording is a great (and quick) way to document it...

Now when I share stuff, I fully expect some varying feedback. Haha There will be folks who like it, some who hate it, and others who will offer some suggestions and advice, and still others who might go out and do their own version, and many who won't listen at all. All good, I am just happy that I can finally play this instrument to some degree, and happier still that folks might want to discuss music. If we disagree about some things, that's fine. Agree to disagree. But hey, talking about music, so that's cool!

Thanks for checking it out, have a good one!