What songs by other people have you been teaching yourself to play lately?

I basically learned to play guitar by figuring out songs by bands I liked or finding guitar tab for them. Then at some point I guess I got more interested in writing my own songs and stopped regularly teaching myself other people's songs. But I think I'm going to try to do this more often, as it's fun and you get to see what other guitar players do.

I taught myself "Treat the New Guy Right" by Silkworm a couple of months ago, but had some trouble with the lead breaks. Yesterday I had an idea to cover "Motel Room in My Bed" by X so I sat down and figured it out before abandoning the idea of actually covering it.

Planning on teaching myself 'Who Loves The Sun' by The Velvet Underground.

"The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" and it's not going well. singing is really hard.

still perfecting my 'funky drummer' break

oh and i worked out a pretty satisfactory way of playing 'poison' (as in bbd) for a funk/r&b band i've been playing with

lately, i tried learning owen p's "e is for estranged" on guitar, but a step lower b/c it was easier to play with the tuning i have right now. i kinda have it but dont have a looper to do cool stuff with it :/

couple of weeks ago started trying to get jorge ben's "menina mulher de pele preta" which is only a few chords but involves singing in portuguese (degree of difficulty!)

i've been trying to learn kate bush's experiment iv but the final result will scarcely resemble the original save for the vocal melody

I love "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died." Just keep playing it, you'll get it.

Funny that this thread should pop up again. Just now I was running through 'Who Loves The Sun'. The chord progression is beautiful and pretty easy on keyboards - but on guitar it's even better, LR is the master of writing for rhythm guitar.

I have taughten my self songs from jimmy hendrix to slipknot, from slipknot to taking back sunday, i love fact of guitar tabs. Hit me up if u have any good acoustic songs.

Life on Mars by David Bowie. One of the wildest chord progressions of all time. Of all time.

The chords for the chorus aren't too bad but wtf with that verse?!

I love "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died." Just keep playing it, you'll get it.

― banjoboy, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 06:57 (2 days ago)

ok i think i will. i started as an exercise in just playing and singing, you know, at the same time. never learned cuz i was just always too timid with roommates around and stuff and now i pretty much have an entire to story house to myself. biggest problem is in the parts in F (F#? i forget already. i think it's all just C, G, and F capoed a half step sharp on the lp version). i can't hit those without my voice cracking into falsetto. which is ew.

i think i need a singer more my speed, like townes van zandt. if that doesn't work out i'm taking all tips from masonna.

Cruel Summer on acoustic. I stole the chord progression (which is pretty generic) after I learned it and used it on one of my own songs.

The chords for the chorus aren't too bad but wtf with that verse?!

For anyone interested in this kind of thing, I've written the first part of an Alan W. Pollack-style analysis of Bowie's Life On Mars.

i'm going to circle back to your post later today. in the meantime, i'll just say that i love the concept, and i hope you do more of these.

Thanks Daniel. I hope to make it a regular thing. This is my 2nd entry -- the first was an analysis of one of my own songs. I love this kind of thing, but it takes a lot of effort to write and I have no idea if anybody else is interested or understands what I'm going on about, so feedback is welcome.

I like the explanation of the bass line for Life On Mars - it really makes sense now how it holds that song together.

Suicide - Dream Baby Dream

I posted Part 2 of my Life on Mars analysis.

everything off tiny vipers - life on earth

whoaa life on earth / life on mars

Blondie - Hanging on the Telephone

isnt that also a cover

It is! And the Blondie version is very faithful to the Nerves' original, but I didn't find that out until later on Sunday afternoon.

i love both. i wasnt sure if it was actually a cover or if it was a shared member kind of situation

also my new band discussed covering that last night!!

the shirelles - will you love me tomorrow

^^ we chose this instead

my old band covered hangin' on the telephone (nerves version), we used to have a live recording of it up on our website but that site doesn't exist anymore

Hole - Violet
Hole - Plump

Nirvana - Blew

Suede, 'Heroine' (simple chords, tricky arpeggiation that I keep stumbling over, varied dynamics throughout the song prevent repetition)

Warpaint - Stars
George & Ira Gershwin - Our Love Is Here to Stay
Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
Beatles - I Will

John Fahey - Requiem for John Hurt -- not as hard as it sounds once you realize the tuning (CGCDCE) but has some tricky rhythms

Doc Watson - East Tennessee Blues (massively slowed down obv)

Down Through & Evil by Red House Painters

Switched to bass this summer. Been learning a lot of great stuff I've always wanted to play. This morning its Heartbeat by Taana Gardner. Thank you disco poll.

I got Mountain's "Never in My Life" down pretty good on bass or guitar, but I can't get my vocals to sound right. It's just a bit too high for me in standard tuning.

Did a vocal take of Cocteau Twins "BlueBell Knoll" a while back, to see if I was capable of singing that way. One gets thrown by basically having to make silly phonetic sounds instead of sing words, but I think I did ok. Its a real challenge to do all those trills and runs up and down scales tho!

this is basically all i do now that i'm fast enough

i'm on my third playlist. this one is dedicated mainly to Nuggets I/II but it's already getting kinda boring. i played mary j blige's "family affair" the other day and it was super fun.

i can't find the thread for the newest ilx comp but here is a poorly recorded drum part of chocolate watchband's "are you gonna be there (at the love-in)"
if anyone wants to use it, lemme know! i think it has a little bit of moldy midwestern basement charm.
https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/are-you-gonna-be-there-at-the

learned "annie" by elastica with a couple other people the other night. really fun to play

I've been teaching myself the main melodic riff to "She Will" by Savages, which is great because it's basically just a minor scale

Been having a hoot playing the theme to x men the animated series lately.

"Under African Skies" by Paul Simon.

Ooo, nice.

think i'll try to learn 'freight train', though i suspect i'll give up in frustration and self-loathing.

This morning, The Who's 'Success Story'.

Lately when I've been really drunk I'll play like a stoner rock version of the Law And Order theme.

my old band covered hangin' on the telephone (nerves version), we used to have a live recording of new songs on our websitebut that site doesn't exist anymore ,the first was an analysis of one of my own songs. I love this kind of thing, but it takes a lot of effort to write and I have no idea if anybody else is interested or understands what I'm going on about, so feedback is welcome.

Admittedly pretty simple but "That's Just the Way It Is" by Dead Moon. Now I just need to figure out the lyrics.
I covered "Off You" by the Breeders when I played last month.

johnny b. goode

Walk Away Renee and Sunrise Sunset as guitar instrumentals; and Sir Duke for solo voice/guitar.

I have been learning to play "don't talk" by the beach boys on the piano lately. Pure bliss. I could play it forever !