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True - a Martin Taylor cover


kwakatak

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Ever since I talked to my friend Dirk, the jazz musician in Philly, I've been inspired to try and get a little more jazzy with my repertoire. One song that's come up now and again is Martin Taylor's slow and soulful piece entitled "True" that was on a CD of his a few years back and it was featured in Fingerstyle Guitar magazine #50 IIRC.

 

Anyway, I've been working on it for the past few years and feel like I pretty much have it down. Now I'm just cleaning up my technique on it because there's a lot of moving around the fretboard and it causes a lot of squeaking. I've also started getting into the habit of recording with headphones on so that I can hear better, not to mention I'm more inspired by playing with the reverb filter running in realtime. I'm pretty happy with where it is, even though there are still a couple of clams. Give it a listen and let me know if it sounds good enough to play beyond the confines of my home:

 

http://www.box.net/shared/61q4kxbqqy

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Neil, it was good to hear your playing again. I have always enjoyed your guitar work, as I know it was not an easy piece to play.

 

If I was a drinker, it would have been great to listen to while sipping a nice wine. As it has that soothing flow about it.

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Beautiful piece!


A couple of passages were rushed a bit but overall very nicely played!

 

 

Which pieces? There are passages in the "B" and "C" (bridge) sections that I deliberately speed up because the piece seems to call for it. I don't think my fretwork is up to it though. FWIW, this was on my OM (1.75" nut with a pretty flat-feeling fretboard radius) and I actually find it easier to play on my Strat (1.65" nut), which is awaiting repairs.

 

I've said it before, but I think when the Strat's back up I'm gonna do a "B" take with a clean tone. There are spots in this piece that seem to call for some ritardando pacing accompanied with slow t-bar dips; I'm heavily-influenced by Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck, though I'm a bit out of practice on my electric playing.

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Neil, very nice, I happen to be drinking a nice cab. As you may remember, I am a noob, so please bear with me. I am particularly interested in the last few bars, where the melody was picked, I think, with padded fingers, but then the higher notes seemed picked with a nail. I am talking about the few bars before the final strum. Can you help me with your technique? And are you using a thumbpick? (I think not, but asking to be sure)

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Wow, Neil.

 

I listened to both as I had the same impression as riffmeister about the tempo. But after listening to Martin Taylor's version, you were right. I tried to keep a tempo going and there are parts that seem out of time with a constant beat.

 

I hardly found any difference between his and your version. You did it beautifully. Well done.

 

As Do Fret It said, "now take it outside".

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Wow, Neil.


I listened to both as I had the same impression as riffmeister about the tempo. But after listening to Martin Taylor's version, you were right. I tried to keep a tempo going and there are parts that seem out of time with a constant beat.


I hardly found any difference between his and your version. You did it beautifully. Well done.


As Do Fret It said, "now take it outside".

 

Yup. I see it as a jazz piece in free time. There's no "groove" to this song except in parts where it feels like it needs to "get moving" but otherwise it wants to "breathe" in more of a "free time" feel. I don't know if that makes sense, but I guess when you hear the original it sort of does. :idk:

 

Anyway, this is the second fingerstyle piece I ever learned - and that was about 4-5 years ago. I found the tab in the 10 year anniversary issue of Fingerstyle Guitar magazine which comes with a CD of the music as well as the tab, so you can sort of run through the song and play along as you listen to it. I've been following that sort of "free time" approach with a lot of fingerstyle pieces (both covers like here and my own attempts at composition) and use a lot of accelerando and ritardando. It really opens up ways to be expressive with the guitar.

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