Very basic beginner guitar stupid question about Release

acsdata

About a month ago my son wanted to learn guitar, so I got a nice beginner electric set, and the more he messed around with it, the more interested I became, and now I play it probably 3 times as much as he does. I have never played up until this point in my life. I know basic music from when I was in high school, and I can read tabs and understand them, especially with songs I know.

Out of all the songs I read tab to, for some reason, the easiest of them all is giving me the biggest fit. I printed off the guitar tabs for Release (http://www.giventowail.com/tabs/?p=21&tabid=12), but no matter what I do, it doesn't sound right. I don't know if I'm just not hitting the notes fast enough to make the melody recognizable or what. I've looked on YouTube to see if I can find anyone else who plays that, but nearly all of those covers the people just play the chords. None of them play the real intro.

Anybody got any tips. I'm sure the tabs have to be right, so I guess I'm just screwing up somewhere. Thanks.

DeLukin

It may help to start by learning the D major chord, which the intro is built on. When you become comfortable with that, the rest should be a little easier to recreate...

acsdata

Thanks. I know the positioning looks very similar. The chords played during the chorus are not too bad for me, but just that intro is giving me problems. I think my timing is just off on it.

xtremehardy388

Try to play along to the song. That helps me, usually

kitfoo

If you have Guitar Pro, download the tab for that. It will show you exactly what the timing is. (assuming the person who wrote it did it correctly!)

jordn6971

I like to look up people playing covers of the songs on Youtube and by watching them you can figure out songs easier.

lucylespian

The youtube suggestion seems to be the modern way, but also in this case, teh Ten songbook has this notated correctly, if you rread rhythm. If you don't read rhythm, ther eis no time like the present to learn. It's just basic fractional math.

The Long Road

For intro, keep your fingers in the D major position (do not barre). Use your pinky to "hammer on" the high E string 3rd fret...then "hammer on" the same string with your middle finger on the 2nd fret. Do this over and over again until you get so sick of playing it. Chords are D-Bm-C for other parts.

Pappas

The Long Road wrote:

For intro, keep your fingers in the D major position (do not barre). Use your pinky to "hammer on" the high E string 3rd fret...then "hammer on" the same string with your middle finger on the 2nd fret. Do this over and over again until you get so sick of playing it. Chords are D-Bm-C for other parts.

this is 100% correct

for the intro your fingers never leave the open D position chord, and as he stated the only thing that moves on your left hand is the pinky and 3rd (next to pinky) fingers when you hammer on the notes on the last E string

the chorus is just 3 power chords, easy as

lucylespian

Pappas wrote:

this is 100% correct

for the intro your fingers never leave the open D position chord, and as he stated the only thing that moves on your left hand is the pinky and 3rd (next to pinky) fingers when you hammer on the notes on the last E string

the chorus is just 3 power chords, easy as

I play the B as a Bm7, whichis not a power chord, cos it sounds right. Is that not right ?

tmud91087

the hammer on is the key... keep working at it.

jcmark611

Are you fingerpicking? Thats the only way to get the feel of the album.

Anon

The Long Road wrote:

For intro, keep your fingers in the D major position (do not barre). Use your pinky to "hammer on" the high E string 3rd fret...then "hammer on" the same string with your middle finger on the 2nd fret. Do this over and over again until you get so sick of playing it. Chords are D-Bm-C for other parts.

+1
you are correct sir.

mccreadyisgod

The hammer-on and pull-off moves on the high string are the key to getting this right. You can't possibly pick those notes fast enough to replicate that part without hammer-on and pull-off moves.

Other than that, the intro is just a fingerpicked pattern on three different variations on the D-major chord:

| D | Dadd9 | Dsus4
e-2---0

---

3--
B-3---3

---

3--
G-2---2

---

2--
D-0---0

---

0--
A-0---0

---

0--
E-X---X

---

X--

acsdata

A great big thanks to all of you!!! Youtube has been a huge help, especially for some of the songs that I've always wanted to play, like Yellow Ledbetter. Release was the one song that I couldn't find a good video of.

I sat and just listened to the intro over and over and over and over late last night until the batteries on my ipod were nearly dead. I figured out a big part of my problem is that I'm trying to play the first part of the intro:

-|-0h2p0

---

-|

---

3

---

-|

---

2

---

-|-0

---

0-
-|

---

-|

---

way too slow. It seems like it's just one fluid motion and I was breaking it up too much which had me so lost on the sound that it just wasn't coming out right. I still don't have it down yet, but it did start to come around to where it was somewhat recognizable. I'm pretty decent with hammering on and pulling off quickly. I have a problem with hitting the D and high E simultaneously, but I was using a pick originally, and now I'm trying to get used to fingerpicking the notes, which seems to be the only way to do it.

Like I said, I've only been messing around with a guitar for less than a month (just a couple of weeks actually), so I need to just keep practicing. My wife and kids are going out of town for a couple of weeks to visit relatives here pretty soon, and I plan on killing my alone time by just practicing the hell out of this thing. There are a lot of good video lessons on Youtube as well to help with scales, chords, fingering, everything.

Thanks again for the tips everyone.

Pappas

nice one mate

once you get into playing chords look up the giventowail tab for elderly woman, shouldnt be too hard to grasp,also songs like wishlist aren't too hard either

lucylespian

mccreadyisgod wrote:

The hammer-on and pull-off moves on the high string are the key to getting this right. You can't possibly pick those notes fast enough to replicate that part without hammer-on and pull-off moves.

--

Yeah, hammer-on/pull-off is the right thing there, but I can easily pick at that speed. It's not called for there though.

stylo17

how exactly do you pull-off on the 0 fret (according to GTW)??

total newbie question

lucylespian

stylo17 wrote:

how exactly do you pull-off on the 0 fret (according to GTW)??

total newbie question

You pull off "to" the open string, ie fret a note, then pull-off leaving the sting open to the nut. There is lots of this stuff, all up and down the neck.
"Thunderstruck" by AC/DC is a riff played on the B string, with an open B between every fretted note. It's a good song to practice it on. "Wasted Years" intro by Iron Maiden is similar.

ianvomsaal

Release . . . Here you go: http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w83/ianvomsaal/PearlJam-RELEASE-1.jpg?t=1216021833
Someone asked about this tune about year or so back - Unfortunately, before I could actually post the proper notes
and phrasing he went and got it tattooed on the top of his foot (Incorrectly I might add). Imagine having a PJ tune
inked on you body permanently with the some incorrect notes, and the phrasing completely wrong - He even had a
few notes tied improperly (in a way that no one that writes and reads music would ever tie them). Sooo unfortunate.
I bet he wishes he hadn't rushed into it - Does anyone else remember this?