easy pj songs?

lifewasted on givetowail is 100% accurate trust me. you can see how mike plays hte main riff and how stone uses that capo on all but the top E string in an interview with them i have it on dvd

as for easy songs mate, some of the ones they listed above arent easy at all for someone who is a full beginner like you

put these songs on your ipod
-elderly woman
-long road
-last kiss
-release
-not for you
-corduroy
-wishlist

that should be plenty to get you started, and shouldnt be too hard

dylan rain wrote:

that's funny i showed my instructor the guitar legends mag, that had alive, animal, black, not for you, and yellow ledbetter.

he said animal was too hard, so he stuck me with the task of learning yellow ledbetter! let me tell you guys, bending is really really hard. first of all he made me chop off all my nails (I'm a girl so this was a little sad for me) and now my fingers are purple.

Do any of you guys have any tips for nailing the art of bending? I'm sure it's just practice, practice, practice, but maybe I'm missing something that would make my life easier.

Bending is an advanced technique and not really for beginners. Yes, you do have to cut teh nails on your fretting hand, whihc is a big reason why girls don't play as much as guys.
You must have a different tab to YLB to me, cause mine sure ain't got much bending, also YLB is one of the most difficult PJ songs to play properly, certainly not an easy beginners song.
If you must bend, start around that 7th to 9th position, don't go near the nut. You really need to build some fingere strength and decent calluses before considering bending.
Good luck !

dylan rain wrote:

i should have mentioned that i wasn't learning the lead guitar part. he basically wanted me to learn the basic F chord (barring with the index finger), apparently guitar 2 on that song is really only 3 chords, B A E.

he does however, want me to learn the solo (well atleast part of it) which is where the bending comes in. according to my instructor "this guitarist is heavily influenced by hendrix"... i thought no kidding, he plays the star spangled banner right after yellow ledbetter all the time now.

Oh dear, I had a feeling you were going to say that, as the solo is only place where bent notes come in. Well he's your teacher, but learning guitar by learning the YLB solo is like learning to snowboard on a black mogul run, possibly not impossible, but ceratinly not ideal.
You may have noted some of my discussion on GTW where I lament the lack of timing notation in the tabs there. How the fuck, I say, HOW the fuck are you supposed to learn this solo without knowing how long to play each note for ?? Learning the basic chords is probably OK, though as I said F and B are teh hardest, because you need to barre close to the nut for both, and again, this is a technique which takes a lot of practice and most guitarists would be playing for a year or so before they could barre a full F comfortably and easily. NOthing succeeds like success, so starting with something you can play more easily is more likely to encourage you. I would suggest something basic to just learn how to drive your fingers. The chorus to 'Betterman" is great, D A G , and singing along helps you place the changes. If you leran a 4 fingered G, with your ring finger on teh d ( 3rd fret, second string), then it doesn't move as you change from G to D.
Mike is more heavily influenced by SRV than Hendrix, though some would argue there is little difference.
YLB is very similar in musical structure to "Little Wing", a song Hendrix wrote in memory of his mother, and an amazing version of which SRV won a Grammy for , found on "The Sky is Crying" ( actually I have ordered the tab book of this album just for that song, should arrive any day).
Little Wing is a beautiful song to play, but a bit of a fingerful for a beginner.
YLB is certainly a beautiful nod to SRV/Hendrix and one of my favourite PJ songs, along with Black. I particularly love it at the end of "Live at the Garden", where Mike accompanies himself to the delay with the lights on and everyone just sitting around slack-jawed, just amazing !!!
Anyway, happy practising, I'm still at it after 26yrs, I'm trying to learn the YLB solo too.

dunkman1974 wrote:

for me, if i know the song well enough ... ie. all of PJ songs then surely you can do this just by ear!

i see your point if its a less familiar song though... but the ear is a good tool when learning solos as the timing of each note is on the record.

Man this chick is just having her first lesson, and she's trying to play the YLB solo. It is a lot harder to accurately place notes in a solo than it seems. It is easy to get close, but the discipline of getting it exactly right is what makes a great player. Every great player has done the hard yards of learning to play classic pieces precisely, not "kinda", no matter what the instrument.
I am really confused that so many people on this forum think that learning to play accurately by following written music is so uncool. I like to root around and have fun too, but a dose of organised disciplined practise boosts my playing hugely. My playing was held back for years by a lack of "as recorded" written music.
Actually, if she got the tab from a magazine, it probably has the timing notation, but I still think it is a dubious place to start learning. I would hate to see her get put off by too steep a hill.

dylan rain wrote:

well that was my second lesson, haha. on the first one he made me practice the smells like teen spirit riffs, basically 3 power chords. and another song from nickelback (which i hate them of course) photograph, again 3 chords. i think his reasoning is that he wants me to play music i like instead of it being a drag to practice, although i'm not so sure that an assignment of bending up and down the neck is too much fun either...

that magazine does have the timing on it, i would get it if you don't have it already.

Yeah music you can relate to is improtant if it's gonna be fun.. Whem I teach friends I always try to include 3 elements in each lesson

1 a piece of music theory
2 an exercise
3 a piece of music, so when a friend says, what did you learn, you can play a piece of music

Cheers, keep on playing, I picked up a mag teh other day with YLB, it's on my list of things to do, maybe this weekend.

Yeah I know, it works for simple solos, but gets a lot harder as they speeed up and get more complex, plus it's not always easy to hear them in the mix. The YLB solo is a bit harder and way too much for beginner, I mean seriously now. I use a TAscam CD trainer to slow things down and get them right which helps a lot, but properly notated music helps a lot too. Maybe I just need all teh help I can get !!
Are you in Glasgow, I have a best friend there, and will be visiting next year. I want to go to a proper cailie. I fuckin' love Jimmy's !!!

Pappas wrote:

dude the yellow ledbedder solo is one of the easiest pj solo's to nail. i could do it after a month of playing. i think its a great way to learn about leads and bending and hammer ons pull offs etc. i am all self taught so far and i learnt it by myself. if you know how the solo goes you know how long to play the notes for. and its nice and slow too

+1

Pappas wrote:

dude the yellow ledbedder solo is one of the easiest pj solo's to nail. i could do it after a month of playing. i think its a great way to learn about leads and bending and hammer ons pull offs etc. i am all self taught so far and i learnt it by myself. if you know how the solo goes you know how long to play the notes for. and its nice and slow too

If you have only been playing for a month and taught yourself this solo, then you better learn to smile nice cause you gonna be a star !!!
More likely you don't play it right !!
There are thousands of hopelessly inaccurate tabs on the net from self-rating dudes like you !!

what about present tense?
doesnt get much easier than drop d tuning...

and while lukin is very basic, im not sure that the timing required is easy for a beginner. first song i learned was alive, but i still cant play any of the solo!