Joey - Nick Drake cover

[BenF]

Hey folks, this is my latest YouTube video, a cover of Joey by Nick Drake. Standard tuning, capo 3rd fret.

I have a nasty cold, so the vocals are iffy. The forum III is strung with 80/20 Bronze strings. Must say that now they have bedded in, I like them on this guitar. To be fair, you could string this guitar with boot laces and it would sing. Amazes me more every day.

Hope you like it, and thanks for listening. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxAhHWtDdTQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[L07 Shooting Star]

Very nice.  I can't sing that well when I don't have a cold.  I love the fingerstyle playing and how it seems to come so easy for you.  I've mostly been a flatpicker and never did learn to finger pick very well.  Your video and others have inspired me to make the effort to practise fingerstyle playing instead of just taking the easy way out and reverting to my comfort zone.

Looking forward to more songs.

Kurt

[BenF]

You are too kind Kurt, I'm very much in the beginner category but I love it. I started playing fingerstyle less than 2 years ago, and just in the last couple of months I naturally start picking when I pick up a guitar, rather than strumming. It makes exploring chord shapes so much more rewarding, and the infinite potential of the instrument becomes apparent. It has been a real breakthrough.

This is the first of Nick's songs where I haven't paid much attention to tab for the picking pattern, but simply playing around until it sounds about right. It makes it all the more rewarding when people comment positively on it.

[L07 Shooting Star]

I know and like that feeling when you make a "breakthrough".  You practise something till all of a sudden it's just there.  Hasn't really happened for me with fingerstyle, but has for other techniques, songs, new chord progressions or whatever.  For me, the key word is "practise"  which I don't do nearly enough.  I find I'm often too impatient to do the necessary repetitions till something new starts to sound good.  I just want to sound good right away, so I end up playing the same old songs over and over (cause they already sound good).  I do play a couple of tunes fingerstyle.  One of them is a song I wrote about 37 years ago!  I'm thinking I might post that song as my first Forum YouTube video.  Like I said, since joining the forum and also viewing yours and others' videos, I'm being inspired and challenged to make the next breakthrough.

I literally know hundreds of songs.  Almost everyone is strummed or flat-picked though.  I'm actually pretty good at flat-picking and cross-picking (like Roger Maguin (sp.) of the Bryds for example).  I'm your typical rythm player "singalong guy".

I learn best when I'm forced to learn something new for a gig or special occasion, or something like that.  It is at those times, when I've usually made a breakthrough to another level.  My last real good learning period was in the late 80's when I was recruited to play bass in a country rock band.  I had to learn new stuff then or else.  I had never played bass before.  So I had to learn how to play individual notes instead of chords.

So now, I've set two objectives for myself.  To learn how to play fingerstyle, and to learn how to play solos (individual notes as opposed to just chords).

Kurt

[believer936]

Hi Ben.  I've been listening to your Nick Drake cover.  It's great.  I've heard the name Nick Drake for years, but I've never really heard anything by him until the last couple of days on this forum.  I've got to get out there and get some of his music.  I do fingerstyle and your playing is very similar to what I do.  Is Joey in standard tuning?  I'm on dialup so I haven't heard the whole tune yet.  The wireless guys are coming tomorrow.  I have a 50/50 chance of getting a useable signal.  I can't wait.  That's a great sounding guitar.

Dale

[believer936]

Hi Ben.  I finally got the whole song in.  I scrolled down and see that it is in standard tuning.  I'm going to go try it right now.

Dale

[BenF]

Thank you Dale. Nick Drake changed tge way I listen, play and understand music. Just an incredible talent.  I listened to an interview with Danny Thompson (double bass wizard who played on Nicks first two albums and many others like John Martyn's Solid Air), and he said the arrangements were recorded live, with a six piece string section, him and Nick in the middle. If anyone makes a mistake, they all start again.

He said Nick was never short of perfect in playing and vocals. Never.  People who knew him at University said he would play a single riff for hours and hours without playing a wrong note, or getting on anyone's nerves.

Joey is in standard tuning, capo around 2 or 3. Very few of his songs were in standard tuning though.  A guy called Chris Healey has tabbed all of his songs incredibly accurately (http://www.chrish.ndo.co.uk/), which makes learning the songs far less frustrating than many artists.

I recommend listening to all three albums in order, and reckon you'll then go looking for other songs. There are a few albums of additional songs, including Joey. I have Time of No Reply, and a few individual tracks from Made to Love Magic.

The studio albums start at Five Leaves Left, then Bryter Layter, then Pink Moon. Not a bad track on any of them, but tgey do show the increasing black cloud decending on him as his illness progressed. Later songs like Black Eyed Dog are just scary.

It's a great musical journey, and one that will improve your playing.

[BenF]

Excuse my awful spelling. iPhone keyboard and fat fingers!!!

[believer936]

Hi Ben.  My daughter gave me her old iphone when she upgraded.  I use it mostly as an ipod.  I do hate the keyboard.  Lots of backspacing and retyping.  I seem to have a great knack for getting turned on to expired (dead) artists.  I'm a hard and fast Stan Rogers fan.  I love Kate Wolf.  Stevie Ray Vaughn is just about the best guitar player I've ever heard.  Townes Van Zant was one heck of a song writer.  Now Nick Drake.  Where's it all going to end??  I've just about got the begining of Joey down.  If all of his stuff is like that I'm already hooked.

Dale

[PCT57]

Really enjoyed this Ben, you really have got a handle on Nicks playing and singing.

Thanks.

[BenF]

Cheers guys 

[Johnny M]

Thanks for sharing, Ben 

John

[GA-ME]

Nice take Ben!!