Solo Guitar Tune #3 - Tenderly

**John A.** · 03-24-2018, 01:39 AM

Originally Posted by PaulD

Here's my short take on it...

Very cool, Paul. Love the drop D tuning and the way you use open strings. Lots of surprises for the ear there with your voicings, too.

John

**John A.** · 03-24-2018, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher

This frigging tune... Beastly in spots. Hope to actually learn it eventually. One of my favorites. Here's a first offering.

[I'm embarrassed to think about the number of times I've played it the last couple of weeks... Oh nevermind... I'll just lie instead]:

"Never seen/heard it before. Just reading through..." :-)

The head is rough and I didn't quite land the ending, but I liked some of the improv ideas better on this take. Anyway, not a finished work, but comments/critiques appreciated.

Once you got a bit of a groove going it was fun. You're on the right track conceptually, but it does need to tighten up a bit.

John

**John A.** · 03-24-2018, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by Chris Whiteman

[/VIDEO]

Perfect. I really like the phrasing -- sounds very vocal. I can hear the lyrics in my head as you play.

John

**joe2758** · 03-24-2018, 10:27 AM

right on rags!

So I was thinking today, guys, and I’d like your opinion. I’m relatively happy with my tone (don’t believe youtube!), but I do at times wonder if I should adjust my pickup to be closer to my top strings. My question is how is the balance? does the high strings seem to quit?

Thanks!

**Gramps** · 03-24-2018, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by John A.

John

That's the stuff! Great track.

**Gramps** · 03-24-2018, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by lawson-stone

Lawson-Stone, I'm glad you found time to record a track. Great swing feel in this performance. You'll nail the second ending after working on it for another couple days then it will be a perfect performance. Thanks for jumping in.

**lawson-stone** · 03-24-2018, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by Gramps

Lawson-Stone, I'm glad you found time to record a track. Great swing feel in this performance. You'll nail the second ending after working on it for another couple days then it will be a perfect performance. Thanks for jumping in.

Thanks for the kind words. I think the faster tempo concealed my lack of ideas. I've had some time this morning to play with the tune a bit more, and I hope to have something better to post in a couple days.

**grahambop** · 03-24-2018, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by joe2758

right on rags!

So I was thinking today, guys, and I’d like your opinion. I’m relatively happy with my tone (don’t believe youtube!), but I do at times wonder if I should adjust my pickup to be closer to my top strings. My question is how is the balance? does the high strings seem to quit?

Thanks!

Sounds ok to me but I think there is also quite a bit of acoustic sound captured, so not easy to judge what the ‘electric’ sound on its own might be. My pickup is not set very high (I hate hitting it with the pick) and it seems to balance fine just being set level with the pole pieces all at the same height. Although I think I have got the top E pole piece raised slightly, just to pull up the E string a bit.

**joe2758** · 03-24-2018, 11:55 AM

Thanks Graham. I may do the same. My videos are roughly half acoustic, so I guess that doesn’t help. I basically find the highest volume that my mic can handle and roll woth that
(internal mic on my mac book). It could be worse trough because I like having the acoustic sound in there also

**grahambop** · 03-24-2018, 12:03 PM

Yes some acoustic sound can be nice too. As an experiment I once recorded my 175 completely acoustically, interestingly it sounds a bit like that Joe Pass ‘Virtuoso’ record where they lost or didn’t use the sound from the amp. (I was playing fingerstyle here, no pick).

**joe2758** · 03-24-2018, 12:26 PM

Never heard of him.

But that was really cool to hear, thanks for sharing. Brilliant playing

**PaulW10** · 03-24-2018, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by lawson-stone

Okay so here's my "Tenderly" clip--and with all due respect to Matt, this really is a read-through after maybe 20 minutes of fooling around with the tune. All the chords are very standard voicings, nothing special, and really, it's not even a solo-guitar ready setting of the tune. I like to have tunes I can play a bit more up-tempo because I find most solo guitar performances boring since everything is a ballad played out of tempo. Joe Pass was the master of mixing the tempos and I like to have tunes I can play at least at a medium pace. So that's how I've tried this one.

Somehow in the last 4 measures I totally blanked on my chord-melody fingerings... don't know what happened there...

Great sounds Lawson!! That came from only 20 minutes? Wow that's very impressive!

**PaulW10** · 03-24-2018, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

OK, here's a late-night attempt, keeping it quiet, trying not to wake anybody. I've actually been fooling around with this on and off (without recording anything) for a while. I've had the Johnny Smith version in my head, though not my hands and I had to shake that. Then I spent some time on some more involved arrangement and improv ideas, but nothing really gelled until last night before bed, when I thought of the ending I do here (duh, do a tag) after a pretty straight chord melody head. As usual, technical gremlins drove me a bit nuts and kept from getting a completely clean take ...

John

That sounded really great John! I could hear the Johnny Smith inspiration in there. Very nice tone you're getting! And I really liked the improv near the end. I need to learn to do that!!

**PaulW10** · 03-24-2018, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by joe2758

right on rags!

So I was thinking today, guys, and I’d like your opinion. I’m relatively happy with my tone (don’t believe youtube!), but I do at times wonder if I should adjust my pickup to be closer to my top strings. My question is how is the balance? does the high strings seem to quit?

Thanks!

Hi Joe,

Honestly that didn't pop out the first time I watched your video, but I just went back and listened again for that specific issue and, you may be right, the high e string in particular may sound a little thin compared to the others.

I'm sort of compulsive about this phenomenon myself, particularly with my solid bodies I play in the band. I'm always hearing this problem in my head! So you may not want to listen to me

**joe2758** · 03-24-2018, 12:46 PM

yes exactly, it sounds thin. Now will raising the poll piece help or will that just increase volume? I’d hate to have to mess with mixed string sets that sure seems like a pain

**joe2758** · 03-24-2018, 12:49 PM

i use ti swings 13 right now

**PaulW10** · 03-24-2018, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by joe2758

yes exactly, it sounds thin. Now will raising the poll piece help or will that just increase volume? I’d hate to have to mess with mixed string sets that sure seems like a pain

I'm by no means a guitar tech, but I think adjusting the poll piece is what I would try. The TI strings I'm sure are nicely balanced.

**grahambop** · 03-24-2018, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by joe2758

Never heard of him.

But that was really cool to hear, thanks for sharing. Brilliant playing

haha thanks. If we ever do Autumn Leaves, job done!

**PaulW10** · 03-24-2018, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by PaulW10

I'm by no means a guitar tech, but I think adjusting the poll piece is what I would try. The TI strings I'm sure are nicely balanced.

Also maybe try raising the action on the treble side just a touch may fatten it up a little.

**John A.** · 03-24-2018, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by PaulW10

That sounded really great John! I could hear the Johnny Smith inspiration in there. Very nice tone you're getting! And I really liked the improv near the end. I need to learn to do that!!

Thanks Paul. When in doubt, iii VI ii V. I've spent most of my music life comping and soloing, with others typically taking the head, so improvising is the easy part for me. Actually nailing the melody is my downfall.

John

**grahambop** · 03-24-2018, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by joe2758

yes exactly, it sounds thin. Now will raising the poll piece help or will that just increase volume? I’d hate to have to mess with mixed string sets that sure seems like a pain

I think it’s quite common for the top E string to sound a bit thin on guitars. Raising the pole piece a bit is the only way I know to try and improve it mechanically (although essentially all this does is increase the volume a bit, as far as I know).

I try to mitigate it a bit by other methods, e.g. picking technique, maybe even avoiding single notes on the lowest frets of the E string where possible.

**PaulW10** · 03-24-2018, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by ragman1

I just might be tempted :-)

I totally agree with Gramps Ragman! Solo chord melody guitar really seems to fit your style and your tone.

**lawson-stone** · 03-24-2018, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by PaulW10

Great sounds Lawson!! That came from only 20 minutes? Wow that's very impressive!

Well I've been working at chord-melody for over 25 years, and I have learned how to "cobble" an arrangement from a lead sheet using the harmonized scale and basic chord grips. The kind of stuff you find in Conti's "Chord Melody Assembly Line" or in my case the old Mel Bay Guitar Melody Chord Playing System which I actually started on when I was about 14 years old! That book nearly killed me but got me grounded in the concept of the harmonized scale for playing melodies.

My problem is developing ideas, fills, breaking out of the standard fingerings, etc. I can do a "meh" treatment of almost any tune rather quickly, but it's a long way from there to having something really compelling.

Last year some guy who is now banned literally DARED me to take a tune he proposed and go from zero to chord-melody in a week or something like that. He proposed "Alfie" a song I loathe, but I did it. It was a very weird interaction. Matt remembers it because he did one as well if I recall.

Anyhow, in breaking out there are some things I also don't enjoy. I don't like these impossible stretchy fingerings, I don't like altered tunings, I prefer more of a 70% "concept" arrangement rather than something worked out note for note. Those make me feel like I'm doing a recital, not playing jazz. I do like the way Joe Pass did it, Barney Kessel, and even Jimmy Raney when he decided to do a solo tune.

Don't know why I decided to drone on about this...

**joe2758** · 03-24-2018, 02:47 PM

off topic, but I didn’t know you’ve been playing since a kid. For some reason I thought I saw you say you started later in life. Must have been someone else. I guess that explains why you can play like you do.

Did any of you get a late start?

**lawson-stone** · 03-24-2018, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by joe2758

yes exactly, it sounds thin. Now will raising the poll piece help or will that just increase volume? I’d hate to have to mess with mixed string sets that sure seems like a pain

I think raising the pole piece will raise the volume a bit, but it also makes the sound a bit fatter too, which can sound "louder." I really really really hate hitting the pickup with my pick, so I tend to start by lowering the pickup until that problem doesn't occur. Then I adjust the pole pieces upward if I don't like the tone.

Generally-and I imagine you know this-you should set the overall pickup height before adjusting the pole pieces.