Which do you find most difficult to play?

[Mikey]

I was thinking of starting a different thread but I think this will sit ok here because it's to do with ease of playing.
Do any of you - deliberately or otherwise - play any of the Shads stuff in keys other than those in the original recordings?
As an example, I first learned to play The Rise & Fall of Flingel Bunt years ago by just sitting down with the guitar and working it out. However, I wasn't listening to it at the time so didn't know what key was used. I happened to chose E (E= easy!). It wasn't until sometime after that I realised it was written in the key of C.
Now, personally, I think it sounds better played in E - especially the intro and outro. That's just me so don't shoot me down in flames and I do try and use the "authentic" key from time to time - honest! But try it in E and see.
Do most folk here stick to the original keys or not? Just curious, that's all.

[bazmusicman]

I think most - if not everybody - play them in the original key to get (or try to get) the original sound.

Best regards,
Baz.

[Mike Honey]

Yes, in my very early days (55 years ago), my then teacher encouraged me to work out all sorts of things by ear. It was really only with the coming of backing tracks that i changed to original keys!!

mike

[RogerCook]

I suspect Hank played a lot of the early stuff in a key, or more importantly, a fretboard position where open strings and/or the longest vibrating length of string were used and I think this accounted for some of the sound we hear on those early recordings (listen to the open B 2nd string and compare the sound with the same B fretted at the 10th fret 4th string as an example). I know in more recent times he's played the old numbers in differrent positions where the left hand fingering is more economical. If you change key I think you can lose some of the sound associated with the open strings and lower fretboard positions

Roger

[abstamaria]

I've concentrated on the early, pre-Burns pieces and, of these, find "Savage" (the original improv section) and "Shadoogie."

Not that the others are much better. but these are the pieces I have a hard time covering.

Andy

[Uncle Fiesta]

I've always found that whatever you play, changing the key will just make it sound wrong!

If adapting other style of music to Shads-style instrumentals though, i have cheated a few times.

Recently I decided ABBA's Thank You For The Music would work well and downloaded a backing track from YouTube.
Now as you may know, it's in E, but after practising it for a few days I decided it would be easier to play in F. Easy when you've got Audacity! So I speeded the file up fractionally (it's 5.63% for a semitone by the way) and carried on practising.

Then came my first visit to South Wales Shadows Club. Having been unable to transfer my backing tracks onto CD I took my mp3 player instead, plugged it into the PA, worked well. But as no-one else knew how to operate it, I had to shout instructions from the stage. Anyway we muddled through the first couple of tracks, but for the third one (TYFTM) I made a mistake and went into the wrong folder. Hit the first note ... a perfect semitone out! I'd launched the OLD version - in E!

Managed to play the rest if it somehow but that's a lesson I'll not forget in a hurry.

(Oh and I've now sussed out how to get all my BT's onto CD in future.)

[Mike Honey]

I guess the above has highlighted the difference between Hank and others of his time, and today; No computers=no problem!!
Mind you i well remember the hard time i had getting a loop of tape onto my copicat the first time

[Bob Dore]

Define play! If it means just playing the right notes in the right order then the likes of Mozart Forte, Shadoogie 83 and so on are the most difficult .

But more importantly if it means making the music work then Mozart Forte, The Savage, Shadoogie etc are easy because all you have to do is play the right notes in the right order and, with enough of the right practice, that can be done by anyone.

The slow, melodic, emotional ballads, on the other hand are the most difficult to make work because with a guitar you have no words and it's the words that make the song. Every note counts and has to be played with feeling to convey the meaning of the song. While it's easy to get the notes right it's far from easy to express the emotions of the song to the audience. In short, you have to play the words on the guitar (and have to learn the words and their meaning).

Bob.

[rogera]

I agree Bob, and Hank from the very beginning had that ability to extract feeling from each note - his phrasing and timing were and still are impeccable.

Several Shadows numbers have been mentioned as being difficult to play but if I could be permitted to stray slightly off subject, I believe that one of the most difficult guitar instrumentals that I know of is "Nola" recorded by Judd Proctor. If you don't know the tune then here is a link for you to have a listen (be warned though - it's not for the faint-hearted!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk0EyeuOPjs

[Mike Honey]

Yes totally agree about 'nola'!! what about 'orange blossom special' by the spotniks? Was that speeded up?

mike