Topic: Snigglin' Blues - Frankie mp3

[frankie]

Barefoot Bill certainly hits the higher range...

You can say that again... the third line starts on G (third fret, 1st string), which is already a pretty painful note for me, and then travels up to B flat.  Oh my.

[Johnm]

Hi Frank,
Reading you and Uncle Bud discuss the vocal made me wonder, have you tried low-tuning in Spanish to F# or F?  You would keep the same left hand and might get the pitch down to a place that suits your vocal range better than where Barefoot Bill pitched it, which is pretty darned high, as you guys were saying.  Low-tuning might also make it easier to make that second fret bend on the first string sing a little bit more with the string a bit slacker.  Just a thought.
All best,
John

[frankie]

have you tried low-tuning in Spanish to F# or F?

I am usually tuned a little low, but I'll make it a point to bring it down at least a half step.  I don't want to bring it down too far - there's something neat about singing at the top of your range.

Thanks for the tip!

[Rivers]

Very nice playing there Frank. I admire your thumb independence. Sweeeet sounding guitar.... <snip>

(I was in danger of going OT so I moved this, and Slack's reply, to a new thread on Gibsons in Reviews).

[frankie]

I haven't forgotten about this song - been working on the singing while altenately working on other stuff.  IMHO, there's plenty of room for improvement:  one of the things that bugs me most is that I'm having a hard time maintaining the pacing of the tune.  Barefoot Bill also has this kind if 'straight up and down' feel to the timing that's hard to get right.

And the singing - I'm happy to some degree to be able to sing the song at all, but it has definitely brought home to me BB's hugeness as a singer of this kind of music - big shoes to try and fill...

Standard disclaimers apply - download at your own risk!

[Slack]

Sounds really good Frank, -- these songs ought to be like olympic spring board diving -- 'degree of difficulty' is a factor!

You using your 'new' stella?

[frankie]

Thanks, Slack - I dunno if this is a tune that I'll ever play in front of people (except, of course, the gazillions of innocent surfers who download it from here).  It depends on how well I learn to 'speak' BB's language and twist it to my own ill-conceived ends.

I'm still using the Harmony for this tune - partly because I don't have a capo that works on the new guitar.  As soon as I picked up the Stella, one tune in particular just sorta jumped out of it, so that's the first recording that I want to inflict on everybody using it.  Bwahahahahahaaaa!

[frankie]

Well - this is my last crack at recording my 'progress' with this tune.  Here's a couple of things that I think I learned about playing this tune simply because of recording it and forcing myself to listen to it:

1)  I have a tendency to play too fast in general, but it was really killing this tune.  I made a conscious effort to put the brakes on this time around, and you can hear me struggling through the first couple of verses.  I think I settle in overall during the last verses.

2)  It's the voice, stupid...  I really wanted to try to pitch the song the way Ed Bell did, but it just wasn't working for me.  I decided to move the capo down two frets ( I think I was already tuned a little low, unless I retuned at some poing back to pitch and forgot about it) since that took less time than re-tuning low.  That put the song in a more comfortable range, so I spent more time singing and less time worrying about singing.  I felt more comfortable about shifting the timing of the vocal around a bit on the fly - Kim says the timing between the vocal and the guitar on the last verse confuses her...  I don't think I was confused, so I figure that's her problem!

I'll continue to play it and see how it evolves.  As it stands, it's something I think would be fun to play in Coatesville in May - it'd be nice to work out a break, too.

[GhostRider]

Ramblin, Frank:

Wow, double wow.

Alex

[Slack]

Yup, really a great job - don't know what Kim was referring to.  I think you should play it in Coatesville!

[frankie]

Thanks, guys!

[uncle bud]

Sounding great, frankie. You've really opened my eyes on this tune, to the point where I think I could start figuring it out myself at home. Not sure I could have done that without this thread. You're in regular rotation in iTunes!

[Johnm]

Hi Frank,
I just listened to version #4, and it seems like the combination of  bringing the pitch down a couple of frets and slowing the tempo a hair brought everything into focus.  You hit the nail on the head a couple of posts back when you talked about how challenging it is to play this tune as straight up and down as Bill did.  There really is not one iota of shuffle to it, or deep underlying triple feel--it is just that tough duple feel as far down as you want to take the rhythm.  You can't swing the eighths at all and have it sound right.  Thanks for treating us to the process.  And you definitely should be performing all this stuff when you play out.  Give the audience a chance to get into what you are into.
All best,
John 

[frankie]

You hit the nail on the head a couple of posts back when you talked about how challenging it is to play this tune as straight up and down as Bill did.? There really is not one iota of shuffle to it, or deep underlying triple feel--it is just that tough duple feel as far down as you want to take the rhythm.? You can't swing the eighths at all and have it sound right.

Yeah - I'm still having trouble with that, probably will for years to come!? It has become more fun to play, though.? For a while there, I was thinking "what the hell have I got myself into?"

[frankie]

youtube is 5 years old.

this thread is older.

coda: