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Hi Guys,
I’ve been practicing Blackbird by the Beatles for my guitalele, and I have to make a decision about how I want to play it.
The studio version has a drone going on the G string of the guitar all through the song. Have a listen.
However, when McCartney plays it live, he uses a much easier picking pattern instead.
My question is not whether the drone is more effective, because I think it is. My question is whether it’s worth attempting given that it’s so hard to do. I have tried it and it’s horrendously difficult. I think that’s why McCartney doesn’t try it live, and if even Paul McCartney thinks it’s too difficult, who am I to argue! (you can see I’m leaning towards the easier version)
Maybe Paul asked another guitarist to play the guitar in studio :).
Or he did the guitar and vocal part in two separate takes because it might be too hard to do simultaneously like we learned in ‘Getting Together’. 🙂
In the last case If you are planning to sing along I would go for the second version.
Are you going to play it in in the original key? Or a 4th up?
I personally would choose to rewrite it so it gets at least close to the original key.
I understood the lowest string of a guitalele is an A. So you could play the song a tone higher so the ‘drone’ will be an A (your lowest string) and rewrite the arrangement. Or tune your guitalele a tone down (or only the A string to G) so you have the humming G bass pedal note.
Cool that you practice guitalele. I am planning on getting one maybe in about two years after I reached a satisfying level on the ukulele.
Which brand do you have?
Please share a vid when you mastered Blackbird. 🙂Sounds like he is singing in a different key, higher in the LIVE version. Both sound terrific. Go with the live version.
Hey Rickeydearmike,
They are both in G. But he is singing very soft, intimate and whispery in the studio and with more strenght and louder voice on the huge stage.
Looks like Paul is a bit older in the live video. The sound of his voice might have changed. Also the general equalization of the live version has more highs so it feels a bit in a different key.Anyway must be scary to be just you and your guitar all alone in front of such a large audience full of expectations, even after decades of experience.
So far I will stick to my orange couch, just me and my uke.I honestly can’t hear a difference between the guitar parts in the examples. :/ Other than production differences between studio and live… I only listened to the first half of each though?
Is there a spot it really is “in your face”? My ear training is more active listening+ being able to separate instruments+ hearing notes in chords played. Then hearing effects and production stuff? I’m at varying degrees of “total noob” at each one, so not hearing stuff probably isn’t a surprise.
Thanks to everybody that can’t hear the difference. That justifies the decision to go the easy route.
@jinajupiter – All really good questions.I actually googled how it was played in the studio, and apparently it was just Paul and a guitar. Until then, I was wondering if it was done with two guitars.
I’m going to play it 5 semitones up. If I play higher than the original but then sing an octave low, it works out pretty well for me. In any case, the original arrangement goes down to the 3rd fret on the low E string, so it would be difficult to rearrange. Also, the G on the guitar is where the C string is on the uke so it’s not the bass note that’s droning. It’s somewhere in the middle. Anyway, when I play it, you’ll hear a lot of the open C string.
As for the guitalele, it’s a Bruce Wei. I got it ultra cheap off Gumtree (like the Australian version of Craigslist) because it has a few cracks in it. It’s actually the cheapest of my instruments. Not bad at all considering it’s all solid acacia with lots of bling. I actually talked about it and posted some photos and videos here (https://rockclass101.com/forums/topic/guitarlele-for-kanni-and-lisa/)
Also, here’s a video of the last song I learned for it.
To be honest, I still don’t know many chords and I think I’ll use ukes for most of my strumming, but it’s really handy for finger picking.
@becky7777 – the difference is really apparent at 4 seconds into the live recording. As for listening for individual elements of songs, I’ve learned a lot lately from listening to a podcast called Strong Songs. In addition to being interesting and informative, the host has a really calming voice, a bit like RC101’s Andrew.@becky7777 – Actually, it’s probably easiest if I demonstrate the difference. Here’s a video.
Nice sound your guitalele! And nice playing, very melancholic.
Doesn’t sound cheap at all!
Looking forward to your Blackbird version.
That was a nice sneak peek. 🙂Ty Robin.
And yeah, still can’t spot differences between the two examples so you’re probably safe with whatever is easier? (Opinion given with reservations) 😉 As far as my ears can tell he’s playing it the same way with some normal live differences.
I think I hear what you’re talking about now though on some classical guitar cover versions. (I went to classical because I was guessing they’d be the closest to the original, notes-wise for the guitar parts at least. They appear to be until the vocal line comes in, then the arrangements get different.)
*What I mean is, the Blackbird picking pattern is pretty darn iconic. I’d stay as true to album on highly iconic parts if I was actually playing it for random strangers judging me against the album.
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