https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e4inM5aS74I1bO-ZlLvBvyWw
I don’t know if the link works, but I thought I’d share a late night practice round on Goodbye pork pie hat. It’s a work in progress and I feel kinda naked sharing some solo guitar which I’ve never done before. Sometimes it’s a little better, sometimes quite a bit worse. But no need to be gentle, I can take it 
.
Unfortunately don’t own a pork pie hat to top it off.
Nice work, Gert, even without the hat. I’m planning to have a crack at it when I get time so perhaps we can compare notes if I get stuck. I recently did something similar (uploaded a work in progress) but I sent it directly to Alex. I’ll see if I can post it here as well. It’d be good to liven this board up a bit. Are you Netherlands-based? I live in Groningen. I’m from London but I’ve lived here for over 30 years now…
Hi Steve,
Thanks, I did find it to be a rather big step to record myself and post it, but if we can revive this post a bit and more people post some work in progress, regardless of level, because we’re all students here aren’t we, it might become a nice motivational tool for all of us, to become as good as our beloved teacher .
I am from Belgium, near Antwerp, I just saw you posted a performance yourself, which I’ll check out in a sec. Always willing to help each other out wherever I can.
I completely agree. It would be great if more of us posted our efforts here, especially the kind of thing we’re only willing to share with fellow students for now. As you say, that could be really motivational. I think we all sometimes suffer from the loneliness of being a mancave guitar player 
Ah, Belgium. Well, we’re still kind of neighbours then…
By the way, I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed your performance. I’ve listened to it twice now! As you say, there are some ups and downs but you really nailed the atmosphere. I’m slowly gettng there with Nuages, but I’m struggling to get the feel right.
What I noticed in our posts is that we both start out a bit shakily and then get more musical. That was my third or fourth attempt but I still play the opening phrase a bit untidily. Perhaps it’s best to just play it straight through instead of stopping and starting again for another try. If I do record things I really don’t want to have to splice bits and pieces together. Maybe you and others here have some tips on that…
So kind of you Steve, thanks a lot, it does mean a lot to me, getting some feedback. I also really liked your play through, you have great tone in the fingers, I also love finger style playing. I guess we tend be to hard on ourselves, yes it is with ups and downs, but so what, we’re learning. There we go, already motivating each other 
. I don’t think we should edit these home video’s, I think the more honest they are, the better they motivate, so I’ll be sticking with ‘one take’ performances…ok, multiple takes allowed 
I’d love to interact with more people here. It’s a pretty diverse group with pretty sophisticated tastes.
Trivia - who is this song dedicated to? The hint is in the title.
Yes, the more the merrier!
Dedicated to Lester Young!
What are you working on at the moment? I’m chipping away at Nuages, People Get Ready, Open Chord Magic and Here, There and Everywhere. There’s certainly enough to choose from… I’m also slowly working through the theory lessons.
I’ve almost caught up with all of Alex’s lessons, though I regularly revisited older ones, because still lots to learn. Been working on Pork Pie hat for a few days now, before that mainly all the Ribot lessons.
Nuages is interesting, don’t recall if I already did that, but will look into it. I love to get into gipsy more.
WOOT! Prez! You win a cookie.
I am embarrased to say it, but I’m super ADHD. My teacher is trying to get me to focus on fewer things. I counteed 16 or 17 songs in some kind of rotation.
Rhythm Changes
- I Got Rhythm - CC solos and numerous other version to cop from
Good Bye Pork Pie Hat
I Surrender Dear - Charlie Christian
Cool Blues - Grant Green
Rose Room - Charlie Christian, Jimmie Riverrs and MAry Osbourne
Don’t Leave Me Baby - Junior Watson
Empty Arms - One of Alex’s country etudes
Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You - Standard but Kenny Burrell’s version
Elvis Scotty Moore Medley - Joel Patterson’s medley of early era/rockabilly Elvis tunes
Stardust
The Night Rider - Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant
Alexandria, VA - Original and with Jack McDuff
Holmes Hop - Rick Holmstrom
Lookin’ Good - Magic Sam
Princess Leia’s/Han Solo and the Princess theme - Marcos Kaiser.
Too many things. And you Steve_Mayle?
I love those Ribot lessons, so I’ll get around to them sooner or later. So much material, so little time… I love gypsy jazz as well, I’m looking forward to doing Alex’s Bossa Dorado. But I’ve told myself to get Nuages down first 
That’s quite a playlist, I’ll check it out!
I like to rotate as well to keep things fresh but I pick 2 or 3 to concentrate on properly. The trouble is, I love all the genres Alex does lessons in so it’s hard to choose… I’m working on something and then he posts a new lesson on Saturday and I’m like “Ooh, shiny!” so I start on that instead of working on the hard bits of what I’m already doing. I imagine you can relate I’m trying to get through the theory lessons though because once I’ve done that it’ll be worth asking Alex for a couple of lessons. What I’m mainly doing now is Here, There and Everywhere, Nuages, People Get Ready and “Open Chord Magic”.
Yeah man, I hear ya, Alex is spoiling us. I also love just every single lesson, and have too little time to tackle them all properly. But the progress I made this last year is beyond expectations for me, which is truly motivating. Just started on Nuages, so lovely, kinda forgot about that lesson, thanks for reminding me.
Don’t be embarrassed by your ADHD Che, there’s something “wrong” with all of us. And a wrong for one is a right for someone else.
Nice list, I’ll check it out, hoping I don’t want to learn them all .
Me too! I’ve stopped searching YouTube for tips and lessons, they’re all here!
Trust me. im not really embarrassed. i get enthusiastic about things and want to do it all. There is room for improvement by staying focused
I’ve been trying to apply best learning methods to formal practice and I don’t always follow what I know works best. Previously when I was learning and trying to play profferssionally I would just jam with tracks for hours at a time and while I learned alot, I didn’t pick up a lot of specific skills and only know recognize things that I overlooked back then. Now, I don’t ever just jam with recording which I think I should and just let a playlist go on random. I have some Fabulous Thgunderbirds bootlegs from the early 80s. Some are three hours with three full sets. This one is almost two hours.
JImmie Vaughan is pretty accessible, I’m thinking playing along witth tthese front to back would be a simlulated gig.
I can relate but I’ve been pretty good with Alex’s lessons and can set them aside, but they do start to add up. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat has been a favorite since I first got into jazz so I had to dive in.
I’m just thinking that maybe some virtual coffee meetups or cocktail hours might be fun.
That’s the great thing about the lessons here - it’s not just about what you play but why you play it. It’s a big help to me because I’d like to improvise more rather than learning a chord melody and getting it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. I think these lessons will help me with that. I did Alex’s BB King blues lesson a while back and it made me realise I how limited I am to small pentatonic boxes. Now I’m mixing it up a bit more, great fun!