I'm a beginning PSG player... maybe entering the intermediate phase. With the help of my teacher, Fooch Fischetti, I've been working on Buddy Emmons' version of Danny Boy using the tab from DeWitt Scott's book. So far I'm concentrating on the 1st two pages of tab and it is a lot of work to the point where I needed a diversion to break things up. And with that I started figuring out Jerry Garcia's solo on Sugar Magnolia by the Grateful Dead.
I managed to play most of it in the 17th fret but there are a lot of ringing strings that are a little difficult for me to block and it came out sounding like more of a harp solo than PSG. Then I saw the Paul Franklin and Lloyd Green conversation on PF's blog and they talked about the importance of getting feeling through bar movement. So I now start out on 12 briefly then move to 17 and finish on 12 and it all sounds much better.
The long and short of it is I learned something. I know full well that Jerry Garcia isn't in the same league as Buddy Emmons but Sugar Magnolia is fun and has been a good experience considering I learned something with regards to sound and feel when playing the same riffs at different positions on the neck. In truth I used some of the movements I'm learning from Buddy's version of Danny Boy and Franklin/Green tips to put together from scratch Jerry's nice sounding little solo. This just reinforces what I already know... you can learn something from everyone.
Learning
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