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Thread: unlearning a song.

  1. #1
    Forum Member chuckocaster's Avatar
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    unlearning a song.

    you guys have any tips on this. we've been doing lodi by CCR and i must admit that i'm having a little trouble with it. the problem i think is that i've been listening to these guys since i was 8 or so, so john fogerty's vocals are pretty ingrained in my head. and i am in no way as good a singer as him. it's not that i want to change the whole song, it's just that i need to sing it like me, not fogerty. any thoughts?
    "don't worry, i'm a professional!"

  2. #2
    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Yeah, change the key! That does it every time. Make it your own.
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  3. #3
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Try transposing it to a different key. That can help you reinvent it.
    Several guitars in different colors
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    Forum Member sabby's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Might I suggest changing the key? :%

  5. #5
    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tele-Bob
    Yeah, change the key! That does it every time. Make it your own.
    Quote Originally Posted by Kap'n
    Try transposing it to a different key. That can help you reinvent it.
    Quote Originally Posted by sabby
    Might I suggest changing the key? :%

    Dumbasses!
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  6. #6
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    I guess change the key, but that song is a loser for gigs. Unless you have someone who can REALLY sing it and sell it it just takes up space.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  7. #7
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    How did T-B's post get ahead of mine?
    Several guitars in different colors
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    Forum Member Tele-Bob's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Ya gotta be quick 'round here Kap'n!
    If you're bored, you're not groovin'.

  9. #9
    Forum Member chuckocaster's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    it's been going over well with the crowds we've been playing for, we've been doing a lot more country. weird how that has happened.

    it's not that i feel like i'm singing it poorly, i just feel like i need to get inside it a little more. does that make sense? i think i'll try the key change, i guess that's the answer since all you es say so...

    updates to follow.
    "don't worry, i'm a professional!"

  10. #10
    Forum Member frank thomson's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    uh...............change ............the..................................
    Imanidiot.

  11. #11
    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    I believe the word you're looking for, Frank, is "key"
    s'all goof.

  12. #12
    Forum Member thetallcoolone's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    there's a "key" word in here somewhere!
    There's someone in my head but it's not me.

  13. #13
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Yeah, but unless you go higher via a capo it's a tough one to change. The lick on the modulation is built around the open notes in the chords, and the sliding chords in the verse as well.

    One of the standard tenents of a CCR/Fogarty tune is the unmistakeable guitar hook. I'd be leary of messing with it. YMMV.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  14. #14
    fezz parka
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    i just feel like i need to get inside it a little more
    Change "Lodi" to Turlock. Get it? ;)

  15. #15
    Forum Member cooltone's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Do the Freddie King Version. 'Lowdown in Lodi'

    ...or just change the key.
    "If you're cool, you don't know nothin' about it. It just is...or you ain't." - Keith Richards

  16. #16
    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Inhale helium while singing it, Chuck. I guarantee your version of the song will be unique.
    s'all goof.

  17. #17
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Quote Originally Posted by curtisstetka
    Inhale helium while singing it, Chuck. I guarantee your version of the song will be unique.
    Or nitrous.
    Several guitars in different colors
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  18. #18
    Forum Member bonefish's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    i'm kinda in the same boat, chuck. i've sang harmony on "swinging doors" for 15 years, so when i try to sing the chorus i always pop up. it's taking a LOT of practice to break that habit.

    as for lodi, i asgree with OA, capo's the only way to change keys w/out spending some serious time reworking the part.

    maybe try to track down some live recordings of fogarty doing it. i'd bet he doesn't do it like the recorded version after this many years.
    Röckin' nön-stöp ön my Föckin' Glöckinspiel...
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  19. #19
    Forum Member frank thomson's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    uh........change the......

    guitar. :yay

    it works for me [but then again, I'm shallow that way.]

    .....or play it acoustically. That will change it dramatically.

    so Charles, did you shoot that blue-flake paint yet?
    mmmmmmmm...............blue-flake
    Imanidiot.

  20. #20
    Forum Member Mikey's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Change the song to....





    Wait for it......



























    "Commotion"
    If, at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.
    Two leaps per chasm is fatal!

  21. #21
    Forum Member Plugger's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    Ignore the masses of dumbasses above! Forget the key. Try a change of rhythm and/or tempo. Also dynamics. Sing it softer, sing it louder, more legato here, more staccato there. (This is beginning to sound like "Old MacDonald" meets Neil Diamond). See if the words make any sense at all to you after you've been hearing it all these years. And so on.

    -Mark

  22. #22
    Forum Member Folk_guy's Avatar
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    Re: unlearning a song.

    I've been trying to unlearn the Animals version of "House of the Rising Sun" So that I can learn the traditional lyrics, with more of a bluegrass style backing ala: Rambling Jack Elliott and others. I just can't keep from singing it the Animals way. I guess I just have this mental block about singing words that were written from the female prospective.
    Ray

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