The "Songs which are more difficult than they sound" thread

ddlooping

digitalscream said:

Can I add "Bark at the Moon" to this? I suggested it as one of our band's covers, and now I'm regretting it. Big time.

Lee, what part is it you find hard to play?

digitalscream

ddlooping said:

digitalscream said:

Can I add "Bark at the Moon" to this? I suggested it as one of our band's covers, and now I'm regretting it. Big time.

Lee, what part is it you find hard to play?

There's nothing that's impossible...it's just generally harder than it sounded. Getting the consistency of the rhythm, making sure there aren't any fluffs in the silly fast-picked bits, getting the feel right in the solos etc.

That and the fact that wherever he could've chosen his notes to make things easy for those of us who don't have 360 degree movement in all directions in our finger joints, he decided to do otherwise :P

ddlooping

Bucket

I'm not very good with Bark At The Moon either - the rhythm parts are fine but the solos have some tricky positions, not to mention those fucking mad alternate-picked runs at the end of the solo - those are very tough indeed.

mike_l

digitalscream;47936" said:

Can I add "Bark at the Moon" to this? I suggested it as one of our band's covers, and now I'm regretting it. Big time.

a lot of ozzys solo songs sound way easier than they are.
I dont know for example.

Deadman

Danny1969 said:

Under the bridge, RHCP, the intros a bitch to get right

Brown eyed girl, easy enough but so easy to screw up the intro when your on your own

For sex on fire it's the drummers who generally get it wrong in my experience 

A lot of the U2 stuff is harder than it looks, I see a lot of cover bands simplify stuff like Vertigo, Pride and such

Capo on 2nd fret is easier.

Deadman

Suffer little children by The Smiths is a nightmare.

Deadman

viz said:

Design for life by the MSP

I'm alright with that. Should be after 17 or so years mind.

Bucket

Deadman mentioned the Smiths, which reminded me of Heaven Knows I'm Miserable now - surprisingly difficult.

Also - any of Marty Friedman's solos in Megadeth, which are usually quite fast but not THAT fast, leading you to believe they might be relatively easy but no, not in the slightest. Fucking impossible, he uses the weirdest positions imaginable but sounds amazing... bastard.

viz

@deadman well you're a better man than me! I get my knickers in a twist over the arped chords at the beginning, well for verse 2 actually, trying to play them at a good volume after that loud chorus always makes my right hand stumble. Should use a compressor really.

Deadman

viz said:

@deadman well you're a better man than me! I get my knickers in a twist over the arped chords at the beginning, well for verse 2 actually, trying to play them at a good volume after that loud chorus always makes my right hand stumble. Should use a compressor really.

Evidently. I'm honestly not that good after all these years, but find that song relatively painless to play. A lot of the songs I choose to play are played in that style (must be The Smiths/Johnny Marr influence!) so I may have an upper hand. I still consider myself to be pretty shit though
%-(

Deadman

Bucket said:

Deadman mentioned the Smiths, which reminded me of Heaven Knows I'm Miserable now - surprisingly difficult.

Also - any of Marty Friedman's solos in Megadeth, which are usually quite fast but not THAT fast, leading you to believe they might be relatively easy but no, not in the slightest. Fucking impossible, he uses the weirdest positions imaginable but sounds amazing... bastard.

I'm not a big lover of that song so can't comment as I don't play it. However, adding loads of reverb and chorus to most Smiths songs helps!

Danny1969

Deadman said:

Danny1969 said:

Under the bridge, RHCP, the intros a bitch to get right

Brown eyed girl, easy enough but so easy to screw up the intro when your on your own

For sex on fire it's the drummers who generally get it wrong in my experience 

A lot of the U2 stuff is harder than it looks, I see a lot of cover bands simplify stuff like Vertigo, Pride and such

Capo on 2nd fret is easier.

Yeah but it should be played like a man dammit

Rebel Yell, Billy idol ............ the intro sounds like 2 parts but he's playing the single note riff with his thumb and the double stops with his fingers.  Cool part

daveww

The little jazzy solo in the stranglers golden brown is a bu**er. The rhythm varies as well but that's not bad when you get the hang of it.

minimoog

Danny1969 said:

Rebel Yell, Billy idol ............ the intro sounds like 2 parts but he's playing the single note riff with his thumb and the double stops with his fingers.  Cool part

That's easy - we split it between the two guitarists

Speaking of the Smiths/ Johnny Marr, I was really surprised at how not difficult This Charming Man is when I looked at it last week. To a learner like me it sounds devilish hard but actually it isn't that bad at all. The Allison Bennett youtube lessons on Smiths' stuff are great. 

(Necrothread!)

Rocker

The intro to The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel always puzzled me.  Never got even close to playing it "right"

Danny1969

Rocker said:

The intro to The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel always puzzled me.  Never got even close to playing it "right"

Try this as a basic position and follow his picking pattern, there's a bit of movement 

E

G

D

Bb

..................0....

..................8.....

..................7.......

..................8......

.......................

.......................

Fuzzdog

viz said:

That's like queen. The structure for killer queen has so many trip-up points it's a nightmare.

Queen songs in general, I think.  It's amazing how many times I've been in covers bands, we've picked a (seemingly simple) Queen song, then it's suddenly a case of "Um... Err...  Okay, this is actually a lot more complicated than we thought..."

I still have nightmares of one band doing 'Now I'm Here' - I think we all knew our parts, it was just rare that we all remembered them all at the same time.  Sounded bloody great when it all came together though!

Danny1969

Pride by U2,  simple enough but try and play it as rhythmic and clean as he does, actually there's a lot of U2 songs like that, sound easy until you try and do it. 

joeyowen

For playing and singing?

Goodbye Sky Harbour by Jimmy Eat World... it just doesn't work for me