When you casually pick up your guitar, WHAT SONG do you most often play first?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jud Hair on November 18, 2011 at 12:15pm

I'm a strummer too.  Working my way into some fingerstyle, but it's slow going.

Permalink Reply by FloridaGull on November 18, 2011 at 1:38pm

Update - now it depends on the guitar I pick up...

Cordoba C5 (nylon) - mostly things I have written/put together

Giannini Craviola (12-string) - some fingerpicking things I've made up, Every Rose Has it's Thorn, Best of My Love, Space Oddity, Wish You Were Here

Seagull Performer (6 string) - Wish You Were Here, Patience (Guns & Roses), Night Moves, The River, Christian songs (that I wrote or not), more fingerpicking things I made up

Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin II (hollowbody archtop w/ 2 P90's) - all of the above when I feel like "plugging in", or, conversely, if I'm trying not to make too much noise, all of the above unplugged.

Martin Backpacker (nylon) - basically, only if I'm wanting to play while my wife is asleep... ;-)

Yes, Jud, it's a moving target... :-) 

Permalink Reply by Jud Hair on November 18, 2011 at 2:44pm

Since all my guitars are dreadnoughts and three of them are Seagull dreads, what I find myself doing is playing the same song on each of them consecutively before moving on to another song.  There are a lot of similarities in my guitars from a construction standpoint, but each is made of a different material and each has a different "voice" ... I just really enjoy rotating the same song between them and that's probably why I am spending a couple of hours almost every night playing!  Passionate or obsessed?  Depends on who you talk to.  Some people look at me and say "Get a life!"  Others look at me and say "Wow, now THAT'S the life!"

 

Permalink Reply by Craig Fowler on November 24, 2011 at 2:53pm

#1 John Prine - Hello in There. Youtube: Hello in There performed by John Prine (This song has been incorrectly titled Paradise by the uploaded. They did the same thing to the Paradise video which is entitled Hello in There)

 

Saw him recently and fell in love with this tune. Can't get it out of my head.

 

#2 Autumn Leaves - Johnny Mercer* This is what I am playing in lessons. Love the version by Eva Cassidy (Youtube: Autumn Leaves performed by Eva Cassidy)

 

* Wikipedia Info:  "Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand (with Irène Joachim) introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit.^[1] The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version.

Permalink Reply by Alan Williams on April 24, 2012 at 10:44am

"Hello In There" is one of the saddest songs ever written, I love it.  I saw John Prine fairly recently and was really thrilled to get to see him again. 

Permalink Reply by DJ on April 24, 2012 at 9:16am

I play "I'll fly away" Cash version then for some reason I always play a little bit of a Bach piece. Don't even know what it is or where I picked it up.

Sometimes the John Prine bug bites and I play "Christmas in Prison" or "Unwed Fathers" I guess I don't play any happy songs.  Even my Happy Birthday song is a dirge.

Go to song is "I'll fly Away" 3 chords, so easy I can't screw it up.

Permalink Reply by Alan Williams on April 24, 2012 at 10:46am

I usually start by playing a Little Steven song called "I Am A Patriot".  It is simple to play and allows me to get my vocal chords working.

Permalink Reply by Kirk Mathew Gatzka on April 24, 2012 at 12:49pm

I play a Bo Diddley strum with an E chord and A chord, Then the opening chords of Old Man by N Young (I too am the Old Man now.) Then I'll try out any new chord progression that I've recently learned. Like Amaj7 Cmaj7 Dmaj7 Fmaj7 Gmaj7, which I picked up on from Steve Krenz' PDF most recently.

I think that I just about start out like that on a regular basis, I always liked that E and A chord strum, It gets me going! Chunka chunka chunka chunk! Or something like that!

Permalink Reply by Bob Garvy on April 25, 2012 at 9:52pm

Scotch & Soda..Kingston Trio goldie.

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