1 - It is played on the "up" beat, and I think that is why your intuition tells you its an upstrum. I prefer to play a DOWN strum, as I find it gives more texture to it. (Yes, 2 consecutive downstrums) I actually play it this way for all harmonics in the intro/outro parts.

Ex.: down(0), up(0), down(0), DOWN(Harmonics)

I hope you understand what I mean, as I'm not really good at explaining things in writing, haha!

2 - Yes.

I do not own a Martin, never played one actually. I have a Stonebridge guitar. The songs I learned so far are as follow (no specific order):

- Ritual dance
- Eleven small roaches
- Ragamuffin
- Jitterboogie
- Arrowhead
- Rickover's Dream
(Will have a live video of these last 3, played w/flute & cajon percussions)

Started, never finished (but definitly will, one day or another):
- Bensusan
- Nomad Land
- Follow Through
- Hot Type

Work in progress:
- Aerial Boundaries (Anyone have left hand endurance for sale?)
- Face Yourself (I need a hell of singing practice!)

Yeah that's about it for now... Let me know if you have any other questions!

Later,
Pete

This post was last modified: 03-04-2010 02:05 PM by PistolPete.

I get it man, no sweat! Thanks for your info, never thought of a double downstrum actually...

That's a whole lot you can play there, good job man.
Aerial Boundaries is on my list, I get tired after playing the chorus once or twice, haha.

I'd love to learn Face Yourself, I love that 20 second note he holds near the end.
What about Woman Of The World?

I have once played a D-28 along with an HD-16R. I liked both, though the latter would be better for fingerstyle (wider nut), but the D-28 was amazing, I want one for sure.


EDIT:

Seeing the performance video again shows that this is also what Hedges does. It's clear on the 5th and 9th fret harmonics but I'm not sure about the 12th one.

Also, what are you learning Aerial Boundaries off?

This post was last modified: 03-06-2010 12:44 PM by Cue Zephyr.

Regarding Ritual Dance:

You can't play a Micheal Hedges song the way he does, so don't try to. Go for any modifications or personal touches to the song that sound good to you. Add them in. The point isn't to make your own song out of his, but rather to ease your way into understanding its blueprint and there's no better way to do that than composing.

A lot of Micheal's songs are multilayered (and I don't use that word often) which makes it very easy to get distracted from their main value by other details.

Strumming is one of them. A lot of people think that it has to be played with a flatpick only, when in fact it sounds just as good by combining strums and fingerpicking. Don't limit yourself!

I ended up changing the tuning to DADGCD and it sounds great. It lost the double strings sound DADGCC had, but you get the opening D note humming as an echo while you push up with the G and C strings to the 5 and 7 frets and that's a nice change.

This post was last modified: 03-12-2010 01:18 PM by Callaxes.

I tried to fingerpick it, it sounds very cool, but in my case it loses it's explosive energy. I've seen so many people try to make their own versions but nine out of ten just sucked so badly that I wanted to do it right.

I don't completely understand your multilayer thingy though, could you elaborate on that please?

Callaxes... just as you don't often grace the masses with a comment that someone's music has been deemed as "multilayered" in your judgment, I also don't often contradict someone who is posting their opinion... but you win the prize. The above, IMHO, is an incredibly silly, negative and pompous thing to say. It is my guess that Michael would not want anything to do with such discouragement were he alive.

Of course it's OK (and a BLAST) to try playing a Michael Hedges composition the way he does. There's nothing more satisfying than making the grand attempt to channel Michael and really feel his presence in the music he wrote and performed. I believe that the more you try to get inside Michael's space when you play his music, the more beautiful the experience and one should not shy away from working hard to be as close to "like Michael played it" as possible. You will only learn something along the way.

Michael was certainly gifted and a musical genius on many levels, but at the end of the day he was a guitar player and spent a lot of time working hard to help others play his music EXACTLY the way he did. (Rhythm, Sonority, Silence... the music and the words... is a testament to his desire to do just that)

By taking a surf on the site rootwitch.com, you can get lots PDF attempts at interpreting Michael's compositions and performances for the majority of his music. Stropes.com for the rest... and that is of much higher quality as Michael was intimately involved in authoring those transcriptions.

Hmm... I don't see how the first statement and this one go together, but then I don't really understand your tone at all, Sir.

Peace.

-J

Owned.

I'm with you Cue. I'm not into everything Hedges did, but the stuff I like...I REALLY like. Pretty much everything off Bounderies is incredible. Just a tidbit of useless information here;

Back in the 80's when Eddie Van Halen was in his prime and Van Halen was still a major rock force to be reckoned with, Eddie was asked in an interview who his favorite contemporary guitarist was. Eddie said that it was Michael. Cool huh?

I like Rickover's Dream, Aerial Bounderies, Ragmuffin, The 2nd Law, Bensusan, Hot Type, Because it's There....

there are more, but these are the one's that grab my senses. I seem to like his instrumental stuff a little more.

Every time you listen to them - as in really listen, analyze - you discover a whole new element that makes part of the song. There are so many layers to uncover that you're often distracted by just one of them.

When I first learned to play it, I was focused on the idea that it had to be composed of strums from start to finish. And it was, I learned the whole thing and practiced a lot, but my result was nowhere near from the original concept. My problem was that I focused on only one aspect of the song, when in fact there was this mini-universe of elements that orchestrated the melody the notes, the rhythm, etc. Had I known the song better, known its blueprint, then only 20-30% of the practice I invested would've been necessary to play it right.

Of course not right, right. Micheal Hedges is on a completely new level than me. Which is why I think trying to sound like him from the start is a bit silly. The best place to start is with yourself. Your own architecture.

It's not meant to. Ironically, it's not even supposed to be a discouragement.

I'm afraid it came out the wrong way. Sure it's okay and wonderfull, but it's the wrong way to do it. You can get to a point where you can play a MH song the way he did, but you shouldn't start out that way. IMHO the best way to begin is to play with the song, change some of its elements, add your own stuff in to ease your way into understanding it. Later on - once you've understood the song from every perspective - you'll be able to play it EXACTLY the way Micheal did. Both technically and emotionally.

It's awkward to express thyself upon the internet. I completely agree with what you've said, completely. Yet I can see how my original post might have come out as a strawman attempt.

Don't call me sir. It's, embarrassing.

A lot of people, when trying to learn something (anything not just music), always limit themselves, impose rules, try to do it by the book. Of course you do progress, but your understanding and creativity don't. I think Cue should take every chance to experiment with Micheal's songs while learning them because that way, he'll understand a lot more than the technique involved. Not to mention he'll have a ton of ideas ready to try out in his own songs.

Preferably. I still like your music despite your lackluster diplomatic skills. If you're ever passing through Romania for God-knows-what-reason, I'll be sure to buy thee a cold beer.

This post was last modified: 03-15-2010 12:33 AM by Callaxes.

Learning the song is one thing, I'm completely aware of the fact that there is a LOT of emotion involved in the way MH plays his music.
I can see why you find playing a song EXACTLY like the original artist a bit silly, but that doesn't stop me trying to.

Not exactly what I said. Playing Ritual Dance like Micheal did is a great feat, but it's, well - not the wrong way - lets say it's the hard one. You will play it one day like that, you'll play it superbly, but until then there will be a lot of moments in which you will rediscover the song in one way or another. So there's a bit more to it than just practice.

I'm saying this because Ritual Dance was the song that made want to play the guitar. Not just change my playing style or made me consider using my hand instead of a flatpick, but actually made me buy (with no knowledge of what I was getting myself into) and learn to play the guitar from scratch. One of our Super Moderators had the same change of heart when he first heard Wave From your Window by Don Ross.

Even if it boils down to taste, when a song - a single song - does something like that, you have to consider to just how powerful it is. You can't play something that can change another persons life if you don't commit yourself to your own creativity and the music you're making.

Edit: Okay, that sounded like a discouragement. It's NOT! Far from it. Go play it, you'll have a blast learning this whirlwind of a song. Just don't stress yourself too much and always listen to it whenever you're feeling "open".

This post was last modified: 03-15-2010 08:20 AM by Callaxes.