For the musicians out there: The trickiest, toughest song you learned to play

This might not be the most difficult song I ever learned, but it was the most difficult song that sounds like it should be really easy. It took me a little while to learn the initial guitar riff. But the tough part is when it modulates up a half step 1:10 into the song, so you can't take advantage of the open string notes. Normally you can just switch your position when the key changes, but not here. This guitar riff sounds simple but you need to practice it a lot to nail it.

 

Some of those finger stretches are crazy! I can't help but think that an alternate tuning arrangement might help alleviate some of the difficulty....

 

I'd love to learn that arrangement! Is there a tab for it online somewhere?

 

I once picked out all the parts of King Crimson's "Lark's Tongues In Aspic, Part Two" and taught them to the rest of band members (I am normally a guitar player, but for this occasion I played bass). It was supposed to possibly be performed as part of a concert, we (or maybe I should say I) decided to try it quite late in the preparations and after struggling with it for days and being close to getting it right many times but always stumbling somewhere, only on the very last try on the day before the concert did we manage to play it all the way through without any hiccups. That one play through was an enormously satisfying feeling, but since we didn't have enough practice on it we didn't dare perform it live the next day and we never picked it up again.

 

Alternate tunings actually make a lot of songs much easier to play, as they would be insanely difficult (or even impossible) to play in standard tuning.

 

When I could finally play Mahavishnu Orchestra's Celestial Terrestrial Commuters without having to count it. Of course, I was at the house playing my drums along with headphones, nobody would pay you to play it in a club.

 

Yeah, I remember trying to learn it once but I didn't get very far.... there are a few tricky chords due to the almost-constantly-descending root notes.... not to mention that you really need a second guitarist playing the capo'd part for it to sound right!

 

"Mood for a Day" by Yes was a pisser. Also figured out a passable version of Zappa's "Sofa". Very challenging tune, that.

 

Fisher's Hornpipe on fiddle, mandolin and guitar, not that it's a hard tune to play but it was hard for a klutz like me. I love that song.

None of the people on the following clip are me.

 

I don't know of any tab online, I got the arrangement from here:
http://www.amazon.com/Fingerpicking-Beatles-Expanded-Edition-Arranged/dp/0793570514

 

I played hardcore punk in high school. I wrote a bunch of things that are way too fast for me to play 25 years later. I turned down a local punk band reunion gig because there was no way we were going to be able to pull off that material as a bunch of 40 year old dads--especially considering that I was the only one in the group who played regular gigs as an adult.

 

As a self taught guitarist, (and I use the term loosely), Classical Gas has eluded me for over 30 years! Can't even nail the first 3 bars!! A friend worked out the whole thing by ear in two days - I hate him!
Meanwhile I'm quite happy playing AC/DC chords and 12 bar blues. Having said that, my show-off piece is Over The Hills And Far Away - that one I got down pat!
Slightly off topic, any Pickers out there know how Angus plays a C chord?
Oh that's another thing, I cannot Travis Pick despite years of trying.

 

this one was pretty difficult learning from a record!
when I was a teenager!

 

I decided to put myself to the test at the weekend, thanks to this thread:

 

I finally figured out all the progressions on piano of the Doors' "Yes, the River Knows."

 

hello...
just wondering, if there are any Nick Lowe fans here who also play guitar, does anyone know the basic guitar chords for 'How Do You Talk To An Angel'? This is the song here (odd images, great song)

 

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but anyway... I've been playing guitar for 26 years, in and out of bands etc but am still struggling to play Steve Vai's Eugene's Trick Bag. And 'still' is the word - I haven't stopped trying.

On the acoustic side, Richard Thompson's finger picking with a thumb pick style I just can't master. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning styleeee.

What's it called when you use a pick and fingers in fast banjo-style rolls? Chicken pickin'? That took some effort but I have been doing that for years now (not for any good reason, like using it in bands, more just to uselessly show off).

Ramble over.

 

Blackbird. Worked it out myself and found that it was correct! Yay!

 

As a guitarist and huge Smiths fan, I've learned loads of Smiths songs over the years. The two that I still think are the trickiest to play are Girl Afraid and Nowhere Fast. Johnny Marr wrote other songs that might seem more intricate (This Charming Man), but for these two songs I've got to be hyper focused and warmed up to get through them.

 

Well Tempered Clavier-Bach
BWV 852b Eb Major - Fugue at 30:19, you can watch the score....
It took me a summer to get it done.. lot of fun to play though..

I tried to tackle "Handful of Keys" once....there is a transcript in the big old red hardback radio series piano books (lots of cool stuff in there, still see them sometimes in used book stores)

 

Being a bassist primarily, for me it was Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 first and third movements on upright double bass in high school. By far that was the most challenging notation I've ever played in any type of music. Honestly most bass parts in written music are usually fairly dull and easy to play (I also played tuba for many years.) It was one of the reasons I chose playing bass instruments very early on -- relatively easy to be good at them, and I didn't have to practice the music nearly as much as my friends playing other instruments--easy "A" on the report cards.

Then that Bach piece hit me like a freight train. I had parts where my hand needed to fly all over the fingerboard with unrelenting speed for prolonged sequences. It felt like a huge accomplishment to me when I finally made it through that piece. It's my favorite classical music to this day to hear because it brings back such good memories of finally being challenged, and rising to the occasion.

 

I agree. Terrific, under appreciated bassist who doesn't deserve to be denigrated as mediocre. Another crowning moment for Wyman is of course Miss You.