It has been raining here for three days, which to me is depressing to say the least. It's too early for a Margaretta (Kickapoo Joy Juice), so I sat down at the S-950 and recorded one of my favorite songs from an old John Wayne movie.

True Grit

Cheers,

Gary

I didn't know this song, but I liked your rendition: very soothing in your typical way, which is whispering more than shouting.
Now, for a bit of friendly and (hopefully) constructive criticism... personally I would mute the string pad in the background, because the song really doesn't need it. Instead, I would try to rise the level of the acoustic guitar and of the drums and see if the end result sounds more authentic (like the real thing) and less "arranger-ish" (read canned).
In the mind of the style programmer that string pad should provide a counterpoint to your melody, following your chord changes in a clever way... but in the reality it fails to do so and the end result is that, instead of being an embellishment of the song, it becomes a burden.
This criticism applies not only to Yamaha but to all the arrangers: whenever a style has a track with a string or a pad sound I either try to play different chord inversions and see if the end result becomes better, or just mute that track and try to compensate rising the volume of other tracks, or maybe playing (or overdubbing later if it's a recording) a string countermelody with my right hand.

Thanks Andrea- I'll give it a try later today.

Gary

Gary, please post the result because I am really curious to hear it.

No problem, Adrian.

Gary

nice Job Gary sound real Nice. Ron

Great job, but I had heard the same thing regarding the strings, before I read Dreamer's post.

Here it is with the changes requested - thanks guys - you're the best critics ever!

True Grit2

Thanks again,

Gary

Gary,

I just listened to the two versions (the new one first and then the old one) and the new one definitely sounds better!
There is, however, something strange with the chords: I don't know the songs so cannot tell for sure, but even compared with the old version some of them seem to be missing...

Anrea, Here is the song as I have it on my PC. Unfortunately, the spacing for positioning the chords correctly over the lyrics doesn't match the actual spacing on the document in MS Word.

True Grit T=96 (F)
(Irene's Latin Styles--Balada--C) First intro

FM7 Gm7-C7
ONE DAY, LITTLE GIRL,
FM7/6
THE SADNESS WILL LEAVE YOUR FACE
Gm7-C7
AS SOON AS WE'VE WON
FM7/6
YOUR FIGHT TO GET JUSTICE DONE.
Gm7-C7
SOME DAYS, LITTLE GIRL,
FM7/6
YOU'LL WONDER WHAT LIFE'S ABOUT,
Gm7-C7 FM7/6
BUT OTHERS HAVE KNOWN
FM7/6
FEW BATTLES ARE WON ALONE.
Bb
SO YOU'LL LOOK AROUND TO FIND,------ SOMEONE WHO'S KIND,
Eb
SOMEONE WHO IS FEARLESS LIKE YOU.

THE PAIN OF IT, -----WILL EASE A BIT
Gm7-C7
WHEN YOU FIND A MAN WITH TRUE GRIT.

Gm7-C7
ONE DAY YOU WILL RISE
FM7/6
AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EYES.
Gm7-C7
YOU'LL WAKE UP AND SEE
FM7/6
A WORLD THAT IS FINE AND FREE.
Eb F
THOUGH SUMMER SEEMS, FAR AWAY,
Eb F
YOU WILL FIND THE SUN, ONE DAY.

Always use a non-proportional font for printing lyrics. With one of these, each letter and space takes up the exact same width, so characters on different lines always take the same width, hence they don't move relative to each other.

If you use the full reply box, rather than the quick reply, the box at the second to far right is a text font selector. Paste your text into the box, highlight it all, then select 'Courier New' as font type. (This is Courier New)

The chords and lyrics should now line up (if the original came from a non-proportional font source, which many web sources are).

Hope this helps.

EDIT... Seems that your lyrics and chords were not lined up well in the first place, or didn't use a non-proportional font originally. But if you edit them for spacing and use Courier New, they should be copyable without shifting in future.

Gary nice job....Thanx for sharing...

Diki, I tried that - it didn't work!

Gary

Yep... if the original didn't get it right,a copy/paste won't fix that. But if you edit it at home for the right spacing using a non-proportional font, if you post it here using one as well, it WILL display correctly.

Just came across this:

http://chordify.net/chords/glen-campbell-true-grit-with-lyrics-jack-lim

and this one
http://mobilesongbook.com/glencampbell/msbtruegrit.html#Chords

Johnny, someone from another forum sent me the chords I use many, many years ago - they sounded right to me, and I never bothered to look up the original chords. So, I just played what the voices in my head told me to.

Thanks for listening,

Gary

And I who tought I was the only one who do it that way ...

Gary...
You do the song proud. Very nice.
Eddie

Maybe I should start a dedicated thread for this, but perhaps a quick comment is appropriate...

It's a very double edged sword looking up chords online. Not only are they seldom correct, but also, I feel that not trying your best to figure out the chords yourself diminishes (know that one, LOL?) your musical knowledge and skill.

Only as a last resort after you have figured out as much as you can is it a good idea to get help. Like playing by ear, the more you do this, the easier it becomes, and the better you get at it. But if your first response is to go look it up, this skill will wither even from where it is now (unused muscles atrophy).

I heartily recommend you try conscientiously to make looking up the chords the LAST thing you try, not the first. You will amaze yourself at how quickly this skill develops, if you exercise it..!

Long before an old friend from Scotland sent me his chords, I was doing the song in Em, which is one of the chord progressions you can find on the internet. It was a bit of a stretch for my vocal range, though. As I've stated many times, I only play what the voices in my head tell me to play. I'm an ear player, but I can read guitar tabs if I need to. Never learned the other stuff very well, and I freely admit to that flaw in my character. I guess my only saving grace is my vocals have always been fairly good.

My biggest fear at my age is my voice will soon give out, and I have no way of preventing this from happening. My lungs are shot to Hell, so I couldn't be a power singer even if I wanted to be. It only took two weeks of heavy asbestos exposure while in the U.S. Navy to do the dirty deed on my lungs. My fondest hope is that my cardiologist is right and that my high (210) cholesterol will kill me. I would rather drop dead of a massive heart attack than slowly suffocate to death over the next 5 years. (Being shot in the back of the head by a jealous husband while in the saddle at age 108 just ain't gonna happen!)

From my perspective, the internet is a great tool for learning new songs. Places such as You Tube allow you to hear the original versions, and put the song into your head. Most of the time, those of us that play by ear never have to look up the chords - we just play what we heard, sometimes in a different key to suit our vocal range, but we tend to do pretty darned good most of the time. Some songs, however, songs with complex chord progressions, might require looking up the tabs - just to be on the safe side. As Diki said, those chords and tabs are not always correct, but most of the time I've found them to be fairly close. Hey, some person like you and I was kind enough to put down on paper what he heard in his head, then post it so we can all benefit, and for that these individuals should be applauded.

Midi files with embedded lyrics are also a good online source for learning new songs. I rarely use a midi file for anything, and never use an MP3 for anything other than breaks or some special line dance songs the country gals request. Those ladies want the original, and most of the time it would be very difficult to replicate with a style file unless you wanted to spend many, many hours using the keyboard's onboard style creator program, or a PC based program. Creating a high quality style takes a lot of time and effort. And, like Don Mason always says, I'm gettin a little lazier as I get older. So once or twice a month, when someone ask for the Cupid Shuffle, I'll fire up an MP3 from the laptop.

So for once, I agree with Diki on the subject of looking up the chords should be the last thing to try. For me, it comes somewhat natural, mainly because I'm so old that I was performing long before the internet existed and didn't have the resource at my fingertips for the first 30 years I played music. Back then I was still typing the lyrics with my old Underwood and thought I was one of the more advanced guys because I typed the words instead of printing them on lined notebook paper.

Halftime's over - back to the playoffs,

Gary