Timing
Hi, David.
I'm pretty far along with "Take It Easy Now." This song is the most complex one I've attempted so far, in that the riffs don't always break into neat measures and the accompaniment is rather spare. There are often pick-ups to the chord changes. This is a challenge for me because, in the other songs so far, I've been using the backing track's bass and drums to help me keep time. Should I be counting as I'm playing?
Also: generally, the way I approach the study songs is to play along with you on the mp3, chorus by chorus. It might take a few weeks to learn the whole song. Then, when I've learned the whole song, I try to play it to the jam track. Would it be better if I learned it to the jam track, instead of playing it with you on the mp3?
Good evening Marc.
No, practice like you're doing now... with the original track... playing with the original track is important for rhythm purposes.
That track has a very dominant bass line... you may need to use better speakers for playback to hear it (I use audio monitors when I can, otherwise at the very least good external computer speakers with a sub woofer). The bass is all eight notes, with a triplet in the last beat, which should help a lot to hear when a bar is ending.
The guitar is also playing what's called chord slides, with the lick starting on beat 2 and with the next note on the "and" of 2... so this will help you to judge what's happening in the front part of the bar.
And yes, count, when you need to, until you can feel it. Timing is a very important part of music, and I would say it's the element we work on the most when learning and perfecting a piece of music.
Keep it up, you'll get it!