NickDrake.com

[anthony]

Which one of Nicks songs do you find the hardest to master?Im waiting to see whether or not we share the same trouble!

[modestmatt14]

well teh accents in road are very hard for me. Also the fast fingerpicks in any song. Those always get me.

[JoeChrisMorris]

Most of them partner!
I can only play Thoughts of Mary Jane! (5LL version - ToNR vers is a capo fret lower)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iYiyuQKMKc

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"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

[ThemCityBlues]

I play a good half of Drake's collection, maybe even more (including bootlegs). I'd have to say "From the Morning" is the most difficult. I've practiced this song for a very long time. One evening I laid the track down and realized it was still a ways off from the perfection of Drake's. Drake coupled the notes perfectly... the bass so steady, the attack constant even through the quick interludes. I am certain drake is using 5 fingers on this piece. It is very difficult to play with balance with 5 fingers.

Hazy Jane I is also a very difficult piece. So is Fruit Tree.

Some of the easiest ones, in my opinion, are "Parasite", "Bird Flew By", and "Man in a Shed". But I know some people really struggle with "Parasite" but breeze by "Fruit Tree".

That reminds me... any of the pieces which use 4 or 5 note chords are difficult. River Man, Time Has Told Me, etc.

[JoeChrisMorris]

You guys DO leave the house occasionally I hope!
I can't think of anything more frustrating than trying to learn some of these songs (Road, From the morning)
I'm limited by the fact I just have an Applause acoustic, so I try not to use too many different tunings !
I like playing From the morning in standard tuning, with the suspended chord, rather like that version on the Blend tribute; otherwise I break strings fiddling with the first string!
_________________
"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

[Summer Rain]

Hmm I was just thinking of starting a topic like this myself! I personally have found 'Black Eyed Dog' to be quite hard to master. Not because of the complexity (as it's mostly fairly simple), but with the use of plectrum, along with string dampening etc I find that it can be hard to get a consistently good results. As with ThemCityBlues I can play quite a lot of them which has taken me a few years. I used to struggle with 'Three Hours' and 'Fruit Tree' until I took the extra time to study them properly. So I guess that's all I need to do with 'Black Eyed Dog'!

I find certain songs awkward to play sometimes because they require the right emotional state. If you are not feeling the songs at the time it can make many of them difficult to project.

[BIGCOOKIE]

The beginning of Cello Song is tricky to master.
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City lights don't shine,they glare
and your music doesn't speak,it swears
and in your streets,the ghosts have forgotten why they're there

Lindisfarne-City Song

[LostBoy]

They are all hard to play but i'm not a very good folk type player anyway. Strangely enough, the easiest I've found is Road. Going against the grain here but I don't play others exactly like Nick did, partly because I can't and partly because I bet my bottom dollar he did'nt play covers exactly like the person he was "taking from" either. I'll know soon enough as i've just ordered the out takes cd (forgot the name) from amazon.

[Sylvia127]

[Bogo]

[nemomass]

I think Strange Meeting II is pretty tricky. Also Been Smoking Too Long is a pretty tough. I notice that from searching Youtube that both of these song have not been mastered. There are a few on there but not so accurate as the record.

[lostmusic]

"Been Smoking Too Long" is a cover by Nick Drake, not something he wrote.